Camp Hearne Diary - February 18, 2010

It has truly been a busy week. I missed coming by yesterday.

I love the diagonals. We will cover the exterior, but I love the way it looks from the inside. Matt said "pigtailing" the too short trusses was a simple fix so the roof is coming along. Everything is on schedule.

Camp Hearne Diary - February 16, 2010

Monday was a bitterly cold day and the Crew decided it was a good day to stay at home and let it dry out.

Today was cold as well, but the Crew worked on the shiplap sliding in the front of the barrack.

We finalized the roofing system specifications and sent out the RFP for the roof and plumbing.

Camp Hearne Diary - February 12, 2010

Well, it rain again yesterday. What a bummer.

Friday, the Crew put up the 4x8 sheathing until they ran out of material. The cool part was seening the diagonal shiplap go up. Several of the orginal photographs show this pattern. It really looks great and mimics the 1942 barrack interior.

Camp Hearne Diary - February 10, 2010

The trusses are finished. They still need to pigtail the prefabricated trusses to obtain the 12" overhang, but things are coming along. The exterior 3/4" OSB sheathing was going up quickly.

Unfortunately, more rain forecasted for Thursday.

Recieved a call from Bill ONeal from Carthrage. He is a history teacher and is writing a "photo" book about World War II sites in Texas. He is putting us in his Places to Visit chapter and was very complimentary about our efforts.

Camp Hearne Diary - February 9, 2010

The Crew worked a half day Monday for the rain hit us again. Tuesday was a good day and they were able to build the custom trusses needed over the 1942 "raw" area.

Robert Penney, our City's plant manager, has been checking each day to be sure we are in line with the City's requirements.

Things are looking great!

Camp Hearne Diary - February 5, 2010

We are raising the roof!!!

Matt, Jim and Coleman are setting the prefabricated trusses from Stark Truss. These are placed over the "modern" interior part of the building. The original barrack plan calls for 8' ceilings, but they did allow for a raised ceiling when necessary to accommodate refrigerators, etc. In our exhibit area, we decided to raise the ceiling another 8" so there would be more clearance (ventilation) above our display cases.

The Crew will install custom trusses over the barrack replica area to achieve the original appearance inside the barrack.

Camp Hearne Diary - February 3 & 4, 2010

Wouldn't you know the weather man was right.

Rain Wednesday & Thursday... not large amounts just all day.

Everything is really WET!

Camp Hearne Diary - February 2, 2010

Can you believe the walls are going up.

I met with Matt and Jim Monday to discuss the window framing. In order to support the roof, a double header is necessary, but the plans and photos for the sliding windows only show a single header.

Stark Truss was the low bidder for the prefabricated trusses needed for the modern area of the barracks. After weeks of delay, the delivery was finally Tuesday. Unfortunately, there was a discrepancy in our OH dimensions. As it turns out, extending the rafter tails will accommodate a vented soffit to the exact length... so all is well.

Rain is in the forecast for Wed and Thurs. After the summer drought I really hate to ask for dry weather.

Camp Hearne Diary - January 28, 2010

Forgive these late "data-dump" posts, but I am just getting use to blogging (and I bet there is a different term you techies use) --- Anyway, Melissa Freeman and Cathy Lazarus introduced our Camp Hearne vision to a group of 7th grade teachers attending the Region VI Texas History Conference in Huntsville. Our presentation seemed to go very well and we are pleased with the comments and even had some praise for our efforts. We will be putting most of this online at www.camphearne.com/ --- Matt and Jim took Thursday off due to an all day rain forecast. Of course did not rain, but they spent some time with Dr. Waters at A&M and reviewed the original diagrams and photographs from his collection. This was to achieve the original building "aesthetics" as possible. What I appreciate about these craftsmen is that they try very hard to mimic the look without sacrificing structural soundness. Obviously we want the building to last much longer that the original barrack plan's "20 year lifespan".