Last Day!

This saturday was my last day. The whole week went by really fast. We roofed a house. I got to take a ride in our best volunteer's Corvette when he took us to lunch. And on that last day, there were two dedications. The second one was for the Belarussian guy with 7 kids, I don't know if I've mentioned him yet. His youngest son has cerebral palsy, and his wife left because she didn't want to take care of the son.
And he is the most appreciative homeowner of them all. So anyways, he had a lot of family members at the ceremony, and a lot of good food! It was a good end to the experience.

Yesterday, the other construction assistants, Justin, and I had a celebratory bbq together. D gave us little books about friendship. Our favorite memories mostly involved D getting yelled at (these were D's favorite too), or D having an upset stomach and no toilet paper in the portapotty after some volunteers brought bad Togo's. My favorites were with B, the "logistics supervisor," who was really just in charge of getting stuff from Home Depot and collecting trash from the sites. He had a lot of good war stories and silly jokes.

Thank you everyone for reading!

We are coming close to finishing three houses right now. Unfortunately, I can't get a clear answer of when the deadlines are, so it's harder to stay motivated than if I did.
Last week, I thought the deadline was the third week of June, so it was easier for me to keep going. "Sense of urgency" is how Ikea referred to it.

the end is near

Sorry it has been a while. believe it or not, my term is wrapping up. a little sooner than i expected though. after i finish my term, i only have to work the last week. in between that, and when i finish my hours, i can take time off.
i'm thinking of things to do.
1. sleep
2. camp
justin has wanted to since his birthday. i think it be fun, too. to see more (or see for the first time) of norcal.
3. practice some japanese

This week I did a lot more trim stuff. I used a jigsaw to cut sink holes. Hung cabinets. I learned a lot. Today was just cleaning and landscaping. I think the preschool thing made it a long week, ready for the weekend.

We have been doing our individual project- a garden for a preschool. It was fun, but exhausting, working with 150 little kids (not all at once). It's just one of our americorps fullfilments for the year.

All the americorps have been doing interior trim this week. Matt and I are professional closet-installers now. Some baseboard.
We went on a Habitour today. For potential donors, telling the homeowners stories.
Saturday I just found out I have off, so Justin and I are driving down to LA.

Today was a huge letdown. It's raining here, and there's still a storm watch, so we are still at the hotel. Unfortunately we still had to get up at the usual time, 5:30, and go down to the buses. They were making last minute decisions, we ended up going to another casino to take a big group picture with the Carters. That took an hour and a half. Then we went to a baseball stadium with a big tent and ate breakfast. They finally decided the sites were closed and we had to go back.
But I just won $7 on slots!
I found a litte blurb about the family we were rehabing for-
The water from Katrina "messed up everything we had." Eugene and Patricia tried to ride
out the storm in their house, but the water got so high they had to leave. The water was up to
his neck when he tired to walk outside. They made their way to the railroad tracks, which were
on higher groud, and followed them to a school where they took shelter.
He was really nice, always smiling, and made the work a lot easier to do. The hardwood floors we put in looked really nice with the off-white paint we used. Everyday, he'd come over to help a little, and he looked really pleased with all the stuff being done.
Next year, the build is in Indonesia. It has been a great trip, a little bit of nccc again.

i'm pretty tired, but really quick, just wanted to say that this week has been rewarding, but exhausting! I'm finally getting enough sleep. (it's hard when you're staying at a casino vs. a hotel, or a fema tent, or whatever).
I have been doing a lot of finish work that I haven't done before- laminate floor, tomorrow, i will do baseboards. tomorrow we are supposed to be finished with the house, but we'll be cutting it close. I hope we are able to, because there's also some sort of dedication ceremony, and it would be nice to have it done.
today there was also a tornado watch, but nothing really happened.

So today was just painting for me, nothing new, but I liked it a lot. We are rehabing a home in gulfport, in a neighborhood of about 40 other homes being rehabed. We met the homeowner, eugene, and some of his family. They are all very very nice.
Yesterday, at our commencement, Garth Brooks and Trisha yearwood showed up. And of course, jimmy and rosalind. Jimmy gave a very good speech. The rest was kind of corny.

It's been a week, but I can't think of anything too new that I learned during it.
The exciting news is that right now, I'm in Biloxi, Miss. in a Casino! I feel like I'm in Vegas.
We will be fixing up some houses over here for the Jimmy Carter build. But work doesn't start til Monday. Tomorrow, we'll probably go over to New Orleans. I will be able to see it and compare from last time I was there.
Hopefully I'll keep getting free internet here, and be able to post a bit more.

the rest of the week, I learned quite a bit now that I think about it. We sheathed the roof today. Before that, there were a lot of details that had to be done- putting up the barges (white 2 x 6 trim), putting up the starter boards (plywood on the very edges of the roof), putting plywood under the California "hips". I have become a lot more confident with the skil saw. I am Cut Girl.
I like working with measurments though. It seems like myself and the other americorps all have varying amounts of different qualities- Matt has all brawn/"monster" and no finesse, I have finess, but no brawn, Joel has some of both, David has none of either. So it all works out!

We have been at an old house (dedicated 3 years ago), fixing up the bathroom and bedroom area. Just painting. Since I worked with a home owner who also is a professional painter, I've been liking painting a lot more; he gave me some tips.

Another concrete driveway today. It's starting to get very familiar (I was going to say boring, but it's not).

We were back at the same site today. There is a class from Consumnes River College (local CC) that helps out sometimes. They are all guys in their 20's, 30's, getting trained to do construction after. The teacher said CRC has a feeder program for architecture to places like Calpoly and Berkeley. He said he did it and went to a college in Oregon for it, but dropped out.
We "plumbed" the walls, using a 2x4 (people in the South called them "tubers," but I don't think I've heard that here) to hold the wall at precisely the right spot. We also used an $800 level!!
And then we sheathed, put up 3/8 boards of osb. That's about it. CRC was fun to work with.

framing with Lutherans

Saturday was crazy! the most volunteers at one time so far.
I just cut all day, the volunteers were the ones hammering.
all the walls got put up. they brought togo's for lunch.
there were just so many people there.
justin came too, he had fun. I think I hooked him on building, haha.

At the same house today. We got our framing package delivered. The flatbed comes with it, and it's on big pipes, and the truck takes off really quick, and the wood is hanging in the air for a millisecond, and then slams on the ground. We also got 20 yards of gravel delivered, and had to shovel that around. Did more "detail" on the floorplan, before all the volunteers arrive tomorrow.
There's supposed to be about 60. It's funny how everyone shows up on the day that we put up all the walls.
I relearned about king studs, and cripples (jack studs), how to mark them. Still a lot of fun.

today we decked the floor joist/foundation, and started putting the "plates" around the perimeter, and marking off all the walls with a chalk line. I liked this last part the most, because we were using the plans to figure it out. I like all the measuring and numbers.
The homeowner was there today, she still seems pretty excited. she has a preschooler and a first grader. She's ethiopian, super nice.
otherwise a pretty typical day. some accountants from HP volunteered. It was a sunny day, but not too hot.

Two Palms

Hopefully the posts will start to be regular again. Today we had fire extinguisher training.
I missed a class on emerging cooling technologies for the west! I will just have to look into that myself.
The rest of the day was spend plumbing with J and some Intel volunteers.
The day got much better when Intel bought everyone lunch, and I got to talk a little with the home owner, a really nice guy from Belaruse (sp?). . . he talked with me and Dick about living under Communist rule.
We also tested the plumbing system after lunch. After the plumbing is up, and all the ends capped, we turn on the water from outside somehow, didn't get to observe that part, and you can hear the water rushing in, from one side of the house to the other. Kind of like rain or something.
There was one leak due to a bad crimp.

ps. this post is called "Two Palms" because the homeowner has a dream to put two palms up in the backyard when the house is done. I think this is so great!

The end of last week, I helped with a foundation for a new house.
It's a TGI, I still don't know what that means. But it's different than the other houses so far, in that it's not a solid concrete slab. Instead, it has 2-3 foot concrete walls (which were poured) and then a wooden grid built within that. This is more labor intensive, but since we have a lumber grant, it's pretty much free. I also heard that it's less of an insulator (vs. a solid slab), but that's the trade off. It was good though. There was an architecture firm volunteering, they did a good job. Four people, about my age, graduates from UC Berkeley. Reminded me of the design students from Davis. And the lead associate seemed to know his stuff. He took over directing people as soon as T took his first smoke break.
I also stopped by the office this morning, to observe L, the in-house architect. I guess it was a slow day. From what I could gather though, his job was mostly organizing, making check-lists, putting together presentations.

So now I'm at Arden Fair Mall, relaxing in front of Sephora.
I've been doing a lot of plumbing. I think I'm pretty good at the water lines now, drilling holes through the studs, using the pipe cutter and the clamps, finding all the fittings.
After we finish all the piping, we cap off all the open ends, and test the whole system. I think that will be interesting.
One memorable thing in the past weeks has been a seminar I went to called Climate Change and Green Building. It wasn't a whole lot of anything I haven't heard before, but it was nice being with all those people and hearing about all those topics again. I learned that gas should be around $7/gallon in a year and a half. And that CA has a mandate to cut CO2 emissions by 80% less than what it was in 1990. This seems a little ambitious to me.

depending on our new internet availability, I may or may not be able to post for a few days

The rest of this week was interesting. there was a leak in one of the finished houses, from three years ago. So when our construction supervisor saw it, he decided that the whole bathroom had to go, and the adjacent bedroom's carpet had to be taken out, and the bedroom's walls retextured and painted.
but i had fun demolishing.
the next day was at another site, with U-dub Seattle, doing the PEX (water) and gas lines. I learned that the gas line "dope" never hardens, so when there's a leak, which there was, all you have to do is spray soapy water on the joints, and watch for bubbles. and then tighten, or add more dope.

I'm moving to Sacramento on Monday, so I no longer have to commute from davis!

what did I learn today? we stretched the chain-link fence. And attached it. I used the nail gun a bit on the wooden fence. I'm getting the hang of tying up the string to make the boards level along the fence. I was told that the fence we built was worth 1000 in materials, and 1000 in labor. I'm never paying that much for a fence!

All I can say about yesterday is that I will definitely know how to build a fence by the end of July.

Today was a lot of driving. Doing nothing really. We went to a fence supplier, Home Depot, a door supplier, the office. I saw a lot of big pick-up trucks.
Then, we painted some doors.

The dedications were so nice. I especially remember walking in the third house, after the dedication, and seeing the homeowner and her extended family walking around in it. She was so proud. I could imagine them all getting together there, and living there for a long time.

Today we did some more roofing. We'll be at this site for the rest of the week.
Roofing, siding. I think that's it.

Today there were a lot of volunteers. I think a few of them thought I was a volunteer too, and might have thought I was being one of those bossy volunteers (I dislike those people as well) so I understand. The house is done inside, and very clean, so I hope no more people walk through it. We just have to build one more fence in back. The homeowner came by and said she wanted one. The dedication is next saturday. It's supposed to be like a party, I'm pretty excited.

Today was Catholic University's last day, I was actually sad. They worked really hard. We got the sod in. The woman who's supposed to move in came by and visited. It has been a good week.

We're supposed to finish these two houses (on the same lot) by Friday, because they're being dedicated soon, so it's been exciting seeing things come together. Mostly landscaping now. We have to do the front but not the back. Tomorrow, we might put down some sod. Today and yesterday was a lot of grading of the front yards, which I find satisfying for some reason. Also putting up the last of the fences. The Catholic University kids were there today, still working hard.

Today was the first day of collegiate challenge. For the next few weeks, we'll have colleges volunteer, for a week at a time each. The first one was called Catholic College from Washington DC. They worked pretty hard. Sometimes when there's that many people at a site, it's hard to really get stuff done, but a lot of stuff ends up getting done because there's so many people! Tomorrow will be crazy because NCCC is coming back! Their scheduled project was cancelled, so they're spending some more time with us. With the college, that means there are about 30 volunteers a day.

not much new today either. We built a small retaining wall. and dug some fence-post holes.
there was a mix up with where to deliver materials. Tomorrow is roofing, which is my favorite.

fence posts with bank workers

We worked today with a bunch of bank managers. We destroyed a fence, and put up some fence posts for a new one.
Halfway through the day, the neighbor came over looking upset. Originally, the fence had been about two feet over on our side. So the new fence, going along the actual property line was a little surprising for him.

more donuts

It's almost the end of a very short week.
Today we did nothing! It rained a little, but we really didn't have much to do.
I changed three doorknobs, because for some reason they were upside down.
I sat around with NCCC and played the famous people game for an hour. I got M's donuts and coffee. We had a 1 1/2 hour lunch and I heard about J's short career as a substitute mailman.

Yesterday I went to a meeting with some of the management at the office. We talked about getting solar panel grants from PG&E. We talked about making SMUD donate less, because even though the $75,000 worth of energy-saving technology they put in the last house made it zero energy, it still adds to the CIP amount of the house, and makes the mortage higher for the family. And we made a list of pros and cons of greenbuilding. Then, they asked me to do all the "heavy lifting" (research), because I'm young and they all wear a lot of hats.

Today I went to a meeting with the management. They talked about a PG&E grant to get us solar panels, and the pros and cons of greenbuilding.

It was very general, I think they are only in a research phase now.

fences with americorps nccc and intel

Back at work today after a nice break. There seemed like a lot of volunteers were there, maybe cause of NCCC being there. The IT people were the hardest working volunteers I've seen so far. We put up three fences, separating two houses on the same lot, and separating them each from neighboring lots. Not much learned, just hard work.
But before that, a meeting about new codes, mostly fire. The supervisors all seemed overwhelmed. I tried to imagine what I would do in their position.
Tomorrow, I'm supposed to make a special trip to the office to meet the head supervisor and his boss, about what tasks I can do to green their chapter.

A sidewalk and some texture

I learned that the grooves in the cement are for when the concrete cracks, which is inevitable, even in places that don't have earthquakes. Concrete is very strong in compression (getting smushed), but not in tension (getting bent).
It was also very meticulous and time-consuming. We had to smooth it down every once in a while, and wait until it was the exact dryness to "sweep" it, with a broom, to make little lines that will act as traction.

Today we textured the walls of another house. This was kind of fun because I always see this stuff in houses (actually I can see it now on the walls of my room) but I never really knew how it was done. It was easy, just spray it on with a pressure hose and a special plastic gun thing. It kind of looked like a big plastic milk carton. After a few minutes, when the cement was dry, we "knocked it down" with rubber scrapers, creating the canyon- and mesa-looking texture. Apparently, when the walls aren't smoothed out very well, and there are still a lot of flaws, you want heavier texture. If you spend a lot of time sanding the walls, you can use a finer texture.

Also, the head boss talked to me today about spending more time in the office, doing more design/research stuff.

Slow start

It's unfortunate that a lot of mornings, we get to a site, but end up sitting in our cars for twenty minutes. I'm still not sure why this is. This morning, my site supervisor was getting some mixed messages about what we were supposed to be doing.

He mentioned later that he had updated his resume, and that "it might be time." Everyone really dislikes our current boss. I guess it's good for me that I didn't experience the last (good) one, so I can't tell the difference.

Anyways, today I watched how to install a door. It involved lots of leveling and shims.
I put up some exterior trim. And I learned how to put a "thread" on a lead pipe, the kind you use for gas lines. This was hard work! You have to manually do with with a vice grip.
I'm a bit sore, so no run today. But it feels good to work hard.

Also, I changed my settings to allow anyone to comment, not just google blog members. Thank you, Danny, for reading!

A few very short days

Yesterday was super short. J and I supervised some volunteers from a bank while they cleaned a house. I already know how to clean! That wasn't too educational.
We finished at noon and went home early.

Today was another short day. I think there must be a shortage of work here.
There was a meeting in the morning. Usually we sit in on the supervisors' meeting, but this morning's was a "closed-door".

Later, we moved a form for a sidewalk that hasn't been poured yet. We moved it over about 4 inches. Bummer to have to do it again. But it was only the first time for me, so it wasn't too bad. The head supervisor drove over after lunch. Our site supervisor told us to slow down earlier so we'd have something to do while he was there. . . .

two new driveways

Today went by pretty fast. I was suprised when everybody seemed to be asking me how I was feeling. Even the secretary at the office. They are a very considerate bunch of people.

I started off by "gophering" 2 dozen doughnuts and a box of coffee for M, a supervisor who buys them for everyone on Fridays (It's written in the handbook that workers are not supposed to be used as gophers or verbal punching bags, etc so they joke about it a lot).

Then, we (NCCC was there too) spent most of the morning eating/drinking doughnuts and coffee, and watching S, our concrete guy, pour from his big truck into the driveways of the two houses in the lot. I helped NCCC dig a ditch for a while. And then, as we were all sitting and watching the concrete dry, I decided to go to the office to pick up my first paycheck.

The afternoon I spent moving tools and new windows from the trucks to our tool warehouse, and vise versa.

The concrete pouring was interesting, kind of like an art. There were a lot of special tools, long, metal beams for leveling, "floaters" for smoothing. There is even a tool to make the seam in the pavement (just like in sidewalks).

The only other thing that happened today was that I gave my boss a list of workshops I will hopefully go to.
Here are a few- Are LED's Ready for Primetime? Retrospective on HVAC Retrofit Projects, Green Buildings and Climate Change, Emerging Cooling Technologies for the West, Solar Energy for Home Owners, Green Building in a Carbon Neutral Age. I'm excited!

Stayed home sick today, so nothing new. Today they are pouring concrete, but tomorrow they're doing the same thing at a different house. So I won't miss anything!

Today was nothing too interesting, but it was one of those days I come home happily tired.
The NCCC group came, so we were able to do a more large-scale project. I was up on the roof hammering down the initial layer of plywood (still being very careful) for the roofing.

I didn't learn a whole lot. I only over heard one of the supervisors talking a little roofing lingo, something about "hips" and "valleys". Apparently we're doing some sort of California-style roof, which has a lot of angles that eventually come together in the center. It's kind of pretty.

I was a long day though, and we worked hard. I switched over to a finishing hammer in the afternoon.

Tommorrow should be kind of exciting- we're getting concrete poured. I remember that being kind of mesmerizing to watch.

All of the NCCC kids are very nice. They are only on their second project, so they still have a while to go. I'm glad I can relate to them.

beginning of another week

This morning, our boss was out sick. Every Tuesday, we have a meeting, and this morning's was an especially good one because he was gone, and the supervisors were able to plan.

Myself and two coworkers were sent to a site to prepare it for concrete pouring.

Today, we made a "form" for the house's patio. It involved a lot of chalk-lining, staking, and leveling. I learned what a "kicker" is (one of two stakes that goes into the ground diagonally, looks like someone kicked it I guess). The form had to be running slightly downwards away from the house, I guess to keep water off the porch.

One exciting thing for me, was my first experience of reading off the blue-prints to determine where and how big to make the form. I've drafted plans before, and I've built houses before, but I've never been able to connect them both til now.

There were some dogs at the site, again. Dogs and construction go hand-in-hand. There was a little tiny one trying to hump a big rotweiller. Another thing that goes hand-in-hand is guy humor.

An ice-cream truck came by and one of my most macho supervisors got a sparkle bar, whatever that is!

And we got to leave early today, 1:30. It was a good day.

Tomorrow, the group that I worked with two years ago NCCC are coming. They'll be working with us for the next few weeks. I think that will make things a little more entertaining. At least there will probably be some other females.

Today is the end of my week, and I am tired. Just physically.
I roofed, like I thought. The first half of the day was awesome. There were a few volunteers, including some of the family that the house was going to. A dad and daughter and his brother. They were all from Russia. At lunch, they bought us all KFC. They were really excited about giving us something. I thought it was really nice.
We finished the roof. Unfortunately, the volunteer I was working with didn't do a very good job on our side of the roof. I think most of the regular volunteers have been doing it for a long time, and usually work or are retired from some part of the building industry. So they do a bit of micromanaging, and so far they've been wrong twice with the tasks that I'm helping them with. But the supervisors are very understanding about that. I plan on being a bit more assertive the next time I feel like something's off.

roofing

Right now I'm exhilarated from a day of roofing. No sarcasm here, I'm really not ever sarcastic. We were at a new site (new for me), way way North Sacramento.

There were more dogs! Two pitbull puppies in the neighbor's yard, which we could see all day from the roof. They knocked over the recycling bin and spend a lot of the day messing up their yard.

But anyways, we roofed because it wasn't raining!! A week ago I didn't mind spending the day inside, following J around, because it was raining. But now it's pretty tedious, and the outdoors stuff is more satisfying.

I had done roofing before, but not with nail guns. My coworkers seemed pretty amazed/disgusted at the thought of doing the roof by hand.

We started with the "starter," a strip of shingling material along the edge. Actually before that was the felt, black paper that goes on the first layer. We used staple guns (they had a special name but I don't remember) for that. And then the shingles went from the bottom up. They were an ugly brown. Maybe it looks better from the street. T said that two professionals could do a roof in a day, but we only did half, and there were four of us.
I think they measure the roof in 10'-square sections. Today we did 13 squares.

I know you have to be careful on a roof, which I am being, very aware of my surroundings. I think NCCC and working in the plates and glasses section of IKEA has made me cautious.

Tommorow is the end of the week for me, and I'm supposed to be back at that site.

Not too much happened today. Actually a lot did, but it doesn't seem like it.
It was rainy, so we had to stay inside. Otherwise, we would have done more of the roof.

I learned how to do insulation. It's REALLY easy, I was shocked. All you do is stick it between the studs.
I learned a little more about electrical from J, the retired Intel supervisor.
There is something called Romex, that's a sheathed cable that contains three 12-gauge wires, black, white, and bare/grounding. This is for recepticles. It's a yellow cable. The white one is for 14-guage wires, for lights. And theres a bigger, orange one that's 10-guage, for the dryer.
The afternoon I spent watching a toilet being set. I have to say that was pretty boring. But now I know.
Tomorrow, if it rains, I will probably be following Jim around, getting him things, and learning more about wiring.

Skil saw day

Today is day six of the job. Today we actually did some work that felt like what i did during my NCCC year in South Carolina. I took a picture, but now I can't find the cable for the computer! One day.
There was a really cute dog at the site, and four kittens. Don't worry though, they seemed happy, I think the neighbor's taking care of them.

I spent most of the time learning how to better use the SKIL saw. I think that's what it's called. I cut OSB for the first layer of the roof. Mostly learned about measuring though, I guess that's most important. The saw has a front edge that's 1 1/2" and back edge of 3 1/2". That became important to make straight "factory cuts". (Don't worry I'm using safety glasses)

I also relearned something I never quite could do when I did Habitat before, which is using the "square" to determine at what angle to cut the roof pieces. Once you know the angle of the roof, you subract that from 90, and pivot the square along the board until you reach that resulting number. I know it sounds boring, but simple but useful tools always impress me.

Mel is a good teacher, even though he swears a lot, and screams at you when you mess up. (He's just joking of course).

I talked a bit with a coworker. He does good impressions of people, and seems to like to gossip. There is a lot more gossip in construction than I would have guessed. Everyone hates our new boss (new as of September) because apparently he's a perpetual liar, and never works when he comes to the sites. I hear a lot about the old boss, who was "the most laid-back guy you've ever met," and who had made a banjo (??) out of a dead tree, and then could play it too. They got more houses done with him.

Getting up before sunrise still depresses me a bit. I think it's because of the negative connection I have of it with my old job, which made me a little crazy. Good music in the morning helps (thank you again Justin!). Not having to worry about what my coworkers and supervisors think of me helps.

6 months in Sac

This is an account of my time working for a home-building organization. It is mostly for myself- to remember what I learned and did. But also for family and friends- whenever you want to see what I did today (or this week, don't want to get ahead of myself) here is where to look.
I wish I had a picture to put here.
Maybe I'll be able to get one tomorrow.

Since I've been working a week, here is a little list of what I've done so far:
-shadowed electrician for a day (long day). learned about the grounding wire, what a GFI is, what a recepticle is, how the energy goes from the telephone lines, to the house, to the "box", to every room of the house.
-"framed" around HVAC vents in ceiling for drywalling later
-what "toenailing" a nail means
-how to install towel racks (lots of them)
-how to install door knobs
-how to cut metal with a chop saw
-how to "crochet" an extension cord

on a side note
- tonight I'm feeling slighltly stranded in my new (but really nice) room. My stressed out vet student-roommates are turning out to be a little too anal and particular for my taste. Hopefully it's just midterms.
-I guess I "had" to rent Sydney White to remain in my comfort zone while going through another "life transistion". I see that I like to use "quotes" a lot.
-i am absolutely putting up with NO bullshit ("sorry Suzanne, you're going to have to get used to how we talk around here" I've heard this three times so far. They are nothing compared to guys at my last job on smoke breaks!) between roommates with pets who shouldn't live in townhouses and landlady's who are very subtley manipulative, in a mean librarian kind of way.