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Meet the newest member of the AK House Project cre

Meet the newest member of the AK House Project crew, Taiga the puppy. Taiga is an 18-week-old samoyed pup. Samoyeds are Siberian working dogs known for their high energy, friendly characters, and extreme floofiness. I've had Taiga since he was 8 weeks and living with him so far has been a nonstop (if sometimes sleep-deprived) adventure.
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Taiga doesn't spend a lot of time at the job site just yet, since loose nails are bad for puppy paws. But I'm taking him by occasionally so he can get used to the neighborhood trails. Once he's a little older his jobsite responsibilities will include moose alerts and party planning.
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#alaska #samoyeds #dogsofinstagram #workingdog

After over a year spent framing and reframing, we

After over a year spent framing and reframing, we finally reached the very top of the roof. The upper sheathing was fastened with a thousand 12" screws and large galvanized washers. I'm not gonna lie: buying the screws gave me a little sticker shock. Sometimes the housebuilding process involves grand ideas, excitement, and creativity. Sometimes it means getting up early so you can drive around bleary-eyed in the dark to an industrial supply store and somehow spend a thousand dollars on tubs of ordinary-looking black screws. But it's all part of the process. Regardless, this is an exciting milestone: for the first time, the interior of the house is totally protected from the elements.
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Roof designs are a big and interesting topic. Rather than try to cram everything about hot vs. cold roofs, ventilation, ice damming, etc. into a single post, I'll address a few of these topics over the next few weeks. I'll also include a diagram of the final akhouseproject roof assembly, which I believe does a good job balancing efficiency, cost, aesthetics and resilience in an Alaska climate.
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#alaska #alaskalife #construction #ownerbuilder #ownerbuilding #homebuilding #housebuilding

It's been a pretty interesting last few weeks. A F

It's been a pretty interesting last few weeks. A Facebook post I made months ago about my framing problems suddenly went viral and was shared over 24,000 times. I received hundreds of messages from around the world and picked up a little over 8,000 new followers on Instagram overnight. Most of the feedback has been from industry professionals and it has been sympathetic, funny, kind, and very insightful. I'm seriously overwhelmed by it all and I promise I will respond to every message.
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I've had a lot of questions about where the project is at now and I wanted to provide a quick update. First, all of the defective framing created by original GC was demolished and I began reframing with a new contractor. See my previous posts for details. The reframing is going really well, and the quality of work is drastically better this time around. The cuts are tight, fasteners are correct, and the plans are being followed to the letter. As of today, we just need to finish some roof details, build a couple interior walls, cut out the windows, and take care of a few other odds and ends. Should be done in two or three weeks.
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I'm glad my initial framing disaster has been so instructive. To all the new folks following along: welcome! I'll keep posting about that situation to the extent that I think it's helpful, but I hope this account becomes about much more than memorializing a disaster. There's a lot of exciting stuff in the homebuilding process that I'm looking forward to sharing. Stay tuned.
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#anchorage #anchorageak #construction #building #ownerbuilder #ownerbuilding

I'm excited to say that I'll be making much of my

I'm excited to say that I'll be making much of my akhouseproject media available for free public use via the project's new Flickr account. I'm currently uploading full-size, full-quality photos and videos under a Creative Commons attribution license. This more or less means that you can download and use media however you like--for free, forever--as long as you provide the requested credit. I'm uploading this media after several people independently contacted me to say they'd like to use my photos for educational purposes.
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I'm a big believer in Creative Commons, and I've been uploading my outdoor photography under CC licenses for the better part of a decade. Long ago I decided that I'd generally rather share my outdoor photos rather than sell licenses and try to make money from them. While I've definitely missed out on income because of this decision, I've always found it surprising and rewarding to see my photos used on book or magazine covers, ads, social media, etc. Sometimes people using the work provide the required credit. Sometimes not. But either way I get a kick out of the fact that the photos are being used and appreciated.
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I hope that my akhouseproject media becomes a helpful resource for builders, writers, educators, and anyone else focused on quality construction. If you have any questions about how Creative Commons works please feel free to ask, I'm always happy to talk up this awesome alternative to traditional copyright.
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#creativecommons #flickr #ownerbuilder #construction

Today I headed up to the jobsite to tape the seams

Today I headed up to the jobsite to tape the seams in the roof sheathing. Rodney and Patrick are doing an awesome job with the framing: the cuts are tight, the hardware is installed correctly, and the overhangs are supported. But it doesn't matter how good the carpentry is if you mess up air or water sealing. That's where the tape comes in.
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My house uses what's called a "hot roof" design, meaning that the roof sheathing stays warm because the insulation is on the outside of it, rather than the inside. Hot roofs can be efficient and effective, but they require meticulous air sealing on the upper side of the roof sheathing. Otherwise, warm, wetter interior air can rise through seams in the sheathing and into the roof insulation, where it can cool and deposit moisture in the form of condensation. Over time, excessive moisture deposited into the roof system could lead to rot. In the early 2000's, a number of recently-built housing units in Juneau famously failed because seams in their roof panels hadn't been adequately sealed.
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I taped the roof sheathing seams with 3M Flashing Tape. This paper-backed tape is waterproof, awesomely stretchy, and uses an extremely tenacious acrylic adhesive. Press the tape onto the plywood and try to lift it up again, and plenty of wood splinters will come up with it. In addition to taping the sheathing, we'll also add a polyethylene barrier over the roof sheathing and tape the insulation seams too for good measure. You really, really have to get this right.
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Taping the roof seams is a small task, but it's a big milestone in this project. In early March I thought I had a completely framed house. If you've been following this account for a while, you know what happened next--attempts to save the framing, demolition, and then rebuilding. Obviously there's still more framing to do, but this is the first time I've been able to do a "new" task on the house in eight months.
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#construction #ownerbuilder #housebuilding #alaskalife #thealaskalife #homebuilding

Roof beams are going back up! Luckily, it looks li

Roof beams are going back up! Luckily, it looks like we’ll be able to reuse most of the original glulam beams from the first framing attempt. Harry and his crew stacked them nicely during the demo, and I’ve kept them tarped over the last few months. After a little work with a belt sander, my current framer, Rodney, got the beams looking almost new again.
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The crane has to make several trips up to my site to get all of the beams placed. Obviously, crane time doesn't come cheap, but multiple trips are necessary because of the house design. The complex engineering, tall walls, and big spans in my home have all added (and will continue to add) significant costs compared with, say, a single-story ranch home design. That’s OK–I like what we’re doing here. But it’s worth remembering that there’s no simple “cost per square foot” calculation for new construction, and the financial implications of design choices can really add up.
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This last week also saw the first snow of the season at the jobsite. Winter is almost here! A lot of people have asked me if the framing will be damaged by snow. As I posted back on January 10, 2020, the answer is: not really, no. Snow just sits on top of the subfloor and can easily be shoveled off. Freeze/thaw cycles can be hard on engineered products like plywood, though, so I'm looking forward to getting the roof on before winter really hits.
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#alaska #anchorageak #ownerbuilder #construction #homeconstruction #homebuilding #housebuilding #ownerbuilt

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