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May 30, 2011 - For the past 4 months we have been hanging wallboard, and this week we hung the final piece. The last major area to be covered was the ceiling in the video production studio. The ceiling is 19 feet high, and a 4; x 8: sheet of 5/8" wallboard weight right at 100 pounds. Cutting the wallboard to size, lifting it in place, and screwing it to the roof trusses was a job we felt should be left to the pros.We placed an ad in the "Gigs" section of the Houston Craigslist, and were flooded with contractors looking for work. We had over 15 responses in less than 24 hours. Prices for the most part were good, but one company really stood out from the rest.
Jeremy Crow of Crows Construction company replied to our ad by showing up at the job site the morning the ad run. He walked the site and in the process told Adam how he would handle the job. Since he was the first contractor we met, we were not ready to make a decision. Several other contractors showed up, and when the dust settled, we gave Jeremy the work. His price was competitive (not the lowest), but we liked his attitude and felt confident that he could get the job done safely. But before he could get started, we had some insulation work that had to be completed.
Posted by on May 30, 2011
May 27, 2011 - This week Centerpoint returned to our job site and approved the changes we made to the main electrical service boxes we built for the new building. The installation of the three electric meters took just over an hour to do. We had been using power from the temporary electric pole we set up back in February. Every morning we would have to drag out 100' of heavy electrical wire and literally plug it into an outlet on the pole for power. When the Centerpoint electrician flipped the switch - everything worked perfectly!
We have Brian, Alan and Lalo to thank for that. Lalo, a licensed electrician, began working with us last month and has gone over every inch of wire in the building to make sure it works as designed. He has made a number of improvements over our original plans, and I would say we are about 80% done with the electrical work on the building. We have a lot of fixtures and emergency lighting to do, but that is relatively easy work compared to what has been done.
Posted by on May 28, 2011
May 20, 2011 - With most of the Sheetrock up and floated (by the way, the difference between Sheetrock and wallboard, is Sheetrock is a brand name and wallboard is the generic term), we turned our attention to texturing the walls. Some contractors use wallboard mud for texturing, while others buy a special texture mix and blend water with the white gypsum powder in the bag. We decided to mix our own.
We purchased an inexpensive texture gun and hopper from Harbor Freight (on sale for under $20), hooked it up to our compressor and began spraying the walls.Texturing requires a lot of air, and our compressor had a difficult time keeping up.We would do a section of the wall then wait a couple of minutes to let the pressure build back up in the air tank. While it is not as fast as we would like, we were able to get all the walls textured in two containers in about 3 hours. Some contractors "knock down" the spray texture using a wide flat blade. We liked the way it looked right out of the gun.
Posted by on May 23, 2011
May 15, 2011 - The big news this week was the installation of the two, 5 ton AC units on the roof of the building, and getting started on the kitchen in the Silver Rock unit. We also got all of the wallboard installed (except for the ceiling in the video production room), and second layer of mud on the walls that were taped and floated last week. We picked up a load of steel for the ADA ramp and got a close out inventory of Italian ceramic tile delivered to the epic Creative Co-Op at a great price.
Fernando Sanchez of Flex Builders came by with two 13 SEER AC units that will cool the Silver Rock units and the big video production room. During the design phase of the project he suggested we place the units on the roof for security and aesthetic reasons. We used Mike's bucket truck (Gulf Coast Graphics) which quickly lifted the units to the roof. Each unit was positioned on the platform we built and bolted down several weeks ago. We also did some things to insure the AC units will provide years of uninterrupted service.
Posted by on May 16, 2011
May 8, 2011 - This week we got much of the wallboard up, and by Friday we are about 20 sheets short of having all the walls done. We still have our work cut out with the most demanding wallboard job ahead of us - the ceiling of the video production room. We will have to rent a scissors lift to safely get the 50 or so 4' x 8' sheets of 5/8 inch wallboard affixed to the ceiling. Each sheet weighs over 70 pounds. Once the ceiling is in place, we can have ComforTemp back to blow in the insulation in the attic - it will be nice to check that off the list.
We also got a great deal of the electrical outlets and switches on the second floor working. One room at a time, Lalo was able to get the wiring completed and the lights on. He also ran some of the wiring we added to the big room. Each bank of lights has its own set of switches and dedicated breaker which should really help during video production shoots. We fixed some of the wiring and conduit on the panel boxes, and with some luck, should be able to have the electric company back out later next week to power up the building.
Posted by on May 09, 2011
May 5, 2011 – While approaching graduation for the Digital Communication Program at Houston Community College, I was required to obtain an internship in the field of multimedia. Epic software group was my top choice for a multimedia internship. My research of epic's company profile, combined with references from several top multimedia designers made it the ideal place for an internship. After hearing about the stories and uninspiring experiences from fellow students about their internships I was a little skeptical .
After applying for several internships that met the curriculum criteria, I eventually applied for an internship at epic. I soon received a call from the company’s president Mr. Vic Cherubini to schedule an interview. During the interview Vic gave me an overview of epic's internship program, and together we came up with my “acid test”. An “acid test” is an assignment to test specific skills in an are of study that both the student and epic are interested in. Vic and I agreed on a time limit for the test (I did mine over a weekend). The test helps epic determine an intern's skill sets and if he or she is able to get a project done in the agreed to amount of time.
After discussing both the overview and the objective of my “acid test”, I worked on a Flash based presentation that consisted of a “frame-by-frame” animation. It required me to demonstrate my object oriented programming (OOP) skills. The application also had to demonstrate a professional level of design. I completed the entire process in the time we agreed on, and was offered a formal internship at epic. Immediately, after my acceptance and the first given assignment I knew this wasn’t an ordinary internship.
Posted by Curtis on May 04, 2011
May 1, 2011 -This week the crew from ComforTemp returned and finished blowing in cellulose insulation into all the walls of the studio. They will be back next week to add cellulose to the attic (as soon as we get the ceiling up in the video production studio). We also got most of the wallboard up on all the container walls. Most walls have been taped and floated at least once, but a second layer will be added next week.
We also got started on installing wallboard in the video production studio. This is a VERY BIG job, as the walls are 19' high and the walls are 44' x 28'. The ceiling will be especially challenging. The entire north wall, half of the west wall and the floor will be painted a special shade of green. When we shoot a video against this "green screen" we can remove the green color and add a background photo, or video of our choice. Building this wall (also known as an infinity wall, or cove wall) is tricky, but we had some help from videos posted on YouTube.
Posted by on May 01, 2011
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