Alaska welcomes Marit B.

April, Jeb, and little Marit are making the rounds in Fairbanks this week. It's Marit's first visit to Alaska...she seems to be enjoying it (although I think she's probably responding to another slice of cheese in this picture)! So nice to have them back, if only for a few days. We're all doing our best to get them back in the state.



We took a ride up to the construction site and showed Marit where her room will be when she visits her new baby "cousin".

Happy baby, happy Daddy. It's hard to tell in this photo, but Marit is really dressed for AK...she's got her own pair of carhart overalls. I think I need a pair if they look this cute! Later in the week we'll all head down to Anchorage for Shiway and Dave's wedding and a big 'ol friend reunion.

First floor framing starts

The framing started on Friday without Marcus (he had some salmon fishing of his own to do), but after a wall nearly went up where a wall wasn't supposed to be Max thought the guys should take a long weekend.


Marcus was back on Monday and made some good progress on the floor and basement walls. He also managed to corral the water tank.

The future utility room.

By now we have a floor, and today they're working on the exterior walls. We're looking forward to the main floor coming into shape this week.

Salmon day #4

Saturday was canning day. That meant a long day in the kitchen listening to the rattle of the pressure canners. Before we can the fish we put them in the smoker for a few hours. The fillets look good enough to eat when they come out!


And later Saturday was smoking day. Max is laying out the strips after they spent an hour in the brine. Here they'll dry a bit in the breeze before they get moved to the smoker.

Willow isn't a big fan of salmon - she's a kibble girl. So she spent salmon day watching everyone else work hard.

These are almost ready for the smoker.

Salmon processing

Max's fillet station.

Here's a look at the beautiful King salmon Max caught. Poor thing lost its head at the river and doesn't look quite as majestic as it did when it came out of the water. The majority of the red salmon that come up the Copper are hatchery raised and released for subsistence use, but all of the Kings are wild. We take care in processing all of the fish we bring home, but the King gets treated like royalty!

1/2 a fish down, 39 1/2 to go.

My vacuum-sealing station. I'm lucky to have the mosquito-free work space.

1 fish down, 39 to go. This is just the King meat...mmmm.

Concrete pour #2

The basement walls got filled with concrete this morning. So early, in fact, that they were done by the time Max got there with the camera. Here is the aftermath...much dirtier walls. Not to worry though, tomorrow they'll get covered up with a waterproof membrane that will keep the basement nice and dry under all that backfill.


Tomorrow our giant water tank will be lifted over the wall and set in place before the first floor joists go in. We should have a floor above the basement by the weekend. If we were typical Fairbanksans, that would be the point when we would move in. Doesn't really sound appealing...I guess we haven't been here long enough.

Chitina 2007

Max made the annual trip to the Copper River to collect another year's supply of salmon. He went with some friends this year, leaving me behind to mind the house construction and bring home the bacon.


Nice view of Mt. Blackburn lit up in the late evening sun. Their timing was just right for dipnetting. They hit a strong run of fish and all participants caught their limit the first night.

Calliope might have been the biggest catch of the trip, but Max managed to net a King salmon at the last minute.

Four adults with four permits made the trip. That's a lot of fish to move around between the truck and the cleaning station! This picture really shows how a day or two at Chitina feels...urgh. All made it home safe and sound in less than two days. What a marathon effort this year! Looking forward to a week of filleting and smoking fish. Here's our famous fishshaw in action...Max is proud of its new larger wheels for 2007. This cart has carried A LOT of fish over the years!

It's a basement!

Marcus and his crew have finished the basement wall installation. We actually have a basement!



Here it is from the north side. It's such a thrill to see our plans turning into a structure...look, they put windows and a door exactly where we wanted them!

Here's a view from the west. The wall area obscured by the driveway in this photo is basically the area that will eventually be backfilled and covered with dirt. The south (uphill) wall will be nearly completely below ground level.

The hail storm

We had a surprise hail deluge on Sunday. The cabin has a metal roof and the hail made a tremendous amount of noise inside. Max and I were yelling right next to each other and we still had trouble hearing. The cats were doing their best crouched-down run back and forth through the house unsure of where to hide from whatever horrible thing that was making that noise. It was all very exciting!

Baby pics coming soon...

Coming soon...new baby pictures! It's week 18 for baby k. We'll have an ultrasound in two weeks and we'll be sure to add a new post to the blog asap :-) In the meantime, we and baby are all fine. It's been an awfully busy week between two jobs and rapid-fire building, but once the framing starts life should calm down to a more moderate pace. Also, for anyone trying to contact us, an underground cable was cut this week somewhere south of us, cutting our phone service. Nobody seems to know when it will be restored. So no worries...we're fine, just unable to make or receive phone calls. Hugs, Mette and Max.

Basement wall installation

The morning after the slab was poured Marcus was back with his guys to start constructing the basement walls in the rain. These preformed rigid foam blocks are far more common here than poured concrete walls. They not only provide excellent insulation, but they also eliminate the need for all the framing lumber necessary for poured walls. This is what all that LEGO training was for when we were little!


The blocks have 2" of rigid foam, front and back, and once they are in place form a continuous cavity that will be filled with concrete. Vertical and horizontal rebar within the cavity provide the majority of strength to the walls. Marcus is apparently building us a bomb shelter...he's a bit over the top with his rebar usage.

The sun finally returned that evening. This is looking at the downhill (north) wall of the basement and the back door. As the walls go up, the size of the house seems to be shrinking! Good thing we'll have three floors!

Pouring the concrete slab

The first load of concrete. This was an impressive operation...the slab required three loads. The thicker footings around the perimeter are filled first.



The load-bearing walls are supported by a thickened section in the slab, being filled here.

The first smoothing effort is done by the concrete team.

Just about there.

Nice to finally have a recogizable portion of the house done! After the concrete guys finished, our contractor, Marcus, stayed for hours continuing to smooth the slab on his hands and knees. Unfortunately, a heavy downpour passed over before the concrete had cured. Despite quick action by Max and Marcus covering the slab with plastic sheeting, in spots the slab looked like the surface of a golf ball. Marcus went back to work with his smoothing trowel...

Prepping the basement floor

An insulation-lined wood frame was constructed around the pad to form the concrete slab during the concrete pour. The radon tubing, drainage pipes, and the fuel line have already been installed within the gravel pad. The black pipes sticking out of the ground will eventually hook up to fixtures and appliances in the house.


Insulation is placed over the gravel and rebar forms a grid that will strengthen the conctrete slab. The radiant floor tubing is affixed to the insulation with simple plastic push staples to hold it in place as the concrete is poured over them.

Max does a final inspection before the conctrete trucks arrive in the morning.

Resurfacing the house pad

After the long winter our house pad needed a face lift before starting the foundation. Here our "dirt guy" Ron is scraping off a couple of feet of silt that had washed into the hole during spring break-up.




They regraded the yard that will be behind the house using material scrapped off the house pad.

When the pad scapping was done, gravel was brought in.

The gravel was spread and compacted to make a prefectly level pad for the foundation.