by Lily Stevens

Welcome to our first week of the summer build! Cohort one, made up of eight out of sixteen of this year’s DesignBuild students, will be on site for the first six weeks of the project. We began on day one getting acquainted with the tools, materials, and environment of the build site by splitting into two teams to practice. Both teams built mock-ups of key elements that will be helpful to know later on: one of a window installation and the other of the connection detail between the main module of the house and the roof. Each project required different tools and techniques that we practiced and then shared with each other at the end of the day.

The second day we began to work as one team to square and level the cribbing on which the structure will be built here on the Amherst campus. We ended the day having completed the same squaring and leveling process with the sill plate and the rim joist. During this process, we became familiar with the process of using a laser level, and mason’s line (taught string), tools that we will be using along many steps of the construction process.

On Wednesday, we cut and installed the joists spanning the width of the floor. Measuring and trimming boards to the correct length was an important part of this step to ensure that the rim joist to which they were being attached would not bow out or in as the joists were secured to it (mason’s line again).

Thursday brought with it rain and a trip to Cowls Building Supply. We took a field trip to the local store, Cowls, and received a tour from owner Evan Jones. Through this experience, students were able to get a peek behind the curtain of what it takes to run the store and learn about where some of their materials are coming from.

Friday closed out our first week of the summer build session. We finalized the joist placement and blocking along the joists in preparation to attach sheathing. Additionally, we created a special detail for the stair supports by building a removable set of joists to create a temporary platform on which to walk. The end of the day included more rain and students looking forward to beginning sheathing next week!