Momplex

What about windows and doors?Early DayWe had to call it a day the other day after getting just the first two rows of ARXX blocks up.  As eager as we all were to see more rows go up, up here on this windy hill, none of us wanted to see the blocks flying through the air, probably landing in our yard a mile away.Pattern SetGetting the first two rows up is actually a major accomplishment because you create the pattern for the entire home.  You want the seams all staggered in the same spots

It has been torture waiting for plywood day! We put the upstairs floor joists up, and I thought the very next day I'd be getting a sun tan on a roof top deck. Not so much the case ... we built stairs, backfilled, insulated ... just to name a few projects that had to get done as I tried not to glance up at those open floor joists ... and finally it's plywood day. (I'll be blogging about all the other projects we've been up to as well in the next coming bit). Hooray for plywood day!

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

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!

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

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