We have a foundation!

Yesterday had to be the most rewarding day thus far on this project; we poured the slabs and the piers. On Thursday we had a very long but lucky day. Thursday morning we had a lot to do before the we could get inspected and before we could pour but not many of us could be out working on the site. We had to redo some form work, finish the rebar, lay the wire mesh, redo a pier and cut all the piers to the correct height. Some how only 4 of us got it done (with Dale's help of course) and by the end of the day we were ready to be inspected...and the City of Ruston people came at the perfect time. Needless to say, we were down to the wire and finished successfully! But not only that, we got in several donations, which we really needed! So it was a great day in the habiTECH world.
So Friday, Feb. 8th, we were able to pour the slab and piers. We had a couple small problems at first but by the end of the day we could really see the house coming together. One of the problems was the concrete guy hit some of our plumbing with the truck and knocked it loss....luckily it didn't break. Then when we almost finished with the slab one of the formed up walls came loose so the concrete started to pour out. So of course Dale comes to the rescue and wedges a support to the wall and stops the leaking. Our foundation is a little bowed but luckily its where we're stick framing so it doesn't have to be as perfect. Its absolutely amazing how fast the concrete hardens. Several hours after we poured the finishers were on the slab smoothing everything out. A couple of us left our mark on the piers, where nobody will ever see.
Today, we had some of the Ruston High Honor Society come out and help us...and they were really a big help. We removed all the form work and de-nailed EVERYTHING and cleaned up the site. Not all of us were out there...again...but we still got a lot accomplished and the Evan's family clocked in some sweat equity hours toward their house.
Its amazing how in school we work so hard at trying to understand and learn about details and construction and stuff, but all it takes is just hands on investigation and you learn stuff you never forget. I am so glad I got this opportunity to help a family and learn really valuable stuff toward my career.

Good news, groundbreaking, and a lesson to be learned.

I went by the inspector's office on Friday and gave Mark the engineer stamped drawings so now the only thing we're waiting on is the elevation certificate to get the full permit. Mark didn't seem mad or that we'd be fined or anything. He almost gave me the permit right then but we had to get Ms. Evan's signature and elevation certificate. He is very helpful if you know what your talking about. There was some misunderstanding when he went out to the site and saw the form work. . . he was looking at the wrong site plan. But there were some mistakes on our part with the drawings and the coordination. They were small things that are easy to fix so we don't even have to resubmit drawings, just a conformation email.
The groundbreaking went well. We had a small crowd and it was really cold. I had to go to the studio and do the finishing touches on the model for the groundbreaking. And by the time I got out to the site everyone was standing around waiting. It was a nice ceremony, Ms. Evans teared up when she spoke. We didn't know what to do so me and Mel had a group hug with her. The Habitat for Humanity Tech Chapter was awesome. They were really hard workers and there were a lot more than I expected. We got a lot done after the ceremony, as far as site clean-up.
Today we went out to the architecture annex to cut and bend rebar. We decided to go in shifts so people weren't standing around. But there is a very important lesson we all need to learn in this class.... S L O W D O W N A N D T H I N K I T T H R O U G H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is always a sense of urgency and sometimes we get caught up in it.

Problem!!!!

Well, the majority of the class (6 out of 11) were gone this past weekend. But the remainder of the class got a lot done. As we were leaving for the 402 trip to Austin, we found out that all our rebar for the slab, all the 2x12 for the form work and all the siding for the house was getting donated and being sent to Ruston the next day. I really don't know what we would do without the generosity of others, its really amazing! So we the people on the trip and the people still in Ruston had to coordinate via phone all weekend. But the people that stayed worked really hard with the help of LaTech Habitat for Humanity Chapter and the Ruston Habitat for Humanity Chapter to get most of the form work for the slab done.
BUT, as soon as we got back....there were problems. Morgan and I went to the inspector's office because we are still do not have a permit. The reason we haven't gotten a full permit is because of pier system on half of our house. But we did get a slab only permit that morning. Well, later that day, Mark Joiner (the inspector) went out to our site to check things out. Poor Ashley was the only student out there and got an earful from Mark. He said our house was to close to the site line, we weren't suppose to be doing the form work without the permit, along with some other stuff. It gets worse...all this stuff was "wrong" and he is going to be in court for the rest of the week, so we can't talked to him to see what codes we are violating. So for the past couple of days I have become one with the IRC! I figured out a solution to our pier problem...I hope, but as for the bldg restriction line....we can't figure out where he's getting is info from. I LOVE CODES!!!! (not really).

RUN!!!!

So today was our first real work day on the site (where we had to be there at 8am and couldn't leave till 4ish). It was interesting....we tried to do the site layout, but found out our site plan was messed up, we also realized we need another tree taken down, so we had to do it ourselves.
So here's the tree as its coming down and the other one is us pulling the tree. The deal was that as soon as it started falling we would all run the other way. But the guy from Habitat that was helping us today stood behind another tree....THAT WAS DIRECTLY IN THE LINE OF FIRE! So the tree he stood behind took the majority of the blow but he still got hit with plenty of branches. It was like slow motion...I turn around and start running and turn back around just fast enough to see the tree fall. It was crazy!

Post Christmas Break

Christmas break was nice and relaxing but now we gotta get things rolling. A lot happened over the break... the site's neighbor's water line bust and flooded our site so we still haven't been able to get the dirt work done because of the dampness. This pushes back our ground breaking date and our whole construction schedule....boooooo! Plus almost everyone that went out to the site to chop up trees on the site before the break got in to poison sumac. Luckily I was in the studio working on the permit drawings so I didn't get into it.

TIMBER!!!!!!!

WOW we've been busy (surprise surprise)! We're have been working overtime in order to get permit drawings ready for submittal. We set a deadline for ourselves to get the drawings submitted before our holiday break, so that when we come back next year we'll be ready to break ground (hopefully). We've already 'broken' ground....the tree guys came out yesterday. I've never been so excited to wake up early and go to the site. I've never seen a tree get cut down (I know Morgan, I'm such a city girl). But it was really interesting how they did it. They didn't climb up to the top and cut it down in pieces...they literally 'Paul Bunyan'ed it but with a truck instead of a blue ox. We talked them into cutting down a couple of extra trees, but we have to go cut them up. They had this cool old beat up truck with a claw on it to pick up the pieces. That was my favorite part...I wanted that job (I've always loved the claw game)! And you better believe when the workers went to lunch we played on the truck. But on a serious note, we did save a lot of trees on the site, so it still has that woodsy feeling.

Budget?

Yeah I got a blog and finally have time to write on it...kinda. As a little intro...the 5th year architecture students at Louisiana Tech University (aka habiTECH) are again building a Habitat for Humanity house. The past two years have been a major success. And I must say this is a great learning experience. Not only do we get to implement what we've learned in school and apply it to the real world....but we also get a great insight to the other side of architecture besides designing. Lately I've been working on the pamphlets that we're going to send out for donations...they've been a lot more work than i expected. Also, I've been working on budget stuff and trying to figure out what to spend where....now that is really hard...it just not the way architects think. But i guess it helps me with my business minor.