Tuesday evening, after our unplanned day off (because the rain prevented us from working at the build site), we went as a group to Five Corners Cafe. It was a very casual place for dinner. They had more than twenty pages of beers listed in the menu, so we made a good effort to try as many as we could.
They also had excellent home made, thick potato chips and excellent onion rings.
On Wednesday, we had good weather and it was back to the work site. They have two friendly dogs there, and of course, some team members have taken to saving uneaten food from our team dinners to feed them.
The houses here have concrete footings, foundations, floors and corner piers. The red bricks make twelve inch thick walls - and because they have hollow channels in them that trap air, they provide good insulation. The concrete piers on the corners and between floors have virtually no insulation effect - our building contractor told us that a twice inch wall of solid contract has only R-1 insulating effect. That is why you can see all the white styrofoam insulation on the corners and edges - two inches of foam has R-12 insulating effect. Our team worked on covering those corners with a 3 to 1 mix of cement and water; one coat, then mesh cloth and then a second coat of the cement mix.
What is not shown in the photos is those of us mixing the materials one bucket at a time. We had what looks like a big electric mixer you would use in the kitchen - except that it takes two hands and the mixing blade is two feet long. As on other builds, much effort was put into mixing the material, bringing it to the people applying the material, moving ladders and scaffolding, moving bags of cement, getting buckets of water, etc., etc.
Also not show in the photos is the continuing work on removing the wooden forms for the concrete and removing the nails from the forms so that they could be used again. But as the photos show, there is progress being made on the house.
They also had excellent home made, thick potato chips and excellent onion rings.
On Wednesday, we had good weather and it was back to the work site. They have two friendly dogs there, and of course, some team members have taken to saving uneaten food from our team dinners to feed them.
The houses here have concrete footings, foundations, floors and corner piers. The red bricks make twelve inch thick walls - and because they have hollow channels in them that trap air, they provide good insulation. The concrete piers on the corners and between floors have virtually no insulation effect - our building contractor told us that a twice inch wall of solid contract has only R-1 insulating effect. That is why you can see all the white styrofoam insulation on the corners and edges - two inches of foam has R-12 insulating effect. Our team worked on covering those corners with a 3 to 1 mix of cement and water; one coat, then mesh cloth and then a second coat of the cement mix.
What is not shown in the photos is those of us mixing the materials one bucket at a time. We had what looks like a big electric mixer you would use in the kitchen - except that it takes two hands and the mixing blade is two feet long. As on other builds, much effort was put into mixing the material, bringing it to the people applying the material, moving ladders and scaffolding, moving bags of cement, getting buckets of water, etc., etc.
Also not show in the photos is the continuing work on removing the wooden forms for the concrete and removing the nails from the forms so that they could be used again. But as the photos show, there is progress being made on the house.
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