day . 16

today was a beautiful day, but i had zero motivation. i think the six day week last week is taking its toll. i got to site really early and took at nap in my car waiting for everyone else to get there. once everyone was there we waited for robert and novem to get back with the scaffolding. while we were waiting caroling megan and i continued cutting and bracing the gaps in the ICF's so they would not blow out and spew concrete everywhere. the 2x12s were super heavy and hard to manage on my own. by the time they were done my arms were super tired! once the scaffolding got there we unloaded and placed them every 8 feet. once they were all unloading we moved to screwing them into the interior walls and making sure they were level vertically. we took our time and by the time we finished the back corner it was 4:30. the last task of the day was to brace the window that we lowered on saturday. the walls were fanning outward like a trapezoid so we had to push them in and tie them with 2x4s. on to finishing the scaffolding tomorrow, it takes much more time than i thought it would.

day . 15

today was our first saturday, and also our first major on site design decision. we decided to move the window that looks out into courtyard down 2 courses of icf. so we had to take it out and cut the icf's so we could lower it. i think it will be really neat when the floor is in. the way the window will now be the sill will be about a foot from the floor were as before it was going to be almost 2 feet off the ground. after that johanna and i went around and counted how many pieces of strapping or bracing that will need to cover the cracks in the icf so the concrete doesn't bust out when it is poured. we ended up needing a lot. after that i moved to help icf the front wall and put in the last window buck. it is really coming along!

day . 14

i got to have a break from putting icf's up today which was nice. caroline and i went around the building to take exact measurements of the structure. we then drew a plan that had all the measurements on it. we had to do this so that the roof trusses an be ordered. i was surprised that the measurements were not that far off from what was designed. we had to make a big push at the end of the day because apparently we forgot to put vertical rebar under the window bucks. there are SO many icf rules i am surprised that i can remember them all!

day . 13

today was more of the same like yesterday. putting up icf's and leaving spaces for windows. and it was cold again.

day . 12

it was really really cold today. we continued to put up more icfs. we had to backtrack though for part of the day and tie the icf's vertically. i suppose somewhere we missed the memo that we were supposed to do that. but we went back and got it done. we have gotten up high enough that we are laving spaces for the windows. it looks really neat now that something visible is forming.

day . 11

today we continued to put up icf's anywhere that we could reach. we then covered the tops with plastic to keep the rain and snow out. gabe also taught caroline and i how to use the survey level thing to make sure that the icf's are level around the structure.

day . 1o

today we did more icf's in what will be the matron suite in the back of the structure. we had about 4 or 5 rows up and we had to make sure that it was square. we started by measuring the diagonals and trying to fix it that way, but robert taught us a much quicker was with 6,8,10 rule. by the end of the day we had the walls above our heads! today was nice because we worked the whole time and had a task to do the whole time. it made the day go faster and i felt acomplished when i went home.