Roofing

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

This project ... building these little roofs over the Momplex front doors ... it only took a day or so. But I think I'm dragging it out into three posts because I loved working on it so much. Wood is definitely my favorite material to work with, and I love revisiting this building project.

The heat wave isn't here quite yet, but we've heard temperatures are coming that are not preceded with a big fat minus sign .... or followed by "below" meaning how far the mercury drops below the zero line.photo by Larry and June TaylorIt's exciting news, as we've just dealt with one of the coldest November's in Interior Alaska's history, with temperatures staying at the too cold for anyone in their right mind and despite the right cold weather gear to work on roof trusses on top of the notoriou

I've been dreading writing this post. This is not easy.I hope you understand that we are real people, working with real limitations on a budget, and there is no midnight crew making things happen magically. It's just us, one family, trying to build two houses in one for our Moms. We have been waiting and waiting for a break in the weather to put the roof on the Momplex. The trusses are sitting there, ready to shed snow, if we could just get a week of no snow, no wind, and decent temperatu

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

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

Have you ever wondered how overhangs on roofs are done? It turns out they are much easier to do than one might think.

Building a house is like a giant relay race. 

When you hand the baton off to the next stage, you are either giving them an advantage or a disadvantage.  But when you DIY it all yourself, you are running the entire race yourself.  And you are always thinking about the next step, and how decision you make in this step are going to affect later steps.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say we framed up the walls, and the studs are randomly placed, not 24" o

Today, the Momplex is going to the salon.

This Momplex we are building ... it is a big box.

In defense of big boxes, they are the most efficient to build, the most efficient to heat and maintain.

But we don't want the Momplex to look like a big box.

No. We want the Momplex to look like this:

We want the Moms to drive up and be excited about their home because it does not look like a giant b

The Momplex, she just got her hair done. And now she's already going gray.

This I promise is the last post on these little roofs!

 

We just finished the underside of the little roofs - the part that you look up and see - with locally milled tongue and groove.  And man is she pretty!!!

But we've run into a potential problem.  Our tin screws are 1" long.  Will the screw tips show through the beautiful tongue and groove?

Have you been wondering what we are going to do about the exposed plywood on the gable ends of the Momplex?