In retrospect, I couldn't have planned my leaving the working world better. January 8 was my last day at work, and on January 9th, my husband Robert and I were here in paradise to start the building of our vacation home in the jungle. Now that I have spent almost half a year here in Hawaii, I can truly say that I am blessed. I get to swim in the Pacific almost daily; hike in Volcanoes National Park; make new friends and get to know old ones better; and watch the construction of our little piece of paradise. If I had stayed in New York after leaving work, I might have had too much time on my hands after not working...but not out here!
We are over half way through the year, and over 50% complete on the house construction. So far there have been no major surprises. There are always decisions and little issues to manage. But working with our contractor Bob Kirk is the way it should be in construction. He never leads with a negative, and always has a positive attitude. And that helps keep mine positive, too!
Since the last blog, the focus has been on completing the roof on the master suite house, and now on doing the same on the main house. Since the main house is 34 feet high, the roof takes more time, and more effort, than the 14 foot tall master suite building. This week has been frustrating because we have had an unusual amount of rain for July, cutting a day and a half from the working schedule. But in between all the rains, Bob Kirk has kept the forward momentum going. The two buildings have progressed nicely from looking like twin shoeboxes to showing their Polynesian influence with the addition of the roofs.
The pictures focus on the roof progress, and there was going to be a short video showing how Bob applied the concrete stain using three different colors. But that will have to wait since some idiot (me!) accidentally deleted the video from my cellphone. There are a few pictures of this fairly artistic, exacting process, though.
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| My sister Chris and husband Bill came by for a day while on a port of call stopover in Hilo on a cruise |
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| It's all about the math when building. The carpenters have to have good math skills. They're constantly yelling numbers to each other about what to cut, lengths, knotches, and so forth. You can see their notations on each of the white areas above that guide them in what lengths of supports to cut. |
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| Closeup of a notched beam |
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| View of the main house from the master suite |
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| The main house ready for the lower roof to cover the beams visible in this pic |
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| You can see the existing Ohi'a trees and the newer monkeypod trees lining the driveway. |
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| I love the way the anthurium was peaking out over the taro leaves! |
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| Scaffolding being built to put the roof on |
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| Puddle covered stained concrete |
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| Ty about to close up this part of the roof and move on to the much higher one above |
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| Ty working on the roof, seen through the steps |
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| Bob Kirk mixing up the three colors for staining the concrete. |
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| Bob putting on the second of three colors of stain |
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| Concrete stain with coffee, rust and walnut colors applied. |
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| Once the acid stain is applied, you wait for a while, then rinse it with water with baking soda to stop the color development. |
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| Now you can appreciate the full 34 foot height of the design! |
