Open Architecture Network

Week of April 16th Work continued on the electrical rough-in; we are learning as we go. We also demolished and restructured the back porch with the help of Greg and other volunteers from Hands On. By the end of the week we were able, with their aid to complete the decking on the back porch as well. We also began to frame the stud wall of the screened in front porch. Work also continued on our electrical rough-in, which we were finally able to complete on Saturday. On Friday we had a plumbing inspection, which we failed. On Saturday we addressed a few tasks to prepare for the Mechanical inspection and to address issues from the failed plumbing inspection. Hopefully, we can have our plumbing, mechanical and electrical inspections on the Monday of next week.

week of April 9th The main focus of the work on the project this week was completing the electrical and plumbing systems for the house. Early in the week we finished a few small projects to ready the house for post inspection activities. We continued to work on the installation of the electrical wiring through out the week. The plumbing subcontractor also started working on the house Tuesday evening. We finished the week by fire-caulking the holes made in the top plate for the electrical wiring.

This was a week of long waits at the job site punctuated by moments of quick response. On Monday morning we completed a few small fixes, such as changing the pressure gauge on the gas system to the house, that we needed to accomplish to pass our inspections; we called in the inspections early in the week and were then left to wait patiently for the city code officials to arrive and inspect the house. On Tuesday we passed the electrical rough-in inspection with no complications. Wednesday was an exciting morning as we had to sprint to fix an improperly installed dryer vent to pass our mechanical inspection and we also found out that our plumber had not called in the plumbing re-inspection for the plumbing rough in. By 10:00 a.m. we had fixed the dryer vent and passed both our mechanical and plumbing inspection. On Thursday we passed the last inspection we need to pass to continue, the framing inspection. We ended the week by cleaning up the job site and installing blocking to prepare for a group of volunteers from a local church who will install insulation and sheet rock next week. We also spent time this week designing elements of the building that we will not be able to complete in our time here in Biloxi so that we can document the ideas and communicate them to those who will complete the project for us.

Week of April 9th The main focus of the work on the project this week was completing the electrical and plumbing systems for the house. Early in the week we finished a few small projects to ready the house for post inspection activities. We continued to work on the installation of the electrical wiring through out the week. The plumbing subcontractor also started working on the house Tuesday evening. We finished the week by fire-caulking the holes made in the top plate for the electrical wiring. Week of April 16th Work continued on the electrical rough-in; we are learning as we go. We also demolished and restructured the back porch with the help of Greg and other volunteers from Hands On. By the end of the week we were able, with their aid to complete the decking on the back porch as well. We also began to frame the stud wall of the screened in front porch. Work also continued on our electrical rough-in, which we were finally able to complete on Saturday. On Friday we had a plumbing inspection, which we failed. On Saturday we addressed a few tasks to prepare for the Mechanical inspection and to address issues from the failed plumbing inspection. Hopefully, we can have our plumbing, mechanical and electrical inspections on the Monday of next week.

This week we worked with a variety of volunteer crews provided by Hands On. Greg and Sarah from the building crew joined us to keep and eye on things while we were in class and generally to provide their expertise to the project. We tied up a lot of loose ends, removing the aluminum siding from behind the old power box, attaching door hardware, furring out the raised ceiling with additional 2x3’s to make room for insulation and finding a back door in the warehouse. There was also a concerted effort through out the week to trim the windows – something that was easier said than done when the old studs of the house can be as much as an inch out of plumb with each other. It proved easier to remove and replace a few of them but the job was finished today and looks spectacular. On Thursday and Friday we demolished the rotten old front porch and then built it back with new structure and treated 5/4 board decking. Saturday we worked through the afternoon finishing the electrical wiring layout and left satisfied, having shut and locked all the windows and the three doors on our dried in house.

This week we again had a small but dedicated crew of undergraduates from Mississippi State University working at the house. On Monday we started them on framing larger rough openings openings to fit the vinyl replacement windows found in the EBCRC warehouse. They worked consistently through several work-site redesigns as we figured out the window sill and trim details on the fly. After two weeks of spring break dedicated almost solely to working at the Nixon house ourselves we all went through a little withdrawal when we had to spend most of the day in class and on studio work. Thursday morning we met with the Mechanical Sub-Contractor and gave him a check to cover materials. He is planning to come early this week and begin work. On Friday had a classroom session in the house and learned how to do an electrical Rough-in. Mike Grote supervised as we set boxes and strung wire between them. In the afternoon the Mississippi State students wrapped up the last two windows and Omar hung the two refurbished front doors, while the last of the electrical work was completed. We also took the time to sort through the enormous “scrap pile” on the side of the site and move most of it out to the street for debris removal and do a thorough site cleanup. We left the house for the weekend with all the windows and doors closed – a major milestone. (nb – at this point Menalik, the giant Akita who lives in the back yard, is standing in for a back door, and doing a very good job of it.)

Progress this past week has been slow. The main reason for our low productivity is the lack of secure funding for the project. The majority of funding will come from the homeowner with the difference made up by the EBCRC in donated funds and materials. To our knowledge, both the EBCRC—the organization that will have use of the house to provide lodging for volunteers—and the homeowner want the project to proceed. However, an agreement on what will be paid for and by who has not been fully worked out between the EBCRC and the homeowner. We have been able to continue work with small purchases made by ourselves, salvaged materials, and donations by individuals such as John Cuningham, an architect from Minneapolis. These purchases have allowed us to continue work while we have had volunteer labor in the form of students from the University of Minnesota and Mississippi State University. The house is now ready for plumber and mechanical sub-contractors to begin work; but we’ve had some hang ups. The homeowner arranged to have a volunteer contractor from a out of town plumb the house, which would have reduced significantly one of the major costs of the project. However, for the volunteer to work in the house a local plumber was needed to obtain a plumbing permit from the city. The volunteer ultimately decided not to take on the project, citing a lack of time to complete it prior to his departure from the area. Two factors lead to the delay. First, time was short, as we did not find out about the volunteer plumber until Sunday afternoon. On Monday we found a local plumber who was willing to meet the volunteer and get a plumbing permit from the city to allow the volunteer to work. The meeting between the local plumber and the volunteer did not occur until Tuesday evening and by Wednesday morning the volunteer decided that he did not have sufficient time to complete the project. Second, the local plumber charged a fee to get the permit from the city. As no standing agreement between the EBCRC and the homeowner existed regarding who would pay for such an expense we were left with little to do but wait until such an agreement was made officially. We also have a bid for the instillation of heating and AC for the house, but were again waiting for the payment agreement between the two parties to proceed. An agreement, as of March 22, was made between the EBCRC and the homeowner regarding material purchases and payment of sub-contractors, so we should now be able to proceed with these parts of the project in the next week or so. Work has continued on the house during the week, despite these setbacks. Students visiting from Mississippi State University completed repairs to some rotted rafter tails and soffit boards, scraped paint and removed the old windows. The EBCRC has obtained a plumbing permit, to expedite the process should another volunteer plumber located. Lumber has been purchased to allow us to reframe the rough openings of the windows to accept windows donated by the EBCRC. Next week we will be able to install the new windows, re-hang the exterior doors and complete the scraping and sanding of the exterior siding.

On Sunday March 11th, two vanloads of architecture undergraduates from the University of Minnesota rolled into Biloxi, giving us a huge and enthusiastic labor pool for this week. We put them to work framing out the new bathroom and closet walls, scraping paint from the two front doors we salvaged, and removing the old aluminum siding from the house. Under the siding we found the original shiplap siding to be in good condition so we changed our plans to reside the house in Hardie Plank and set a team to work scraping several layers of old paint from the wood. A dedicated group of students spent the rest of the week scraping the siding, using not only official paint scrapers but chisels, crowbars and the claws of hammers. Meanwhile, other students worked creating a raised ceiling detail by cutting the existing rafters down, bracing the space and then reinstalling them to create the new ceiling form. For us, the week was less about physical construction and more about management, coordination and planning. A typical day began with going to meet with instructors and print plans at the coordination center by 7:30. We arrived at the house just before the students and carried all the tools and supplies in from our mobile tool shed – Omar’s car. We can’t leave tools or materials in the building because there are, as yet, no doors and windows in name only. Some of us worked with students on specific projects, like framing or raising the ceiling, others floated from task to task, checking in with people, and we all spent our share of time scraping paint. We also had to work on planning during the day, drawing up details for the next day’s construction and doing material take-offs for the next shopping trip. After closing up the site and cleaning up from the day we would go back to Hands On, the volunteer camp where we all live, eat dinner and then meet to plan for the next day. Coordination and design would run to ten or eleven o’clock at night. It was an exhausting and productive week. We also had a small crisis of finances midweek, when a mis-communication between parties that led to the freezing of our spending account with the local businesses. This led to a lot back and forth meetings to straighten out the confusion and also a bit of creativity to get enough materials to keep the students working effectively while we had them. For more information about the resolution, see our update for the week of March 22.

During this week we began both construction and management of the project in earnest. We filled out building permit forms with the city and faxed them, along with updated plans, to the owners. We got estimates from the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing subcontractors. We cleaned up the site, cleared the attic, demolished the old bathroom walls and repaired the rotting floor under it and secured the rafters to the building with hurricane ties. We also spent a great deal of time planning for the subsequent stages of construction in preparation for Spring Break week, when we would have a lot of volunteer labor to make use of on the project.

During this week, volunteers from Heritage United Methodist Church came and replaced the roof on the house. We continued to refine our cost estimate and to prepare a variety of different plans in preparation for our meeting with the owner of the house, on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting went very well. He gave us helpful feedback on the plans and tentatively approved a $15,000.00 budget for the project, with any additional funds to come from the EBCRC. We began to dramatically revise our plans to use as many donated and found materials as possible and to reduce costs in every category. Up to this point the entire studio of 12 had been working on the Nixon house project but at the end of the week we split into two groups of six. Half the class began work on a nearby project, the renovation of the J H B Red House, and the Nixon House was officially taken over by Sam, Peter, Matt, Shana, Omar and Della.

On Monday of this week we began thinking about how the floor plan might be better adapted to fit the program of volunteer bunk housing, while still being easy to convert back into a single family home when that use was ended. On Wednesday a new twist was thrown into the project when we heard that a volunteer church group would be coming the following Monday to put a new roof on the house. This suddenly turned a potential, future project into an immediate need. As a component of our Construction Management course we put together a cost estimate of the renovation project. We produced a first draft for Thursday and then spent the weekend focusing on ways to make our original design and estimate more cost effective and environmentally friendly. The initial estimate was $27, 618.20, including a 7% contingency.

We were introduced to the house at 239 Nixon on February 16th. During our regular construction lab on a Friday we assessed the space as a potential project for the studio with our instructor David Perkes . He had heard from Bill Stalworth of the East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center that it was available for volunteer housing during the next few years if we would be able to help the owner get it back into shape. We spent the day measuring and drawing the building and also doing some minor demolition in the kitchen area and repairing the damaged floorboards in the kitchen corner.

Progress this past week has been slow. The main reason for our low productivity is the lack of secure funding for the project. The majority of funding will come from the homeowner with the difference made up by the EBCRC in donated funds and materials. To our knowledge, both the EBCRC—the organization that will have use of the house to provide lodging for volunteers—and the homeowner want the project to proceed. However, an agreement on what will be paid for and by who has not been fully worked out between the EBCRC and the homeowner. We have been able to continue work with small purchases made by ourselves, salvaged materials, and donations by individuals such as John Cuningham, an architect from Minneapolis. These purchases have allowed us to continue work while we have had volunteer labor in the form of students from the University of Minnesota and Mississippi State University. The house is now ready for plumber and mechanical sub-contractors to begin work; but we’ve had some hang ups. The homeowner arranged to have a volunteer contractor from a out of town plumb the house, which would have reduced significantly one of the major costs of the project. However, for the volunteer to work in the house a local plumber was needed to obtain a plumbing permit from the city. The volunteer ultimately decided not to take on the project, citing a lack of time to complete it prior to his departure from the area. Two factors lead to the delay. First, time was short, as we did not find out about the volunteer plumber until Sunday afternoon. On Monday we found a local plumber who was willing to meet the volunteer and get a plumbing permit from the city to allow the volunteer to work. The meeting between the local plumber and the volunteer did not occur until Tuesday evening and by Wednesday morning the volunteer decided that he did not have sufficient time to complete the project. Second, the local plumber charged a fee to get the permit from the city. As no standing agreement between the EBCRC and the homeowner existed regarding who would pay for such an expense we were left with little to do but wait until such an agreement was made officially. We also have a bid for the instillation of heating and AC for the house, but were again waiting for the payment agreement between the two parties to proceed. An agreement, as of March 22, was made between the EBCRC and the homeowner regarding material purchases and payment of sub-contractors, so we should now be able to proceed with these parts of the project in the next week or so. Work has continued on the house during the week, despite these setbacks. Students visiting from Mississippi State University completed repairs to some rotted rafter tails and soffit boards, scraped paint and removed the old windows. The EBCRC has obtained a plumbing permit, to expedite the process should another volunteer plumber located. Lumber has been purchased to allow us to reframe the rough openings of the windows to accept windows donated by the EBCRC. Next week we will be able to install the new windows, re-hang the exterior doors and complete the scraping and sanding of the exterior siding.