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.