Houses and Mosquitos

Yesterday GB and I spent the afternoon talking about houses and designs. He'd contacted some architects and apparently the cost of building, per square foot, has gone up dramatically in the last few years. The island has seen a huge building boom and the contractors must be going crazy raising their prices.
Back then- which was only like 7 years ago, $150-200 per sq ft was spendy- and could get you some luxury materials. From what we've heard recently, this same cost per sq ft is very very low. yikes.
Basically at those prices, it seems cheaper to buy property with a house already on it rather than build your own. huh?

Our discussion (and GB's drawing of many plans on paper) led us to revisit these kit homes. We looked at them years ago- even visited their site. They're really pretty- redwood, cedar- which is naturally termite resistant. And heavens knows we need all of the termite resistance we can get. They come in cool shapes- hexagons (small), octagons (med) and dodecagons (large). They're pretty flexible as far as how you put them together too.

In any case, we're doing some more research and will be meeting with an architect on Wed, as well as getting in touch with a contractor that comes highly recommended.

We ended up going back to the land to look at the house sites some more. Like GB said, there is the ridge with the killer ocean view- but narrow land, and then the lower part of the property which is gorgeous but no ocean views.

We were up on the ridge, pacing out a possible design using the multifacetted homes. Within about 10 minutes of being there, I had a major swarm of mosquitos around me, despite the fact that I was mostly all covered up :( To say this was disconcerting is putting it mildly. We were there in the early evening, but it was crazy. And another 10 minutes and there was a cloud around GB too.

We had said that if clearing the land wouldn't make a difference in the mosquito population that we'd sell the land, but at this point we're emotionally invested- esp GB, who has been spending so much time working there.

I mean, we want to put a pool there. I can't imagine hanging out near the pool with mosquitos trying to get at my uncovered flesh. And they don't usually bother me, so you know it was baaad.

Surprisingly we went to the lower part of the property to check out the mosquito population, and they didn't bother us, eventhough the stream is there.

In the end we figured that since we've cleared so much in the lower part, that the mosquitos have fewer places to breed. The upper part still is pretty jungly.

So next step? clear the ridge..... cept for the beautiful old mango trees and the awesome bamboo patch.

moral of this long winded story? We think a lot. We talk a lot. It's difficult to make decisions- especially the right ones. A few paragraphs of my rambling barely dents the scope of us talking about it.

oh, and we took some pics, but I don't like them. we'll see if GB can doctor them up so they're nicer.