Construction Projects for the Mechanically Disinclined
I'm in a year-long local leadership program called Leadership San Juan, and part the course culminates with having to complete a project with several other members, then give a presentation to the Leadership San Juan Board about what project you chose and how it was completed. The idea is to build collaborative skills and work as a team.
I am also on the Board of Directors for a non-profit called Sexual Assault Services of Northwest New Mexico. They provide rape counseling, legal advocacy, and forensic examinations for survivors of sexual assault. Being on their Board, I knew they had a number of needs as a new non-profit, one of which was a shower for survivors to use after their examination. So this is what my project group opted to do - build a shower in the existing bathroom of SAS.
Yesterday was the first day of actual work on the project, having been put off a couple of times due to conflicting schedules. Most everyone in LSJ is already a professional of some sort, so it's difficult to find a time we can all get together to work on something. The result is that only four of the seven showed up. It was duly noted that the four that showed up were the four men of the group, the three women having had conflicts suddenly appear in their calendars. I'm certain they will make up for their absence, but in the meantime they will have to hear about it for a while.
Ryan and Erik unloading the supplies.
The existing stall. There were two toilet stalls in the bathroom, one ADA compliant and one not, so the choice was obvious - rip out the non-ADA toilet and put in an ADA shower stall.
Gearing up for a hard day's work.
Oh, what a motley crew it is, too. From left to right: Ryan, Erik, me, Bryan. Ryan works for a construction (owns?) a construction company, and is also the director Echo Housing, so he is the de-facto foreman of our little group (thus the white hardhat). Erik runs a nursing home. Bryan owns a jewelry store. Notice the matching lime-green shirts. We're stylin'.
Too legit to quit.
The funnest part of any project - the demolition.
Plumbing is really just an excuse to crawl around on the floor and grunt.
The plans, after having been marked up in red by the city building inspector. It was practically bleeding red ink.
Everything has a use.
To put in the very wide ADA shower (63.5" across), we had to take out not only one of the toilet stalls, but also one of the two sinks. Left is a shot of the sink area after I happily demolished one of the mirrors. I wonder if I get seven years bad luck for each whack? Right is a self portrait in part of a demolished mirror.
This is pretty much what it looked like by the end of the day. Sometime during the week, a licensed plumber will come and (for free!) run lines from the existing piping and put in the fixtures. Then next weekend we get to finish the walls with FRP and put the remaining sink back in. If we can get it all done next weekend, Sexual Assault Services will have a shower, and we will just have to edit the video for the presentation! We're going for an "Extreme Home Makeover" theme, so it should be fun.
Comments
"Too legit to quit."
You don't know HOW HARD I laughed when I read this--as just 30 minutes ago I was goofing around and free-style rapping in my pajama pants that resembled MC Hammer's own parachute pants.
I really should record myself rapping sometime, if I can ever get Audacity to cooperate. Everytime I go to record, there's an odd constant buzzing and I can't figure out how to fix it.
Strix: Why? I got all my aggression out now.
Zola: We just had a Take Back the Night rally, too. I couldn't go, as I had to work, but I heard it was a big success.
The buzzing in Audacity may not be the software, I'm afraid. It could be your mic or your sound card.
It could still be your soundcard. Try Windows Sound Recorder; if the noise goes away, it was Audacity. If not, try a different mic. If the noise still doesn't go away, it's your sound card.