Entry 32: School's Back...

Hey Everyone!

I've been back at Duke and finished my first week of classes. It's a busy and happy time seeing friends and getting into the swing of things. I went to the site last week and saw some really great things that happened while I was away in Uganda (which was awesome!). Unfortunately, the photos I took were having trouble on my computer so I couldn't get them up then. I have resolved that issue and want to show you the current condition as of now.

Cabinets in the newly painted kitchen!

Some of the latest developments inside and outside have been painting the inside walls, put up interior trim, installing the Square D-Clipsal light switches, installing the kitchen and lab cabinets, building the outside decks, installing new exterior doors, solar panels and paving the sidewalks. This is an incredible amount of development in a little over 4 weeks! Everything is on schedule so that the house can open for the Board of Visitors Meeting in early November.

A dirty lab without the counter top.

Tonight, we had the Smart Home Kickoff event, which turned out the more people than we could handle. I'll be leading a tour of the home tomorrow to interested people and the list keeps growing. I'm very excited to welcome new help to the program and hope this semester will be the best one yet.

Standing on the second floor deck (solar panels in front)

I haven't yet figured out a timely schedule for blogging construction related issues, but will get back soon once everything is settled in a couple of weeks.

Until then,

-Scott (The Construction Manager)

P.S. - If you lost touch this summer and would like to read the entries or check out the new look of this blog, feel free to browse the archived entries and the picasa photo archive.

Entry 31: Blog Break for Uganda

I will be leaving for Uganda on Monday and won't be writing any new entries until the school year starts. Duke Smart Home and Engineers Without Borders are teaming up to build a resource center that will educate the locals on sustainable living and farming technologies. The center is by a group called the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development (RASD) and their website is here. I'll be deploying a solar powered system with computers and a printer for the center and hopefully an internet connection.

Members of RASD

Check out the webcam for live images of Smart Home construction.

-Scott

Entry 30: Genie Ride to the Roof

Hello summer friends,

This will be my last entry this summer because tomorrow is my last day. It's been a great summer sharing construction news and planning for my trip to Uganda. Today, I rode the cherry picker (or boom lift) called the Genie S-60 up to the white metal roof to see the green roof sections, the 5 solar hot water panels and all the extra space for student projects.


Inside the house, construction workers finished drywalling the pocket doors and the other interior doors were piled in the common space. On the way up to the second floor, I noticed the glass brick style window was installed for the secondary staircase.

Outside the home, workers are installing the back deck and front decks . The most dramatic change in my opinion is the front decks because of the large steel support beams that were being put up today. See the photo below to see how it looks.

Another focus of being up on the Genie S-60 besides checking out the solar thermal panels was to see how the green roof actually is right now. Although there is a drought in the area, it rained here in Durham yesterday! As you can see below, the plants are growing even though they are spread out and fairly sparse. Time will only tell how the green roof will develop.

Lastly, don't ever look down (like in this picture below) if you are afraid of heights when riding a cherry picker. I was strapped in a full body harness so I didn't feel in any sort of danger.

Thanks for reading my blog on the construction and keep looking on the webcam for more updates and browsing the Picasa Photo Archive for all of the photos taken since last year. The project is scheduled to finish sometime in late October and it will open up to the Board of Visitors in November. More entries will likely follow after school starts and hopefully other projects and residents will use this blog to share interesting photos and stories.

Signing out,
-Scott

Entry 29: Kickin' on the AC

Hello summer friends,

On Tuesday, I made a visit to the site to give a tour to a reporter. The first thing to show you from the outside is the Cembonit is mostly complete. See a photo of the front face below.


The deck installation is next on the agenda for the outside. The exterior doors by Anderson are scheduled to come in next Tuesday. While the weather has been excruciatingly hot and humid, the home is cooling down as one of the two AC units was up and running Tuesday.


Inside, the pocket doors were being installed in each of the 2 upstairs bedrooms. This will allow both doubles to easily open up adjoining rooms. What you see below is the cavity for the doors, which will be covered with dry-wall.


Lastly, an unexpected visitor (Sundance) came by to install the solar thermal system on the roof. I took this picture below of the backside of the 5 panels before they go up.


This is my penultimate week here at Smart Home, so check in next week for my final entry of the summer and there will likely be a long hiatus as Tom and I will be in Uganda soon working on our project in collaboration with EWB.

-Scott

Entry 28: Man on Stilts!

Hey everyone,

Yesterday, I visited the site to take some more photos for you and inside I found a couple of workers smoothing out the drywall with putty. There isn't much to show you from this visit just that the back and 2 side walls are mostly finished with Cembonit and the front side began yesterday (see below).

Check out the webcam now as new panels will be installed in real time on the front (south) face. I also found a pile of steel that will be used for the decking on the site (shown below).

Be sure to visit next week,
-Scott

P.S. - See how much cleaner the 2nd floor workspace is in comparison to the first photo of Entry 27 below.

Entry 27: Site Update

Hello all,

As you can see from above, the drywall has been hung up in most places in the home. The 2nd floor (pictured above) is a busy spot for inside work.

The slow process of installing siding will hopefully be finished soon, but the picture below shows only the back (north) face completed. The workers have had a difficult time hanging it up properly, which has resulted in numerous attempts.


The air conditioner units were installed outside the home recently. They were donated by Trane and will each work for one level of the home.

In the basement, 6 large 350 gallon tanks for rainwater were installed. 9 were originally specified, but 6 could only fit in the back room! There are 2 other larger tanks outside the house that are yet to be installed.

The air conditioner units have been installed but the system has not started up, so the house is still pretty hot.

I only have 3 more weeks left in my summer internship, and I have yet to figure out who will take over until school starts up again. Next week is an OAC meeting which will be full of new updates.

Until next week,
-Scott

Entry 26: Tour to Future Residents

Good afternoon,

This morning I met with 3 future residents of the home and a 2 interested students and gave a tour of the home. We looked around and luckily I brought along the camera to snap some shots of things going on since last week.

The first thing to see is an update on the very slow exterior siding panel by Cembonit. Only the north face is covered and not completely.
The second thing to see is the completed Icynene insulation throughout the entire house. Drywall should close it off and will begin on Monday.

The last thing is light fixtures began to be installed this morning now that the insulation is finished.
That's about it for this week, see you next week.
-Scott