Thursday, September 27, 2012

Reconstruction Day 13

MCC left to return to Philadelphia after a half day or work today, but before they finished for the week, they installed the back doors and covered the entire house with protective tarps to keep rain off the unfinished roof.  Next week MCC will remain in Philadelphia to continue work on the interior panels, which still need to be painted.  They will return to campus the week of October 8th.  In the mean time, the roofing will be installed and other work will continue on the restoration.

The back double doors, installed this morning

All the windows and doors in place

The inside of the front door

The future site of the bathroom, with some of the wiring and interior panels installed

The back doors from the outside, and the house covered by the protective tarps for the weekend until the roofing is watertight 

Insulation for the roof awaiting installation

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Reconstruction Day 12

Today the last of the windows was installed.  The front door was also put in place, and the door jamb for the back double doors was fitted.  The back doors are not installed yet, but will be tomorrow.  The electrician also continued work on the wiring, including the data cables, which is almost complete.

Fitting one of the final windows


Installing the doorjamb for the rear double doors

The front door, installed by MCC today

Reconstruction Day 11

The electrician returned and put in most of the wiring today.  MCC continued to install windows, most of which are in place.  They also put up a few of the interior wall panels and some of the cabinets in the smaller bedroom.  With some of the interior walls in place you can really start to see where the rooms will be and imagine what it will be like when it's finished!

Two interior wall panels installed and some cabinets

The electrical wires installed so far

Windows put in place so far

Monday, September 24, 2012

Reconstruction Day 10

Today the electrician for the project began the wiring.  He will be coming back hopefully to complete it tomorrow.  Once the electrical wiring is done MCC can finish the roofing.  In the mean time, the MCC crew is installing windows.  They have put in several of the windows already and will continue working on them tomorrow.

The completed shell with some of the windows installed

The interior of the garage

Looking through where the front door will soon be

Installing some of the windows

One window installed, one awaiting installation

The beginning of the wiring installed by the electrician today

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Reconstruction Day 9

On Friday MCC installed the wood blocking and sleepers for the garage roof.  They also finished the roof sheathing and covered it with a protective tarp for the the weekend.  the next step is installing the inner-wall wiring, which will be followed by roof insulation, fascia panels and roofing.

Installing the garage roof wood blocking and sleepers

Garage roof sheathing finished

Tarps covering the unfinished roof awaiting wiring, insulation, and roofing material

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Reconstruction Day 8

The garage assembly was finished today.  The last of the roof panels were put in place, finishing the reassembly of the exterior structural panels.  Several of the windows were also installed.

Putting one of the windows in place

The last roof panel being lifted into place

Installing the last panel and tightening bolts

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Reconstruction Day 7

The garage walls were put up today.  The first few roof panels for the garage were also put in place.  The roof was not entirely finished, but once it is, all the exterior panels will be up. One of the windows, the one in the bathroom wall, was also installed today.  Work on the house will continue for the rest of the week--they're making great progress!

The newly reconstructed garage

Working on the roof panels for the garage

The first window to be installed

The future bathroom, with the window in place

A stack of windows waiting to be installed



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Reconstruction Day 6

Today they completed the shell of the house--all the exterior wall panels and roof panels are in place!  The garage walls have not been put up yet, but will be later in the week if all goes according to plan.

The roof is ready for electrical wiring. Half of the wooden sleepers for the roofing are in place and plywood boards have been nailed down on top.  Once the electrical wires have been installed the rest of the sleepers can be put in place and the roofing materials put on top.

Because of the rain, the house has been covered with a tarp for protection, but the MCC crew used the newly enclosed space inside the house to begin fitting the windows.  They were restored and put back together at the workshop in Philadelphia, but have to be shaved down to exactly the right size.  Once the shell of the house was back in place MCC turned to fitting the windows into their spaces in the panels, but did not actually install any.

It's great to see Rusty start to look like a house again, although it's not rusty any more!

Rusty's shell put back together

The roofing so far, awaiting electrical wiring

One of the windows waiting to be fitted to its gap in the panel

At work fitting a window

The front door waiting to be reinstalled

Reconstruction Day 5

MCC returned to campus Monday to resume work on the Steel House.  They continued to put up exterior wall panels as well as roofing panels for the completed sections of wall.  Although they didn't quite finish the exterior walls, they came close.

Putting one of the panels into place

Friday, September 14, 2012

Reconstruction Day 3 & 4

Reconstruction continues!  More of the exterior wall panels have been put in place including the framing for the front door.  Some of the wooden framing for the roof has also been put in place along with more of the roofing panels.  MCC will return after the weekend to continue work on the house.

The inside so far

The future location of the front door

The side of the house with the seven panels that have been put up so far


Wooden boards put in place as part of the roofing

Reconstruction so far

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Reconstruction Day 2

Work onsite continued today as planned.  No more problems have been found with the reassembly process, although having to resize the holes in all of the panels is slowing down the reconstruction somewhat.  Despite this setback, the exterior front wall as well as five panels of each of the side walls were back in place by the end of today.  The roofing panels are also being put back in place as the side walls are put up.  This will help make the frame more sturdy and keep the wall panels in place.  MCC will return to campus tomorrow to continue work.

The partially reconstructed side wall with two window openings towards the front

A view inside--the wooden divisions between each of the panels are thermal spacers to prevent the steel  panels from touching one another.  These will not be visible once the interior walls are in place.

The first completed wall facing onto Mohegan Avenue with one of the partial side walls


The MCC crew hard at work reinstalling the exterior wall panels


One of the roof panels waiting to be put back in place

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Reconstruction Day 1

Onsite reconstruction began today!  MCC returned to Connecticut College yesterday to unload materials and begin setting up and today started putting all the carefully restored parts back together.  So far they have rebuilt one exterior wall at the front of the house. All of the pieces are made to fit together perfectly, and watching the MCC crew reassemble the panels and bolt them into place allows you to imagine what the original construction of the house must have been like.  The panels look completely different now that they are repaired and repainted.  Unfortunately the layers of paint put on the panels made them very slightly thicker so larger holes had to be drilled in the base of each panel to enable them to be bolted to the foundation and all fit together properly.  It is amazing that such a small difference in the panel size could affect the fit of the joints, but it goes to show how precisely each of the parts was made and how snugly they all fit together.  This necessary adjustment caused a minor setback in the reconstruction since some of the panels that had already been put in place had to be taken down again to adjust the fit.  However, the wall was back up by the end of the day and the MCC crew will continue to make progress on reconstructing the exterior of the house throughout the week. 

It's great to see what all the restored pieces look like, and it will be very exciting to see them come back together!

The first completed wall at the end of day one

Attaching one of the exterior panels to the foundation.  Each of the exterior panels, seen here on the ground, has been placed around the perimeter of the foundation according to where it belongs in the wall.

Securing two of the panels together 

Photos by Doug Royalty

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Ceiling panel skins and stiffeners have been replaced and the panel either repaired or replaced

Panel mock-ups of the interior paint system.  The walls will either be painted yellow or grey, and ceilings will be white

Stack of new wood spacers for roof and ceiling panels

Steel interior partition wall studs that have been treated and painted

Part of the trellis and hood that have been restored and reassembled

new thermal spacers with new joint covers attached