“with every end there comes a new beginning”

Gabion week has finally come to an end. With little to no past knowledge of sewing, I think my grandmother would be quite proud of my ability. After this week I am pretty certain that I could perform a minor surgery with 12-gauge wire and a pliers.

As I finish my career as a design build student, more or less a build student, I have come to learn more than I thought I was going to learn. Everything from reading construction drawings and detailing to the frustrations when something has to be done multiple times has been engraved in my head over the past 3 weeks. Upon leaving, Nick Lippert asked me “was it worth it?” Looking back I would have to say absolutely. It is one thing to sit in front of a dark lit desk and design an imaginary building on paper; but it is something completely different to actually build a 1:1 building model with your peers. My knowledge of passive materials, construction details, and construction building has increased throughout the build and hopefully will continue to increase in the years to come. I think everyone should get out and see exactly how the buildings we design are constructed in the real world. To see every detail come together is quite astonishing and should be something you take pride in.

Unfortunately the build must come to an end for me as my 4th year high rise semester beings tomorrow morning. It has been a blast working with everyone in the build, and an honor to help construct a building designed by my fellow peers.

Best wishes to everyone during the fair,

-L. Schneider

…rough weekend

We got Sunday off and boy did I make the best of it. One of my good friends got married and there was an open bar all night. I will spare you of the details because a.) I don’t want this blog session to turn into a small novel and b.) I honestly cannot remember much of what happened after the cake was cut.

Monday morning was a rough wake up and awful drive to work. If you take the rough wake up and multiply it by a factor of 10, that is how my entire day felt. The constant sawing and hammering were like small explosions going off in my head. I helped Andrew fill and wash gabions all afternoon. I am pretty sure anything regarding a power tool was off limits for me. Around 7pm, Nick ordered pizza for the gang; however, I could only muster up the courage to eat 2 slices.

Around 8:30 I left and was sleeping by 8:55.(I am staying 35 minutes away…the math is correct)

Today Andrew and I put up the gabions on the North wall, only to see them buckle upon each other. It was not a pretty site. Half a days work gone down the drain. I had an idea for the East wall which later on worked out great. We took the empty gabions and screwed them on to the furring strips with the tops off. The rocks were washed and then filled in-place. After they were filled, I stitched the tops shut with wire while Andrew salvaged the angled gabion.

The finished product looked great, and we are going to tackle the South gabions tomorrow.

– L. Schneider

It must be the weekend…

Today marks the first time in 24 years where I woke up and was out the door before any of my family..including two dogs and a cat. I hope it never happens again.

The passive house is coming along nicely with a few minor adjustments here and there. Johnny, Nick and myself are sheathing the roof interior while other people are either working on the shelving structure, sanding and measuring the siding, and getting ready for a wedding.

Once we hit the scaffolding, things got a little interesting. Before and after every screw there was some sort of comment that made all three of us smirk and chuckle(I will keep this PG for any young eyes out there). Soon after things seemed to escalate in a great way; hilarious comments and great one-liners were tossed here and there every other second. Don’t get me wrong, the laughter didn’t compromise our work ethic whatsoever.

After a sheathing the roof interior(aka “sweatbox”), our posse cleaned up the job site and put the tools away(some of us caught up on our karate). Somehow I was in charge of vacuuming the ground outside…seemed a little weird, but highly necessary.

Words out that Sunday will be our day off; I believe most of us will enjoy a break and make the most out of it.

-L. Schneider

Today was a one of those days where a lot seemed to happen. The interior sheathing was complete by the first break. Dusty, Lyle and myself had a deadline of noon to have the exterior sheathing done on the East wall. We had to make a few interesting cuts but made our deadline with time to spare.

Later in the afternoon, Nick trained Lyle and I to use the scissor lift in order to apply sheathing Continue reading →

Sunday: the day of rest…oh wait

Although today was a short work day, a great deal of progress was accomplished. The morning started out with groups framing the North wall, framing the roof pitches, and mounting the top plates on top of the headers. Mike, Andrew, Johnny and myself measured, cut, and assembled the roof pitches for the South side. Everyone else seemed Continue reading →