Matthew Schwabauer Log

Sunday July 01, 2012

This place is great! I am really glad to be here. I arrived yesterday afternoon and have done a combination of work and settling in. Today I did planning work for the ongoing HabLab construction. I've drafted up a drawing of the first room to be completed and have a pretty good handle on what we'll need to do. You can see the plan and profile i created for room one, dimensioning and sketches for window framing, and an inventory of building materials we currently have on site. My biggest unknown right now is the doors. We don't have any, they will probably be expensive to buy, and I'm pretty tempted to fab them ourselves. These doors will be between bedrooms and the outdoors so they need to be pretty insulated and heavy duty, also well sealed around the frame. We'll probably need to buy some hardware included hinges and gasket material.

I need to update my schedule. I'm meeting with Marcin tomorrow to discuss everything. Our conversation will involve this project a bit, but I think it will generally be on my shoulders and I don't need to bother him with questions like, "what should we do about the doors?" I can and should be making these decisions. On that specific note I'll do a pricing comparison between purchasing doors and fabbing them ourselves. I wonder if there is a salvaged building material store in KC? So back on track...I think the conversation between Marcin and I tomorrow will relate more to defining my role as "Construction Director". Per the job description "Construction Director - manages creation and maintenance of the built environment. Manages fiber crop planting. Directs natural building workshops. Experiments with building innovation." There was also another job description here which said...

• Works with Floyd Hagerman on technology transfer of CEB Contrstruction methods
  • Utilizes assistance from FeF Documentor to produce related instructionals
  • Writes scripts for construction instructionals
• Develops a process for building a 350 square foot microhouse on a week time-scale and $3000-5000 budget for shell structure including kitchen and bathroom
• Gains proficiency in Sawmill and forestry operations
• Works with GVCS equipment and provides feedback to related Product Directors on usability/development needs
• Experience in standard construction techniques is a baseline, but should be complemented with quick learning ability of nonstandard and natural building techniques
• Basic familiarity with equipment maintenance, repair, torching and welding is also desirable
• Construction management skills are required
• Required to cross train in basic fabrication/repair and other Core Cross-Training Tompetencies
• Documents progress openly with a daily log and vlog on the wiki using an automatic upload platform such as an Android smart phone.
• Interior house design using Sweet Home 3D
• Produces house design in Sketchup
• Rooftop water catchment cisterns and shallow well construction
• Digs and develops deep water wells
• Cross trains in Core Cross-Training Competencies

Anywhooooo, it's 12:22 am on Monday July 01, 2012, and at this point I better hit the hay so I can wake up early and get back at it. Much love ya'll :)

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Sheet Metal
Size	QTY
14'x3'	2
17'x2'	2
17'x3'	6
18'x3'	1
DBL Pane Storm Windows
6'4" x 2'10"	5
6'4" x 2'4"	2
Framed Windows
2'3" x 3'8"	1
Lexan
3'x4'	8
2'x3'	10
DBL Lexan with Ribs
2'x3'	8
Carpet
18"x18"	180
Felt Board
8'x4'	3

Monday June 25, 2012

I worked on a revised construction plan and schedule for the Four East Rooms of HabLab. This is a public google document available here. I've revised my thinking from working on all rooms simultaneously, and completing them all at the same time before July 21, it will be advantageous to work on the rooms one at a time, so that after the first week a room will become available every three days, and all will still be completed by the 21st. This will also let us perform all operations simultaneously and we can revise our methods and hopefully improve our performance on each room. Tracking our production rates will be an important part of developing effective plans and estimates for future construction work on Factor e Farm and elsewhere, so I'm setting up sheets on that spreadsheet linked above which will be ready to plug in the numbers for each day.

I also researched window framing a bit since that is something I don't have much experience with. It seems we will be able to make an effective "rough n ready" frame, even with hinges, without too much trouble out of 2x4s, some silicone, and some smaller wood strips and wood screws. The doors seem to be more of an open issue, the cheaper they can be acquired, the better. Perhaps there are construction salvaged yards in St. Joe or KC where doors can be had cheap. There's a Habitat for Humanity ReStore here in Lawrence which is quite useful for bargain construction materials.

I've gotten my gear mostly sorted and my personal obligations in order here in Lawrence. I've mostly worked out transfer of my current garden plots to new care and I've arranged the sale of my beehive for a reasonable deal for all involved. It was a good day and a good weekend.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on a farm and then Wednesday I'll be at the same farm observing some lumber milling. As part of my preparation for establishing the forestry program at Factor e Farm I hope to glean some best practices for harvesting and processing timber. The sawmill I will be observing is not exactly the same (the biggest difference seems to be that I'll be observing a band saw running on an ICE, whereas the sawmill at Factor e Farm is a circular saw and runs on hydraulics. I need to do more research on the Factor e Farm saw design and current status.

So that's about it, I'm still on schedule to depart Lawrence Saturday morning and start work at Factor e Farm on Saturday/Sunday.

Friday June 22, 2012

Worked on Matthew_Schwabauer_Schedule

Worked on Matthew_Schwabauer_Proposal