Bright and early Saturday morning members of the solar house team began construction on the house, starting from the bottom up.
Eager to start construction, members of the team began arriving at the solar house construction site at 8am, slipped on protective gloves and eyeware and set to work on the footings.
"It was an exciting feeling to finally start construction because we have been waiting so long," said assistant project manager Dan Vlacich, who has been with the project for three semesters and was one of the first to arrive on the site. "When I started I thought it might be cool to get my hands dirty, use some power drills and build a house."
The day was dedicated to constructing concrete forms that will be used to mold the footings of the house to hold it up off the ground.
Construction group members Mike Boteler and Tom Serra showed the rest of the members how to build the footings safely and efficiently using power drills.
Director of Safety for Clark Realty Builders Jerry Phillips, and his dog Ella, also showed up for the special occasion and to help the students in creating a safe work place.
Around noon the group finished drilling together the four walls of the footings together and took a break for lunch. Taking the solar car for a spin around Riverdale Park, the group attracted the attention of the locals who were impressed by the car and interested in learning about the solar house.
Encouraged and full, the group went back to work securing the boxes to large pieces of plywood, typing together rebar, and finishing the footings.
In all, 20 footings of differing sizes were constructed by the end of the day.
"We had a great work session, we got all the things we wanted to get done accomplished and the team is ready to pour concrete," said Mike Boteler.
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