Momplex

We are getting to the good part. With snow threatening to stick, and noticeably less light each day, winter is fast approaching up at the Momplex. We have been blessed with a beautiful fall (THANK YOU for your thoughts and prayers for good weather!), and are still optimistic about getting a roof on the Momplex and being able to work inside over the winter. I am so desperate to work inside the Momplex because these are the projects that I love. I already have the kitchen cabinets made i

Remember when we built these guys?

And then we stacked foam blocks around them?

 

And then poured concrete in the foam blocks around the boxes?

And then hung windows on the outsides of the boxes?

Well, today's the day that we are going to start finishing out the inside of the windows!

Whether you buy kitchen cabinets or you DIY them yourself (I'm totally on team DIY here!) I think the biggest difference maker in how professional looking your kitchen cabinet ends up appearing is in the tiny little details.  In other words, after you hang your cabinets, you aren't done quite yet.

After installing all the kitchen cabinets for the Momplex Vanilla Kitchen, there's a few little things that will make a big difference to take care of.

The most obvious one is finis

Maybe we are getting lazier, but I'd like to think we're getting smarter ... Today, we are going to finish out the window and door trim in the Momplex. For the windows, we've already extended the window jambs inward, to cover up the extra thick super energy efficient walls of the Momplex. And then we started the trim of the windows by adding casing to the sides.

Planned OutageBefore we get to this post, there will be a planned site outage tonight at 10PM CST, lasting approximately 1 hour.  During this time, the site will not be available due to scheduled maintenance.  If you are in the middle of a project, please print out or make sure you can access the plan through a cached version (search for the plan with Google and select "cached version") prior to the planned downtime.Wall Framing!We are finally building walls! Framing is

I have to say, we are so glad we built the Momplex with ICFs. It's very comforting to know that we could put the doors in and insulate the upstairs ceiling and be able to turn heat on.  Not to mention the walls are 2 to 3 times more insulated than most stick frame walls.

But as happy as we are with our decision to use ARXX blocks for the exterior of the Momplex, I do miss stick framing.  I do miss building with wood.

So this project, framing these little roofs abo

Truth is, we didn't hang 20 yesterday.

We actually only hung 18. 

We were dreading the last two.  Can you guess what two doors I'm referring too?

Yep, you guessed right!  

The lazy susan we built for the corner will require two doors, hinged together with multiple different hinges.

You can buy the whole kit, or buy the hinges separately, as we did.

Image from Hardware Source

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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

If you don't mind a leaky basement, if you don't mind soggy carpet, a "smell" that you just can't get rid ... don't bother reading this post. Today I am going to show you one of those not so glamorous or fun tasks that you must do to build a house right. But it can effect the comfort and usability - not to mention value - of your home incredibly. Today, we are going to waterproof the below grade foundation of the Momplex!

Hello DIY Friends!!!

I'm so excited to share with you a little sneak peek of the kitchen we are working on!

Everything BUT the kitchen sink (and appliances) is DIY!!!  

We've made some major progress lately, and I'l be sharing how we did those projects with you shortly.

Today, I want to share with you (just in case you missed it the first time around) my favorite way to do drawers for kitchens. 

Favorite because

Can you believe that there was a time when the Momplex stairs looked like this?

And today, they look like this:

And hopefully soon ... they'll look something like this:

image from Centsational Girl

Man, there sure are a ton of steps (pun not intended here) to finishing out stairs, isn't there!

First, we built the upstairs railing -

And we painted the

SUPRISE!!!

Remember the Momplex kitchen?

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NOTE: For our Facebook Fans, we are working hard to get our Facebook page back.  It was hacked and stolen last week.  I will update you when I have confirmed information on it's status.  Thank you for your patience.

We've been trying to work hard up at the Momplex, finishing up the other side.  It's been a struggle with a new baby. Baby usually wins, resulting in not much getting done on the second Momplex unit.

There is a lot of baby talk getting