It's Called a "Gabion Cage"

Happy 21st Birthday Micheal Kattengell!!

Update on site:

On Sunday, we the team, located the corners of the house on the site. We placed batter boards at the corners to get a straight and level line across for accurate measuring. People, this was a task! First, the board were kinda short, so they wouldn't go into the ground very much. Problem! Second, and maybe this is just me, but I am not very strong. I lack arm muscle. Hammering nails into these boards was hard. (I am in for a great time.) No, I will muscle up throughout the year, don't you worry. We had a great time on the site this weekend though. We got a lot more cleaning done as well.

The formwork will be done by Friday so the dirt can be put in over this weekend. Half of the class will be in Austin, TX so it will be interesting. Who will be jobsite captain?


Drawing update:

We submitted the drawings to the building inspector for permit approval. I think that we did a good job, especially since we really didn't have much to change from the first drawing set we turned in. One thing I noticed was that we didn't have the cross-bracing drawn in between the piers. I just hope that Mark Joiner doesn't refuse us a permit for that. That can easily be fixed.

We are now starting on other drawings for the architectural set. I think that the rest of the drawings should be done by 2 (at the most!) people. There was a bit of confusion with the last set and not all the drawings matching. I think it was neccessary for several people taking charge of certain pages because it helped the drawing get done on time, but now that we have those drawings, 1 or 2 people can go through and make the neccessary changes (hopefully not too much) and finish the other drawings. Melody is doing an amazing job making sure the drawing sets look nice and organized. I know that she spends many a late night in studio on deadline days making sure everything if perfect. Kudos to Melody!

SIPs!

We got 'em! Habitat said "Go ahead with SIPs." The cost for them is around $15,000. However, SIPs will make things easier and faster. Energy cost throught the house's life will also be cheaper. I'm real excited to be working with SIPs. This will be a good thing to put on my resume.

So wire mesh sheets with rocks or gravel inbetween is called a gabion cage. I knew that, but thank you Mike for reminding me. I'll say the correct term from now on.

...it's way too cold in here...I'm shaking...