Framing Happens

And while we were on holiday..... playing with family, swimming with dolphins, and eating delicious food....

PreThanksgiving Goodness

We have much to be thankful for.
Before heading off to Lana'i to visit with the Hajims , we stopped by to see how things were going at the house.


We now have....

windows
A soon-to-be TV room
And so much subfloor

That we can have a photo op in our "bedroom"
Typical scene- GB and Jeff discussing particulars

Second Floor!

Here is a another view of the work Karen and I did last week

....but onward to...The glulam beams are in place. The joists are almost done.

The subfloor material is already on the 2nd story!

Underneath the joists. The first floor has a nice diffused light. Obviously it will be much darker, but also much cooler once the 2nd floor is in.

The "view" from the "kitchen".


This is probably the last photo of the naked pool before it gets its ferrocement skin!

Planting Day

GB and I set out yesterday to plant a bunch of palms we have had forever. It was a cloudy, pre-storm day- perfect for planting!

First GB mowed and cleared the area with the tractor

Here are the palms- waiting in the truck to be put in the ground and out of those pesky and confining pots.

We planted dypsis lutescens and dypsis vestiaria (otherwise known as areca palms- the vestiaria have reddish orange stems)

dypsis vestiaria
unfurling frond
full plant

In between working, I visited the house site to see how things are going. We're still waiting on the glulams, but there were a few there, so you can see the ceiling or the downstairs/ upstairs floor start to take shape.
I climbed up on some scaffolding so I could see what it would look like from the house. But I guesstimated that it'll still be another 5+ feet above where I was. Still, it looked cool from up there!

I love to take pictures of the little things. Here's a whole "forest" growing on some bamboo GB cut down.

Volunteer papaya tree is growing rapidly and already is forming some flowers.

Bamboo shoot

close up of said bamboo shoot. looks like it needs a shave.

All in all, it was a really productive day, and one where we could see the results of our labor right away. These palms grow fairly quickly, and will fill in this area within a couple of years.

Thailand- shop, shop, and shopping

Sawasdee Jao!



I learned a great deal in Thailand. Especially about the similarities between local style Hawaiian time and Thai time...It takes a long time to get anything done.

I'm not going to give out any recommendations yet...until everything arrives, but Suthep Suwanwichanee was incredibly helpful and did his best to show me all the options when buying doors and furniture.

Here is a typical door manufacturing work area.


This is Sanong's furniture factory where our patio furniture is going to be made.


I was most excited on the last days when I got to go looking for art. I found a beautiful Cambodian styled Buddha


and some sandstone bas relief to cover one of our CMU walls.


All in all I bought over 300 items from trim to a toy chest for Luka. On my one day off I went to Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple in the mountains above Chiang Mai.


It was a great trip but it is good to be back.

Progress Report

The day after GB got back from Thailand, we headed over to see how things are going at the land. We're waiting on a delayed shipment of wood, and so there's been some building down time. The guys have been prepping our beams and other stuff.

Here's the beams staging area

The compound

Pretty stained beams (still need varathane on them)

Tent city on the right..... sanding, painting, storing, etc..... with all the rain we get, these tents are ubiquitous.

Oct 23 progress

I have more pics between my last post and this, but haven't had a chance to look thru them and GB wanted to see what's going on (he's in Thailand buying doors and stuff for the house)

Shed has the roof on!Here's Matt, sanding beams

Here's the new roof

The house. The hollow tiles are all in place. Tomorrow they pour the cells.

Pool looks great and is ready for cement.... but there are permit issues, so it might take a bit.


As far as the house goes, we're at a bit of a standstill while we wait for the glulams. They were supposed to be delivered this week, but HPM is now giving an estimate of Nov 5th. Argh.