Final Week on Site...

Saturday was spent finishing up some of those BAN/FINs. I need to get more from Robert to work on later this week.

Monday and Tuesday we spend really cleaning up the site. We got rid of all the wood that has been piling up that we cannot use for anything. We cleared tree branched, garbage, brush. You name it, it was cleaned. The site never looked so good. On Friday we have our final review and we need to organize the food, the speeches, and the agenda. I think it would be a good idea to have a slide show of picture going of the things had we done throughout the semester. We all had gotten some really great pictures.

Thursday I worked with Mandy again with the BAN/FINs. First I picked up some from the IARC office that Robert left for me and then I walked over to Mandy's office. They couldnt get the computer running again so I had to use someone else's in the office. Luckily I knew the drill by now and I was able to get things done a lot faster.

Friday is our final review. People brought their sketchbooks. I looked through a few and they did some really nice work on them. They also had the slide show of pictures going which was nice for the parents to see. I was suprised at how many parents showed up and how little students had showed up to see our work. All in all it was a nice critique and it was a little sad to say goodbye. I really liked working on this project and I learned a lot. I will be back later in the summer to see more of the progress. Good luck to the new Urban Studio group!!

But just so you know... WE WERE THE ORIGINAL GUNS ON THE PROJECT!!

Friday April 30 2009

Friday April 30 2009
I worked in the Dean's office with Mandy Cartrette today. It was a welcome change getting off the site for a little while. I love being outside but lately I am so sick of all the rain! I feel like it's been raining for the entire month. However I guess that it's a good thing though considering we were in a drought last year. Mandy showed me how to get the BAN/FIN documents done on the computer so they are nice and neat instead of messy handwritten versions. Apparently we were doing all the codes and invoice numbers wrong when we were doing them in the studio with Robert because Mandy said she pretty much had to redo all of them... which is what I was helping her with. They are not that bad, they are just time consuming. I spent all day Friday on them and was told I would be doing some of them on Saturday and next week.

Thursday April 30 2009

Thursday April 30 2009
I heard that we are getting the concrete for the floor poured in a few days! I will be excited to not see gravel anymore. Today we got started on shoveling out the footings for the North exterior walls. Sometimes I feel like we do things over and over again without thinking ahead. The ditch was already dug for the drainage pipe and Adrian told us to fill it in so we did. If we would have known BEFORE we were filling it back in that we had to dig it out again we would have just not filled in that area. Therefore, we spent the whole day shoveling sticky, smelly, nasty mud out from the footing so we could start the priming. It took forever and we had a good amount of people helping. It was annoying that there were a bunch of people sitting outside the Clubho[us]e with "nothing to do" when we were struggling with the gross mud. I don't know how I always get stuck shoveling. Anyway, we finally finished that job today so no more worries about waterproofing!!
We got to see some of our groups pictures today too.

Wednesday April 29 2009

Wednesday April 29 2009
Most of the soffett is done. There is still a section on the North side that needs to be done but the handrails on the roof are in the way and the trees make it difficult to move around back there. This area is close to the neighbors property and there is a bid ditch that we dug for the drainage pipe as well. Adrian dug the ditch with the excavator and then other people laid the pipe. Once that was finished, Sarah and I got dirt ready to fill back in the area with the shark wheelbarrow thing. This took forever because there is not much room back there so we could only do one load at a time and then safely back the shark up hopefully wihtout getting stuck. Luckily we finished the job today. Adrian said we will have to dig out the area right next to the footing so that we can prime and finished the waterproofing membrance on this side.

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Another gorgeous day although it was really hot again. Today people cut the shapes for the soffett on the North sister's suite and Sarah and I nailed them in. Before we could do this Sarah and I had to remove the handrails from the sloped roof. I did not volunteer to climb up there since I am scared of heights but I held the ladder! This took up most of the day and it was not easy. The trusses from the roof system were not all straight so the soffetts had to be cut and cut again just to wedge them in. Also it was difficult to nail them in at such an awkward angle because we could not seem to get our hammers enough space to hit the nails in under the trusses. I also helped doing some of the cutting with the jigsaw and chiseling for the soffett.

Monday April 27, 2009

Just when I thought we were done with the gravel! Apparently the curtain wall with the mud ramp was not dug out enough. The soil underneath was still really soft and it would not be good to pour concrete over top since it would most likely crack. Adrian dug it out with the big crane thing and then added more gravel... way more gravel than what was needed. So we had to dig out the surplus gravel and then level it out again. Also the other west room, great room, needed more gravel so we added more and then leveled it out again. I think it may be safe to say we are finished with the gravel now. After the gravel Renee and I moved large bundles of wood from the street that were delivered so they would less likely be stolen.

Saturday April 25, 2009

We finished the gravel!!! I never thought it would happen. The hardest room to finish was on the west side in front of the curtain wall. This is where we had to build up dirt so we could create a ramp for several different machines that needed to come in the building. Therefore, we had to dig out the ramp, which was really muddy, and add in more gravel. Everyone took a lunch break but I was not hungry so I finished this room by myself. Today was the hottest day of the year so far in Urban Studio so I was drenched to say the least. Once this was done Megan helped me pump more water out of the ditch on the exterior of the North wall. After this, I went home around 3 and finally had lunch.

Friday April 24, 2009

Yesterday felt like Friday because of our party and the wonderful weather so I was all off today. The weather was still really nice and we continued graveling. Just when you thought you couldn't get enough gravel. My lower back in killing me from it. You figure my arms would hurt the most but I guess all my swimming has kept my arms strong. We finished a good majority of it today. We won't have that much left to finish tomorrow which is great. I am really getting sick of the gravel.

Thursday April 23, 2009

Today we continued with more of the gravel work. The weather is starting to get really warm so this is no easy task. Gravel shoveling really takes a lot of out you and we are exhausted by the end of the day. Using the sharks has made things a lot better than on the first day with wheelbarrows and buckets.
Also, we had a party! There was bbq chicken and pork and it was so good. We then went and played some football for a little which was hilarious since none of us could run in steel toed boots.

Wednesday April 22, 2009

More shoveling gravel! We finally feel like we are making some progressed because we finished one of the larger suites. The shoveling is really making my back and arms sore! I will be glad once we finally get this over with. We also continued on the east side of the interior rooms. Around 4 other people stopped working so we can have the site cleaned for some sort of event tomorrow. We continued on the gravel shoveling and leveling. I wonder what we have going on tomorrow because Robert and Adrian said we shouldn't eat before we come to the site tomorrow. I am excited!

Tuesday April 21, 2009

Today we pumped water from the front (east side) of the building. This was done so that we could put more solid dirt in the small gully that sounds the exterior side of the footing. We also had a lot more shoveling of gravel, as well as using the sharks to get more gravel all around the interior of the building. We used the Transient to help us level out the gravel that we shoveled in the front room. The day was cut short because we had some pretty crazy rain around 4:30.

Monday April 20, 2009

Today I was in Raleigh on an internship interview. I got the internship!

Friday April 17, 2009

Today my parents came to the site. Robert was able to explain to them the details of our project and they were very impressed. I am happy they were able to see all the hard work that we have put into this project. They left to go see the 909 Dillard street, the other Urban Studio project from a year ago, and I got back to work. There was a LOT of shoveling and transporting gravel. We were using the sharks, which are basically motorized over sized wheelbarrows, and it helped make the shoveling go a little faster.

Thursday April 16, 2009

Today Megan and I were assigned to clear the water from the exterior of the North side of the building. This is so that we can figure out how deep we need to dig for the piping that will be used by Duke Energy. We figured out that we need to dig at least another foot down along the whole North side of the building. The mud was so thick though and it was close to impossible to get all teh digging done. We did the best we could as far as clearing the water but we need the ground to dry up a bit more so it will be easier to shovel. Although it is supposed to rain for the next few weeks so this may all be pointless to have started today.

We continued on shoveling gravel.

Wednesday April 15, 2009

Today we started collecting the gravel in wheelbarrows so that we could transport them to different parts of the site that needed to be leveled out more. In addition we need them to surround some of the plastic tubing that will go around the perimeter of the building. The gravel is supposed to go up along the waterproofing membrane that we applied last week.

Tuesday April 14, 2009

Today was similar to yesterday. There were a lot of people up on the roof that already were waiting around for jobs to do as well as people down on the ground looking for jobs. Therefore, there was another day of organizing wood. Also I helped fix the silt fence to help reduce the erosion of dirt from the site. I ran a few errands and I also helped pump water from all the rain we had the night before.

Monday April 13, 2009

We worked really hard on Saturday and got a lot of things done. There was not much to do today we I just tried to stay busy by finding little jobs around... organizing wood, removing nails and screws, organizing the clubhouse. I wish things were more organized today because there were a ton of us just searching for jobs and standing around.

Friday and Saturday, April 9th and 10th 2009

Friday and Saturday we continued the waterproofing membrane and attempted the corners. One we started in one area then other people (from moving other materials around) would mess up other areas that we had already finished. Finally we got a system down where we blocked off the areas we finished so people wouldnt step on and scrape up the membrane. In addition we had trouble with getting the sticky side to stick to the ICF. We even tried to clean off the dust off from the ICF but this did not help. Instead we took some of the old scabbing from the concrete pour and used it to screw into the wall while we waited for the heat to melt the membrance to the ICF.

Saturday was a long day. It started at 8 and we ended at about 1:30 but we were able to get most ofthe corners done. I can't believe how long it takes to get the membrane done.

Thursday, April 9 2009

My ankle feels a lot better and was able to do more moving around on site today. We also continued on the waterproofing membrane on the exterior of the building that we have been working on for the last week or so. I am wondering how we will attempt to do the corners without having too many holes. I am assuming that the more overlaps the better but it still seems difficult to do since the membrane is so hard to work with.

Wednesday, April 8 2009

The swelling from my ankle has gone down but it was still really sore. I helped with gathering wood and taking out the nails and screws from them. I tried to keep a lot of the pressure off my ankle because I did not want to make it any worse.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

My ankle was really swollen and I couldnt get my boot on. Therefore, there was no jobsite for me today.

Monday, April 6, 2009

There was some awful rain and caused a lot of really thick mud. I was trying to jump from one hard spot to another but I missed judged it and I ended up jumping into a big pile of mud. My foot got stuck and it twisted my ankle really bad. Luckily it was towards the end of the day but I know it is still going to hurt a lot tonight. I seem to not have a lot of luck with my ankle on the job site. Earlier in the day we continued with the waterproofing membrane but it was really annoying because for some reason it was not sticking to the ICF. We had to screw it in and hope it will stick once the weather warms up again it will melt to it.

Saturday, April 4 2009

Today was a nice day. It started pretty cold but as soon as we started working it warmed up. I was there from 8am to 1:15pm. We mainly worked on the waterproofing membrane and since it was so warm it made the plastic really sticky. Also the concrete that we primed from a few days earlier was very messy so we had to dust it off and prime it again. And then we had to start priming in more areas in the front of the building. We had a lot of hard corners in the front and there was a lot of wooden I beams that were in the way and we had to move. It was rather tedious but we got the majority of the front of the building done.

Friday, April 3 2009

The rain surely came this morning and for most of the day. We received a message in the morning saying we needed to meet in the studio because of the rain and there really was not much we could do on the job site anyway. Caroline, Megan, Ana, Denise and I were working on the paperwork as far as receipts and the job orders. Finally we were also able to help pick pictures that eventually will be printed and go in the studio as an exhibit to see the work that has been done on urban studio all year.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Today was a relatively nice day weather-wise. We finished up a lot of the odd jobs from yesterday and starting with the waterproofing membrane. This was a sheet of plastic roll with a sticky side that goes to the bottom of the building to the bottom of the concrete footing. Before this was done the concrete had to be primed with a oil based paint. This helps the plastic roll stick to the concrete. It took about 7 people to do because it was so sticky it kept folding on itself. Maybe tomorrow will go better but it is supposed to rain.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Today was a lot of little jobs around the site. There were no big jobs that took a long time to finish so I just bounced around all day helping people out. From moving piles of wood, to holding ladders, and nailing in bracing there was always something to jump in and help with.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Today I was on the roof helping nailing in the bracing between the rafters. This was not an easy job and it was very uncomfortable. However I was very proud of myself for being up on the roof since I am normally afraid of heights. A lot of the rafters were bowed so it made it difficult for the bracing to get in... which is exactly what the bracing was for - to help straighten then boards out.

Monday March 30, 2009

More pumping. I am not going to explain it since I'm sure its a bit redundant by now. It was a nice day though. I also shoveled a lot of dirt off from the footings on either side of two of the curtain walls. The mud was so heavy since it was still really saturated. I also went around the outside of the footings to shovel down about 12 inches so that the exterior drain will have a place to settle.

Thursday and Friday, March 26 and 27

So both days we were in the wood shop. Thursday most of the tools that we wanted to use were not working the way we wanted them. Things were not as productive as we would have liked. Also I volunteered to stay later so that I could help with building the shelving for the coat and bag rack. We went exploring in GURP and found some shelving already being used. We know that we could use it for the bag and coat rack. We unscrewed and customized it so that we could use it the way we needed in the woodshop near the entrance. This way things are more organized for our personal items.

Wednesday, March 25 2009

GTTC did a great job in putting up the roofing system. I couldnt believe how fast they actually went up! We started getting rafters put in place and trying to fix the ones that was cut too long or not long enough. There was also a bit of sanding to make sure that the exposed part of the rafters would look really nice. I swallowed enough sawdust for a week. I hear we are in the woodshop tomorrow if it rains. I also shoveled a ton to help get the ground flat in the main room.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Today was more of taking down scaffolding. There were four levels of it in the atrium and it was really crammed in there so it was interested trying to get it all out. I will be glad to not see scaffolding for a while. There was also some tricky scaffolding in the far back room which involved tons of walkboards screwed into 2 by 12s. The screws for the most part were all stripped and the wood had layers and layers connected so that they would be the same level as the walkboard. To make matters even more difficult there was concrete that dried on top of this from the concrete pour. So Caroline and I were tackling the boards one by one. The worst was when I had to hold up the really heavy layered section all by myself until we could figure out just how to lift it off the metal crossbars. Lets just say that today I really felt the hours I put in!

Monday March 23 2009

My ankle seems to still be bothering me from last week. Maybe it was not a good idea to go running 6 miles on it this past Sunday. Today we are concentrating on leveling out the grade the best we can. We have a digger thing (not sure the name of it) that has been making it a bit easier to break up the harder soil. Mainly we had some backbreaking shoveling to do today.

Friday March 20 2009

Today we finished getting off the scabbing and we started on more of the scaffolding. We organized the walkboards so that they could be picked up on Tuesday. The cross bracing for the scaffolding was somewhat difficult to take apart since there was concrete all over them from the concrete pour. Nothing that a little hammer, wrench, ratchet, and brute force couldn't fix though. I have a swim meet this weekend (saturday and sunday) at UNC so I will not be able to come to work on saturday. More Monday.

Thursday March 19 2009

We have started to take down some of the scaffolding that we do not need anymore. This pretty much took the whole day. In addition we set up more scaffolding in the center of the building because we have a large tree branch that needed to come down. Otherwise it would be in the way of the roof and it would make it very difficult to move around it. Adrian chopped down the branch a little at a time and there was sawdust everywhere! Also we started cutting lumber for the roofing joists. It started raining so we decided to get out of there early today.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Today I went to give blood and I passed out so I did not go to the job site today. No sense in falling off some scaffolding because I am really lightheaded. More tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 17 2009

Still more water pumping!!! Surprise surprise! We also went around site to get more scabbing down. The walk boards have dried up so it's safer to move around on them. This job was not as easy as expected since a lot of the screws have been stripped and we had to get creative to remove the scabs. I noticed that there is a lot of concrete that had fallen onto the footings form the concrete pour. I wonder if we will have to chip that off later on. That doesnt sound like a fun job to do.

Monday March 16 2009

First day back from break and we are meeting in the conference room. Once i got done with class I met with everyone and we continued on some administration work. Some other people went to the site to pump more water since it rained a bunch the last few days and other people went to the shop. Administration work consisted of figuring out how much more materials we need as far as ordering more wood for roof joists and roofing structure. Also I worked on paperwork that dealt with the receipts from materials we already bought and keeping track of the money spent. Other people worked on our budget.

Monday, March 9-13 2009

This week is Spring Break! Finally a chance to get caught up on work and maybe relax a bit!

Friday, March 6 2009

Today was still some water pumping but we mostly got all of it. The site is still a huge mudpit thought. I turned my ankle trying to jump from one puddle island to the next closest puddle island and my foot slipped. At least we have the weekend for me to heal a bit. As you can see... we get really messy. Good thing these jeans are old ones because there is no coming back for them after today.

Thursday, March 5 2009

The water pumping continued. It seems like we do this about every week! We also started taking down some of the scabbing from the ICF. Mostly just the ones that we could reach because the walkboards were still somewhat slippery and not safe to walk around on.

Wednesday, March 4th

Today we had a lot of water pumping to do. The weather had gotten a bit nicer but there was still ice and snow everywhere. People where chipping up the ice to put in wheel barrels and throw it off site. We also were pumping water from all around the site. I was shoveling snow off of the walkboards which was a little terrifying since it was so slippery.

Monday and Tuesday, 2 -3 March, 2009

Monday and Tuesday, 2 -3 March, 2009
Both days were canceled due to snow. Back on Wednesday!

Friday, February 27, 2006

Today was canceled because we have to wait for the concrete to dry.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The long awaited day of the cement pour! It seemed like it would never get here. And it was raining buckets all day. The were at least two cement trucks that I saw and something that resembled a crane. The cement rain through a large hose that was hoisted up and the hose was then moved around to the areas in the ICF that we needed. First we went all the way around starting at the north wall and went up about half way with the cement. We filled in the window bucks as we went along. Once we made our way all the way around we started again at the beginning to top it off. Once it was poured to the top we went around and flattened the cement with trows and placed large bolt screws inside to stick out from the tops of the walls. I assume this is something that will be used to help us with the roof later on. There was not much trouble as the cement was being poured. I kept imagining the wall bursting and cement going everywhere. Luckily, we were lucky! Just a few more scabs here and a few more braces there, and we were good to go. And interesting and exciting experience today! Off to celebrate this weekend!

Monday - Wed, February 23 -25, 2009

Monday - Wednesday, February 23 - 25, 2009
We finally have the cement pour scheduled for this thursday. It has been pushed back for the last two weeks it seems because we keep running into snags. The joys of construction I guess. You can never really plan for things. At least have a tentative schedule but then again that can always go to the wayside. Mainly from today until thursday morning we will be scabbing the gapped ICFs, securing vertical rebar, bracing walls, gluing/foaming the gaps, and plumming the walls so edges are straight and correct with the plans.

Friday, Febraury 20, 2009

Friday, Febraury 20, 2009
Today Denise and I met in the computer lab to start our administration work. I am the project manager as well as Denise. We had to get together the periodicals that mentions our project and get them ready to be posted on our website. In addition we had to get together all the different sponsors and donators so that we could post them on our website as well. We also found the links to their websites to also help promote their businesses.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009
Today was a lot like Tuesday. Not much to do since we still have not received the materials we need. Rebar was delivered later that day so we started cutting the dimensions needed for the vertical and horizontal above windows.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Still no rebar or ICF but we spent the day preparing for their arrival. We cleaned the trash pile that has been collecting around the front tree, we cut more wood for scabbing and reinforcement, and we organized the scrap rebar. Adrian and Robert were just trying to create jobs to keep us busy but surprisingly we got a lot done today.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Today we did not have a lot to do. We needed more rebar and ICF but they are not scheduled to come until the end of the week. Not much to write home about but it is time to post more pictures so I will.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009
We basically cut rebar all day. And we still don't have enough. We counted up and calculated the rest of the rebar that we need so that we can order the correct amount to be delivered tomorrow. I'm sure you can assume we will be measuring, counting, cutting, and bending more rebar to be placed inside the walls for tomorrow! I think if I never see more rebar for the rest of my life I would be okay.

Friday, Febraury 13, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009
The ICFs blew down again today! They just ripped off complete with zipties, rebar, and all! We are going to have to figure out a better way to secure the courses when we leave. We finished setting up the last bit of the scaffolding. I am afraid of heights and there is no way I am going up to the top level! Let the monkeys and spidermen handle that. I'll get up on the second highest level and hand stuff up to them, but thats as good as it gets for me. I have been getting hurt enough this week. My finger got slammed between two scaffolding posts, I had a whole row of scaffolding fall down on my spine, I fell down trying to cut some thick rebar. It is just not my week so I am not about to fall off 3 levels of scaffolding. Maybe next week!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Two big flatbed trucks arrived today with the new scaffolding. This scaffolding seems to be a bit more sturdy. It took almost all day to set up though. Aside from that a lot of the ICF's were blown off from the high winds last night. We are going to have to redo most of the work we did yesterday. Hopefully if we ziptie these courses down that we wont have the same problem tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Well it wasn't as nice as I thought it was going to be but at least it wasnt raining and freezing. Today we finished putting up the scaffolding on the inside walls so we could continue putting up more courses of ICF. We are now at eleven courses on the streetside of the building but we can't get any further without higher scaffolding. We will get more tomorrow that will go on the outside of the building. It should go about 3 levels high as opposed to the one level we have now.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I was sick today and could not attend. The weather looked gorgeous though. It’s supposed to be 72 degrees tomorrow. Lets hope I feel better, I could use some fresh warm air!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009
Today was gorgeous. It felt like a spring day. We finished the supports for the ICF. Afterword we started setting up the supports for the scaffolding. Unfortunately not all the parts have come so we will need to continue working on it later. It seems to be a little wobbly on the ICFs but apparently it will work. I’m not going to be the first one to set up on the scaffolding though!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Saturday, February 7, 2009
Today we got started on creating supports to hold in the windows until we pour the concrete next week. Also we cut 1 by 4s and 2 by 12s to screw into the nailers on the ICF and help create more supports. This would be so that the foam does not bust when we pour the concrete. There were enough imperfections from the cuts in the ICF that we needed to reinforce them.