Year in review

It's just starting to warm up enough for us to finish outside, but some recent late snow has slowed us down. It's now been about a year since we just began clearing trees. Here's a quick review of what's happened. It sure seems like more than a year! What's next? I still hope that we will finish 100% in May, exactly 1 year after the foundation started. Stay tuned...


Unadulterated land


Adulterated Land, March 2007


Driveway with topping, May


In the footing hole

Foundation beams, June


Floor joists


Picture window wall


Setting trusses


Great room taking shape


300 pound window installation


Gypcrete radiant floor, September


Siding in October before it gets too cold


Tile work, November, just before move in


Important first finished room, December, just after move in


Important second room to finish, January 2008


The great room nearing completion, February

Playing cards

I'm the kind of guy who calculates almost every decision carefully. It's like playing cards. Sometimes you do well, sometimes not so well. Recent heating oil prices have made me think about this.

• good: Insulating the snot out of the house and sealing it super tight
• not so good: Holding off on fuel oil delivery betting that it will go down in spring like last few years
• good: Having a wood stove on the first floor so it can heat entire house

It goes beyond heating. Point at any part of the house and I can tell you both how good we did and what we might have done better.

• good: A full guest bathroom
• not so good: 1 more foot on master bath would have been nice (I told you so privileges go to Dustin and Barry)
• good: squeezing 1 more foot into the kitchen to let multiple people work more comfortably
• not so good: dishwasher and oven doors conflict
• good: gorgeous stairway
• not so good: Saved $20 on stringer material which twisted a little and added hours to trim work
• good: tile
• not so good: dropping glass stuff on tile
• good: nifty pendant lights for the bar
• not so good: they're so nifty people want to turn them on more often, but the switch is over by the bar

The list goes on... But in the end, we absolutely love our house, and it's well built, cheap to heat, and just right for us.

Little things

We're trying oh so hard to finish all the main stuff inside this weekend. No real deadline, but it's good to have goals. It's the little things, however, that take so long! Plus, for each thing I check off my list, I think of two more. Things like plug wood screw holes, touch up drywall, little bits of trim here and there, wood finish various non-finished pieces, clean the dust from the 20' high ceiling fan, buy tiny little parts like washers or baseboard trim for the sole remaining 36" piece, etc.

cable rails

Got the cable rails in on the stairs. We'll do this outside and in the loft as well.


You can see one in the loft, the others are being made by Dad.
Also, notice the tread and riser screw holes are plugged.

Energy update

Total fuel use this winter: 320 gallons for comfortable heating and hot water for three, with no wood heat. This is very good for a house like ours!

If we paid Anchorage natural gas prices, it would cost us $36.75 a month on average to heat and create hot water!

This works out to around 450 gallons for the whole year. Next year we'll have our high efficiency wood stove, which can heat the entire house. Burning on the 3 coldest months could cut our usage in half.

Nearly there!

The blog has been quiet for some time now, but we've been busy. All the final little things take a long time, but we are now very close to completion inside. We finally installed the last of the lights for the dining area, kitchen sink, stairs, and some nifty pendant lights for the bar. These were going to be a track light, but pendants looked better so I drilled two big holes in the drywall, added two ceiling boxes and fished the wires through.

our new pendant lights, and a Photoshoped fridge
(ours is a white hand-me-down but we will get a new black one eventually)

We have LOTS of lights!
Wide angle lens distortion. Our house isn't this huge

After that, I spent a long weekend in Big Lake at my dads shop. He had already made the stair railings by laminating ash and mahogany, which I helped finish by hand planing to shape, since we don't have a shaper. It felt like I planed a mile worth of shavings. We also made a few miscellaneous parts like floor transition strips, and newel posts, which have holes drilled for a cable rail to come, and the upstairs railings, which are flat rather than profiled. They also have a Mahogany inlay.


Stair railing. Cables courtesy of Photoshop. Screw holes still need to be plugged and finish coat applied to stairs.

Upstairs balcony railing and our dusk view

35 degrees above zero

wow

-40 below

I thought I'd say something since Andrew has been doing most of the posting lately. This post will be utterly unhouse related. It is cold in Fairbanks today, it has been cold for the past week. -44 below at my work. I've lived in Fairbanks for about 8 years now but I'm still surprised when I'm expected to go on with daily functions during this kind of weather. Why doesn't Fairbanks just close down? That's just a rhetorical question as I know that some people have to go to work or we wouldn't have electricity, water, heat, etc. My window faces a Fire station and EMT unit. When it gets to be in the -40 or -50 below weather those guys are in and out of the building all day long. Which tells me that there are significantly more emergencies then any other time of the year.

On a personal level I think the administration of our University should give it's employees and students the option to stay home. But they don't, your expected to be here. If I stay home I have to use my vacation leave. I can't even take leave without pay. So what are my options? Use my precious benefits or come to work. Risk breaking down on the road (which could result in many other problems) or just stay home and use my benefits. Most individuals don't even have the benefit of vacation time. So people who work minimum wage jobs and are without benefits have more pressure to put themselves at risk in these temperatures. They could loose their jobs if they don't go to work. Hmm, this would make an interesting Fairbanks sociological study. Look at the influence of temperature on accidents and then of those accidents what are the individuals involved economic status.

I always find it amazing how much pressure the acquisition of money puts on us. Risk your life at this moment or risk your future. This post may seem a little dramatic and whiney. But sometimes I feel this way. Especially when I'm walking up a hill, at -44 below, because I don't even get to park close to my building.

Garage plans already

I'm such a nut. I've already priced out every last piece of the 2 car detached garage, which is the project for this summer. About $20k, done right. Super-insulated, radiant floor, etc. I'm excited about building something so easy. Each major part will take one weekend: Foundation, Framing, Roofing, Siding, Insulating, Wiring, Drywall! No crazy 21 foot walls, odd angles, hanging lofts, 900 square feet of tile, etc.

But, is it worth it? Most places, a garage ads little to no value to a house. In Fairbanks, it's almost a necessity. When we get our loan, I'll ask the appraiser.

Our Jenn-Air stove kicks butt

We went all-out with our stove and spent a fair chunk of change (at least we got 30% off by buying all our appliances at once and signing up for a sears card at the same time)

I really enjoy cooking, and especially enjoy cooking on gas. It heats up and turns off instantly. But it can have some problems, like difficulty turning down enough without the flame going out.

Not a problem on this stove. All four burners are different, and one turns down to a "melt" setting. It also has a super burner to boil water quickly, and one extra wide, dual ring burner for big fry pans or woks.

The grates remove easily, and underneath is a smooth glass surface that's easy to clean and doesn't catch grime in hard to get at holes.

Also, it's a downdraft vent, so no vent hood is needed. It sucks the smoke and grease down, and it actually works pretty well except for tall pots.

Marcy is more of the baker, but the oven part is fancy too. It has a convection fan which blows around the air so you can cook multiple sheets of cookies at once, or cook other things about 25% faster.

Most importantly, it's pretty!