day . 97 | 19

today was HOT. i got to site and cody lauren and josh had been there since 6 so i got up working with them as soon as i got there. robert got there shortly after i did and pointed out that the way we had installed the first panel would allow the water to drip into and under the roof. so we had to remove the first and second panel that had been put up and put a new full panel in against the wall. we then worked the rest of the day installing all of the panels on the first gabled roof. it went rather smoothly save for josh dropping a drill on the panel and it almost sliding right into my face! i ducked just in time and didnt die. throughout the day i worked again leading mira's group as to how to prep the other part of the gabled roof to be ready for roofing panels. once it was prepped i helped them get the first 2 drip edges up and got the side drip edge ready to be installed. it is getting easier to work on one task but go back to another group and answer questions and help with tasks.

josh on the roof with the drill that tried to kill me!

day . 96 | 18

so today was the first day i really got good experience leading a crew that i wasn't working with. lauren josh and i started the day working on the same section of roof that we left yesterday. we were moving rather slow at 6 am plus we had to break into the shed because there was a 2x4 screwed to the deck outside the door and none of us had a drill to get it off. so we spent an hour prying the 2x4 off the porch to get in. once in we got to work setting up ladders and walkboards and getting the harness attached to the roof. once everything was ready we finally got to get to work. we put the first panel down and decided that we needed to cut out or bend a long section so it would fit up against the wall and the side overhang. once it was marked robert and our group tried to bend it but that was NOT going to happen so we had to wait for most of the morning to get an automatic cutter thing to cut a 10 foot strip off the panel. while we were waiting i worked with mira to show her how the panels worked. she and a few others were going to work on the atrium while lauren josh and i worked on the other roof. once i showed mira she and her group got working and we moved to putting the rest of the drip edge up the final part of the side of the roof. once that was finished robert was back with the cutter and we got the first panel up. after we got it in we realized that we had to fix the ridge of the roof before we could actually put any of the roof on. the gap in the ridge was supposed to be only 2" at the most and in some places it was almost 6. jayson and i went along both ridges and cut the waterproofing back so the plywood could be put in place. then josh and lauren ripped some plywood as i called out measurements from the roof and nailed them in. once they were in on both ridges on either side of the atrium, we had to put the waterproofing back down. i also put extra waterproofing around all of the pipes that were penetrating the roof because apparently they are leaking. at the end of the day mira's group got the whole atrium paneled which was awesome! we will finally get to putting panels up tomorrow on the gabled roof!

day . 95 | 17

today was a long strange day. cody nor josh were there today, so lauren and i worked pretty much just the two of us all day. we started the day by putting up the drip edge but it rained the whole time and i am still sick so robert cut us loose for the day. i went to starbucks and killed some time until about 11:30 and went back to site because a large group of non-profit people were coming to tour the site. there were a lot of people that showed up, at least 6 or 7 groups of 5. so after all the tours we all made our way down to the community center for lunch and a presentation. the presentation was about all the ways [urban studio] and other departments throughout UNCG were in collaboration and how it would extend into the occupation of the house. after lunch lauren and i went back to site to work for the afternoon. we continued on the drip edge. it was quite a task because it was the first day that we were working with the roof and after only a couple of hours of instruction from andy i was definitely not confident. we ran into several issues during the afternoon. first we put a 90 degree edge up and we were supposed to put a "non 90 degree edge" on so we had to take it down. we put the "non 90 degree" edge on the roof and wrapped it around the side of the facia. come to find out it is supposed to be pieced with a 90 degree edge on the side. so we had to take it down and re do it again. finally we got the correct edge pieces on the front and the side and got to move on to the second piece and the right side. by the end of the day we had one section of drip edge done. i really hope that the rest of the roof does not go this slow! if it does it will take forever!

day . 94 | 16

it poured rain today when we all arrived on site....so the roof crew got to go home, which was nice bc i have the head cold that is going around and feel terrible. also come to find out we got robbed last night...crackheads ]:

day . 93 | 15

so today was a day that seemed to drag on forever with small tasks. lauren and i spent the whole day on the roof, although it was not sunny it was still super hot and muggy. the decking around the suite roof had to be trimmed so it did not hang over the fascia boards so we measured and snapped lines and then i cut the decking along the south and east side of the roof. we also had to put in 1x3's where the decking did not totally reach the edge of the rafters. once that was all done we broke for lunch because we were so hot and covered in sawdust. after lunch we talked with robert about the roof and how confident i was with doing it. i think that after i get started tomorrow i will be more confident. there are so many little things that go into putting it all together that i hope i remember them all. while lauren and i waited for josh to get back from errands lauren and i dry fitted the drip edges and got all the supplies ready to put on the last fascia board on the back of the atrium. as soon as josh got back we recruited him to help me hold the board while lauren screwed it in. once it was in we got the first drip edge in and secured to the atrium roof!

day . 81 | o3

so this morning i woke up with a massive headache. aka migraine. i thought it might get better as the morning went on. so i got ready and headed out the door. well on the drive to site i got super nauseous, almost threw up twice, no fun. robert and adrian could tell i did not feel good at all so they sent me home to rest. i have slept on and off all day, and the migraine is still not gone. this sucks.

day . 8o | o2

it was another slow start to the day today. we all arrived on site and there were a lot more people there than yesterday. while waiting on a wood delievery for the all of the interior framing, we set up the site, put out extension cords, set up the chop saw etc. the truck got there at 8:30 and we waited for it to be unloaded. while the lowes man was getting it off the truck cody and i got on the roof to help lauren and josh finish the rafter spacers. they needed help to push them back into place on the last few. there was tons of standing water on the roof that cody and i had to lay in so it was a messy start to the day. once we got done helping them, we moved to ferrying wood into the community area. there were about 5 bundles that were delivered but we got them all moved faster than i would have anticipated. after all the wood was moved we got to start working on the interior framing. we decided though that it would be smart to put the ceiling joist up before we put the walls in so we set up the transit, and after about 4 tries finally got a level line for the rim joist. i kept hitting the transit when we were half way though making the line and we would have to go back re level and start over! it was super frustrating. caroline and megan cut the 2 2x12's that we needed so we were able to start putting them up. we got the 2 ledgers done for the office area and the ledger over the laundry room done before i left for the day. it was a slow day. a lot of waiting and a lot of people standing around. i think though that after everyone gets in the groove it will move more quickly. i sure hope so considering we only have 9 weeks. scary. so we can start framing the interior partitions tomorrow!

day . 79 | o1

so today was the first day back on site after a 2 week "summer" break to start the summer session with a new crew of people, plus the 7 of us that carried over from last semester. 8am came WAY too early, considering i could not sleep, maybe from anticipation maybe not who knows, but everyone filtered in. robert went over the intro stuff, insurance, tools, waivers, safety, all the administration things that we have to start with. after that we led everyone on a tour of the building to discuss the different areas, get everyone oriented on the site, we took everyone up on the green roof, and finished our tour in the matron suite. everyone left and went to GURP but the 7 of us, team leaders, stayed to get some things on site set up. lauren, josh, cody and i set up the scaffolding on the east side of the building to work on the rafters. once we had that set up some people began to filter back from GURP so we got to work cutting 1x3's that we needed to use as spacers for all of the rafter tails to keep them from getting all "wonky". cody and i got started on the back set of rafters and got about 6 or 7 done, explained how to do them , and handed it off to a set of new people. hopefully we did a good job explaining so they understood well enough to finish them this afternoon. overall it was a semi-productive first day back considering it rained on and off all day and there were tons of new people in and out all day. i am anxious to see how everyone this semester works together to get tasks done. i am glad to be working with cody again though, i know we can count on each other. [:

day . 78

today was our review on site. it was bittersweet. the semester has flown by. i cannot believe that we have been working over 3 months together. it seems like only a few weeks. i feel like i have learned so much this semester not only about the building process but about myself as a person as well. i am excited for the summer to start but will miss the group that i worked with this semester. i have gotten so much closer to all of my classmates and would not trade this experience for anything, i know that it is invaluable. it was hard to fathom standing in the building today that we built it, from the ground up, the whole thing. it hasn’t sunk in yet. i look forward to the day it does. i think it will be amazingly overwhelming.

day . 77

so today was our last workday and in [us] fashion it poured rain! but we worked anyway. we finished clearing out all the brush and loading it into the container. then somehow or another i was voted to get in the container on top of all the poison ivy infested brush and mash it down. so i got in and jumped around and got to packed down and kept it from hanging out over the edges of the container, i wrestled with a huge branch and it won and hit me in the shin so hard. this was the first time all semester than i got hurt enough to stop what i was doing. it sucked. but luckily all the brush was cleaned up and we had a meeting about our review on friday to get tasks divided up between everyone and decide what we were going to prepare. we got to go home early!

day . 76

so today was clean up day! the concrete was being floated in half the building so we could not go in. it did look amazing though!! a large container arrived right at one and parked on the street so we could dispose of all the wood that was not good and all the left over icf’s. we started moving the icf’s to the container and it was filling up super fast so cody and i got in and “persuaded” them into smaller pieces. it was fun. after we busted them all up we got out and helped gather more wood around the site and unload it into the container. the first container was filled in a few hours so we had the container people come pick it up and drop off another. we then filled that one with more wood. any piece of wood that was less than 2 feet long had to be thrown away. so there was a lot to be thrown out. there seemed to be wood everywhere! once all the wood was cleaned up and we had done laps around the site riding in the georgia buckets we started cleaning out the brush. robert said there was poison ivy in it so lets hope i am not allergic. we also made corn hole things out of some of the scrap 2x4s and plywood. and i am going to make bean bags for friday! 6 came quickly and it was time to go.

day . 75

today was a pretty simple day caroline and i started by installing the doors that we made yesterday. robert claimed that hanging doors was number 3 on the list of hardest things to do besides stairs and a counterslope but it was not as difficult as one would imagine. we came to the conclusion that this was because the doors are only temporary. it was hard to get the hinges on right. about half that we attached we attached backwards so the door would therefore not swing. ha so we had to take them off and do them again. it was comical. after all the hinges were finally attached we attached the doors to the jamb. after the first one caroline and i had a good system of how to get them in. we did however have to go behind some others and trim the plywood that was hanging in some places a inch over the jamb. we were not happy about that but it as easily fixable. after all the doors were in we moved to drilling holes through the door into the jamb for #5 rebar to secure the doors closed from the inside. we tried to get all the holes drilled but everytime we started the drill battery would die in like 5 mins. we went through all the batteries and none worked. so we gave up. i then moved up onto the main roof to help put down waterproofing. that was the last task of the day so we wanted to get it done quickly to go home. once lauren k blew all the debris we started laying it down. it went pretty quickly because we had about 4 or 5 people working on it. we got done for the day around 2 which was super nice.

day . 74

today was a long day. some of us got to site at 8 to get everything ready for the inspection. i know i am going to be so sore tomorrow. we started the morning by taking out the foam and vapor barrier that was in the entrance and shoveling out the gravel. the foam was supposed to be 4 inches below the footing but in that case it was right up level with the top pf the footing. so that was no good. we got the gravel down and the vapor barrier back down and the foam in, then we moved around and measured every door opening to make sure there were no other places that needed to be shoveled down. the atrium needed to be taken down a couple of inches so we worked on that. after all the foam was at the right height, i went around and cleaned up all the plastic pieces from around the inside. we were all done around 10:45 so we sat around and waited for the inspector to get there. he cam around 11:30 and we passed!! woo hoo. after that we all went out to lunch at panera and almost all fell asleep right in our plates, it was sad. while we were eating it started to pour rain so densise called robert and we all went our separate ways and took naps. i got back to the site around 2 and started working with adam from [us]o1. we spent the afternoon making doors for all of the openings so when the slab is poured nothing or no one can get in. we also made a wall to go in the curtain wall opening on the south side. we got the wall installed and will start installing the doors tomorrow.

day . 73

today we had to get all the vapor barrier in and pink foam down for the inspection that will happen tomorrow. cody, caroline, megan and i started working in the small suite area dry fitting the foam. it only had to go around the perimeter where a wall was adjacent with the outdoors. denise came and her and megan moved to the back area. we had to cut out around the plumbing and make them all fit nice and pretty. once they were all cut we rolled out the vapor barrier, which ended up being super annoying. the pieces were 20’x100’ so it was super large and hard to work with. we eventually figured the best way would be to tack it one side and pull it tight to the other. we didn’t think about where we would stand when doing this pulling. so we had to jump on counts of three off the barrier and then pull. it was interesting. we finally got our room done and then moved to putting more down in the entrance area. at the end of the day all the foam was down put in some places it was too high and super sloppy. so caroline and i went around with tape and spray foam and filled in cracks and holes. at the end of the robert was not happy with our work so some of us are going early in the morning to fix the mistakes and hopefully pass the inspection.

day . 72

today when we got to site and got ready to finish the pipe there was a poor bird that was trapped in some string on the north side of the building. cody, robert and i rescued him. the poor little guy was so freaked out we had to cover him with a tshirt and lift him out and get the string that was wrapped around his wing and his neck off. we were able to free him and he flew off! once our rescue was done cody and i took apart all the piping and began priming it and cementing it all together. the longer we were down in the trench with the glue the loopier we got. the fumes definitely got to us. we were laughing at everything. it was pretty funny. once that was done we moved to putting waterproofing onto the matron suite roof. this was another task that we were assigned at like 5:30 but cody and i stayed until it was complete, around 7:30. neither cody nor i had done much waterproofing so it took us a little while to get into the groove and of course once everyone left it was hard for us to concentrate over the rock music and intense air banding. but we got it done.

day . 71

adrain spent yesterday digging out the rest of the trench with the trackhoe so it is finally ready for the power company. but before they can come put the wiring in cody and i had to put the pipe in. so caroline, cody and i got down in the hole that was really deep, up to my shoulders and knocked down the high spots to make it more level so the pipe would lay flat. once that was done we gathered the pipe and dry fitted it into place. this took a lot more time that i thought it would we had to get denise to go get more 45 degree pieces so we could get it as close to the wall as possible. once she was back we got it all dry fitted and secured to the wall with some strapping. tomorrow we will glue it all together.

day . 7o

so today was a day filled with small tasks. we moved wood around the site, out of the building and into neat stacks around the site. then at about 5 robert informed cody and i that we needed to build a hand rail on the green roof. so we gathered all the 2x4’s and 1x4s that we could find and moved them to the roof. we cut vertical pieces at about 42 inches to use as the vertical supports and then used whatever other 2x4’s and 1x4’s we could find to work as a horizontal bracing. we were finally finished around 6:30 or so and even though the handrail was not too sturdy it was done. i would not trust my life to it but it is just temporary so it will work…i hope.

day . 69

it was supposed to be really hot again today but it was nice to get up on the roof before it heated up. also the beaux arts ball is tonight so we worked fast to get done before 4. we put up the last bit of sheathing and them trimmed the parts that overlapped the knee wall with the reciprocating saw. it was crazy heavy but caroline and i rotated and we got it all done in a few hours. we then moved down into the building. i had no idea until then how cool it was in the shade of the building. it was at least 20 degrees cooler, which was crazy. caroline and i built the last of the rafter tails for the south side of the large suite area for tall lauren and josh. we had to put 2 of the 2x6’s that had been cut forever ago upright, put a spacer in the front and back then screw another 2x4 on top. they look like long boxes with no bottom. we assembled about 10 of them before lunchtime, and we all walked up to skip’s. of course it took like 45 mins to get our food and by the time we got back and ate it was after 1. caroline left for work so cody and i finished assembling the last few rafter tails. next cody and i moved to helping lauren kelley and kaytee cut sheathing for the matron suite roof. we got a cut list from kaytee and began cutting them all. there were only about 8 pieces that had to be cut so we got them done pretty quickly and then handed them all up. we then started cleaning up so we could get going. once the roof sheathing was all nailed we got to leave about a half hour early! i am super excited for beaux arts tonight!!!

day . 68

today it was so hot. the heat on the roof was really intense. we worked on getting the sheathing on the knee walls but it went really slow because of the heat. we had to bend over backwards to nail it in and every time i stood up i got dizzy. so there were lots of water breaks today but we got more than half of the sheathing done.

day . 67

today we get our surprise! yay. everyone got there on time because apparently they thought we were getting food right at 1, so they wanted to be first in line. it was funny. cody and i finished the top plates on the knee wall slowly because we were hungry and it was hot and we were excited about the cookout. ha so rick boedicker got there around 2 and cooked us some super tasty barbeque! it was so nice to have time to hang out with everyone around site and not be working. after we all ate mass amounts of food gabe got out his football and everyone went out to the field and played a pick up game. caroline, megan and i were upper tired so we just laid on a blanket in the grass and took a nap. it was an amazing afternoon. robert did spoil the party and make us get back to work. but we were all super tired so a lot didn’t get done for the rest of the day. we did finish the top plates though so that was good.