October 2013

October had us racing the snow coming down the mountains.  

Thankfully Barry stuck with us!

Starting to come together.

And the ridge pole going in!

Some days it wasn't so clear who was winning - us or the snow.  We had a lot of help at this point thankfully!  They all helped us finish the race!

The Keurig was a welcome addition to the "tools of the trade".  Mornings go a lot better when there is strong coffee involved.  It also seems to aid with the "cyphering".

Compadres.

You can more clearly see the gables in this picture.

And the first roofing going up!  Very exciting!

This clearly shows a problem that we had to correct this spring.  The liner in the valley should have gone on under the pieces of liner on the roof.

Steep roof!

 The snow is getting closer!

Here is the lift in life saver mode!

More roofing done!

 The inside of the upstairs room.

The roof mostly done!

Metal delivery!  Chuck was working at the neighbor's house across the road so he helped to unload it.

And the wood/coal boiler was delivered as well.  That'll keep things toasty!  That lift is soooooooo handy!  Such a huge help!

And a few more tools of the trade.  The air compressor ran pretty much non-stop during the framing!  So did the crock pot!  With so much help it was a handy way to keep them energized!

Speaking of energized.  We never did get electric while we were building in the fall.  The generator kept everything running, even if it was a bit "Green Acres" at times! Can't run the Keurig and the air compressor at the same time!  

Windows arrived in that same time frame and we were able to get those in with some help on the bigger ones in front.

Buttoned up just in time for winter!   I'll end October with some more amazing scenery.  No, I never get tired of it!

 

 

September 2013

There's behind, and then there's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind!  I'm in the latter category right now!  Yikes.  We'll see what I can do about catching up.  When I left off we had just finished the main floor.  Hold on tight!  This will be a whirlwind update!

As usual, life is never dull.  Just as soon as we got the main floor done it rained.  And when I say rain, I mean RAIN!  Ugh!  I got a super duper squeegee and squeegeed it out.

 Next step was the sill plate - bolting that down.

Then the walls go on top of the sill plate.  To get the walls to fit over the washers and nuts you had to chisel out part of the board.  

One simple line that is rather important - the center line.  

Tools of the trade:

Battery powered!  What a life saver!

I was trying to take a picture of the scaffold, which has been hugely helpful, but then I noticed the ladder.  That ladder is our main "staircase" even now!  Another very important tool of the trade!

This lift has been a back saver and probably a life saver too!  You'll see why in later pictures.

Slowly but surely the gabled ends go up.

 With much work done under plastic to try to keep dry.  It was either gorgeously sunny or raining, sometimes both in the same day!  Not much mediocre weather this past fall!

Barry was incredibly faithful in helping out!  There's no way we would have gotten it all done before snow flying without him!

We put up Bituthene and then treated plywood over the area that would soon be back filled.

Mike didn't take long at all putting in the septic - that's our tank on its way to its new home.

Tamping it in.

This is Alaska.  Yes, you put insulation over your tank.

Beginning to back fill.  The house looks more like a house and not just a huge white blob!

It looks so much nicer once Mike finished the dirt work around the house!

And he put the electric base in place!  Now to wait for the electric company to get around to hooking it up!  Our neighbors across the road were waiting too.

With all the driving back and forth we saw a ton of amazing scenery.

It's a rough life but someone has to look at all that scenery!  This took us through the end of September.