"Memorial Day", and the beat goes on...

Mon-Thu 5-8nov07
A wee bit of office time and 2 full days on site working with Levi to finish shingling the roof and gable while the weather holds (done!) with intermittent help from Bondi and a homeowner from Project 1. Temperatures are dropping into the 40’s and lower these days, and winds are picking up, so it will be great to have the roof complete; only tabs remain (covering the seams at peak and ends where sections of shingle meet).


Per Levi, we are about 30% complete. Roof/shingling is almost complete, and doors and windows will be installed in roughly two weeks. At that point we're dry enough to work freely inside provided the outside temps stay above freezing.

Interior ceiling and wall insulation was started last week with a student group, electric wiring has been pulled through the first three units, and rough plumbing is installed in all 5 units.

The on-site game plan for the next 2-3 weeks: (1) Prep for pouring final level of floor: seal spaces between bottom plates with concrete, lay insulation, plastic, radiant heat piping and sand; (2) finish pulling/securing electric/cable/phone wires; (3) door window installation; (4) roof tabs; (5) pour final concrete floor; (6) complete wall and ceiling insulation; (7) exterior trenches for electric and water. Trenches will be done by outside help; door/window installation is being donated by the supplier of same. Nice.

In Thursday afternoon at the request of the national director... while concerned that without GV teams there will not be enough for me to do here, actually, there is, and the final two months will be productive and well spent on site and off. I am slated to present a half-day "training" with the Budapest staff re how things are done in the states sometime before leaving January 8th and looking forward to the idea exchange inherent in that process.

Family selection for next year's project is scheduled for completion by mid-November; there is concern about having enough qualified applicants for Szarvas, and the national office is looking at alternatives to draw more applicants. A first deadline for Project 4 applicants has come and gone with nominal response, so we’ll be advertising again in the next week, and there are conversations with the local government re possibilities as well. It’s an ongoing process and opportunity for creativity and faith at work, yes?

Sun4nov07
A family workday, stringing electric and finishing the gable sheathing.

Fri2nov07
Levi, myself, and four family members today, working to complete the gable and to prep the first two units for insulation work by a student team tomorrow.

The gable was challenging enough in angle cuts that Levi opted to call a carpenter friend for coaching. By nightfall (now 1700 with DST already in force here) the gable skeleton was complete and most of the sheathing on.

Unit prep meant drilling two10mm vent holes through top plates between every exterior stud pair, along with two vent holes into top plates for the demising walls and through each piece of blocking in the stud walls. Vent holes are also drilled in pairs between each header pair through top plates above windows and doors. I understand the notion for the exterior walls to wick moisture up to the attic space; in those walls the blocking sits 5 cm back from the interior edge, with insulation to be stuffed in between each block, leaving that 5 cm space leading up to the vent holes and attic space open for wicking to happen. Between window frames and top plates there is less than 5 cm of space which will be stuffed with insulation, so the logic of venting there is a bit more obscure, as is the treatment of the demising walls. This is one of those places where asking why begets the somewhat parental response “because (I said so) it’s Hungary”. I’ve yet to see exactly how the insulation is set here, so perhaps all will become clear tomorrow when Levi teaches the kids (and me!) how it’s done here!

The other unit prep work is to make certain the ceiling headers are level and smooth… this involves “persuading” blocking into alignment with a 2 kg mini-sledge, and/or planing/chiseling headers to level where they cross over the center beam… no small task given the rough nature of the wood used here, and more time-consuming than drilling vent holes. Neither of these tasks is a particular favorite… the drill bit is 10mm in diameter (about ½”) and about 10 inches long, the planer is a weighty tool used upside-down while holding on with both hands and simultaneously depressing the safety so it will run. Both tools are engaged while perched on the top rungs of an aluminum ladder 6-7 feet off the floor to get enough purchase to accomplish the task(s) at hand, all the while gauging forces so as the drill pops through to its intended destination the operator (yours truly) stays put versus flying off the ladder into space (so much for the three point ladder method, Blair! [laughing])… and staying in balance with planer pressure so the task is accomplished smoothly (no pun intended). Have I mentioned that ladder work is more challenge than skill for me, even after all this time on job sites? That said, I have become very adept at leveraging against ceiling headers and blocks to achieve my end goal(s) at least for these two tasks. Practice in this genre births both confidence, and respect for the guys who are masters at “walking” the wooden ladders from point to point versus climbing up and down to reposition themselves… still approaching that particular skill with a healthy respect for current “limits” [laughing]

Okay, so why all this work re the ceiling headers? To create a level playing field for hanging dry wall, preceded by stapling up breathable plastic and ceiling insulation, our student project for tomorrow. This is another area where I’m waiting for visual aids to get clear on how they do things here. What IS clear is that we’ll have a lot of students on ladders… synapses are already snapping and crackling with safety tips [smile]

Thu1nov
Hungarian national holiday today, “All Saints Day”, the equivalent of Memorial Day in the states. Gravesites are decorated with flowers, wreaths and candles, and the cemeteries at night are genuinely beautiful to see…

Holiday oddities…. unlike holidays in the US or Ireland (my primary frames of reference thus far [smile]), the holiday is a day in and of itself, though not granted as an extra day off for many… if there is a holiday in the week, a fair share of employees must work an alternate day to make up for it, or take it as vacation time….