The Last Full Week

Bringing EBC to a close on out last full week of the project.

We've brought the whole team together this week to finish the handicap ramp. Monday and Tuesday were off to a vigorous start, with part of the group working to build the landing and others putting on the finishing touches. The ramp itself is complete with the railings secured and everything. It is looking fantastic! The landing is almost complete, the hole has been dug to the right size and the box fits inside of it. All that's left is to make sure it's level and square, along with filling it in with sand and bricks. The ramp is looking great! With only a few days left it is looking as though this will be finished just in time.

A couple weeks of hard work

Sorry we haven't updated in a while, it has been a truly busy couple of weeks over at the camps. I'm going to make a crazy list about everything that got done last week and the remaining that got done the week before that.
- The sub floors were finished in the duplex bathrooms
- We put in the floor over the sub floor in the bathrooms
- The bedroom walls were sanded and varnished on the right side of the Duplex
- The big room in the right side of the duplex has also been sanded and varnished
- Painted the ceilings

- New linoleum tile was put down in both bedrooms
- The Nashoba Tech electrical kids came and played with some electricity
- The handicap ramp was nearly complete, it needs the landing at the top and bottom done.
- The new roof on the batcave has been completed.
- The water in the pond is definitely safe for swimming in











Neil Approves




























Check out this floor and more pictures on the photo album

Monday and Tuesday!

Monday and Tuesday were busy days. The duplex got a lot of work done, along with the Batcave which got a lot of shingles. Unfortunately, the handicap ramp group realized that they had design flaws, and had to start over and dig a couple four foot deep holes.

The Duplex had a plethora of work completed. The back bedroom is now varnished and looks fantastic! Along with the ceilings being primed in painted in one side, soon to move on to the next. All of the torn out ceilings have now been replaced with new ceiling tiles.

And the big news of this morning....WE HAVE A BATHROOM FLOOR!!! Michael, Neil and myself, a few members of the duplex group, were able to stay and work on the floor late Tuesday night. We were finally able to finish this morning and so one side finally has a new floor, on to the next side later today and tomorrow.

Great work continues to be accomplished at the camps! Hopefully the beautiful weather persists.

Friday and Saturday

Friday in the duplex, we cleaned the ceiling, added the strapping back on to the ceiling, finished pulling out the bathroom floors, started sistering the floor joists in the left bathroom. The ceiling in the bedroom on the right side of the duplex is done as well. The batcave group worked on their roof, and the handicap ramp group worked on the foundation of the bottom of the ramp some more and made hamburgers.
On Saturday night, Ellen and Michael worked on sistering the floor joists in the right side bathroom. One more sister has to be cut and added, along with some additional bracing for the new members. We will finish that up monday so that the floor can be put in.

Remember to check out our pictures on the web album!

Westford Eagle

Today we were very excited to see Joyce Crane's Article about the project in the paper. It was very cool to see all of the support from friends and family around us in the community today. We know that the article said that donations and shirt sales were going on on the blog, but we're not quite that good, and are unable to do so. In it's place we have provided a close second to a donations page and that is an East Boston Camps Senior Project 2010 Email address where you can contact us if you want to make a donation of any kind (this is not limited to money, if you would like to swing by and donate your time helping out on one of our projects let us know), to ask us any questions, or to order a tee shirt. Once again, we really appreciate all of your help and support!

Contact us at our official email address!

ebc.project.2010@gmail.com

Wednesday and Thursday

Despite a raw and rainy day Wednesday, East Boston Camps had yet another successful work day. With the plumbers around we had extra company to work around. They were able to cut unneeded pipes and fix a few water lines. The water heater was also moved out of the duplex. Plans have begun to be set in motion to replace the floors in the Duplex bathrooms, both now have a paper cut out of the floor plan to model the new floors after. Once the floors are rebuilt the plumbers will be able to install the new bathroom plumbing.

Other Wednesday news includes a repaired ceiling for the left apartment of the duplex. After being showered with animal droppings on Tuesday by the old ceiling, it was refreshing to put new drywall up in it's place and have a fresh, clean ceiling. Our bottle collection, after many puzzled and humored looks of passer-by, was also disassembled to go out with the trash in the dumpster.

As the batcave group was unable to work on their roof in the rain on Wednesday, the members were put to work in the rec room staining the new kitchen units for the duplex.

The handicap ramp group continued to work on their foundation, along with cutting and painting boards with the ramp. They continued their attempts in creating a fire to stay warm, and today were able to test out the fire as a grill during lunch. Their hamburgers were quite delicious.

Thursday more work was completed, indoors and out. The sun allowed workers to clean up and throw away the old shingles. Many batcave workers also continued to stain, assembling tables for the duplex and staining them to match the kitchen units.

In the duplex, the bathroom floors were removed because workers kept mysteriously falling through and making the holes in the floor even bigger. The new drywall on the ceiling on the left side of the duplex was mudded, and the animal holes were patched. The ceiling tiles

in the bedroom on the right side of the duplex are nearly complete, there are just a few more to cut and staple up.

Thats all we have for now, more pictures will be posted soon! We're very excited for tomorrow's adventures re-assembling the bathroom floors.

Tuseday's Acheivements

Today the duplex groups made much progress once again. A template for the bathroom subfloor has been made. The animal nests were taken out of the ceiling, and the holes the animals made were cut out so they can be properly patched. The sections of roof that are being eaten by carpenter ants were sprayed with ant killer as well. We pulled out the kitchen cabinet/sink structures from both sides so that we could take out the its base. Unfortunately we will not be able to build new bases, so Paul Cully did some research and tracked down some new ones. Some more sanding was done as well. In the batcave, some of the members were busy today, so the shower removal made some progress and then the batcave group helped at the duplex. The handicapped ramp group worked on levelling the ground and laying some bricks for the bottom of the ramp. They also found a grill to make a fire in to warm up the group during lunch break. We have a good list of things that have to get done, and Thursday is trash day so we're going to be stuffing the dumpster all day.

Monday!

On Monday, we returned to the camps for another busy day. The handicap ramp team came back to find a platform built for the landing at the top of their ramp. Some members of the team working in the batcave were missing so they worked on removing some bathroom fixtures and then helped out in the duplex. In the duplex the teams were happy to have the additional help. There was all sorts of sanding and cleaning accomplished, along with the removal of the bathroom ceilings, and other sections of ceiling that need to be replaced. When we removed the ceilings in the bathroom, we were attacked by falling treasures from long ago when the duplex was a staff cabin (see picture) and had to spend a long time cleaning that up. We were showered again by animal droppings when we pulled out ceiling from other rooms.
If you would like to see more pictures of the project, here is a link to a photo album we're putting the pictures in.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikesbikester/CabinFeverAtTheEastBostonCamps#

Week Two

After an intense first week, week two went on a slower pace. As an optional work week because of school vacation, many of our workers were away or able to take some time off. Paul Cully worked a lot with a few of the students during the week. Quite a bit was accomplished thanks to Paul's efforts. The foundation of the handicap ramp has been built and painted, the kitchen units have been taken part, as well as tables and chairs for the kitchens in the duplex have been ordered. The walls of the duplex are continuing to be sanded, and the ceiling in one side of the duplex is now completely removed. We are hoping for a very progressive third week with our whole crew back in action. Pictures will follow soon!

Shirts

Tee Shirts

For anyone interested, we will still be holding tee shirt sales to raise money for the camps, based on demand. Shirts are estimated to be 15$ or less and will be manufactured as requests come in. Contact me, Ellen Haynes via email if you are interested in placing an order, at ellenosity@gmail.com. Photos of the shirts will be up soon!

More photos!

a few pictures from week one!

Week One

Quite an intense and successful first week at east boston camps!
Although we're split into different groups based on project goals (the batcave group, 2 duplex groups and a handicap ramp group) we've all been able to work together as a cohesive team, helping each other out when needed.

The week got of to a fast paced start.

In the batcave, we started off by tearing apart the old roof. The shingles were taken off first, then the rotted wood was replaced. We next put edges on and weatherproofed it. It was a great week for roofing! The whole team got involved helping with that project. The batcave group also pulled up a lot of the old linoleum that needed to be replaced. Lots still to do on the inside and the outside!

The handicap ramp is also getting off to a good start. Many holes were dug and the building of the foundation has begun.

The duplex people have been very productive. All the linoleum has been torn out, as well as the islands in the kitchen and the broken appliances. The walls have begun to be sanded, and the plumbing is being replaced. We have taken out the toilets, sinks, and are currently getting a lesson in using the sawsall and the negatives of sawing through fiberglass (it gets everywhere). Proper safety equipment is in use though!

All in all the team is learning a lot this week about power tools, construction, and working together. We've been having a lot of fun though, and everyone agrees that being outside all day working with our hands definitely beats sitting in school. We are all anxious to continue!

Next week will probably be a slower week than this one, as it is school vacation week and many of our people will be traveling. We'll have people in Italy, Spain, China, and France! For those of us non jet-setters, many will present having a sort of low key work week.

Be sure to check out the pictures!

Welcome to the EBC Senior Project Blog!

For any of you who don't know, we are a group of seniors working to make the East Boston Camps of Westford usable again! What started as a couple of seniors throwing ideas around over a newspaper article, has grown into a team of 15 students working to repair the camps we all know and love. We are out of school working on the project as our senior internship.

This blog is to update members of the community on our project progress. It will be updated a few times a week with pictures, quotes, and what we're working on at the moment.

If you're curious, come by and see us hard at work!

Thank you all for your support.