The First FAMILY WORK WEEKEND!

My dear family all came together this last weekend to lend a hand,  and it was WONDERFUL! Not only do I have a talented family,  but a very supportive and intelligent family!  I was able to start each of them on different jobs and they would do it with enthusiasm! What a pleasure it was to have them all working with me!

Dad had the difficult job of creating the curved top plate for the wall that thickens the first floor of the tower.  

My brother and his wife worked on the "structured wiring".  This is the communications wiring that goes to each room from a central hub,  including phone,  computer and tv cabling.  

Some of the family spent time removing the shoring from the kid's bedroom level, 

 

Others were stationed on the roof deck,  assembling what was left of the EcoBlock.  It's going to be close! 

    At lunch the little ones arrived to eat with us!  They were so excited to climb around and explore!  I can't wait to get some railings up so we can let them go wild!

 After lunch we got back to work!  Steel rebar was cut:

The front of the garage was prepped for the small roof facade to be built later:

Finally,  a LOT of cleanup!  By the end of Saturday,  the entire upper floor was cleared of shoring and swept clean!

On Sunday we spent the morning quietly laying out the walls for the top floor,  and doing even more cleaning.  This was made a little difficult by the huge stack of lumber in the middle of the floor,  but the family managed to get most of the walls defined,  and fill another dumpster with debris! 

After lunch my mom and I went to a great exhibit of works by one of my favorite architects, John Lautner.  I find his work challenging and very inspiring.  Lautner was not afraid to think outside the box,  he used a huge variety of materials (including lots of concrete!) and experimented with bold shapes and spaces in all of his works.  His most famous home is the Chemosphere, but I am most inspired by Marbrisas in Acapulco, the Elrod House in Palm Springs, the Turner House in Aspen, and the Schaffer Residence in Montrose.

Thanks to my dear family,  this was a very productive and exciting weekend!