hanging over our head

     A barefoot building brewing buddy of mine once said something along the lines of "You guys should start with a shed". Others- "This will be the hardest thing you will ever do as a couple."     

     As we lived aboard the ship the last few years, listening to the rain drip drop on the subfloor above us, (struggling to outsource family showers and keep dishes washed via water boiled on the wood stove, mice and one resident ermine living in the fabric covered walls, eating dinner in the pantry, dessert in the fruit bowl) we began cutting shingles out of rolled roofing, stocking up on pond liner and planning our attack. .  

A surrounding issue of much antagony- the many temporary installations of walls, doors, hay bales, fabric and vapor barrier on said walls, windows, insulation (a full compressed truckload+), kitchen sink/counter/shelving, bunk beds built over the (beautiful cannery wood) spiral staircase that my dad and uncle built for future use, that list goes on and on.. It all has to come out eventually(some has already been disassembled) 

     Kelly worked as an electrician most of the hours that a day contains for several months this past spring,  then I went fishing with my dad for the summer.  He was pleased to get to do the majority of the electrical work on an awesome new restaurant in town and I got some much needed father-daughter time, as well as time for myself in beautiful Prince William Sound over the summer.  Kelly hitchhiking from our broken down Volvo in Cooper Landing to make a Whittier-Cordova ferry for the Salmon Jam, then coming along on the trip back up to Valdez, was a highlight, as were the evenings spent rocking out upon a flotilla of seine boats and skiffs, taking a borrowed truck road trip halfway to the Bridge To Nowhere, and many quiet nights in many quiet bays.

Yesterday we put the last shingle on the roof.  - October
Such a small sentence. Such a big job.

     Our roof is made up of 7 vaults, 5 of them tie in to a Lodgepole. Two "barrel vaults" come off of the structure as well as a few creatively placed "shed" roofs. This created yet another (in the Ship of Fools tradition) super complicated custom fit 2500 square foot problem to solve.

     The fascia is metal lathe (hanging out past the edge of the roof) rolled up into a nearly uniform surface situated vertically under the the roof edge, then coated with hessian.
All of the fascia as well as the bottom of the valleys is coated with 2+ coats of Gaco roof Silicone. In the walkways we have sprinkled sand for traction. The shed roof over the entryway as well as parts of the top of the roof have pond liner covering. Everywhere else is shingles. The shingles are shaped like a U in 5 different colors. The parts of the roof with pond liner will be covered in various plant
life. The installed roofing seems to be setting up to function as a roof should; i.e. not let water in....

     Fast forward again, sometimes life seems like a techno thriller about time travel. Blink and 4 months have come and gone. Blink again and your kids are teenagers. The last 5 years seem like both the blink of an eye and Roland Deschaine's eternal journey(the Dark Tower, Stephen King).    

     After realizing that we were not going to be able to live with no running water (while keeping up with cultural expectations and public school attendance) and remain a couple, we moved to town. For the now, it is convenient and fabulous to loll about in the bath any old time I feel like it or walk to the washing machine and toss in a load. We live in an apartment on a quiet cul de sac. The last year has been a rough one. Suffice it to say- we haven't been focused on the house so much as just getting by. Our (pre- finished product/all systems go) Earthship living situation was not keeping us afloat. We have agreed not to reside in it again until we have certain(running water, composting toilets) systems in place.
   
     These last two blog posts have been disjointed as I tried to share the main points of interest and not write long winded inapplicable memoirs(which I may or may not have succeeded in doing:) Thanks for bearing with me.

    

The unexpected makings of a 5 year plan...

Watch out!
     The Hagelund/King household might be stumbling into the completion of a 5 year plan. This would be a monumental sort of deal as our last 5 year plan burned up and we hadn't started making a new one since. The earthship project hasnt really entered our minds as a 5 year plan; more like a "lets get it done this summer!" every summer, sort of deal. Kelly and the kids are headed up to the Palmer area for some sadness in the family; I was left alone for the day and was trying to loll about and start book 11 in the Wheel of Time series( I re-read the series since the long awaited epic book 14 finally came out!) My mind was moving too fast on non WOT topics so I jumped up and decided to blog and spit out some of these thoughts that were flying around. The thought that made me want to jump up and blog was the idea that we might be moving into our 4th building season since starting the earthship which could feasibly mean that over a period of five years we built our house and completed it.?.?. For those of us who have been privileged to be encouraged to make a 5 year plan time and again throughout our adult lives it comes as a relief to me to realize that at this point we are over the hump in a five year plan and I didnt even notice until today! Yay! This monumental thought doesnt really have much to do with the earthship project as it were, since the only way to get to the completion of a 5 year plan is to just keep working in the now. Otherwise it might turn into a 10 year plan mightn't it?
 
      On the docket for this Fall:
   House roof completion-
    The cement roof that we applied last fall is not waterproof. We knew this going into the project and have been thinking about it off and on since. the plan as it stands is to use a combination of green roofing and rolled roofing. The green roofing will fill the bottoms of the valleys, gentler slopes and walkways and the rolled roofing will cover the steeper vaulted parts. The rolled roofing is being cut into shingles using a blowtorch and a razor knife. We are going to adhere the asphalt shingles to the cement roof and to each other. The rolled roofing so far has been gathered off of Craigslist, I am in  the market for more?    
    The living roof will start with rubber pond liner/epdm/membrane against the cement, the next layer will be a landscaping mat with grids for erosion control and dirt                                            

  Closing in the outer walls-  4 of the outer walls are prepped to receive the concrete dipped cloth (hessian?) covering which leaves 2 vault faces to cover in plastic and staple wire mesh to before they will be ready. Downstairs we have 2 and 1/2 South facing bays to build bottle walls surrounding the windows that are in place.
  If we can power through and finish all of those things we will be ready to settle in for the winter and work on the inside of the house. The kids are going back into public school next year, Brynn will be in Kindergarden, Adarra will be in Fourth Grade and Caius will be in Sixth Grade. We think it will be neat for them to all attend the same school for a year. After that, who's to say what will happen. We have enjoyed having the kids at home and we think they have as well but they are itching to join back up at Tustemena Elementary.      
  Looking back- we spent the winter holed up in the heart of the earthship, moved in in end of October/beginning of November. Our Sister in Law and two nieces were staying with us thru mid January. In December we had a cold snap with temperatures plunging below zero and it worked out really well to have the fire going 24-7 while keeping up with the work/school/extracurriculars of 8 people, 3 dogs and a cat. Kelly has worked off and on throughout the winter and Ive kept steady with my 2 days at the Golden International. Weve got the big kids in Indoor Soccer and voice lessons which is a mandatory 2-3 town trips per week.

*Note*
This blog post is a couple of years old, I found it difficult to relate what's happening in the NOW (2015) without posting this; which was partially written..