San Damiano Center for Sustainability: Framing in progress, Part II

San Damiano Center for Sustainability:
Framing in Progress, Part II

by Eric Fitts, Director

When we last left off, we were in the midst of installing headers and just beginning to get a few joists in. Up until this point, primarily Caretakers and Summer Servants had worked on site, as the detail work and post placement did not lend itself well to large groups. Last Friday, Kevin asked when we were going to get a crew of participants for a group week. I had not really given that enough thought until that moment, especially since our home repair waiting list is so long that I wanted most of our energy focused outward. Then Will and I talked it over and decided to break the group into 6 crews instead of 5, so everyone could be happy. A sixth work crew can be difficult to manage the transportation, but the Farm Crew walks 25 yards to work each morning, so that made it even easier.

During this group week, we installed the remaining loft floor headers, hoisted all the joists into place, nailed in most of the joists, completed the blocking on the rim joists, and laid 4/5 of the 3/4″ Advantech for the loft floor decking–quick and sure progress!

One evening, as I was installing a few more blocks before supper, I came to my last block and climbed a ladder that had been off to the side most of the day. On the top rung, there sat a toad or frog of some sort, blue and green. He or she did not flinch as I air-nailed that last block, allowed Clare to come close to say hi, and allowed me to snap the photo below. We figure it was St. Francis or St. Clare smiling on our project 😉

Many thanks to everyone who has donated time, talent, and treasure to bring us this far!

Next up…complete the loft floor and begin sheathing the first floor walls.

“Rebuild My Church” Capital Campaign