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.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Friday, February 6, 2009
We started getting the bucks in the window cut outs today. It is really starting to come together and you can see the shape that the rooms will be taking. We have a few awkward windows and we need to do a little design on the fly tomorrow.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Today has warmed up a lot and has made quite a difference. We are a lot more motivated and have gotten a lot done. We needed to cut a lot more rebar since it was so cold to do it earlier. We also needed to go back in and twisty tie the ICFs vertically. I wish we knew that before we stacked up over 3-4 courses.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
More cold and more ICFs. It went by very slowly since the cold is really keeping us down. The muddy areas are frozen over which is good but we will have to thaw it out later to get the water out.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Last night it snowed and it was freezing today at the job site. I am still trying to thaw out as I am typing this journal entry for today. We set up more ICFs and we finally got to see the shape the windows are taking. Once we were starting to wrap up for the day we covered the ICFs with plastic. It supposed to snow again tonight and will be just as cold if not worse. More tomorrow!

Monday, February 1, 2009

Monday, February 1, 2009
We got the hang of how the ICF come together today. In addition we fixed the mistakes that were created from Friday. Also once we got the first and second courses laid we were able to attempt squaring off the corners. We started on the 3rd and 4th courses today. The rebar was put in place but it was no easy task. There was always something in the way to keep it from lying nicely. There is supposed to be more rain tomorrow and the rest of the week will be really cold. The joys of construction! We also wrote some threatening notes to makes sure people do not move the walls that we painstakingly squared off.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009
We got much further with the ICF stacking today but there were a lot of mistakes made. Considering this was our first experience with the material this was understandable. Apparently you cannot cut both ends of the ICF to make them fit the set dimensions of the plan. If you do then the stud marks do not line up and it creates misalignment for every course placed above it. We will need to fix a lot of mistakes on Monday.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009
To say we were working in a mud pit is to put the conditions of the site lightly. Our boots and shins were completely submerged in mud and it was endless. The rain finally let up but it was still tough walking around carrying ICFs from one area to another. There was much pumping of water, organizing work areas, and dolling out jobs to everyone for the majority of the day

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
We gathered at the woodshop today because of more rain. Not looking forward to pump out more water tomorrow! We finished the dust collecting system, built a few more tables, a desk, and basically cleaned house. We organized tools on the tool shelf as well as fasteners and other such equipment. We finished at about 5:30 and we were definitely ready to go home.

Tuesday, January 27th 2009

Tuesday, January 27th 2009
Not much to write home about today. Rain, rain, and more rain. The ICFs were delivered and we moved them towards the back of the site so that people hopefully wouldn’t mess with them while we are gone. The ICFs were delivered in really heavy stacks so we had to take 2X4s to feed through and 4 people carried a side of the 2 bys. With a bit of trial and error we figured out an efficient way to move but it was still muddy and slippery. Not the best combo to move heavy stuff.

Monday, January 26th 2009

Monday, January 26th 2009
“When I bend over my nuts keep falling out!” Candice said as we all started to get a little silly. Trying to do a Shawn Johnson worthy balance beam performance on a two by four all of her equipment fell out of her tool belt when she slipped to the ground. Then kept dropping her nuts as she was picking up her bolts. The beginning of what seems to be a long week ahead. Our first full week of school and we hit the ground running on the job site. We got a lot further on the clubhouse. The ribs are finished as well as the back wall and floor. It is now structurally sound. We still need to finish the porch and roof. Apparently we are looking forward to more rain tomorrow so I’m sure there will be more pumping.

Friday, January 23rd 2009

Friday, January 23rd 2009
Today we got started on our Clubho[us]e. I’m assuming it’s a shelter on site to keep tools and maybe even waterproof things. We cut the lumber and started to put together the ribbing joints of the outer shell. The structure is really interesting. It could have been just a four walled, easy to do, stick framed, shelter but noooooo... Leave it to [us] to give our clubhouse a porch, neat structural ribbing, and even windows (which will be designed later). It’s starting to look really cool. Time to go, we have to put up the caution tape. See you next week!

Thursday, January 22nd 2009

Thursday, January 22nd 2009
I bought my new work boots yesterday and I’m psyched! Today was exactly what I figured… pumping a ton of water from the site. We also worked on chipping off the hardened dirt from the concrete footings and cleaning the surface. It seemed like an uphill battle because as soon as we would get one area cleaned off then people would walk all over it and get it messy again. We also got to see how deep the hole was that Lauren had fallen into yesterday (which was actually deeper than we thought considering how tall she is). The water was well past her knee… haha.

Wednesday, January 21st 2009

Wednesday, January 21st 2009
We finally got to see the job site after hearing about for the last few months. The site was a mud pit since its been raining and even snowing a whole bunch lately. Sounds like we are going to have a lot of water pumping to do to get all the water out. The site is right across the street from a crack house, which is a little disconcerting. Hopefully we won’t have any trouble with that. After seeing the site we all caravanned to the Gatecity University Research center where our wood shop will be. We got started on setting up the ventilation system (dust collector), framing out a hole in the wall for a circular saw, built tables for work space, organized tools, etc. We finished up a little before 6.

Tuesday, January 20th 2009

Tuesday, January 20th 2009
Today the class met in the conference room at the Gatewood building and we discussed aspects of the upcoming project. I must say I am really excited to get started and look forward to actually seeing the light of day during a semester in IARC. I signed up to be Project Manager. Not 100% sure what that would entail but it sounds like a lot of paper work. I’m sure it would be good experience though and I am an organized person so it should work out well.