Check Updates

This is just a note to remind you to check the Framing Slideshow for new additions. As well, I have reset the Blogger rules so that you can now leave anonymous comments without having to get a Google account. Enjoy!

HELCO Arrives!!

After being "off the grid" for three weeks, we were happy to see these fellows arrive! It was pouring rain (not the best time to work on electric lines) but it didn't deter them.

Here the boom truck is lifting the transformer up into position.

The line crew gets the pole and wires ready to mount the transformer and attached the high voltage lines.

This fellow is attaching the 110/220-volt lines to our mast. Now all we have to do is plug in!

Windows and Doors

Today was a special day. Not only did we start putting on the siding...we also installed most of the windows and doors!

In this photo the crew has applied the Tyvek house wrap (a breathable moisture and wind barrier) and is nailing the T1-11 siding on. We used 4' x 9' sheets on the sheer walls and 4' x 8' sheets on the second floor. The kitchen window is just visible.

Marlon is using his loader to lift the heavier windows and doors up to the second level. This is one of the large windows for the living room.

This is a lot easier than trying to lift them up using ladders and brute strength... a lot safer, too.

This is a view of the south-facing wall with a six-foot-wide sliding door on the left and a 4' x 5' horizontal sliding window on the right.

Off the Grid

Katie writes:
We have now been out on the land for 2 1/2 weeks, totally off the grid. Our little motorhome (24 ft. in length, about 100 sq. ft. of living space) has provided us the means for all necessities. And Mother Nature has been very generous with water! We have had over an inch of rainfall just in the past 24 hours! The canopy on our RV is tilted so that the rainfall ends up in a 24-gallon plastic trashcan with a mesh screen covering to filter out leaves and other large debris. We then use a small bucket to scoop the water out, and using a large funnel with a 1-foot long piece of dishwasher hose, we pour the water into our onboard water tank, which holds approximately 40 gallons of water.




This tank supplies us with water for dishwashing, showering, and washing hands. We add bleach to the tank, which we feel is sufficient for the short term here, until we get our water catchment system installed and start using all the filters, including a UV lamp. We have 2 five-gallon water jugs which we take to have filled with reverse osmosis water in nearby Kea'au; it costs $1.00 for 5 gallons of water, which is a bargain. We use this water for cooking, drinking, and brushing our teeth. So far, no problems! It is such a marvel to me, after living so long in Colorado and Arizona where water is so precious, to gather rainwater for our own use. So simple! Once our 10,000-gallon water catchment system is installed, I won't be so parsimonious about taking short showers! Our onboard water heater only heats up 6 gallons of water at a time (using propane, which is also onboard), which means that we take "camp showers" meaning you turn the water on, get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water on and rinse off, etc. But we usually are conservative enough that one heating of the water tank is enough for both of us to take showers and also to do the dishes, which I only do once daily (Mom, don't read this!).



This is an 800-watt inverter connected to the 12-volt coach battery which provides 115-volt AC juice to recharge the laptop and cell phone batteries. The onboard generator is loud, so we only fire it up in the morning (a handy little switch inside the RV) for the coffee maker, the toaster, and the microwave. We usually don't use the generator more than about a half-hour a day, tops. But we are very conscientious about use of lights and other drains on the coach battery. Both of us read at night, or else we watch DVD's (we're currently watching Season 2 of "Lost" and we're totally addicted!), or write on the laptop, so we do use lights and the laptop quite a bit at night. We aren't suffering here, but we are conservative with energy use, which is good practice for when the electricity is actually hooked up...electric rates in Hawai'i are quite high.
And today, HELCO (the Hawaiian Electric Company) came out and installed the transformer and connected the lines....unfortunately, they brought the wrong meter, so we will have to wait for the right one to be brought back out....but POWER is in the near future!! At that point, we will run an extension cord from the RV to the electric pole, and voila....no worries about running the battery low! And our builder, Marlon, will be happy to have power for his tools so that he isn't having to rely on his generator (or our onboard generator, when his wasn't working). At times, we've toyed with choosing alternative energy sources, but for now, hooking up to the grid will suit our needs.
So our little self contained home on wheels has provided us a dry, warm (not that we've needed the furnace, but we do have one, and also an air conditioner onboard), comfortable abode while we are building. We have a 3-burner stove, a convection/microwave oven (I admit to not doing much baking in it, though), and a double sink for dishes. We do lack counter space, but we've managed nicely for 2 years now. We also have a bathroom sink, and of course, the toilet and shower. This RV is a "Class C" motorhome, which means it has a bunk over the truck cab. It also has a queen sized bed in the rear of the coach. So the bunk bed is used for our book case (yes, we read a lot!), and for storage of file boxes and other miscellaneous items. So far, although we've been tempted to build or buy a storage shed, we are doing just fine with the amount of storage we have onboard the RV. Nature does abhor a vacuum and empty space attracts "stuff."
This motorhome has been my house for 2 years now, and I will be sad to see her go, but once the house is built, I will need to sell the RV... we can use the profits for ...oh, simple things like furniture!!! LOL!! I figure someone here in Hawai'i will love having the convenience of living on-site while their house is being built, or else someone in the construction business will enjoy having all the amenities of home on the building site. So our little motorhome will continue to find use here on the Big Island, I am sure. And I have to admit that having a "bit" more space in the new house will be a welcome change, after 2 years of RV'ing!

Up She Goes! 2

The framing continues. We have a new crew member, Kulani. He carries a hammer like the proverbial "Big John," and is strong as an ox, but seems to have a very gentle temperment. In this shot, Kulani is setting the floor joists for the lanai.

Here, Marlon is attaching the lanai posts and beams...note the notched construction for extra strength. These joints will be bolted together.

This gives you a better view of the lanai deck. Being up here is going to be like living in a treehouse! Already it benefits from cooler breezes, and when it is covered, I think we will spend much/most of our time up here enjoying the sights and sounds of the tropical rain forest that surrounds us.

In this last photo, all of the interior walls have been framed, and the lanai is almost completed! This brings us to the end of Week 3...today, Marlon has gone to Kona to pickup the windows, sliding doors, and the tub/shower unit. Next week, I think we will get the stairs and railings installed.

Up She Goes!

It's been awhile since my last post, but we haven't been idle. The framing continues to go very well despite some rainy weather. Rain here is such a fact of life that it doesn't hinder outside work the way it can in temperate climates. Sometimes the men seek shelter from a torrential cascade, but it seldom lasts more than a few minutes.

Here Marlon and Ivan are setting the mainfloor joists in their hangers which were attached to the beams ahead of time. Everything is cross-braced to ensure the walls stay square and plumb.

Using his all-purpose Ingersall-Rand tractor, Marlon has lifted one of those 24-foot-long 4" x 12" beams into place under the lanai. Again, you can see the joist hangers which have been nailed on.

I've changed my camera position to the top of the RV to better show the framing progess. We've laid down the subfloor on the upper level and the beams for the lanai are now in place.

And up go the walls. These were laid out and constructed on the floor then raised into position and braced.

A Day Off

Katie writes:

Recently when we have gone outside the RV at night, we can see an orange glow in the sky to the southwest...Madame Pele, the volcano goddess, is leaving her night light on. This morning, we woke up to vog (volcanic fog, consisting of sulphuric acid and other goodies) which is very rare up here - it means the winds are blowing out of the southwest rather than the northeast, which is usual. David and I started clearing our throats and doing some coughing, and I decided it was a great day to escape to the south shore and beyond. So without further adieu, except for breakfast, we headed out of Eden Roc, but not before picking some strawberry guava fruits along the road (they're about the size of a pingpong ball, and only the outer 1/2 inch is really edible, but ooohhh, what a half inch that is!!!), and a couple of yellow ginger flowers for me to put behind my ear - the fragrance is heavenly, altho the blooms wilt within a few hours.

And so....first we had to drive down the hill (toward Hilo-town) to the town of Mountain View to get gas, and then we drove up the hill toward Volcano Village, where we stopped into the little store and bought two coconut bars (the bomb!) and the Sunday newspaper. The vog wasn't as bad up nearer the volcano. We headed down south toward (yes) South Point, and we drove into the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates (a development of about 11,000 one-acre lots), which neither of us had seen before. This development was started by an oil company in the '60's, and was very slow to take off, mainly because it is almost entirely on a rather recent lava flow...one would figure folks wouldn't take a chance on building much on land that was so recently flowing with Madame Pele's signature paint (in 1907), but there are many very nice houses in the area. Land is cheapest here on the island, for the above mentioned reason, and the climate is hotter and sunnier, and often voggy, but the view of the ocean is phenomenal from almost every home site. So some folks choose to live dangerously! By the way, the development where we are living is in Lava Zone 3...Lava Zone 1 is the most likely to be covered with lava, and you can only get home owners insurance through Lloyd's of London. Fortunately, in Zone 3, we can get the normal homeowner's insurance, although we probably pay a bit more just for being in Hawai'i, just as we do for auto insurance. Anyhow, HOVE was interesting, and reminded us of Arizona, with lots of colorful bougainvilla and stunning cacti. I have heard that, although folks there have water catchment systems (as in catching the rainwater), they often have to pay to have water delivered by truck. That doesn't happen in our neck of the woods, because we're in the middle of the rain forest in Eden Roc.

Our builder, Marlon, has talked to us about Miloli'i, a town on the southwest shore of the island. Miloli'i is known as the last remaining fishing village on the island, and Marlon has bought a piece of land there. The drive from the highway down to the shore is harrowing, twisty/winding/narrow...which is not my favorite thing in the world. So I wouldn't be tempted to live there, but the view and proximity to the ocean is outstanding. Many of the homes there are quite old, and most have boats in their yards. We saw a really cool homemade sign along the road: "Old Dog Walkin." Loved it.

At this point, I convinced David that we should continue to drive, and that we might as well make this a whole day of driving the circumference of the island. This is the Big Island, and it took us from 8:30 AM until 7:00 PM to do the entire trip, although in all fairness, we did make a few pit stops! David had never seen Kailua-Kona, which is on the opposite side of the island from Hilo and Eden Roc. Kailua, and the Kohala area, is on the leeward side of the island, and it is much drier. It is also where milti-million dollar resorts are located, and therefore most of the tourists flock there, arriving at the Kona airport. The town of Kailua is actually smaller than Hilo, but it feels much busier. And we noticed that drivers are not nearly as considerate; tailgating was common and people seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. This side of the island has the best beaches for swimming and snorkeling, so after wending our way through Kailua, we decided to investigate a famous beach called Mauna Kea (AKA Kauna'oa Beach), but amazingly there was a guard at the entrance who said the parking lot was full so we couldn't enter! We then chose to go to one of my favorite beaches, Spencer Beach, where we changed into our swim suits and flopped down on the sand for a short nap, and a couple of dips; the water was very calm and delightfully warm. After our respite, we headed north again, driving through the barren lava fields of North Kohala, up to Hawi, a small town at the northernmost tip of the island. I've always liked Hawi. It's windswept, but much more lush, and has a lot of character. It's also very expensive to live there! But the drive down the eastern side of this shark-fin shaped tip of land is gorgeous - the terrain and climate change dramatically in such a short distance here on the Big Island, and this area is lush with pastureland and tall ironwood trees. The road is very curvy, and winds down into Waimea (or Kamuela as it is also called, after the one-time post office worker who handled the mail in that area), which is cowboy country and home of the largest ranch in the islands, and what used to be the largest ranch in the United States: Parker Ranch (225,000 acres). My two sons, Vin and Theo, spent the summer of 2005 with me in Waimea, where they attended Hawai'i Preparatory Academy's summer school, and I do love this area; once again, it is much too expensive for me to live there, and besides, it seems to always be misty/cloudy/rainy on the wet side of the town, which is preferable to the dry, barren side of town, which I don't find attractive at all. Once we left Waimea, we were on the homeward stretch, crossing the Hamakua Coast on the north side of the island. David has heard of malasadas, the Portuguese donuts, that are sold at Tex's Drive-in in Honoka'a... I've talked about it several times, but we've never been in Honoka'a when Tex's was open. Today, we made up for that, and David got a papaya-pineapple malasada that was soooooo good that I sincerely regretted getting just a plain malasada myself. Next time!!

That little bit of a snack was enough to get us through the rest of the journey, although by then, it was getting dark, and starting to drizzle as we finally entered the sweet sleepy town of Hilo. We stopped at a local grocery store to pick up some POG (passionfruit/orange/guava juice) for our evening "gin and POG," and headed up the hill to Mountain View and Eden Roc. The vog had vanished, and there was no orange glow in the sky when we arrived. There was leftover homemade vegetable beef soup in the refridgerator, and the song of the coqui frogs to lull us to sleep. It's been a full day, and a first for me - to circumnavigate the entire island in one day, and a great introduction to David of all the incredible sights along the way. Of course, we have barely tapped the numerous sights to see here, rushing as we did through coffee growing areas, and macadamia nut farms, as well as bypassing the Volcano National Park, and other state parks as well. There is so much to see and do here. We were tempted to stop in at Punalu'u Beach, which is a black sand beach with numerous sea turtles, and also South Point, where last January and February, we sighted many whales spouting and breeching off-shore (they're here again already, as this is annual calving territory for many whales). Sooo, there is much to do come another Day Off, but for now, it is time to sleep so that we can watch the progress on the house tomorrow....the lanai (deck) is going to go up, methinks! I did get a chance on Friday to climb the ladder up to the new floor and it felt like I was in a tree house - the view is absolutely wonderful, and our local hawk flew overhead, vocalizing a greeting. David has photos to upload, and more to post here tomorrow.

Framing Slideshow

If this works, you should be able to see a "time-lapse" view of the house rising from the foundation. I will add new pics as the work progresses.

Pumping Concrete

Today, the concrete for the foundation was delivered. Our builder had hired a concrete pump and crew to make it easier to get the heavy stuff to the formwork.

Here the fellows are spreading concrete in the pad for the laundry room floor.

This well-muscled man is trowelling the surface for a smoother surface.

Here's Joe and the crew after a job well done!

We had some concrete left over, and rather than dump it, Joe suggested some steps and a walkway down into the lower garden area. Sure! Why not?


These guys are artists! This fellow is making imprints of a native hapu'u tree fern leaf in the concrete (the leaf had broken off during the ripping phase).


Here is the final product! This has really worked out well and it was "free." Now all we need is some hard labor cutting back the uluhe and planting some fruits and flowers.

Lumber Has Arrived!

This is the big day! Almost all the lumber we will use for framing the house arrived on one truck this morning. Most of it is Douglas fir from the West Coast.

The truck has a three-wheeled forklift attached at the rear, so it can self-unload.

Marlon has been concerned that there wouldn't be enough room to store everything on-site, but he has mapped out where each stack will go...so he will be able to access each item when it's needed.

This looks pretty unstable, but the operator knows what he's doing! I am used to building with eastern spruce lumber which generally comes in 2" thicknesses, but this is solid wood. Some of these timbers are 6" thick and 24-feet long. I'm not sure how we are going to lift them into place.

This is the last of it...and it all fit on-site.

End of Week Two

This is the end of Week Two and we've made great progress! The weather has been ideal: bright sun and cool breezes by day, a few showers by night. Today we passed our first building inspection which clears the way to pour the foundation next week.

This, again, is the overview of the site. The RV is in the background, and we will do a special post on what it's like living on-site and some of the systems we are experimenting with to make life easier. All the forms have been set and levelled.

This is Marlon, our contractor and his nephew/assistant, Ivan. Marlon has been absolutely superb...very conscientious and meticulous, always smiling, stick-handling his way through a maze of permits, sub-contractors, and Big Island politics. You just couldn't ask for better! He has been working with us since February when he was recommended by another home-builder in the area...much of the time when we were 5,000 miles distant.

Here Marlon and Ivan are digging the trench for the sewer pipe from the house to the cesspool. The small tractor has a variety of attachments: backhoe, rock hammer, forklift, blade, bucket, auger...truly a rig for all occasions on the building site.

This is a spray application for termite control under all the footings that is required by the building code. This was the last step before the inspection could be done.

Next week the lumber arrives and the concrete for the foundation will be poured. See you then!

Evening in Eden Roc

Katie writes: It's been a long time since I've written an update, and this will be my first entry into the blog. David and I seem to write about different things, which is as it should be. I am so grateful to him for keeping the running commentary on the building process!


It's evening here.... our second night in the RV on the land. After staying in our little rental cottage in Ainaloa (which is between Hilo and Pahoa), we really feel like we are in the wilderness again.... there are no lights to be seen, and very few noises.... occasionally dogs bark, and we do hear the frogs, although very few coqui frogs are on the property here (yet...). I asked our builder, Marlon, if the chirping we had just heard was a coqui, and he responded that no, that wasn't a coqui, but it did sound like something he had heard on Jurassic Park.... Actually, the night noises here are not that different from night noises anywhere where there are frogs and/or toads.


During the day, we have seen and heard a rare Hawaiian hawk close to the land. And true to form with our little RV, we have attracted yet another visitation from a winged creature... the day we picked up the RV from the dock in Hilo and drove to Ainaloa, we opened the RV door so we could load in our belongings, and lo and behold, a hummingbird moth (also called Blackburn's Sphinx moth) flew in the open door and started zooming around. This species is Hawai'i's first federally-listed endangered insect. Since there are no hummingbirds in Hawai'i, it is a treat to have these moths, which hover at blossoms just like hummingbirds, even if they aren't as colorful. David carefully caught the moth and let it go outside.


We have had blessedly few bugs here which I am sure would surprise most folks since this is a tropical rainforest. A few mosquitoes and a few flies are all we've seen on the land so far.


And the weather the past few days has been glorious - warm with just a few occasional showers. It has been said of Hawai'i that most of the rain falls at night, and sometimes that seems very accurate. We had several heavy downpours last night, but these showers are short-lived in general, lasting about 15 minutes at most. Nights here in Eden Roc are cooler than they are at lower altitudes; the gentle tradewinds this evening almost encouraged me to put on jeans rather than shorts.


A woman's perspective on the building process: there are days when the air is laden with testosterone, and I feel totally out of place and often will withdraw to read or knit. I believe we're due for another one of those days once the building supplies are being brought in, and also when the cement truck is here to pour the foundation footings. I am at ease around the sound of hammers and even electric saws, but when the big equipment comes in, I tend to back away. I have learned recently of Pele's sister, Hi'iaka, who is the Hawaiian goddess of gardening. Pele is the goddess of the volcano, and she doesn't like her ohi'a trees or her hapu'u ferns disturbed. Needless to say, the heavy equipment involved in site clearing for a house disturbs much flora and fauna, and I often think of Pele and Hi'iaka and ask their forgiveness for our intrusion. I promise to make amends by planting lots of lovely bromeliads and orchids and fruit trees, and gardenia and pua kenikeni and bamboo and palms. I also hear Pele likes offerings of gin at her "home" in Halema'uma'u at the volcano, and I plan to leave her a bottle, as many people do. We are in her land, the land of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that are frequent here (mostly too small to register except on the sensitive equipment at the volcano), and I'd like to stay on Pele's good side, if that's possible for a malihini (newcomer). There is a new flow at the volcano, which currently is not threatening our land here in Eden Roc, but one is never sure here on the Big Island. Home owner's insurance does cover damage by lava, considering it to be "running fire".


All for now. We welcome your comments, and emails, too. This is such a grand adventure, and we're having a great time here in paradise. Soon, I hope to list some expenses on the blog so people can see that building a house here is very do-able financially, in spite of what most people think. Hawai'i isn't for everyone, of course, but if someone thought that they just couldn't afford to live here, I would like them to see that it is possible. In fact, David has said that with the weak U.S. dollar, it is cheaper for him to live in Hawai'i than it is in Canada.


My strawberry papaya was dinner tonight, after a late lunch, and although it isn't very late, it is dark (we're near the equator) and I think it's time for bed.

Taking Shape

Here it is the middle of the week and I'm late posting our progress! The big news is that our wandering RV finally arrived after taking a side-trip to Honolulu! This will make things easier because we can now work on-site as well as watch over our materials and tools.

Our contractor has been busy running batter boards and stringlines to layout the building foundations. This photo shows the big picture with forms for the sheer walls and posts as well as an 8' x 8' slab for the laundry room.

These two photos show the foundation forms up close: the upper one is of the sheer wall footing at each corner; the lower one is for the posts under the lanai (covered porch). The outer 2x4s are the batter boards to offset the stringlines. Iron stakes are driven into the ground to hold everything in place.



This is from a different angle.

Site Preparation

We had three loads of 2" cinders and three loads of base coarse gravel delivered to the site. The cinders will be used to level the grade and absorb all that fine volcanic "soil," and the gravel will be used under the house and sheer wall foundations and under the water catchment tank.

Finally we can see the outline of the house as it will sit on the site! Not bad for the first week's work. We are going to take the long weekend to "play" but will be back at it next week.

Driveway Transformation

This was our driveway after the bulldozers and trucks got through with it...lots of mud, but solid lava underneath.















One huge truckload (30 cubic yards) of 6" minus cinders....
















And a little grading with a Bobcat, and this was the result! Note Katie standing next to the new electric service pole.














Little children can't resist writing in wet concrete...and neither could we! After the stuff set, we had some nice leaf impressions to decorate our time stamp.