day . 23 [my birthday!!]

so today was my birthday! yay. it started out bad but ended up very good. denise brought robert and i a cake. and eventhough it was dropped in the grass we ate it anyway and it was marvelous.
so today we were slam out of ICFS and rebar so we sorted through trash and did various other small tasks. robert and i toward the end of the day installed the first about 20 something roof truss holder things. we had to cut into the ICF and push the steel plate into the wall and then tie it in with a 2 ft piece of rebar. the plates hold the truss system into the concrete which will later hold a ledger strip for the trusses to sit on. i got as many installed as we had and the other 15 or so will arrive with the rest of the rebar.

day . 22

so today was more of the same, marking for vertical rebar, and making sure that it was getting cut and bent correctly. robert wanted a final count for how much more rebar we were going to need, so josh and i got that calculated. also we went around and measured over every window where the courses were complete for vertical rebar. once that was cut and bent we were able to get the front wall rebar totally complete.

at the end of the day we had run out of ICFs so we will have to wait for another shipment so who knows when the pour will be. and we have to wait for more rebar too.

day . 21

today was a good day! my dad followed me to site this morning to see the progress. he had not seen the place since it was just footings. i gave him the tour and he got to meet robert. i brought muffins [blueberry] and they were a hit! once we started working [about 9:30] josh and i went to the sides of the front wall and took out the vertical rebar and took off the top course. we had to do this because there is a slight 2 percent grade on the roof and had we left the top course the front would have had to been built up 8 inches which would then dwarf the church. we took the band saw up on the top of the scaffolding and pulled the rebar out and cut it. once those were all done we moved to putting the vertical rebar in the walls that were 7 courses and we got to the walls that were 9 courses!!! robert also informed me that i was the "rebar boss" and he was not going to check behind me but hear from me when the vertical rebar was all in and done! i feel like i am finally finding my place in a leadership role, and i like it. it is a lot of responsibility to be counted on by robert and not mess up, but i am up for the challenge!

this was another long week, but the pour was moved again to thursday so i feel like i can breathe! and that also means a long weekend! i need it thats for sure!

ALSO the crack house got busted up with 12 cop cars and police everywhere with their weapons drawn. it was quit intense. i dont think i have ever seen robert climb up the scaffolding that fast to get a better look.

day . 20

i woke up late this morning. i blame it on the nyquil that i took last night for my throat. it knocked me out!

i got to site about 9:30 and shortly after me renee w. got there with heart shaped krispy kreme doughnuts! they were motivation. so after 2 doughnuts we got to work on the scaffolding again. we finally got the last bays on the front finished and the 3 bays on either side of the front wall also finished. that was the morning work. we walked to skip's for lunch which was amazing! after lunch robert gave me the task of placing all the vertical rebar. every 2 feet on the 11 course wall, every 3 feet on the 8 course wall, every foot on the 13 course wall and so on. i counted them all and then robert and i calculate how long they would need to be to have a 4 inch bend and sit in the top chair. it felt good to have responsibility and know that robert was counting on me to get it right. once they were all calculated and the ones for the front 11 course wall were ready cody and i started to put them in. it was difficult considering they were 14 feet long. at the end of the day we had all of the front and one of the side walls done!

the 8 hour day flew by today!

day . 19

more courses we blown off last night! ahh the wind needs to stop, and we have to tie with zip ties better! so today again began with redoing what we did yesterday! doing things twice is not fun! i think this will definitely make us be more careful. once they were fixed more scaffolding arrived and we all unloaded it off the 2 trucks. once it was all unloading gabe and i started assembling it on the front wall. it took all day. and we did not even finish. it is taking way longer to get the scaffolding up than it will take to finish the top 2 courses! we put up about 5 or 6 bays that were 3 stories up! it was smooth sailing until the last 2 bays that did NOT want to cooperate. so that will have to be left until tomorrow. we had a field trip for the lighting class so we all had to get out of there before 6. some of use are coming in early to finish the scaffolding in the morning.

day . 18

today started out very frustrating. when we arrived at site we saw where the wind [which was blowing with a fury i have never felt] blew off the top 5 courses of the side wall onto the ground. we had tied them together but i guess not to the course below. it blew off with such force that it broke some of the ICFs at the corner! so we began the day by fixing that wall. after fixing that wall i got up on the scaffolding on the front wall and started on that again. we got up to 9 courses on the front which was all we could reach from teh scaffolding we have. we get new scaffolding tomorrow that will go on the front. after that we went around and helped put up the rest of the scaffolding that was not finished. and made sure all the walk boards were secure before we left so that no one would steal them!

day . 17

today again was gorgeous! i really hope that winter is over! it is so much easier to work when you are not shivering! so today we continued with the scaffolding. adrian explained how the 45 degree bracing worked, so got to work putting it up. denise and i went around and tightened all the bolts that held the bracing in place while everyone else put rebar through the base so they would not slide when someone was up there. we then moved on to tightening the bolts for the walk boards. after they were all in place we hoisted the walk boards up and i got to get up on the first one and help pull the 2x12s up that we were also using as walk boards. it was a very windy day today so it was a little scary at first. once i found a gopher, cody handed me ICFs and rebar and cut the ICFs that needed to be cut. we were able to do almost all of 2 more courses on the front wall. it goes so much faster once the windows are totally in and covered.

we are going to have to push hard to get everything done by friday. it is our first deadline so i REALLY hope that we make it. robert put the word on us today so time to work hard for the rest of the week!