Update

I am out of town again, teaching a Wilderness First Responder course in Juneau. Joey has been installing windows and tinkering with some unglamorous details on the house such as, installing louvres. Yeah- we didn't know what they were either, but they are vents that create airflow in our attic.

We will receive our first visitors on Monday evening. JoAnne, Joey's mom, and Beth, Joey's aunt will be in Talkeetna for a two week visit. Very brave, considering what a construction zone we are living in. On Aug 30th I will be flying back to Anchorage where I will meet my brother Pat and his friend Julian who are coming up for some fall fly fishing. We are excited to share our new home with friends and family.

-Melis

Odds and Ends

I am working in Juneau teaching a wilderness first aid class and Joey is working solo on the house. When I left two days ago we were putting in windows and Joey tiled the hearth for our future wood stove today. Our metal roofing arrives on Thursday, Joey will no doubt be looking for someone to hand him the sheets as he installs the metal on the roof. I wish I could be there. -Melis

Survived the Rain

A mere 12 hours after finishing the roof it started pouring rain. We are very relieved to be "weathered-in" as we continue our long list of chores to complete on this house. On deck are the chores: windows, doors, putting watershield and metal roofing on, wiring, plumbing, insulating, installing the wood stove.......... Still, you have to celebrate the the benchmarks and a roof on is a big one.


The photo above represents our current progress. When the house is finished we will also have one more roof line on the right above the front porch and a small window above that. The porch is the indentation to the right of the ladder.

Okay...It's HUGE!!!!

Well- as you can see we have been busy beavers on the house. We had to attend to lots and lots of tiny building details, but at last- we have completed the roof and frame of our house. We are both extremely excited. It will be sad to be leaving the roof for a while, as you can imagine we are both very fond of heights. In fact, the view from our roof is fantastic, and the current cabin and outhouse are completely dwarfed by our new house.

Raise the Roof

After much frustration Joey and I finally have completed putting in our roof rafters and second story ceiling joists. We each read about four roofing books and worked hard at calculating our roof angles. We tried a couple of test pieces and...failure. Steam was coming out of our ears.


Just when we thought all was lost we called our trusty lifeline engineer- Johnny, Joey's brother. He told us to hold up the rafter to the desired level on the outside of our bulding and trace the angles. Seem too simple- we'll it wasn't. It worked. Hooray.

It has been quite rainy the last few days so we now have the rafters covered by a large brown tarp. The next sunny day will be mayhem- we will try to work very swiftly to get the roof sheathing in place.



We had a lot of debate between ourselves whether to go with shingles or a metal roof. Based on the snow loads, occasional strong winds, and the coolness factor- we have deceided to go with an unpainted metal roof. Rainy days will be awfully cozy with the pitter-patter of rain on the roof as we relax in front of the woodstove......

Today we started framing in the mud room and calculating the second of three roof lines. The final roof line to design will be over the front porch.

Second Floor Here We Come

After 2-weeks in the mountains I came home to quite a surprise- Joey had finished the front porch and finished framing and sheeting all of the walls for the first floor. After a quick shower, hug, and a kiss it was back to work. "Hand me another board, please."

Last night we completed putting in the tongue and groove flooring for the second floor, which will double as a finished ceiling for the first floor. It looks lovely and we will have to work hard to keep it pristine through the construction of the second floor walls. We hope to have the walls for the next floor framed in the next two days so we can begin construction on the roof. It has been raining quite a bit lately- we feel like we are in a race to get all the wood up and the structure protected before it beings to warp.

Our favorite part so far- the view keeps getting better the higher we get.

First Floor

In an action packed four days Joey and I were able to get most of the components of the first floor in. We framed and partially sheeted four walls. Next comes the remaining two walls of the mudroom and the front deck.

Joey just left for 10-days of work on the Matanuska Glacier teaching students to ice climb. I starts work this weekend and will be flying back into the Alaska Range for a 12-day mountaineering course. It is hard to leave our new house for other projects but we will be blissfully reunited at the end of the month and hope to complete the second floor. I took a brake from framing yesterday and went paragliding in Girdwood..... Joey doesn't know yet- ha ha ha.