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. 

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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. 

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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.



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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. 



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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. 

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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!



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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.

Entry #13: 2nd November 2010

Quick morning update; 


The lads have visited the site this morning to have a look at the concrete pad that was giving us trouble yesterday. They have decided that more concrete is needed on top to bring it to sit flush with the height of the existing pad. They've put some bolts in so that the new will bond well to the old, so its all good in the hood. 


This does mean that we can't add the frame on this morning as we had hoped - so those that were heading down to do this this morning can just come along with everyone else at half twelve, hopefully will be set by then.

Entry #12: 1st November 2010

Most of our efforts are now based centrally at the site. There are a few members of the team still working back at the studio laser cutting logos for the cladding and promoting and selling the hoodies.


Site today was pretty muddy and it felt like we hadn’t done very much apart from discover issues. There were some steep variances in the heights of the feet - which puzzled us for a while - until we realised that they had been placed the wrong way round, all part of the fun!
The drilling for the resin bolts is the most time consuming currently. The 18v drills are pretty good and last a good while when your working on timber, but after attacking the holes on one pad of concrete the poor thing needs charging for a good couple of hours - just cant hack it.





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We all stayed at site till the bitter end last night. The weather was pretty horrendous but we powered on through. We managed to get one frame up by the end of yesterday. Everything seams to take so much longer when we were doing it. The frame needed aligning and then drilling and because it was so tight we then had to use a mallet to bash the bolts through... One is up though, only a few more to go!




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What really held us back was the left hand footing on the south frame. The ground is so soft because of the weather and the way that it has been sculpted, so the concrete just wobbles around. We have attempted to stabilise this by adding more concrete around the pad to support it.
This meant that we couldn't attach that frame till it was dry. We had to prop the North frame up last night before we left as it is supporting itself - windy conditions could easily be the end of it.
Hopefully it will still be there tomorrow - 4 days left to go!

Entry #11: 30th October 2010

To catch up, a few keen beans went to the site today to push the feet along. 

Joe was in charge today, so I caught up with him in the afternoon to find out how the day had gone...

The group managed to get 2 shoes finished - so these elements are now fixed to the concrete - they would have kept going but the drills ran out of battery - AGAIN!

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4 of the frames have been properly fixed together, we didn’t want to do this poorly on Friday as we were worried that under tension the frames could snap, we do not want to have to buy more! They are done now and are ready to lift up into place when the feet have been completed. 

We managed to get some filming done whilst the second shoe was being drilled - everyone was really optimistic but then the drills died, so - not as much got done as was hoped. 

One positive was the weather, clear skies have allowed the site to dry out a little - it was turning into a slippy mud bath, health and safety nightmare - saws and drills flying everywhere...

So a big thanks go to our dedicated Saturday team; Pat, Aoife, Joe, John, Jess and Kawther. Hopefully we wont have to see the site next Saturday as we are still aiming for a Friday finnish, fingers, toes and everything crossed. 

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Entry #10: 29th October 2010

Lectures till 12 today so that set us back a couple of hours initially anyway...

Design and Construction

The two teams continued as they had the previous day, with some based in the workshop and others at the site. 

Mindaugus and Pat carried on with cutting out the notches on each individual piece of cladding - by hand! This process is really time consuming and if we had know what the situation was at the site it was have probably been for the best if the majority had stayed there helping with marking out and generally moving the large quantities of timber around the workshop. 



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The site was basically at a standstill as we didn’t have the fixings that we needed for the next stage of the construction. The holes couldn’t even be drilled at this point as the drill had run out battery and was on charge...

The lads did find out some interesting information about monkey puzzle trees; first that they are native to Chile - so the area that we are building in is actually the chilean plant section. Also;

• Did you know that monkey puzzle trees are called this as when they were brought across to Britain someone looked at them and said “it would puzzle a monkey to climb those trees!”
• The trees on site are currently flowering, and there are female and male varieties - you can tell this by the spike arrangement at the top of the tree

More building - less chat tomorrow i hope...

When the girls arrived with the shims, bolts and resin it was action stations, or we had hoped - but the drills, 14v just aren’t powerful enough so by the end of Friday we were a little behind on schedule with only the holes drilled for one shoe.  We also discovered that the frames were a little large, but they have now been cut down. Lets hope for a more productive day tomorrow.



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Documentation 

Some site videos have taken place today, with new backdrops. We are all waiting with bated breath to see what crackers John gets out in the final piece. ‘Johncam’ is getting a little too good, it has become very sneaky - so watch out, John could be about!