This weekend we turned the air quality of the shop to 99% wood dust and filled the cigar factory with the faint smell of paint fumes.
At studio V, the weekend is where we all have no other schedules happening so we can give our attention fully to the project- all day each day. This disorienting but productive process really makes you question what a Monday is or what weeks have passed by. However, it is also the time where we have some true bonding and can really see the project coming together.
This weekend was busy as always! We had the fabrication four constantly shaping the truss and gluing its pieces together, a team going to paint all of the wood for programming and roofing, and serious work going to improve the concrete piers.
For the piers, we first had to chisel away at the form works that the concrete casted into.
We then tested a way to patch the form. We made a really smooth and watery concrete mix (consistency of pudding), and then we spread it onto the pier with a foam block. This made the concrete smooth and able to get into the cracks of the concrete.
A concrete pier before we did the patching.
A concrete pier after the patching.
After the pier was patched we took concrete sanders to it to get it completely smooth. Ultimately, each pier will probably take a couple of layers of this process but it will have them popping out smooth and polished.
On Sunday we also did another truss test with our mock up to double check some of our measurements.
Over the next couple of weeks we look forward to Thanksgiving but also to the full realization of our project! The week after we get back we will be in full production as most of our internships will be over and we will be able to work all day like on the weekends. In that time we will be living and breathing the Enston Home. Every day we have more and more people coming up to us interested in the project and asking about how construction is going! I can’t wait for everyone (including me) to see the final project.