Moving Heavy Stuff is Fun

Yesterday we decided what to do about the bad soils report we got, and we moved forward with pouring the concrete footers that will support the posts that will support the beams that will support the roof. This was a symbolic moment: it was the first step in putting the building back together, rather that just tearing it apart. To commemorate it, I took a picture of our very own concrete truck:



Today Rick, the steel guy, dropped off the steel beam that will span the area between the two posts so that we can remove the remaining walls. Rick likes to work alone, and he has a metaphysical connection with steel. He told me that surface rust is Nature's way of protecting metal, which is an interesting way to look at it. I didn't know Nature cared all that much. Here's Rick getting the 1000-pound beam off his truck, by himself:


Rick diplomatically told me not to stop by on Sunday, when he is going to place this beam on the two posts (by himself), because he needs to listen to the pulleys while he does it. He requires quiet so that he can hear their messages.

I also helped Aaron, one of our contractors, move some huge pieces of "engineered wood" (a strange concept) inside. These pieces are going to go under the "floating wall" that currently doesn't connect to the floor. Moving them inside was tricky, because they're heavy and very long, so we had to keep backing up and readjusting our angle. Aaron came up with a scheme involving a wheelbarrow, which might have been harder than just picking the things up, but that's easy for me to say, since I got the wheelbarrow end. Here's Aaron being a goof-off (those are safety glasses he's wearing, not regular glasses):



Here's us trying to get a good angle to get in the door:



And here's a picture of us trying to figure out how to get the wood around a corner. Thanks, Jill, for this flattering picture of our butts.



I spent a few hours with a hammerdrill (which is like a handheld jackhammer) chipping plaster off the brick wall that will be in the coffee shop. Aaron lent me his fashionable safety glasses, Rick lent me some earmuffs, and I wore a dust mask, all of which left me with foggy tunnel vision, but were necessary because of the amount of dust that was generated. I got about a third of the plaster off (compare this picture with the first picture of the last post):



All those little speckles are not dust on the camera lens, they are dust in the air. My forearms and hands are still tingly from the vibration, but it was fun to make some headway. I love being at the building and seeing the tangible results of our planning. Our boys, as we call the construction crew (everyone calls us "the girls", occasionally accompanied by the admiring adjective "kicka*s"), are probably going to get tired of me hanging around, but now that I'm done with my part-time job, I'm planning on spending as much time as possible over there.