Jacking up the House

We needed to jack up our house to fix the foundation and to make room to insulate the floor.   Luckily we have a friend from Nome that is a house mover.  Roger, his son Amos, and Roger's friend Tim drove up to Teller and then took their boat across to Brevig.

The first step to raising the house was to dig holes under the edges so we could get the jacks underneath.

Roger brought his air jacks with for the project.  They are basically heavy duty rubber bladders that you inflate with an air compressor.  We lifted one side of the house at a time, using four of the air jacks.  When we were done with the project the house was almost 2 feet off the ground. 

Here is Roger, eyeing up the house while he adjusts the pressure in the jacks.



Our "New" Place

This post is long overdue but here's the story of our moving adventure that happened this fall.

A long story short, our landlord passed away this summer, leaving us without a place to rent. We were fortunate enough, first of all, to find THE house in town that was not being rented out. And secondly, the owner of the house agreed to rent it to us.

Once, we had a place lined up, we were relieved but also a bit depressed over our new situation. We downsized from a four bedroom place to a one bedroom house, from 1200 square feet, down to 578 square feet. The roof on the new house leaked, the heat source wasn't in working order, it was (is) poorly insulated and was (is) so, so tiny. But on it had a few things going for it,
1) running water
2) a nice bathroom
3) a great view and
4) very affordable rent.

To prepare to live in the "beach house", as we so fondly call it, we did loads of cleaning, painting, fixing and installing. Thankfully, we had a lot of help from friends, strangers and family during this time. We were blessed enough to have many volunteers help us clean and paint and haul our things from the old house to the beach house.

I thought the best way to share the make over of our new house would be to show before and after pictures. Then it's just like Trading Spaces, or Extreme Home Makeover or something.

Kitchen / Dining Before

Kitchen / Dining After



Living Area Before





Living Area After

Since there was only one bedroom, C.O. removed the half wall you see in the "before living area" photo and put it in the bedroom so we have our own space and Harold has his own sleeping space.

Bedroom Before

Bedroom(s) After

Our area:


Harold's area:


The Bathroom from the start was really quite nice so it didn't require too much work.



Exterior before



Exterior After

We didn't have time or money to do much with the outside of the house. It really needs better insulation, siding and a new roof . . . that's all.

Now, a couple months later, we are settled and comfortable in our new home. It's not perfect, it's a bit chilly and the flooring is pretty beat up. But, we aren't homeless and no matter where we are in the house, we're close to the ones we love most. =)

--AnnMarie

Ocean View

This August we moved into a different house in Brevig. The new place is located right on the beach. After we got settled into the new house I moved my workshop down to the beach also. I haven't taken any photos of the house yet, but I do have some of the shop.This is the view of the ocean when I open the shop doors.

Here is another view from outside.

I haven't measured it, but I think that we are less than 200 feet from the waters edge.

C.O.