Week One: May 6th thru May 11th

On Sunday May 6th 2012, I made the 10 hour trip from Muncie, Indiana to Hickory, North Carolina. The trip was beautiful but very long.

After my long trip I finally arrived in Hickory, NC to my beautiful apartment at the Ledgends where I met my roommate/co-worker Greg (Project Engineer).

On Monday morning I made my way to the Jobsite in Morganton, NC. I went straight to the job trailer, so I didn't see much of the site yet. I had to fill out all the standard paperwork and take a pee test. I was shown around the office and introduced to the Project Engineers, Project Managers, and Site Superintendents. Everyone is really nice and I am going to love working with them. After my Safety Orientation I got my Hard Hat.



I'm wearing the suspenders my awesome bosses at the Orientation Office gave to me before I left.

After the Meet and Greets Myself, Becky (Project Engineer/Other Girl), and Greg were shown around the site by Glenn (Superintendent). The project site is 70Acres and the hospital will be 148,000SF!!!! (btw 70 acres is equal to 77 football fields, try to imagine that)

They are pushing dirt for one of the two silt ponds behind me.

After the site visit a bunch of us went to lunch at Mountain Burrito, it was fantastic. It was kind of like Chipotle, but better. 

If you haven't noticed yet, I like pictures. So if it is getting old to you, you better quit now!

Paperwork, Meet&Greets, Site Visit, Lunch: that was all great, but I was ready to get into the project and help where I can, but my computer hadn't arrived yet(btw everyone has an ipad as well because that's how they access the drawings! can't wait for mine to arrive),so I got the privelage of updating the hard copy drawings. If you don't know what that means, it ment stappling the updated drawings and Addendum 1-3 to their respective old counterparts. I got to do this from Monday after lunch until Today, Friday.

It might not seem exciting to you, but I was updating the documents in the Superintendent Job Trailer and that was so much fun. I absolutley love the Superintendents: Roy, Glen, Paul, and Travis!

Roy is my favorite, he is a good ole' boy from the south. He doesn't like techonology very much so he has me email and save pictures for him!

The Superintendents typically come in at 6am, the PM's and PE's usually don't come in until after 7:30am. Since I work with the Superintendent's I arrive to work at 6am. I live in Hickory and not Morganton where the job is so I am up by 4:15am and leave the house at 5:22am!

On Tuesday: Job was rained out, no work done on site :(

On Wednesday my computer came in. YAAA! I got to set up my Walsh email and get access to the Walsh user sites. But The job was rained out so not work was done on site again. 

On Thursday I worked in my office from 11am-5pm! I ordered prints of drawings that we needed and I had to sift through the Specs and document all the products/items that had a Warranty over a year (extended warranty). Don't worry it wasn't that horrible, we have everything on our server, so I opended the pdf and did a word search.  But looking up Warranty in a Spec document of 2456 pages makes for a long day.

On Friday I was back in the trailer updating documents, but Glen took Greg and I out to walk the jobsite again.



Glen is talking to a guy from Hunter behind me. Hunter is the sub on the site work.



End of the Week Reflection: This project is huge! I am grateful that the first project I am on is so big, so much to learn.

This week I have learned:

Although the project has been going on for a MONTH before I got here, not all the contracts for the work have been written.

No one likes the safety guy.

The architect is a pain in the butt.

If you don't label the bottom of the RFI's with the right page number, it is sent back REJECTED, with a 45 day wait period before it can be submitted again.

Matt is the hardass on this project, he keeps everyone in line.

North Carolina is Beautiful and I am excited for what the summer holds.

Thank you for joining me on this journey! Feel free to comment/give advice.