Entry #16: 5th November 2010

Remember remember the 5th of the November! Today was our ‘intended’ finnish day.... and we are so so close. 

The weather has been the factor slowing us down over the last week and if we hadn’t had it contend with this on top of everything else we would definitely finished by now. 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We have now got all the sarking and cladding pieces moved down to the site so we are all go; thanks to Trevor at the Botanics who helped us move this down with his van and trailer.

By the end of today we have just got cladding on the top third to complete; this is the 4.8m strips which wont need cutting, just placing and nailing. There are a few infill bits left to cut which will be slotted into the remaining gaps and then there’s the floor. 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We are aiming for a finnish time of lunchtime on Saturday; we shouldn’t run to much over that hopefully!

Entry #15: 4th November 2010

2nd last day till the intended finale and we are doing well! With everyone on site for a good couple of hours this afternoon we really did ‘bash out’ a good chunk of the cladding. 

Like a well oiled workforce we hammered on harmoniously until dusk.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Sub groups have formed now so loads of areas are progressing fast; there is a good chain of command also which means that no ones time is being wasted - we really had a good work ethic going today - this can be seen in what we managed to achieve.

The cladding has been started on both sides and we only have a small area to complete on the west side. All thats left after that are the sarking floors and the infills, hopefully these will just magically spring into place - but if they don’t we have the two full days of working on Saturday and Sunday before the review if we need it. 



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

There has been loads of footage taken of the site, this material is going to form our presentation video which will be available when the structure is completed next week. 

So heres to tomorrow, everyones keen to get the project complete before sun down, so keep the optimism alive....

“‎tough times never last, but tough people do...."

Entry #14: 3rd November 2010

Today was a long day, but a very very productive one. Spirits have been really high, maybe because the weather was on our side for once. 

The concrete pad that was added to yesterday is now well and truly set and we have covered that over to give it a bit of protection. 

We started to measuring up the A frames on Tuesday but the real progress has come today. We have managed to borrow a generator and drill from the guys at the site, so this is saving us such a lot of time. We are still charging drills in the the reception area but now we have a drill that works all the time, its raring to go whenever we need it. 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We aimed to have all the frames, that were now in place, fixed to the central member by lunch time. It was pretty time consuming, as each length had to be budged into place so that it was in line with its corresponding friend on the other side. 

At three meters tall, and with only a ladder to reach up, the job was a precarious one - but we hit target and even managed to get a few floor joists sat in place before we munched our group lunch in the sun!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

In the remaining few hours of sunlight we started to lay out some of the cladding members. This is still a working design, each stage offers us new challenges and we will have to iron out a few technical issues - but we have faith. 

Its obviously completely different working on cad with the poker straight lines to that of the site - where everything is covered in mud and the wood is slightly bowed. 

Seeing Aoifes face today as the cladding was being slowly stacked on, the design is actually coming to life now. It isn’t just a cad drawing or a bolsar model anymore.