Construction

From GreenGarageWiki

For Fall 2009 - Spring 2010 construction work, see construction archives. Below is latest work.

Week of June 1

Work on the sewer and water mains were completed, so Redford Cement was able to come in this week and take out the existing cement. They then smoothed out the dirt surface. The first front window openings were done in the annex. Electrical boxes went in. We began collecting Arizona Iced Tea cans to use as shingles in the rooftop garden area.

Broken up alley	Broken up alley	Making front window openings	Back windows going in
The new view to the east	New electrical boxes going in	New electrical boxes	Sodering the stairway
The stoop is gone	West window openings in the annex	Windows in the back of the building	Looking outside from the back of the building
Opening the eastern windows	Joe and Eduardo having lunch	Open window	Open windows in back
Redford Cement truck Thursday morning	The alley as it looked on Thursday morning	Mike leveling the alley	Spreading dirt
At the end of the day Friday	Openings on alley side	Opening to the alley	Jason Peet with Tom
Kenco working behind plastic foaming corners	Still full!	Friday meeting on June 4	Kevin with Arizona can
Arizona Iced Tea can

Week of June 7

More window work. Classic Landscape came in this week to lay the foundation or larger and smaller stones. Lon Ullman visited us and described how he would take fallen trees from the area and turn them into our new floors. We developed a prototype for the new fence posts to determine if all specs were correct.

Joe, Eduardo and Heladio all on the phone at once	Pablo heating the coals for Kevin's birthday lunch - Heladio supervising	Juan and Felix opening space for windows	Sean and his crew working on the electrical
Pile of rocks at alley entrance on Thursday morning	Geo-textile tarp in alley before stones	Spreading stones	How the stones got moved
Stones almost all spread out	New windows to the alley	Western light coming into annex!	Working on alley windows
Kevin holding up a fence post prototype	Our garden at the N Cass Community gardens	Lon Ullman showing us samples of the wood he will make for us	Prototype posts for fence in front of building
Kevin holding up a fence post prototype	Annex front windows

Week of June 14

Redford Cement came in again this week to lay down the cement portions of the alley. Kevin continued work on his wood wall, made from scraps of wood from our work. The big news, though, was the opening of the first historic windows out front. This was a banner week.

Kevin Gardner working on the wood wall for the new staircase	More Solatubes are in, making the one bulb you see here superfluous	Redford Cement trucks in front the of GG on Thursday	Cement going into the alley
Concrete alley sections with exposed aggregate look	Kirsten and Juan opening up the first window	watching the new window go in	Kirsten and Juan
Laurie and Max at the window opening	Watching the window open up	Window opening growing	Staircase with railing
Jason Peet on rooftop garden area	View of Solatubes and Duralast membrane from the roof	Peggy and Mitzi on rooftop garden area, with others on street	View of alley from rooftop garden
Kresge visit	Kresge visit	The new view from the inside	New window opening
New window opening	At the end of the day, sun pouring in from the west

Week of June 21

The front windows went in this week! (Before being boarded back up so as to prevent breakage during construction). Walls were starting to be framed. Brick work in the alley. Ken tested for air leakage in the windows (so far, all thumbs up!).

Crews working on the front windows	Balancing the weight for Dan	Walls getting framed upstairs	Crew before filming a documentary at the Green Garage
Peggy being interviewed for a documentary on Wednesday	Mike Mancini of Redford Cement with his son Mark	The view from the inside	Laying bricks in the alley
Brick pavers in alley	Martha standing in front of new window	front windows going in	installing windows
first front window in	2 windows in	The alley as of June 24	piles of materials inside
Kevin with his wood wall	Framing out the back rooms	new front	archive group!
Sam and Paulo	Ken sealing door and applying air pressure	ken testing leakage from windows	new front and side

Week of June 28

front windows	Sam and Kevin with the wall they are building	outside stairway in back	permeable pavers going in
Framing interior rooms	Building front as of July 1	Entrance to North Cass Community Garden, where we are growing lettuce and cabbage

Week of July 5

The week we finally planted the alley!

Heladio's family planting	Peggy, Martha, Kelly and Laura, expert planters	the group on Friday planting plants	Planting in the permeable pavers
Tom Bradley planting in the pavers	Plants in the alley on Saturday	freshly planted alley

Week of July 12

Big construction week....wood wall construction; mulch, new bollards and power washing the bricks in alley; insulating and framing walls; greenhouse construction; preparing wood for flooring; harvesting pieces of limestone from the Christian Science Reading Room.

New stairway with wood wall	Pex tubing in foyer for radiant heating	building front in July	Alley with cocoa mulch
Tom in front of the building on July 11	hollyhocks next door	Foam insulation on west and south walls	Tom power washing the bricks
some of the bricks that have been cleaned	beginnings of a bathroom in the annex	cement in the vestibule, over the pex tubing	Drywall waiting for installation next week
Insulating and framing front	Cellulose insulation on annex walls	U-D Mercy engineering students workshop on Friday	Jesse and Jason framing front
Old window frames cleaned for reuse	Planters in greenhouse	New bollards in alley	Christian Science Reading Room, where we obtained some limestone
Limestone (we'll be using in the back of our building)	Laura and Lon working on wood for the floors

Week of July 26

More wood work for flooring; Kevin's wood wall is completed; Motor City Brewing Works adds to the beauty of the alley with raised beds bordered by rocks; windows going in at the greenhouse entrance; lunch in the alley.

Lon Ullman's solar kiln, where our wood is drying	Inside the solar kiln (temp:140 on Tuesday)	Laura posing in front of some of our wood (for floors)	Jesse posing for the pegarazzi
Catching Kevin in a contemplative mood Tuesday	Stones for raised bed in part of the alley by MCBW	The smooth blue asters enjoying the sun in the alley	Tom in greenhouse
Front inteior in late July	Christian Science Reading Room after demolition	Raised bed bordered by stones at Motor City Brewing Works	Kevin at the top of his wall
Kevin and his finished wall	Lunch in the alley on Friday	Spiderwort blooming in the alley	A little visitor to the alley
Eduardo Jr at our alley entrance

Week of August 2

Since we began construction in October, we had never had a dumpster until now. This week marked the first and last time we needed a dumpster. The staircase and greenhouse were taking shape this week. We obtained tiles for our bathrooms from seconds collected at the Cercan and Beaver Tile. Some plants in the alley, just a month old, were beginning to bloom.

Sara Zoumbaris and her mom visiting Thursday	Our first and only dumpster	Front with the staircase	Greenhouse frame going in
Alley entrance	Donated tiles that will be used in our bathrooms	first black-eyed susan bloom	one of our groundcovers, mazus reptans, beginning to flower
switchgrass	marsh blazing star	potentilla	spiderwort

Week of August 9

Construction focused on a new front door, framing of the front interior vestibule, window frames and glass for the greenhouse, dry walling continuing and building new back stairs. We also worked on keeping those plants in the alley watered, given the intense heat of the summer.

new front door made from fallen walnut tree	interior vestibule window - the frame is one of the original window frames in the building	window frames for the greenhouse	waiting for the hose
Juan in the greenhouse	plants progressing in the alley	framing and green pipe (which will carry water)	a peek at a front window (at least half of it)
drywalling back rooms	new back stairs, reconstructed do they meet code	Little Neil and his owner strolling through the alley on Friday	Volunteers from Quinn-Evans architectural firm glazing our greenhouse windows

Week of August 30

newly bricked alley entrance	greenhouse with new windows	Kirsten peeking out from the greenhouse, with Eduardo and Heladio	framing of front entryway
new front door made from fallen walnut tree	Jason Peet working on railing	reused wood from our attic makes a railing for the mezzanine	reused wood from our attic makes a railing for the mezzanine
natural light from Solatube lighting the stairway	new arborvitae outside of alley entrance of MCBW	alley entrance to Motor City Brewing Works	sunlight pouring into the front of the building in late afternoon
pulling the tank in (kidding, folks!)	how the tank really came in	southwest corner of the building	Mitzi using fertilizer spreader as wheelbarrow
Joe Pye Weed growing in alley	Wayne County Community College class in for tour Friday	Thomas and Vincent in town from Montreal for the Eminem/Jay-Z concert and a stop at the GG