Merry Christmas!

We thought some folks might be wondering by now how the birth went, how our life as new parents is treating us, how well the baby is sleeping...well, we wish we could tell you! We are still expectant parents, patiently waiting for the little one to decide it's time to meet us in person. We haven't got much to complain about though. We spent the past two days with good friends and with the freedom to eat when we wanted to, sleep when we wanted to, and stay out as late as we wanted to (not very late as it turns out). So now that we've had a fun, social Christmas we're ready to get this show on the road. I'm feeling fine, though moving a bit more slowly, and running out of belly space. Max and I agreed that tomorrow would make an excellent birth day.

In the meantime, we managed to get a tree up in time for Christmas. We found a poor little white spruce in the woods by the cabin with more growth rings than we care to admit to. This was an old timer. It's a hard life in the bog.


Still got that belly.

Rufus immediately made a comfy nest under the tree where he has spent most of his time over the last several days. It's within reach of all the bows and wrapped packages that have been so much fun to attack. He managed to open several before Christmas morning.

We'll put up an update when we have some news. Thanks to all of you who have called to check in with us this week! We're feeling awfully popular these days :) Much love and big hugs, M&M

Siding and drywall progress

Here's a sneak peek at the siding. This photo was taken Thursday evening. Since then the siding crew has finished this wall and installed the soffit. They'll move to the north side on Monday and continue to work around the house following Max's progress on the furring strips.


These photos show the current state of the interior. It's pretty darned exciting to see the studs covered and to get a feel for how the finished rooms will look! First impression...they look a bit smaller, but the house is feeling super cozy now that all the insulation is in and the walls are solid walls. The echoes are gone and the interior has a whole new resonance. This view looks toward the front entry.

The guys didn't make all the way around to the kitchen today but they got pretty close.

The upstairs is looking good too. The drywall made the bigggest difference upstairs where we can no longer look through the studs from one end of the house to the other. It's made the bedrooms feel smaller but I think it'll just be a matter of getting used to the new walls. This is the upstairs hallway looking into the linen closet and guest bedroom.

Finally, here's the north side of the living room. We're still waiting on the deck door on the right. Once that's in (Monday?!?) we'll be "officially" closed in...but a piece of rigid foam insulation does a nice job in the meantime. So that's where we are right now. We're starting to feel like living here may happen one day soon! That's a great feeling :)

All's quiet on the baby front

Well, we've almost made it to tomorrow's baby due date and we don't have any baby updates yet. I had a good checkup with the midwives on Thursday and all systems are go for the birth center. I'm excited to see how this labor and birth business goes but we're waiting patiently until things start happening. Max and I decided this weekend was too busy at the house to have a baby anyway, so I can't say we're awfully disappointed that the little one hasn't decided to make an early entrance. We think Tuesday would be fine though, so we'll see how well baby listens to his silly parents.

In the meantime, we've been enjoying our current family. I sat down with the kitties this afternoon and watched a documentary about ravens. It was much appreciated by little Rufus (formerly Tiger - I think we've finally stopped renaming him) who watched the whole hour-long program. (I know, we're not supposed to let the kids watch tv...the new kiddo will have different rules!)

We have plenty of ravens hanging out or traveling through the yard here and it sure seems like the cats recognize the birds on the screen...they used this opportunity to explore ravens up close.

Rufus retreated to his favorite seat for the rest of the show giving Suki a chance to get an up close look. Entertaining and educational. Our cats love PBS.

December, week 2

There's been a lot of progress at the house this week. Max worked some late nights with his hard working and very reliable hired hand Karl. They were busy putting up insulation on the interior and furring strips on the outside walls. They've managed to stay ahead of the contractors...just barely. The whole interior is now insulated and the living room in this picture is already covered with drywall!


The ceiling vapor barrier went in at the end of the week. The drywallers have already covered the entire upstairs ceiling and have about half the walls done too. They work fast!

Friends Franz, Matt, and Keith helped move the scaffolding one last time last weekend so the siding crew could put up their own lift system. The siding on this side of the house was finished this afternoon. There was too much activity at the house today, and too much dust flying inside to get any new pics. We'll take advantage of the contractor rest day tomorrow and get some more current photos to post. We're really encouraged by all this progress and can almost see the light at the end of the construction loan!

House update December 2

We haven't shown the house in awhile, but it isn't because we've forgotten about it! Since we last posted pictures, Max (with the help of some friends - thanks guys!) has put up the rest of the exterior insulation and is about half way finished putting up the furring strips that will hold the siding. The furring gives the house a nice European ski chalet look that pleases Max, I think. He's mentioned at least once leaving it this way. Luckily the siding is bought and paid for and waiting in the driveway, otherwise I might have a hard time convincing him that we need siding at all! Notice too that the windows and doors are in...all but one. We're still waiting on the deck door that wasn't quite what we'd ordered the first time. With a little luck we'll be able to say we're closed in by the end of this week. Rachel and I stopped by to check on Max's progress on our way to visit one of the newest arrivals in Fairbanks, Lola Mae, the brand new daughter of friends Andy and Sue. Andy passed along some new dad advice for Max along with a locally-made sausage to pack in his birth center overnight bag...something to keep his strength up. Thanks Andy! What about my strength ;-)


We've got a crew scheduled to start putting up the siding this week so we'll soon see some changes to the outside of the house. This is a sample of the fiber cement board that we've decided to use on the exterior. The finish came out looking very much like stained cedar...very nice. We wanted the look of wood, but this material has the added benefit of being non-combustable. With all the wildfires the interior has seen in the past several years we thought it was worth the extra investment. We'll have our fingers crossed that we'll never need it.

The living room is starting to look like Max's clubhouse with a warm stove, a comfortable chair, and plenty of snacks within easy reach. No wonder I hardly ever see him anymore! We've had a working wood stove for about a month now. We're really happy with this stove we had Shiway and Dave haul up from Anchorage. It's easy to use, puts out a lot of heat, and burns about as cleanly as a catalytic stove.

I think this is what Max is doing much of the time that he's up at the house. There won't be many more pictures of these framed OSB walls...the drywallers are supposed to start on the interior in a week or two. We're hoping we'll be able to start on the floors and install cabinets and bath fixtures by early January.

A man and his wood stove. Maybe this is what Max is doing much of the time he's up at the house?