Momplex

Ah the doors ... almost the last part of the Momplex not sealed in. 

The doors should have been put in a long time ago.

But you see, we built out of ARXX blocks - Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) which are basically giant hollow foam legos that you fill with concrete. And the ICFs are much wider (11 1/2") than a standard 2x6 wood framed wall.  So we will need a special door jamb to fit the wider walls.

The doors are late to go in because we wanted to D

Do you work with your spouse on projects? Now be honest with me. Do you always get along? What happens when you both have different ideas for doing the same thing? Imagine working on a Momplex together!

I am so proud to tell you that we have indeeded finished putting up all the drywall in the Momplex! You know the upstairs has been done for quite a while. But then we stopped and put in an above the floor heat system in the upstairs. We kept the downstairs free of drywall to hook up all the water lines to the upstairs heat system. But that wasn't the only thing keeping us from finishing up the Momplex. Biggest hurdle? The weather. Normally, spring comes in April in Alaska for

Well, we got the memo.

Mother Nature has made it pretty clear - winter is coming.  

And soon.

The leaves have changed to brilliant reds and yellows, and what's left of our wild Alaska blueberries are barely hanging on.

The mountains are not just snow capped any longer.  They are snow covered.

Winter is on it's way, and it will be here until May.  

And of course w

On this day, I was very thankful to be a mom. And an Aunty. Because on this very long day, or should I say very long several days, not so much fun work happened at the Momplex. And someone had to stay home and take care of the little girls. Be comforted, honey. Most times, I'd rather be working up on the Momplex than taking on the endless cycle of dishes, dinner, loosing the desert battle, and then dishes all over again. Yes, in my house, dishes seem to come before and after cook

Man is our list ever getting short! We've just got a few things left to do before winter hits hard in Alaska. When we went on book tour, it really put a huge amount of stress on us to get as much done as possible while we can work and still feel our fingers at the same time. Numb fingers are no fun. Working at 50 degrees is a totally different story than working at -50 degrees. There was a lot of this going on as we worked late - even on school nights - trying to get as much done

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

So where were we ....

We got kitchen cabinets built, 

then we DIYed a laminate countertop, 

Now it's time to install them!!!

Most countertops are just glued down, but remember us? And our overbuilding, do-it-right-the-first-time issues?  

Yeah, glue just not going to be enough for us.  I know it would work just fine .... but why not add some screws too?  Help us.

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

We are rockin' today at the Momplex.

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!

Inside the Momplex, it's pretty exciting.  The walls are finished and painted (thanks to you!) and we just can't wait to start finishing rooms out.  We'll definitely be taking your advice and focus on a bathroom first.

But before we get to any of that, we decided to tackle the decks first.  The big reason for this is with the walls completely finished out, moving things from unit to unit has become quite a task, involving going down stairs, out the garage, in the other ga