Since I’m all about being green in every possible way, I of course carry that over into this class as well.  Group projects are in progress and this week the theme was “green”.  Here are some photos of my student’s work.  This class is a hands-on class much like my construction classes, but without the heavy equipment and power tools.

A wall display for Kindle.

A table display for green fashion design classes.

A shelving unit display with some of my smiling fashion students!

A window display for reusable bags.

Cube displays for “tea”.

More cube displays with more smiling students!

Here’s me with Robert, Ralph, and Eladio as we prepare to march in the streets of Sacramento at the big education rally.  Ralph is my wonderful co-teacher from the Laborer’s Union.  We are so lucky to have him as a part of our program!

Here are my students as we are marching.

I love what this poster says.

Melissa (professor of math) and I couldn’t believe the size of this Clydesdale!

Heading back home – hopefully Sacramento heard us loud and clear!

For this project.  We threw away very little in terms of existing fixtures.  We took down walls to open up the floor space, and deconstructed the illegal addition, upgraded the MEP, and refinished the floors and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

All in all I think this poor abandoned house turned out to be quite cute !

A big Thank You to San Francisco Housing Development Corp. for the project.

How many of us have a bunch of paint chips lying around in drawers, in files, on the floors of our trucks?  I have the world’s most awesome color deck set given to me by Benjamin Moore Paints, yet I still pull those individual paint chips whenever I need a sample to show a customer.  What should one do with all those chips?  Well these paint chip orbs seemed like a nice project.  The creator of this project shows them sitting on desk, as I suppose some sort of decoration.  That doesn’t work for me.  I hate crap lying around without a purpose, function over form I say.  And don’t fool yourself, those things are too light to be paperweights.

So as I examined this project I thought, why not add a piece of string, rope, or pipe cleaner and hang them from your Christmas tree?  Perfect, now they have a purpose, and they fit the theme of a Contractor’s Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

I am convinced some people SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED to be homeowners!  The American dream be damned, your dumba#%^&, need to rent only.  When I look at the damage that’s been caused to our latest project; I am more and more convinced homeownership should be a privilege like driving.  You should first prove that you are capable of keeping up a home.  You would never purposely damage your car, would you?  So why do people do it to their homes?  Some of the damage I see is just downright stupid.

Please take this advice:

• If you are going to do an addition to your home (especially an illegal one), don’t bury all the construction debris under the house, in place of a foundation!! – c’mon people use some common sense!
• Don’t install a cabinet so it blocks the opening of a doorway – duh!
• Tile is decorative, not structural, so don’t build with it! – unbelievable
• Toilet rooms right next to the kitchen is not a good look! – it’s also against code
• I am not one for being all matchy-matchy, but a neutral color scheme is always best and safe when you have bad taste.

Thank you SFHDC for choosing us to come to the rescue of this house that was treated so poorly by it’s previous owners.

Well America has finally joined the ranks of what the rest of the world had already figured out:  wool makes a great insulation!  It’s not cheap, but you won’t get sticker shock either.

• It’s a renewable and sustainable resource
• Recyclable
• Can absorb moisture and help prevent condensation (oh hell yes!!)
• Has some acoustic insulating properties

Once again nature shows us how its done !

(all images via Oregon Shepherd)

I’m a signatory union contractor, but damn – people have the right to use whoever they want on their projects!  I wouldn’t blame him if he continued to use non-union labor.  And don’t read the comments on the above article, they’ll just piss you off even more.

Keep the peace Jay!

(image via: the urban daily)

The house is the winning design of Ting Li and Maja Paklar in the AIA competition.  It’s outfitted with all the green building features, making it the eco-friendliest on Malibu beach.  The house (in theory) has solar panels, drought resistant landscaping, zero VOC paint, a landscaped roof, and energy efficient appliances.  It’s my dream green home!

I like Architect Barbie, but when oh when are they going to come out with Construction Barbie?!?  And please don’t tell me they already did (it’s Ken!).

(all images via AIA)

Citybuild Academy 12 graduated and I immediately had to begin planning CBA 13.  The Carpenter’s Union pulled out of the CityBuild program – I’m hopeful they will renew their support with us.  It sounds “very political” on the reasons why they left, and as a carpenter myself it makes me sad!  I don’t want my people to go!  On the flip side, Maximo Construction is now signatory to the Laborer’s Union!  Crazy – huh!  I am a carpenter by trade but the work that interests me the most – energy efficiency  - is currently being promoted by the Laborer’s!  So I joined them instead.  I may become signatory to the Carpenter’s………one day!

I’m enrolled in a Master’s Degree honors program in green building.  So when I’m not staring at this computer I’m staring at a textbook.  I just finished reading The Green Building Revolution by Jerry Yudelson and Green Building Through Integrated Design (same author).  I’m now reading Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Integrated Eco-logical Solutions by Janis Birkeland, whew!

The cherry on top of all this is starting this fall I will be co-teaching a fashion modeling class at CCSF – how random and how fun!  Proving yet again that fashion and construction do make a perfect pair at least for me!

I gotta get back to doing some real work…..Ciao!

(image via: worldtravels)