Landslide #2 (aka Rain, Rain, and more Rain!)

About a year ago we had a landslide. So, we hired a soil specialist and we didn't do the minimum. We did EVERYTHING he suggested. Yesterday we had about a FOOT OF RAIN in 24 hours.

Noam and I went to the land to survey the pool for the decking.


After we finished I walked around upstairs to see how far the rain blew into our lanai.



...and then I looked down from our master bedroom!


DISASTER!
The side of the hill has collapsed only about 15 feet from the edge of our foundation!
That bamboo slid about 50 feet down the hill and the hill slid down around it.


Part of the wall fell revealing that they, in fact, had not put any rebar under all the wall.
FRACK!


The hill slumped at the top about 4 feet and then....

...the water dug a channel about 20 feet wide and 60 feet long.


I took Noam home and Karen called for re-enforcements.


I surveyed the damage and dug out our beautiful plants....


...above and beyond the call of duty Gene and Jeff showed up to help. Jeff bought a huge plastic sheet.


Remember this is Superbowl Sunday and these guys left the game for this! Gene obviously has the good ideas.


Jeff and I mitigate the water causeway the best we can.

And when we finished, we feel better, but the rain pours down even harder as I write this. I can only hope we don't lose more of our hillside.


"tryin to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain.”

February Begins

February began with more rain. It's very wet chez nous.... but at least the roof is keeping the inside of the house mostly dry!

Behold! the Roof!
We like it very much! It's quiet (compared especially to the LOUD metal roofs that are ALL over Hawaii), and blends in nicely. It's lovely!
(I know it's hard to get an idea of the color- but this was taken in the ONE break in the rain. No sun)

The siding is now bigger- that's the whole dining room and into the living room that's sided

see how nicely the siding fits around the windows? attention to detail!

siding from the inside
The guys cleaned out the kitchen and Jeff marked the cabinet and island placements on the floor. That's why I drove out in the rain- I needed to check and see if it felt "right"

The plumber was there doing some rough work. (I can't figure out where this is!)

This will be the vanity wall in GB and my bathroom. The 2 holes are for the sink plumbing

looking good!

End of the month update

We've been very busy here in house building land. All these months the builders have been working away at all of the rough stuff. And now- we have to make lots of decisions about the stuff we'll see and live with every day. Like lighting fixtures, and tiles, and flooring, and cabinets, and where the lighting fixtures will hang, and where the cabinets will go, etc....

So the last day of January we were supposed to go meet Peter, the pool guy there- give him a check and talk about the pool decking. I thought it would be a 30-45 minute trip.

Well..... we ended up being there for 2 hours- talking with Peter, and then going over stuff with the electrician. SO many details!

Afterwards I went to town to finish picking out our lighting fixtures and then finalize some tile decisions. phew. it was a loooooong day.

And for perspective. I think we've had 1 half day of sun in the last week, week and a half. It's really been pouring consistently. I don't have pictures of it because of the rain, but our roof is on. The roofer worked on the roof in the pouring weather for several long days to get the roof on. We're grateful!

Pictures!

Lanai

My bathtub arrived! I never got to sit in this tub pre-ordering because I couldn't find one. I didn't want a really large tub, because I just swim in those.... this one feels JUST right

Siding up!

on lanai- looking back towards Ra'am's room (yes, rooms have been picked already)

rain is falling steadily

boy's bathroom

looking thru from Noam's room to Ra'am's

see those stairs. see how they're wet? see how slab is wet? rain is falling where we didn't want it to. We have to do something to the hole in the roof to make the rain not go on the stairs. it's a problem. we're upset about it.

Electrical Frenzy

Not everything about building a home is pretty. People get sweaty, muddy, get cut, bleed, fall off ladders, break ribs, etc. Of course there is bound to be multiple spousal brawls. When Gene first told us to get our electrical fixtures, we had no idea how much time it was going to take...because usually the architect has drawn up all the places for the switches and fixtures, the homeowner just needs to pick out the lights. Well, we have to do it all and make our own mistakes. Already we have blown the location of a ceiling fan and have to cover the wires with molding. Tonight we frantically finished our electrical plan and Karen heads to the lighting place tomorrow to finish picking the fixtures (by herself to avoid spousal brawling). I think the drawings reflect our emotional state well.


Now we just have to position each fixture exactly where it needs to be...only about 60 to do. Maybe spend 5-10 minutes deliberating about the spot for each (if Karen and I are both there)...maybe 10 hours? We've only just begun....

Luka's Birthday!

Jan 25th. Luka's 3!!!!

We took our kids and the Pacheco kids to the zoo for Luka's bday. On the way home, after picking up Ra'am from school, GB mentioned that Gene said the road was fixed. So we stopped to see how it was.

Road was great. We made it down in the van- loaded with groceries and children.

We found:

inverters installed in the shed

and truly best of all.....

waterproofing roofing material!!!! the true roof comes after this. But what a start! We need to get the place water tight!

There are now.....

Lots of windows

like in the TV room
and our bedroom

the dining room

the kitchen
the living room (standing in the pool)

GB is thrilled!
Here's some lovely framing..... looking towards the master bathroom from the kitchen

And 2 cute nudies saw an opportunity to go "swimming" and "dove" right in!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKA!

Saturday work fencing

We decided some time ago to get some goats. We have a couple of hillsides that are really too steep for us to maintain- and one of them is just crazy with hau and is too hard for humans to keep clear.

This day GB wrangled us all to prep for fence (i.e. put up posts).

I dropped him off at the land and went to town to fetch a child and materials.

On my way back I scooped up Silas and brought Lena out to see what's been going on at the property.

First we had a looksee at the house

still wet

and the pool

and the hot tub

Then it was time for work. Tom and John came to help. Tom's been fencing all around his property, so he's an "expert" (esp compared to us). Lena oversees fencing at work all of the time.... another "expert".

Ra'am watched

(in his defense- there were too many people working at once, and Tom kept telling him to sit down)

I took a few pictures between catching up with Lena.

post holes were dug with the auger.... which got stuck in the mud, of course. Just after this photo was taken, as a matter of fact.

look at the nice line of posts!

finished product

More posts and fencing to come soon!
and then...
GOATS!

Mid January work

These pictures are from 1/16 and 1/18.

We've been working on lighting stuff, since the electrical rough-in (particularly things related to the ceiling) was happening this week.

The 16th was a nice and sunny day and the house was looking so beautiful and DRY! what a relief!

We found rose beetles had eaten holes in a couple of the trees we planted recently :( darned bugs!

The inverters are ready to go in!

The 18th we went back to meet Scott, the electrician. I think we made him a little crazy, but looks like we got most of the kinks worked out.This day was wet again- GB is standing in one of the boys' rooms

kitchen

Batteries are here!