Progress Update - Week 7

This week marks the end of our official class session. Sam, Sahar, and Sarah have to leave to return to real life while Brad, Chris, Ariel, Marc and Anthony trudge on. The looming deadline made us all work double-time despite the 90+ heat. The beginning of the week was dedicated to finishing the footings and piers. While others worked on squaring out the footing holes and adding formwork, Ariel and Sarah got to hone their “rod busting” skills. To tie the rebar together you use a special curved hook tool, Sarah says “It’s kind of like crocheting wire”. After the horizontal and verticals were set up they were placed in the footing holes and tied together. The vertical rebar was adjusted as needed to get it in the right column location, the Sono-Tubes have to fit around the rebar and the whole thing has to be about right, only 1” of wiggle room. That all was Monday, we quit at 2:00 because it was climbing into the mid 90s.

Ariel putting together the horizontal rebar

The special hook used to tie rebar together with wire

Chris adding the wood spacer to the vertical rebar

Setting form-work into the footing hole. When Brad dug them out with the backhoe the holes got sloppy, but is saved us so much time.

Horizontal rebar in the footing hole, they sit on plastic "chairs" to keep them off the ground.

On Tuesday the cement truck arrived, for the entire morning it was pure ciaos. All 9 of us were involved, Sam directing the shoot, Marc, Chris, and Anthony pulling the concrete down the shoot, Sarah and Ariel tamping, and Sarah floating. Brad, Paul, and the driver Rich worked out a hand single system after the first few pours. It took about 1.5 hours to fill all 16 footings. After that we covered the whole site and went home after a very satisfying day. 

Poured footing with vertical rebar

All 16 footings poured in one morning!

Wednesday and Thursday we worked on the piers, setting the Sono Tubes, mixing concrete, pouring, and then setting the bolts for the post brackets. Again we worked as one big team, each person with their job. We affectionately call this “blob-ing,” when we all work on one task at the same time, like a blob that engulfs and destroys, then we finish the task in no time.

We mixed the pier concrete ourselves since there wasn't enough for a truck.

Our solution to the water source problem, dont drink it though, Ariel says it's spicy

Pier with post bolt, none of them were in the center, but at least close enough

 On Friday we worked on loose ends, we did some design detail work for the window openings and the foundation wall cap, we finished processing the sub floor material, and set up one column on our newly make piers. There was a brief rain storm in the morning, we all refused to leave our work stations will it really got bad, then we huddled under our shade tarp until it became apparent that the storm was not going the let up. Eventually we were able to get back to work.

Gabion detail

Gabion prototype

Brick foundation wall detail for the corner

Rained out Friday morning

Sahar chiseling out the column so it fits in the post bracket.

It fits!

One column up!

It’s been difficult to accept the fact that more of this project can’t be completes while we are all here, but knowing that there are so many people are committed to its completion is comforting.

revised model to remind us of the future.

Field Trip - Palace of Gold

Over the weekend we took a field trip to a local curiosity the Palace of Gold. It is the crowning achievement of the West Virginia New Vrindaben International Society for Krishna Consciousness (commonly called the Hare Krishna movement) community. New Vrindaben in located near Moundsville, WV The palace was built by dedicated devotees as a residence for Srila Prabhupada. The community was established in 1968, in 1973 his disciples decided to build Prabhupada a residence where he could work on his translation work. The entire building and grounds were built be people who learned as they went. The undertaking tool 7 years to complete. Truly, the building and surrounding grounds are magnificent. The care and devotion of the devotees is apparent in every detail. The whole visit left us awestruck and humbled. If you want to learn more visit the website http://palaceofgold.com.

Anthony, Sarah, Sam and our local friend Cindy went on the trip.

Eave detail.

The Hare Karishna chant

overall view

Rose garden.

View of fountain and rose garden.

Wall detail.

Window detail for exterior wall.

They have three live peacocks that live at the site, they have been there for multiple generations.

Progress Update - Week 6

A completely rotted out beam from inside the buidling.

Marc using the chop-saw

This week was all about getting the foundations in. On Monday and Tuesday we finished up processing the remaining beams, joists, and clap board. Between the de-nailing and cutting processes everyone got to put their hands on the power tools. Sahar used the Saws-All for the first time, she reports that her arms were numb after two cuts. By Wednesday we were ready to start digging some footing holes. First we measured and marked the column grid using the triangulation method, the good old 3, 4, 5 right triangle. Admittedly we had to do it twice because the first time we assumed the existing foundation wall was square, it ended up being 3” off on one side.

Sahar using the sawzall

Footing digging was a somewhat experimental process. Because the soil in this area is organic matter (i.e. clay) it is not suitable to bear weight, the result is that we have to create 36” x 36” x 1’ footings for the piers to sit on. To begin we marked out the 36” footing based on the previously established center points, then using a skill saw we scored the footing outline and broke up the concrete slab with an electric hammer drill. We started hand digging the first two holes and quickly discovered the soil is dense wet clay, it was like digging into solid cheddar cheese.  Soon a buddy developed where one person gets the clay out of the hole and the other moves it to the pile, mostly because the hole was not big enough to have two people. At one point Arial felt a few drops on his head thinking it was the eminent rain but turns out it was Anthony dripping sweat on him. It was grueling work, so grueling that eventually we decided to have Brad dig out the holes with the back hoe, it isn't as pretty, but it's faster.

Footing holes.

In the middle of the week Chris had to leave us for 24 hours to present as a featured artist at the Furniture Society Conference at Maine College of Art in Portland Maine. We really missed her, but she reported back that her lecture went well and she really enjoyed the gardens of her host.

We also got an extra set of hands. Paul is an experienced carpenter and friend of Brad’s who came from Florida for the week. We are going to try to make him like us so much we will want to stay longer.

In other excitement we had a toilet back-up at the parsonage. There was so much water that it went through the floor to the basement below and soaked the ceiling tiles. Brad saved the day with his “plumber’s moves” with a plunger.

Gary and Jennifer stopped by and used a transit to make a level line for the foundation wall to be cut down. Our line level system wasn’t super accurate. They also got hold of a pneumatic drill for a few hours and busted up the concrete stair. We were shocked to discover that the rebar used in the stair was 1” iron bars used to tie back coal mines, plus some scrap iron railing, guess nothing goes to waste here. Anthony jumped in and took a turn, it was quite a photographic moment.

Jennifer teaching Sarah to use the transit

Anthony working the pneumatic drill

On Friday we spent the morning over at Duane’s house milling the larger oak beams into smaller pieces using his portable saw mill, the WoodMizer. Duane is even more our hero that before, he is super strong and works that WoodMizer like a pro. We ended up with beautiful cross sections of lumber.

The portable saw mill area at Duane's house.

Duane using the WoodMizer.

Design Concept

During the third week of the project the team presented their design concept the the congregation and larger community. The goal of the meeting was to present the concept and get feedback. Everyone was nervous and had worked so hard to get the presentation together. In the end it seemed that the community was impressed with the work and expressed that the design exceeded their expectations.

The community meeting included all our favorite people.

Teem picture, the space in the middle is for Brad, he got stuck talking to folks while the picture was being taken.

The design concepts include:

• Intimate space to serve the community in the ways they requested; funeral services and other small gatherings
• Space for contemplation and reflection when services are not in progress (most of the time), space doubles as foyer for larger gathering space during services.
• Strong sense of entry and procession. Designed as a ramp, framed openings, and a continuous central axis
• Adaptation for diverse climate at site. Slating is designed to buffer wind on north side but still allow air circulation.

 

Word concepts for contemplation space.

 

Word concept for main space

Existing site plan

New Design site plan

Overall View of model

North Side elevation

Closeup of eaves showing the slat detail to echo the original windows

Plan with elevations.

Enlarged plan. Shows location of larger "service" space and smaller "contemplation" space