Momplex

So let's just say you got a team of two building a kitchen, and one hates painting and the other can't paint.

Well, it's not that I couldn't paint.  They say occassional painting in a well ventilated area is fine for pregnant women.  

But up here in Alaska, in the cold winter months, working inside a poured in place concrete building, with no ventilation, where your full time job is to build and paint or stain furniture, it's not occassional and it's not well vent

I thought we were moving along on DIYing the most massive of projects - the Momplex, a duplex for our to very deserving mothers - just fine last week when we built the window bucks Followed by the door bucksAnd then we did the same . . . times 10  . . . for the garage doors.The garage doors are supported in the centers, in preparation for the concrete pour,  You'll see the same get done for windows and doors before the mud arrives.We thought we were moving right along.But then this

Thank you for sticking with us as we stuck out this winter. 

And boy, what a winter it was for us up in Alaska.  This winter, more than once, I asked myself why we live here.  It was a tough one.

And I was most thankful to not be battling snow, wind, and deathly cold temperatures trying to work on the Momplex.  Or say we had got the roof on - thank for cheering us on! - it would have been dreadful to pay for temporary heat just to get the Moms moved in a few months ea

Well, it's that time again. Time to start cutting holes in the Momplex, and blocking off wasted square footage behind walls. At least this time, we've got a pretty good reason. We are creating a secret escape passage. That once a year can be used by a strange man in the middle of the night to climb down into your house while you are sleeping. Yep, it's chimney time! That smoke's gotta escape somehow!

Our job has turned into a desk job.

Well, at least a job that you sit down at. 

I guess that's the good thing about working on stairs. You get to sit on them while you work on them.

Yep, sitting down on the job, figuring the stair skirts and installing them.

And we barely got to sit down to cut and install this baseboard down the stairs, it was so quick.  

The skirts and baseboard finish out the wa

What a frightening sight. Winter on It's WayI was already shivering, but the migrating geese flying over the Momplex was extra chilling.  Even the birds know.  That's why they are packing up and leaving.  Winter is right around the corner.Approaching SnowlineAnd our Momplex project is in danger of getting snowed on . . . without a roof overhead.  And a snow line creeping closer by the day.One Week AgoDon't get me wrong, we've been working very hard and making lots of progr

Last fall, it was tough to walk away from this pile of trusses.

Thank you all for the wonderful inspiring comments keeping us encouraged up at the Momplex! My sweet husband, he works all day up there, and then comes home and reads your comments, and every once in a while, I catch him grinning to himself. You are making a huge difference to us! This isn't the first time we've built a home, but I tell you what, this is the first time we've built this BIG, the first time we've built entirely with ICF ARXX blocks, and this is the first time we've built putt

Man are we ever getting close to that day. For those of you who are new here, that day is the day when we have the Momplex full insulated, and it doesn't matter if it's -50 degrees outside, if the wind is blowing 80 MPH, if it's snowing . . . even if it's freezing rain. That day is the day we can work without -100 below boots and three layers of down. That day is the day we can work without gloves, when batteries can charge, and tools still work. It's going to be a big day for us! Tha

It took us two tries to get you all the deets on installing the Microhood ... good thing we got two moms and two Momplex units to finish up!

Microhoods to me are like toilets or power lines or my big toes....  function over form here, especially when space is at a premium.

The good news about every microhood I've been a part of installing is they come with pretty darn good instructions and hanging hardware.

The tem

Have you ever noticed the large hill dead center in the Momplex's view?That's Donnelly Dome, sometimes claimed to be North America's largest hill.  It's a popular climbing site, awarding hikers with tremendous views of the Alaska Range.  photo by ApplecrossWell, there's an old saying in our community that when you see snow on the top of Donnelly Dome, winter will be here in two weeks.

I am going to apologize in advance for this long, long post.

But it was quite a long, long day for us working up at the Momplex.

After we got the first truss up at the Momplex, we wanted to have the next 22 trusses set by the end of the day. Certainly you can set a good chunk of trusses, hope the wind doesn't blow, and come back in the morning and finish up.  

But with a boom truck on site, we were hoping to keep cost down and just finish up in one very lo

You do not know how bad I wish I could say that today we start siding. After getting the doors trimmed out, time to start siding, right? Uh, wrong. This huge pile of siding is going to stay a huge pile of siding for a while longer. We still have to trim out each and ever single door and window with metal C Channel and flashing that does 2 things: 1. Hide ends of siding 2. Protect the Momplex from water drainage And what a long, tedious job this turned out to be!

Ever wonder what the Interior of Alaska looks like in November?

The weather has still been too darn hot for us Alaskans to work on a deck in the heat (yes, for us, heat is anything above 80 degrees - pathetic, I know), so our decking project is going to wait for another day. Inside the Momplex, it's nice a cool. When we choose to build with ARXX blocks (Insulated Concrete Forms that are basically hollow legos that you stack and fill with concrete) the main reason was energy efficiency and preventing heat loss. Ironic how we are enjoying how cool the M