House and family update

We've had a weather-tight roof for the last two weeks and Max has been busy mounting window and door frames to the exterior of the house. The interior walls are almost done and we now have a good feel for the interior layout. The whole house feels nice and roomy. We're very happy with the design...what a relief!


Autumn is such a nice time of year here. The light reflected off the birch trees is warm and golden. And what a beautiful forest we have on our lot. Lucky, lucky, lucky that we found it!

Tuesday brought a little surprise. This is the newest member of the family. He's not quite named yet, but we're leaning toward "Tiger". Overused? Probably, but we thought the name would go nicely with Bear. He's a 3 month old shelter kitty, playful, sweet, and inquisitive. Tiger and the two blackies, Bear and Suki, make an orange-filled oreo cookie.

He got up to say hello. Hello :)

Max's Valdez trip

Max went to Valdez two weeks ago to collect a GPS station...a perfect excuse to take the boat out and do some salmon fishing. He's done a lot of work on the boat this year and it's really looking great. He refinished all the wood this spring before taking it down to Valdez for the summer.


Here's the REAL reason for the trip. It's hard to beat Silver salmon fishing out of Valdez in August. Our freezer is full so all the fish Max hauled in only made it as far as Delta Junction where he stopped and unloaded his catch with our good friends Ellie, Jeff, and little Wyatt. Thanks for taking it guys! I can't keep Max from fishing, so it's nice to have some help to eat the extras!

Happy Man, self portrait. I'm not sure this one was meant for publication but Captain Max isn't here to ask.

Shoup Glacier. Max spent his first 4 (maybe 5?) summers in Alaska monitoring and tagging a large colony of kittiwakes - smallish gull-like seabirds - nesting on a rock island in the middle of Shoup Bay. It's a 10 mile trip from Valdez. We've walked, kayaked, canoed, and hitched rides out here nearly every summer since we met. It's pretty cushy to have our own motorized transport to make the trip. When Max and I met, the glacier would calve into the water and the bay would be congested with floating ice. It's retreated markedly each year, and this year the glacier doesn't reach the water. Harbor seals used to take advantage of the larger icebergs...looks like they've had to find alternate haul-out ice this year.

Heading back into Valdez marina at sunset. Pretty nice.

Evening at Creamer's Field

Despite the warm daytime temperatures this weekend, the chilly nights and the return of the cranes make mid August feel like early autumn. The cranes have been migrating through in good numbers over the past several days and we spent last evening out at Creamer's Field enjoying the birds and a beautiful, sunny evening.


Here's one for those of you who have been asking for a belly shot.



The cranes were concentrated in the far field but Max managed to get a photo through the binos.
Sandhill fly-by.

Max was on assignment to get a good pic of the growing belly. Here's another one. It'll be six months next week. Oh boy, a baby in a few months. THAT doesn't quite feel real for us yet!

Framing the roof

The skies finally dried up by the end of the week here and we're enjoying some beautiful almost-autumn weather. It's in the 40's at night lately, and days are sunny and crisp. The baby has been busy this week, rolling around and kicking up a storm. And for the first time friends are noticing the belly :)

The building crew was busy too. Over the last week the roof has come into shape. The trusses are blocked in and the south side of the roof will get covered on Monday.


The scissor trusses we're using give extra height to the second story ceilings. Here's the upstairs bathroom area.

This is what the house looks like on the south side as you come down the driveway. This time of year we get plenty of sunlight on the house. We'll see how dark it feels this winter when the sun doesn't rise over the top of the ridge behind us...that should only last for a couple of months. Our current cabin doesn't get direct sunlight for close to half the year, so even living on the north side of the ridge will be a big improvement!

And from the yard below. Looks pretty tall from this side, but the vertical walls will eventually be broken up a bit by the deck which will wrap around the north and west sides. The widest part of the deck will come off this corner of the house to take advantage of the SW sun we get through the trees and down the driveway (not apparent in this photo!).

Third floor framing

We had a great weekend in Anchorage watching Shiway and Dave get married and visiting with so many very close, now far-flung friends. It was good to reconnect and meet the newest members of the pack. 2006 produced an excellent and very adorable crop of babies! Speaking of babies, we should get a word or two in about the 2007 crop. Our first order of business upon returning home was our 20 week ultrasound on Monday. 2007 is looking to be another excellent year. The baby looks great, healthy, with the usual compliment of arms, legs, hands, feet, head, etc. It's bigger than average at this point...slow down little baby! (This does help explain something...I've been feeling movements for the last two or three weeks that other moms were telling me weren't baby movements, that they were too strong (and probably gas)...that what I should be looking for is a little "fluttering" of "butterfly wings". What I was feeling was a definite "poking" of something resembling what I would describe as a "foot". Turns out baby skipped right over butterfly wings and went straight for kicking and poking-looks like baby got Max's legs! It's fun now that Max can feel the kicks too.

Back to the ultrasound...before we walked into the room we hadn't decided whether we wanted to know the gender or not. This got a laugh from our usually stoic ultrasound doc. He agreed to put it off until the end so we could make up our minds. In the end, I'll put this one on Max...he couldn't resist :)


Moving on to the house...we saw the third floor go up over the last week. The house is starting to look pretty tall, and the view from the third floor windows really puts you in the birch canopy! Beautiful! We love how it's turning out so far. Here's a view from the driveway showing the main door on the middle floor and the master and guest bedrooms on the top left. We borrowed the three-side-by-side window arrangement used in both bedrooms from Adam and Danica's current house plans and we love them! Thanks again you two! The exterior of the house gets wrapped in a black waterproof adhesive sheeting. Not very pretty, but it'll soon be covered up with insulation and siding.



This is looking into the SW corner of the main living floor. On the right is the framed-in doorway to the basement stairs and on the left is the wall between the kitchen and the back room.

Here's the living room (taken from the kitchen) with the back door to the future deck on the right. The wood stove will be centered between the two windows, just to the left of the trash can. We're looking forward to spending lots of time in front of the stove watching birds, moose, trees, and snowstorms out these windows!

By the end of the week the guys were moving roofing materials up to the top floor. Now that August is here we can expect plenty more rain, so the plan for this week is to get the roof on before finishing the interior walls. Behind the action you can see the windows of the upstairs bathroom.

The trusses were delivered on Friday and we should have a roof by sometime mid-week. Soon Max can take a break from sweeping puddles off the exposed floors after every rainfall, and we can stop worrying about swelling wood!

Second floor framing

After April and Jeb left for Anchorage, we finished up a busy week around here before we were able to head south ourselves. By the end of the week the second floor framing was completed. Here the crew is assembling the south wall of the main living floor before setting it in place.


This view is looking into the SW corner of the house that will eventually be the stairway with the window seat (on the right) and the back tv-den-whatever it ends up turning into (maybe kiddy play room?) room, on the left.

And from the north side. In the front will be the kitchen on the left and living room on the right.

Here is the entryway on the main floor on the right with what will become the downstairs bathroom on the left. The photo is taken from the spot where the wood stove will sit, along the west wall of the living room.