It was field trip day in Building Construction Technology class, so we turned in our permission slips and drove to a home site to see a foundation in progress. Here’s a play-by-play, clockwise from top left:

1. Arrive at construction site. No one there. Instructor says this is typical in Nashville’s building boom, where there’s more work than crews.

2. Snoop around foundation and framing package—including LVLs, sill plates, I-joists, sheathing, anchor bolts, and these snazzy joist hangers.

3. (Not pictured) Stop at Bojangles’ for Cajun chicken biscuits and coffee. (Incidentally, fried turkeys available at Charlotte Pike store, $42.99, preorder a day in advance, 615-356-3860.)

4. Drive nextdoor to Lowe’s to buy tape measure. (Christmas trees already. Seriously?) Stop in insulation aisle for impromptu lesson about R-rating. (The other kind of R-rating.)

5. Return to construction site with tape measure to check if foundation is “square.” Turns out, square of hypotenuse actually does equal sum of squares of other two sides. Math. Bam.

6. (Not pictured) Break time. 

So, just to recap, we drove to worksite, left to get tools, stopped for a biscuit, took a few measurements, and broke for lunch…. Instructor says it was just like a real day on the job.