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?

Baby shower

It's been awhile since we've done an update...and here we are less than three weeks from our due date! Where have the last eight months gone?!? Everything is going well with the baby and we've nearly assembled all the baby gear we'll need for the first few months. Thanks everyone for helping with that monumental task! It was impossible to find many of the larger items in Fairbanks, and frustrating to have what we couldn't find here shipped to us. Luckily, we have a great team of supporters willing to store, ship, and lug stuff back here for us...hooray for wonderful parents and wonderful Rachel, who just returned from her Thanksgiving trip with not one, but two large packages for baby. Whew! Speaking of wonderful Rachel...

Three weeks ago she opened her home to a horde of gift-bearing, hungry women, gathered to celebrate the impending arrival of baby Kaufman. Such a support system we have in place here in Fairbanks! I feel terribly lucky to be surrounded by so many great (and generous!) women.


There were gifts from many friends and family who couldn't be there...here's a sweet little onesie from auntie April who we miss very much. We'll see if we can ship her and little Marit up here to meet the baby this winter...Jeb, you can come too! :)


The first hand-knit hat I unwrapped...thanks Sarah! I think this one will be the perfect coming home hat for baby. There are so many great knitters around here...I really need to learn to knit so I can reciprocate!

Ellie was so thoughtful to bring her extra "poop chart". Lauren can't believe such a thing exists while Erin's inner scientist appreciates the subtle differences between day 2 and day 3 newborn poop.

Putting your baby in this turns him or her into a living stuffed animal...how fun! I actually pointed this bunting out to Rachel in catalogue as "the cutest thing I'd ever seen", only to find out at the shower that my mom also pointed this out to Rachel asking if she thought I would like it. Great choice Mom! We love it :) Thanks to Rachel and all the ladies at the shower and to so many friends and family who sent gifts. I'm sure you'll all be seeing the things you gave us again and again on the blog in the countless baby pictures we'll post as proud parents in the coming months and years!

Boodle the duck

Here's a post for my little duck-loving Marit...occasionally we're lucky enough here at the office to get a visit from Boodle, my officemate's pet duck. She thinks she's people, but she's a great little duck with a nifty hairdo.


When strangers come around to visit with her (in this case, me) she retreats to dad's lap until she decides it's safe. When she decides we're only there to give her a pet and take pictures she hops down and resumes her inspection of the carpet, no doubt looking for crumbs dropped during countless working lunches.

I think here Jeremy is telling her bird migration stories. "The common Eider flies each spring from the Russian coast all the way down the Aleutian chain to Alaska..." Careful Jeremy, Boodle is studying that map awfully closely. Better keep an eye on her this spring!

Daytrip to Delta Junction

Last weekend good friends Shiway and Dave came up from Seward to try again for this year's moose...they were hoping for better luck near Delta Junction. Since the boys were going to spend the day out moose stalking, it was a perfect excuse for a visit with Shiway, Ellie, and Wyatt back at the homestead. Rachel and I loaded into Julie's car on Saturday and headed south.

Shiway spent some time cuddling Emma who wasn't invited on the moose hunt :( Poor Emma. I'm not sure if Shiway was invited this time, but she didn't seem to mind it if she wasn't!


I got a few pointers on how to turn kid junk food into kid health food. Don't believe it folks...throwing a few diced tomatoes on boxed mac and cheese does not make it health food! Who are they trying to fool?


Rachel practiced the fine art of baby feeding on little Wyatt. She found the best way to keep him quiet while Ellie was out of sight was to shovel in another spoonful of yogurt. "How much yogurt is a baby supposed to eat?", we wondered, as Rachel scraped the sides of the empty container. I hope our little one likes yogurt, because it looks like it's Auntie Rachel's favorite baby treat!

We had plenty of "feel the baby move!" breaks during dinner. Of course there were never any good kicks while the hands were there to feel them. Ellie said that this is the way it works...babies are very good at moving enough to make the mom say, "okay, he's kicking, put your hand here", then staying perfectly still until all hands are gone. Then repeating the process.

Wyatt tried to feel the baby too. Maybe they were communitcating through some secret baby language. Ellie loaned us two boxes of baby clothes and a few toys for our newbie. Maybe Wyatt is saying, "You be careful with my things, baby!" Or maybe he's just saying, "Good luck buddy...the trip outta there is CRAZY!"