Jan 25
For those of you blessed with a warmer climate you may not know what an arctic entry is. An arctic entry is an in-between room that serves as an entry way. When it's 5 degrees outside it's really nice to have a dedicated area to peel off the layers of clothes, kick off the boots, and isolate the snowy mess. It also helps keep the warm air in the house rather than dumping it outside every-time the front door is opened. I went all-out on the arctic entry ... in fact it's bigger than the kids bedrooms.
The initial plan was to frame a floor for this portion of the house. After much consideration I decided the only right way to do it was to pour another slab. I started this little chore with my spare time in October. It's been a slow process, but we got the concrete poured in the 12th hour of the Alaskan Summer. It was a significant thrash trying to keep the freezing rain and slush from destroying the surface of my finished concrete. We poured the slap on October 28th, but I did not have a permanent roof over it until January 9th. During those in-between months I had the concrete covered with a temporary shelter made with old wood and a blue tarp....very skookum.
My buddy who poured the concrete for me applied a large stamp of the state of Alaska to the floor. It looks awesome, and I can't wait to get this room finished. I did not start framing on this until January, but it was really slow because of the prow front and the beam work. During the months of November and December I was able to accomplish a lot of pick-up framing inside the house. I also installed a wood stove and chimney with some help from my dad, and boarded up all the windows to keep the snow from blowing in. The house will look totally different once the windows are installed and the siding is on.
Never underestimate just how little one person can get done working alone.
To see all the images of the house project thus far click here.
Oct 11
My brother flew up from Arizona in mid-April to see my new baby girl and help me with the house. We framed the upstairs and set the remainder of the steel I-beams which was no small feat. In early May I hired a boom-truck to set my 46' glulam beam that I had sanded down to a nice finish. The day after setting this massive ridge beam I moved to Sheep Mountain for the flying season.
I did not have any more money to proceed, and I was flying non-stop, so ... I decided to wait until I could afford to put the roof on. After a couple of months the rain had done so much water damage to the structure that I decided to proceed at all costs and purchased engineered parallel cord trusses to keep the progress moving forward.
Then, I hired a team to install the structure because I was too busy flying to think about it. They did an awesome job, and in just 3 days I had a roof covered with that expensive Dupont tar-paper replacement that is wind proof.... well, almost wind-proof. The airflow in late September managed to free a couple of pieces, but, it was blowing 80 mph. Several trees blew over and 3 of them were touching the corner of the house but no damage was done...near miss.
Today we started roofing at 8 am. A couple of buddies came over and we hit it as hard as possible. My shoulders are a little sore from packing shingles but I think we did pretty good. I put in 12.5 hours and we got up most of the drip edge, picked up and packed most of the bundles, and tacked down 1/3 of the roof. I'm as happy as a clam at high tide because half my roof is water proof. building a house is a slow process but I try not to think about it :o) I am so grateful for friends who are willing to sacrifice a day and then even bring the pizza for lunch. I am blessed.
For photos of the full history of this project go here.
Feb 27
I started framing our house in December ... and oh baby, we are having fun. You can see that one of the biggest problems is just keeping snow out of the structure. Things continue to move forward, but it is painfully slow because I am building it in my "spare time". I designed it, engineered it, and am now slogging my way through the building process. 95% of the time I am alone, but I have lots of friends who are willing to help if I would just plan ahead a few days. The problem with this flying job is that it's easier for me to lick my elbow than it is too make a plan. We never know when jobs are going to pop up, so I live by the seat of my pants mostly. I am pretty flexible so I don't really care, but sometimes it would be nice to be able make a plan. This is just a shout-out to all my friends who have offered to help, who have helped, or given me advise along the way.
The house is roughly 32x46 and when it is all done it will be about 2500 sq. ft. My favorite aspects of these house plans are the high ceiling, big windows, concrete floor, glass block, exposed steel I-beams, rope swing, removable wall (into office), counterweighted liftable stairs, and killer view of the mountains. I am hoping the house will be pretty much one big play ground. I have a massive glulam beam that will run length wise (46') free-span through the house at 21' feet off the floor, and I am considering hanging a man-sized Johnny-Jump-Up from it, because seriously ... they look like fun. I got the glulam beam on craigslist last summer, actually I bought three of them, but the other two will hopefully be used in my new hangar some day. We share this piece of property with my brother and my dad. We currently live on this parcel, in a small cabin just 200 yards from the building site. It is a ten acre parcel that has no gas, water, or electric, but it's on an airstrip and that's what really matters. We drilled a well and hit good water at 125 feet. A Kubota generator and battery bank system provide power to the cabin. It's actually a great set-up but it's really expensive. People who want to get "off the grid" to save money ... are crazy ! We hope to get power some day, but for now the generator works ... just expensive. Last year the generator went up in flames ... that was pretty amazing. Samantha and I were in Argentina and I got an email from my brother showing the generator shed with flames shooting 25' out the roof.
We only live here in the winter because from May-Sept we live up at
Sheep Mountain for the bulk of our flying season. I will post more pictures as progress is made. If you want to see the first portion of this project look at these
images posted Jan 11th.
I want to know how many of you tried licking your elbow ?
Jan 11
During the winter months we move off of Sheep Mountain back to town which is only 60 miles away on the Glenn Hwy. Samantha and I are building a house on a 10 acre parcel with a small runway in Wasilla. We are very near town but Matanuska Electric Association (MEA) wants $55,000 to run power the last 400 yards to our driveway and appx. $30,000 more to get it to our house. So we live on a generator and battery bank in a small cabin near the building site. We started this project in May and plan to finish it ourselves. We subbed out the septic and the driveway preparation, but the rest is being built by myself and my family and friends. It's been a lot of fun so far, but today it was only 10 degrees F and gusting to 75 mph. Conditions like that make it difficult to get excited about going outside to work. Anywhere else in the nation this might make the news, but in Alaska you better just tie on your hat and keep working. If anybody is jealous of my radio headset, let me tell you, it is the finest invention since the Super Cub.
