Stucco fun

Yesterday I worked on the Stucco crew again. Here are some pics of the people I worked with. I also went inside the auditorium and took a panoramic- It looks very different now! The studs for all the walls are going up. Progress!

Jenny's Visit

Last week my friend Jenny came to visit me from Idaho. When we get together, it is inevitable that sillyness happens. After her visit here she is going to Ireland to pioneer. Your visit was way too short, Jenny!

Lovin' the stucco

So far this week I have worked on the stucco crew. On Monday I was working with the PAB and yesterday I installed the durock. I also learned how to operate the boom lift! It is fun to learn to run the machinery on site. Jessica and I had fun taking "Crownsville's next top model" photos while waiting for our durock cuts:-)

Random videos

I think these are more humorous without any explanation:-)

what season is this?

This past week was a crazy one for weather. Last weekend we had snow, and by this weekend it was 74 degrees! Pretty crazy. At CRAH I worked with stucco the whole week installing Durarock. Here are a few pics including the snow on the roof.

Saturday Caulking

On Saturday was the actual caulking process. The Boshart family came from upstate New york to run the caulking machines- it was a father and three daughters and friend- man they are pros! They mixed and poured all the caulk and we followed behind with scrapers to scrape off the access. Man, let me tell you- it is pretty brutal back breaking type work! It is all about the timing. If you scrape it off too early, it is gooey and gets everywhere. If you wait too long, it gets as hard as a rock and is REALLY hard to get off. We finally got it figured out though, and we finished the entire assembly hall in one day! We worked all day, through lunch and dinner, but we did it! Aaahhh.... a sense of accomplishment:-) We had a very fun crew, and yes, I took some more crazy pics. Enjoy:-)

Friday Caulking

This weekend was super-fun-and-super-intense-work-filled. I worked on the Caulking crew for Friday and Saturday. On Friday we were on our knees the whole day cleaning out the joints and then filling gaps with a sand mixture. It was a tedious, but fun job. All in all, there is just under two miles of caulking area! Whew! We felt kind of special because our crew was the only one allowed inside the assembly hall for this weekend. There were sisters guarding the doors to keep people out (I think they REALLY enjoyed being able to tell brothers what to do for once- haha).

I didn't have to work, so I was able to stay for family night! Yay! Here are some pics and video from Friday, including a "barbecue sauce lips" pic;-) (Oh, and thanks for the British Narration on the video, Kellyn! *nerd*)

Stucco Crew

On Monday and Wednesday this past week I worked with the stucco crew- we were installing the Durarock (spelling?) on the building. Julie and I struggled for the first half of the day- it was very difficult to get our screws to catch anything behind the Densglass. We could not find the studs! Then Russel came to our rescue and showed us a few tricks. That's what years of experience will do! After that we were like a fine tuned machine. Thank you, Russel! It was SUPER windy up there, so our faces look a little wind blown;-)

New Hat

A sister made me an amazing custom hat- here are a few pics. Click here to go to her website if you want one!

The Stud Girls

Aren't we cute:-)

Working Hard

Hello everyone! Just wanted to update with some new CRAH pics. Over the weekend they painted the ceiling in the auditorium black, so on Monday we spend most of the day sweeping the paint dust off the floor. It actually was a bigger undertaking then I thought, but it was still fun:-)

Today I worked in Metal studs. We were putting up tracks that will eventually turn into the walls of the various rooms behind the stage. I drove the scissor lift all day, which was awesome. (Don't worry Jeff- I got my official approval to be an operator from Bro Myers;-) Now I feel like I can parallel park anything! I also helped mark and then screw in the studs. It was definitely one of those days that goes by really fast because you are constantly doing something. My partners in crime today were Dale and Dana. Dana's nickname today was Lasergirl, because she was in charge of setting the laser for our lines. Brooke was the cutter- she did an awesome job with that saw! Sparks were flying everywhere.

The weather was kind of crazy today. in the morning it was REALLY snowing, then during lunch it was hailing, then by afternoon it was raining and all the snow melted. Weird...

What a week!

Whew, it is the end of a fun, long, exhausting CRAH week for me. I worked there sun,mon,tues,thurs,fri. Today I was in the stucco class- so much fun. I really like stucco- there is really an art to it, kind of like masonry. I have really developed so much more respect for the brothers in all the trades that have been doing it for a long time. All of the classes I have attended at CRAH have just emphasized the fact that a lot of thought, technique, and very hard work goes into constructing a building.
I was talking to Russ today about the concrete pour that happened this week, and he said that the guy that comes in to inspect the flatness and levelness (I don't think thats a word- oops) of the floor said that ours was the best he's inspected. When Russ told him the floor was done by volunteers, the man couldn't believe it. It is amazing what willingness and holy spirit can do!
Sorry I don't have any pics of the stucco class- I was concentrating too hard and forgot to take some. Well, I need to go to bed- will write more later:-)

Panoramic Mania!

I took so many panoramic shots today, I felt they deserved their own post. I took one from the spot I always do, showing the recently poured concrete floor. When looking at the photo, I noticed that in the process of stitching the photos together, one brother moved in the picture, so it shows him doubled. Then I thought, how cool would it be to take some panoramics but have people posing in different parts of the picture? Thus THIS craziness happened:-)

We have a floor! (almost)

Monday and Tuesday I worked on the concrete crew. We are pouring the entire floor for the assembly hall! It is so exciting. We have so many volunteers visiting from out of state. People are coming from Cali, Florida, MA, Illinois, etc. The whole process really is fascinating. It is amazing also to see how everyone works together and the work gets done- FAST! The pour only takes a couple hours. That is the fast part. My job was really fun and VERY messy! I got concrete splattered all over me. I was wearing this vibrating machine that had a long tube when stuck into the wet concrete helps it to settle better without any gaps. The machine is so heavy though that Jessica and I had to take turns using it.





The part that takes a really long time is the finishing. Over and over, smoothing and leveling using different machines and by hand. Some of the brothers stayed until 10pm on Monday finishing. But when it is all done, it is so smooth it reflects like glass!






Here are a few pics of some of the people I worked with these last two days:-)