Groundbreaking and Hawaii John's

We heard from Ty on our crew that the project isn't official until the portapotty is delivered. Ours was this week, so we're official! In case you haven't noticed, every portapotty company name in the country is a play on words about the eventual use of their product. Our vendor John didn't disappoint. He calls his company "Hawaii John's" and his proud byline is "John's my name, Shit's my game".

Along with the cesspool this past week, we had groundbreaking. But before that, Robert, Bob our contractor, and Lawrence our foundation guy, moved the house and master suite three times. Well, they didn't have to move much more than lines painted on the ground, but it was critically important to site the house on exactly the right spot. Where it ended up on the second try didn't work once Lawrence started making the stone foundation. So we moved it back from the edge of the house pad a few feet and voila, it worked. These are only two of the thousands of decisions we will be making over the next year.

The cesspool (left) adorned by me with a Starburst (clerodendrum quadriloculare) flower on the bottom.

Lawrence doing the first shovelful of our groundbreaking. (above)

View to the ocean from the house pad, with Robert for scale.

Within a couple weeks, Lawrence should be ready with the foundation, and the concrete trucks will pour the main house and master suite house pads.

Next blog will be a early in February with, we hope, pictures of our concrete foundation going in!

Traditional Hawaiian Blessing for our land and new construction

Part of the reason we decided to build in Hawaii is our connection with the people and the land. We respect local traditions, and wanted to start our construction project off on the right foot by hosting a Hawaiian blessing ceremony. We asked our friend and kahuna Dwight Stevens to do the honors for us. He did the blessing himself, and invited two singers and a hula dancer to sing and dance to "Oh Kalapana", a traditional Hawaiian song about the area where we are building. 

We had almost 20 friends including our builder Bob Kirk and two of his workers, and three of our neighbors. We were all transfixed by the blessing, the song accompanied by traditional hula, and just how good it all felt to be on our land in a gathering of friends. 

Dwight's blessing was simple. First he asked Robert and me to share our relationship to the land, special experiences, and our hopes and intentions for the land and home. Then he used a Ti plant to sprinkle water on the land.  Next he scattered sacred Hawaiian salt to represent the seeds of abundant agriculture, and of prosperity. When he finished with his part, John and James sang "Oh Kalapana" while Delton danced the hula version of the song. We then asked our guests to share their thoughts and blessings, and each of them scattered some of the Hawaiian salt too. 

We finished up with what I called a "French Blessing"- we toasted the land, the house to be built, and our friends, with Champagne.  

The final part of the blessing was for Robert and me to plant a tree to signify establishing roots.  Every encounter with the tree is a sweet reminder of the ceremony and 'ground breaking' / 'planting roots'. We chose a keffir lime so we can remember our blessing every time we use it to cook. 

Below is a video of the ceremony (I edited it to be only 90ish seconds) followed by some still pics. 

Next blog is for our groundbreaking which is next week!

Dwight and Robert before the blessing.

 Our neighbor David Cooper and our friend Mike Love.

I love this shot! L to R: Bob Kirk, our contractor, and Dave and Ty on his crew. Dave and Ty walked up to the house pad to cast the sacred Hawaiian salt on the site where they will be building our house.

Delton our hula dancer and Jens.

 Alicia Love.

Mike Love.

 Detail of the handmade lei that Delton made for Robert and me.

 Sacred Hawaiian salt and ti leaves and water for our ceremony.

On the right are John and James who sang "Oh Kalapana" for us.

 Salt, water and ti.

 French "Blessing" of champagne.

 A tour of the vireya path.

The house pad.

Happy homeowner Robert!