Hands On Gulf Coast Olympics!

Getting Ready and talking trash!
Team photo op!
Tighty Whities -R- Hot!

another one bits the dust... although we are not last!

Sameen's Birthday

Last night Sameen turned another year younger than me. We took her to get the beef she has been craving at Manhatten's Grill in Ocean Springs.

Sameen's first of many birthday shots....
Matthew McConaughey! gets us a free shot from the lady at the end of the bar.
Chaco and Emma
Sameen and Emma

These guys try and play this game where they keep the beer with the least amount in front of me... thanks alot boys!

A great end to our two days of laughter, jokes and I guess some work.

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

By Jimmy Buffett,

I come across this song but the last verse makes the most sense:

According to my watch the time is now
The past is dead and gone
Don't try to shake it just nod your head
Breathe in breathe out move on
Don't try to expain it just bow your head
Breathe in breathe out move on

Back to the Red House in JHB Park!

Getting the rafters up by lunch and finishing rafter ties.

My job: Nailing Hurricane clips to the rafters. Because I got scared of the Nail GUN! I like the old fashion way anyways.

Showing the hip and valley of the rafters moving up and down in the 2x4 beam.

Enjoying the form of the roof taking shape like the waves in the sea.

I could not get over this view.

This is Jason, he was standing in this position often.

Sarah and I started on the prelins (?word and spelling)

For the last two days I have been working with Jason (Gulf Coast Community Design Studio) and Andy (a fellow minnesotan) at the Red House in John Henry Beck Park. From the start I was toenailing rafters, nailing without the use of the 'nailgun' (which by the way scared me today as I was able to shoot double time... too fast for me) and soon fearlessly climbing around to take measurements or nail. Whats fun about construction is the complete satisfaction of accomplishing a task, learning at every moment and getting better at it. I like this, like it a lot.

Summer boating itch satisfied!

What a sexy bench! at John Henry Beck Park

This bench design is/was copied from the 239 Nixon house we worked on over the semester_ nice to see good ideas used more than once.


6.7.07 My first day of constuction work and here I sit with Kirsten, George's girl from Scottland, as we finish our big accomplishment for the day without the help of the guys. As the boys sat around and thought about doing work and then left in the afternoon to go buy materials to work the next day; we kicked ass from start to finish completing the back to the bench. Let's just say Chicks Rule!

As the back porch sits today waiting for a wavy roof to be added within the beam created by gluing, nailing and bolting eight 2x4's.

Get a tattoo you F'ing pussy!

As I sat at a pizza place in Mobile, Alabama and a guy with tattoo sleeves walks to the jukebox behind me, my friends across the table smile and giggle a lil'- I say "what?" and they point the the back of this guy's shirt. 'get a tattoo you fucking pussy!' I smile and think of the tattoo I have been staring at and talking about for the last two weeks. I decide tomorrow after work I will just get it and stop being a pussy. I felt like it was also something my sister would say and took it sort of like a sign. Americorp's training with Red Cross happened on Friday so we had a half day and I am in the tattoo shop (Jack and Dianne's, the place where many Hand's On volunteers go to get tattoo's) by 4pm. I get nervous and start talking about where, why, what and how I have wanted a tattoo for a while. I have Ben and Sameen with me for support who joined Americorp's with me at the same time. We wait a bit and I see a guy who looks like the pores of his skin are seeping with blood. 'Don't look' Sameen says. Ben goes to buy batteries for my always dead Nikon digital camera. The guy comes back with my tattoo redrawn and its all wrong, I say it need to be exactly how I drew it, he comes back again with it exactly how i drew it and then I ask for a pencil to just fix it myself. This guy probably thought I was nuts. Once I was satisfied with my drawing and ready to start, I actually looked at Ben and Sameen as if they were proud parents, especially since Sameen started snapping photos every few minutes. The guy sprays my back, something feels like he is exfoliating and then as I asked what he is doing as he puts down a shaver. "You just shaved my back?!" - 'Yup' - " You did not even tell me!" - (pause) 'I just shaved your back' Telling a few jokes we laugh a bit and he places the tattoo transfer. Laying belly down on the bench by 5:00pm I start to get anxious. How bad will it hurt? I clench my teeth and get all squirmy like a child who is about to get tickled to death. He starts and I smile, it almost tickles. This is not so bad. Soon I ask how far he is and he is not good with fractions but its less then half. Then, the initials are done. Then it hits... I drop F bombs and make the oh shit that hurts face. My palms are now sweaty and he stops once in a while to get more ink_ he is coloring in. He says I am doing great, he starts telling me about this girl he is dating who is giving him a two-part gift and can't understand why because he has only seen her twice. (like this helps me or something?_I say "she abviously likes you a lot") I want to scream at one point and I found out later that its the lowest part of the tattoo. ( I think, 'thank God I didn't ask him to reposition the tattoo just a bit lower!) 5:09PM I am done. Done?! Already??! This is it. I did it. Forever with me, exactly how I drew it. I smile, can't believe I am out the door at 5:15 and now entered the tattoo community. As we drive back to base I say, "I think this will be it, no more of that for me." For the next few hours it feels like someone is slowly and constantly ripping a piece of duck tape off my back.

changing the way we think

design and go
go big green!"
sscrape scrape ssscrrraaape
eye for the free stuff
Fun with doors!

Building in Biloxi Mississippi has changed the way I think about what architecture really is. I am helping to rebuild a home that has memories and along with many others here, there is someone just like me that wants to be home. A gutted home that stood empty for nearly two years after Katrina finally was looked upon as valuable. Working with the East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center, the owner saw opportunity to provide a home for housing volunteers for a couple years and then becoming the much needed rental housing after. Renovating a small shotgun-bungalow became more than just design or building but a design-build challenge to be innovative and flexible. A plan with a dual program inspires thinking beyond just one occupant, a building that will become flexible. Designing the best ways to be efficient, provide building longevity and coordinating all the little challenges that come up along the way. A small budget brings reality right in plain view. Going ‘over’ means there must be “other” money or means to providing materials each day, if any at all. Then the excitement and joy is fulfilled in your heart because it means the world to the client when you can reuse materials, get donations and save on the money that is hardly there. Windows are not the best and the wrong size so there is more ‘work’ to do but they are free. The original doors need a lot of work to reuse and volunteers scrape paint for hours, days and weeks to make original ship lap siding beautiful again. My heart sings within the constraints of reality. We must work little by little, day by day, and soon with help from many volunteers we make a difference. Rebuilding in Biloxi, New Orleans, Pass Christian or building in the middle of America, architecture provides a place for people to live, be comfortable and call a place their own.

SpringBREAK! my how the weeks fly by...

Having fun while learning could this get any better? As I sit here on our "break" I ponder the last weeks spent without updating this thing called my blog... a daily update became a trial week updates of posts saved and never completed.... then month... now.. 'whatev'. I will do as the saying goes, 'more with less.' I will share this one with less words and more pics.

2.1.07

Mr. Rogers on at lunch?

Above is the 'shana joint' our small group design included for the Coordination Center's interior sliding doors. This project started out as individual ideas, leading to small groups then eventually into two teams of 6. Below is a full scale mock up of how different materials would be connected and used, however not necessarily all together in one door.

2.2.07

Our group working on the final door design, all together now... full size.

I love these guys.

A night in Ocean Springs:

Hooka bar and the Grocery (where I spent my entire evening with this guy talking about Greece, Thailand, and sailing... if only he was half his age ; ) he did say he had sons....

2.7.07

Class out early - hmmm Beach anyone? Kickball and sandcastles...

2.8.07

We visit two houses today, one with steel structure and another without any cross-bracing... lets just say cross-bracing is needed when you build 10 feet+ off the ground. The owner let us feel how the house sways from side to side with it as is... let me just say I understood the need for cross-bracing real quick!

A staircase just for the A/C unit... really?!


Where's Omar?

Where is James and Sam?

2.9.07

GORGEOUS!

I headed up the chalking today! I can get used to telling people what to do : )

It was fun to get to know a plan by placing the walls on the floor with chalk.

2.11.07

My painting itch can no longer hold out, I have been eyeing this stump for weeks... I find out it is used as a musical instrument, drums, there is no one that is attached to it, and I get my creative wheels turning. I take a while to peel the bark, tape off the cut ends and spray paint with the random assortment here on Base (the common nickname for Hands On facility/camp/'Doombox')

As it stands today... I am waiting for a new assortment of colors to come. I ran out of the good ones, like copper for instance is amazing in the sunlight!

2.17.07

Day at John Henry Beck Park. Celebrating the gardens that will be given over to some of the community members to care for.

2.18.07

Maudi Gras - New Orleans...parades. Pictures soon.
2.20.07

Fat Tuesday. Parade. Pictures soon.

3.1.07

We head out to visit an architecture firm today (does LEED! here in Miss'ippi and is one of the very few LEED buildings)

Guild something... update soon...

All I have to say: BigASSfan.com check it out.



3.3.07

Jenny and I try to go swimming at the pool, but its closed in the morning.. beach? We walk the beach for a while and then I saw this new interesting creature, I so wanted to turn it over but with all the bugs I grossed myself out and then became satisfied with just observing the outside shell. Up close it looks like rusted steel. Found some other non-beach items as well and think of all the other UN-natural items in the Gulf, the habitat and the effects of Katrina.

We received news from Mike that Hands On received a budget finally for the 'Red House' in John Henry Beck Park and we will be helping in finally renovating the entire building to become a new community center! So we checked out the building to start a cost estimate of what needs to be done.

3.9.07

How a Golf Course can reclaim true natural beauty.

3.10.07

The SHED has become our Saturday non-local hangout spot in Ocean Springs. Outstanding BBQ, Live southern tunes, pitchers of Blue Moon, picnic tables, a fire pit to keep warm, rope lights galore, 'nice rack' ladies hollerin' your name, drunken dancin' - do I have to say more?

Sweets; Jesi works here and we went on to continue dancin'. The driveway is filled with bottle caps. The sound when you walked captured my interest, below is me capturing the moment.

This leads us into Spring Break; Yeah! What comes after Part D?

PART'E!