up your architecture.

This is David Perkes. He loves Sonic and monochromatic couture. He is also my boss.

I got the redlines for the Creel House back today and ain’t it a kick in the pants, they weren’t even red… ahh, the irony. Most of the things marked were common sense things I just needed to clarify. On David’s suggestion, we’re making slight adjustments to the foundation plan, but mostly just removing redundant support. We’re also going to try and spec out some prefab trusses for the crawl space to ease the construction and strengthen the joints so that we can decrease the depth of the roof joist from a 2x10 to a 2x8. I went a little brain dead and forgot to turn on the label layer in AutoCAD that had all my foundation, framing, and roof plan notes on it, so that was a quick fix. Other than that, it should take all of tomorrow to go back and fix some things and then we should be ready to go to permit which is right on schedule for getting in the ground and having a foundation ready when CAM-Ohio comes down in October. I’m pretty happy with how this house is turning out and I’m excited to have my first structure built down here.

In other GCCDS news, Jessie is getting a little time to work on the website so hopefully that will get updated with some of the things the Studio has been working on currently and in the recent past. One of the houses I’m really excited about is a shed-roofed house over on Wisteria Lane about 10 blocks from the studio designed by Kristen. It’s going up as we speak and it’s pretty funny because it has these mold-treated studs that are coated in a pink sealant so when you drive by all the interior wall studs are bright pink. I’m going to try and take some time this week/end to put together a Google map with some of the projects and places I go that I’ve been talking about for a while and see if I can’t get it on the sidebar of my website so y’all can get a better idea of where things are in proximity to one another.

I've got three words that will blow your mind: Hot. Pink. Studs. *kablooey*

On a final work note, the Leaster house on Strangi house is an elevated house and the volunteer organizations tend to go for non- or low-elevated houses and these tend to sit until either a brave group takes it on or the case workers find extra grant money in order to pay a contractor. Needless to say, that doesn’t happen very often. It’s one of the harsh realities when you get a project like this. No matter how much effort you put into making it livable and buildable, the sad fact is that some of these houses get shelved and have to wait there for months before getting picked up because there just isn’t the money. With all the articles lately (see the previous post) about mismanagement of money post-Katrina, it absolutely breaks my heart to see families stuck in the abominations that the FEMA trailers.

To make it back to my original point about 336, Miss Lucille, one of our case workers told us today that there is a new organization coming down that is going to take on three new builds and a couple of rehabs over a 4-5 month stint on the Coast. They are interested in single parents and other situations that puts the resident at a disadvantage. It just so happens that Miss Archie is taking care of her two nieces and her nieces’ daughter who is less than a year old. Lucille said that she would check into whether or not the group is willing to do elevated houses, but if they are, 336 could actually avoid shelving and get built which would really make me happy.

So, heartache and happiness here on the Coast today. If you haven’t checked out the links that people had been gathering about the recovery efforts, take a gander. They’re well worth the read.