Birthday Surprise Hollow Tile

What a surprise birthday present for Karen!

We went out to see the progress of the previous days and found that there were guys working.... on a Sunday?!?!? I have no idea where Gene found these guys but I can assure you that it's rather unusual to find guys who are willing to work on a Sunday!

We were thrilled to see this vertical movement from the slab! These guys are laying hollow tile.

The temple bamboo (as well as all the bamboo) is putting out some large shoots. Bamboo shoots look like asparagus spears to me.GB is standing next to this same "spear" for perspective.

And the pool!!! Looking very "pool-ish"!

garage progress

While we went to the land to see the concrete, we were very pleasantly surprised to see the progress on the shed. It's amazing how much gets done when you have a crew of focused guys.

And here's GB. Where is the pipe for the water pump going???

Ah concrete..... how I love thee

let me count the ways

When I lived in a city, I felt stifled by concrete. I always referred to my city as a concrete jungle. Then I moved to Hawaii and everything changed. You see, it is SO green here, and SO lush here, that concrete is a much needed (at least for me) change of scenery. Plus.... where there is concrete, there is no mud.
A couple of years ago we made a concrete walkway around the perimeter of our house. It is by far one of the best home improvement project we ever did.... and we've done a lot.

So it was with great excitement that I awoke today knowing that the guys were pouring our house slab (foundation) today.

We arrived in the late am, when one truck was leaving and another coming.

Gene had a sign out on the highway, marking the way

the guys are waiting

concrete is pouring out of the hose over there. Luka and I are watching.

One guy is spreading the concrete with the hose. Gene has a mixer thing and is churning up the concrete. The other guys are getting ready to smooth it out. There's a guy in the background using some kind of round sanding looking machine on the already drying stuff.

Here's the cesspool cover. We need to remember its location. And yes, that's a toilet sitting there in the dirt. I think they'll stick it over the cesspool eventually.

Sept 23

Sept 23
Originally uploaded by malama2006.

Showing progress to Tom and Eve (she was hiding in the shade)

Met with Gene

We met with Gene at the land on Tues. GB also had some specs to go over with a prospective electrician, George.

A bunch of cinder block was delivered. Looks like we're building a bunker

GB is happy : )

Garage Slab Poured!

Friday morning they poured the slab for the garage. We weren't there- Ra'am had a vacation from school and we all slept late and were very lazy.

Here it is on Saturday- staying wet so it dries well
Jeff is cutting lines in the slab so it doesn't crack.

The pool!

The house..... getting ready for this to be poured next friday. These guys are working on tying rebar. It's a really really hard job- leaning over ALL day long. Anyone who's done this deserves a medal.

Quick Update

Quick tour of the progress:

First off, I am having great success with propagating Bambusa Vulgaris Vittata. Here is one sprouting new growth.



The pool is coming along.


The foundation too. Notice the area for the koi pond and the overflow drain. Hopefully it is big enough. I expressed my reservations to Gene, but he assured me that it could drain the pond in seconds.


Lots more to do!

Culvert Close Inspection

This is our other driveway that opens to the scenic route.



Our friend Terin who is an excellent civil engineer has been giving up pointers on how to fix our culvert - our beautiful, over 100 years old, culvert.

So I climbed down into it today. It is about 4 feet by 4 feet.



All of the damage is on the east side, where some of the wall of the culvert collapsed when a front loader was driving across the top.



Initally we thought that the ceiling of the culvert had collapsed, but there is no damage to the ceiling at all.


What it looks like is that the wall was undercut by the stream and collapsed into the empty space below the wall and then fell upon itself.

It looks like the undercut continues here. I have a feeling the solution is going to be complicated.

Today was a veritable zoo at the land

After doing some early am shopping in town, Luka , Noam and I decided to stop by the land and see GB there as well as check out what was going on.

It was BUSY!
The pool guys were there. There were some decisions to be made, of course. One guy was hand digging the hot tub.

Loren was up at the shed site, framing for the foundation. Gene told me they're going to pour that next friday.

At the house site was major activity. Plumbers were there making way for water lines. I got to meet Jeff, the foreman, and there was some heavy machinery digging holes for the sonotubes.

You can see Loren here on the right corner of the pic, carrying a 2x4 up to the shed.





And amid all of the work..... the plants keep growing and the weeds keep flowering
:)

The earth is moving

It's a little dark, but you can see the long ditch here on the left.

Shed foundation framing

Macro of the dirt on GB's arm. I'm pretty sure he was using the chansaw. It looks all caked on and THICK! (yuck!)
The fruit of GB's labor..... the space widens and the view improves

Two days later

And everything looks different!


This is but one teeny tiny section of the ditch that the water and electrical lines will run through. (actually not sure if elec is going in there too.....). Goes all the way from the water tank to the house.Excavation on the house pad for foottings.
That's Gene and Loren standing there on the left, overseeing.

Woo hoo!

Moving forward and earthworks

So far each day there's been some major changes at the land. After a weekend in South Kohala with Mike, we came home to see what had been done. Even though we were pooped, we were so excited to see what was new!


Looking up towards the water tank, you can see the beginnings of the pad for the shed.

This is a close up of that shed pad
Looking down on the future house. Looks like the slab will take up the whole area.
Markings on the house area to show where the footings will go!

Unrelated to the house.... our lovely bamboo that we always write about has gone to seed. We're not sure exactly what this means (many conflicting reports). This is a flash pic of how the seeds look, and then some close ups. They are very pretty....

GB looks happy :)Luka too