It's hard to believe that just a few months back, the Momplex was just a crazy idea, a distant dream really, full of more reasons why it wouldn't work then reasons why one family can DIY a duplex for their mothers in Alaska.

Can you believe that just last June, we bought this lot of trees.

And that this very same lot, in the very same spot, three months later, looks like this.

One family, two houses, three months. . . 

Just maybe.  Someday.  

Although we've made major progress over the last few weeks, we still have months and months of work left to do. We've come a long way, but we are still a long way from Mom moving in.

We hear this term all the time in Alaska.  Getting a roof overhead.  That is the goal of the summer for home construction.  Because once it snows and the snow sticks, work just become so much more difficult, it no longer becomes practical.  Many exterior  construction sites close down for the winter in Alaska.

But if you can get a roof overhead by winter, if you can actually make it happen, you can spend your winter working inside.  If we can get a roof overhead and the Momplex enclosed, we will spend our winter doing things like building kitchen cabinets, dining nooks, and painting walls; creating a dream sewing room for Grandma-that-likes-to-sew and a dream kitchen for Grandma-that-likes-to-cook.

And if we can't? 

We will.

We must.

Let's not go there.  

We've still got a few weeks.  Maybe.  With good weather.

So today, I thought I'd post a list of things we MUST get done in the next few weeks if we plan on working on the Momplex this winter.

This is what we are working on right now - pouring the slab in the basement.  Normally you would pour the slab after the footers, but since we are putting heat tubes in the slab, we decided to wait until after the first wall pour to do the slab.  Securing the braces to the concrete floor would put the heat tubes at risk and left screw holes in the concrete.  And by pouring inside the walls, the slab itself becomes fully insulated, saving Mom heating expenses in the future and giving her a nice warm floor to walk on.

I know we are so stressed about winter, but when spring comes, if the Momplex isn't backfilled, it could be flooded, or at least very muddy - not to mention the danger of one of the girls falling in the hole.  We will need to spend some time preparing the property for eight months of snow.

The center wall in the basement is a load bearing wall, and will tie in the floor joists.  So we will need to build the interior basement walls - or at least the main ones - before we put the floor in.

Remember when we put these anchors in the walls?  They are for tying in the second story floor.  After the basement walls are up, we'll use these bolts to secure the ends of the second story floor joist.  I cannot wait to be up on that second level - the view is going to be tremendous.

We've removed all of the plywood pieces, and all that's left are bolts secured in concrete all the way around. 

Once the upper story floor is on, we'll be working on the upper story walls.  These walls will again be ARXX blocks, but much less complicated.  No garage doors, no anchor bolts, and about half as many blocks.  I am very much looking forward to this step.

You know the Momplex is just a giant box, with just four outside corners.  To make up for it's lack of character, we are putting a roof on with some overframing.  But the roof itself is simply trusses that we will order (it's difficult to job site build trusses and guarantee their strength).  What a luxury!  We have always built our own trusses, so having them delivered is going to feel like a week at the Ritz, or at least a week of not building 24 trusses, 48 feet long . . . .

But we will still need to put the roofing on, finish off the gable ends, take care of the soffits, blow in insulation . . . there's a ton of work to be done, and it's work that's going to require scaffolding or ladders.  Definitely a challenge.

Once the roof is on, it's time to put the windows and doors in.  Remember when we built window and door bucks for the Momplex?  If all goes right, should be as easy as placing the windows in doors in the openings and screwing in place.

If all of these major steps (and the steps that need to be done to do these, like putting the drain lines in the slab) get done in, the building will be shelled in from snow and will hold heat.  With the ICFs we won't have to worry about insulating or vapor barrier, it's already done!

Nothing like an impossible To-Do list to make a girl grab a shovel and start digging drain lines.  Have a great day, you know what we are doing.