Moving the house, again, but making progress

After a lull, there's been a burst of activity on our house. Carl and his crew of two came to put the lines in where the house and master suite will go. When Robert and I arrived, there were two different color sets of string designating where the house might go, and where it might also go if the first line was wrong. After much consultation and a little reading of plans (yes, ladies, it's true, men do NOT like to read directions), as of today, the house forms are in place. They will get a concrete pour of the foundation in about two weeks. Why the delay, you may ask? Permits. Inspections. Rain. Surfing. Hey, it's Hawaii, don't think everyone just works all the time here!

We also did a lot of work on the grounds and gardens while waiting for construction to gear up. When you have 11+ acres, gardening is a full time job! Robert designed and we installed most of two new beds. You can see our crew spreading cinder soil in the funny video that's below. BTW, we had our contractor; three guys from the forming/foundation laying sub; our excavator; two sawyers; one bobcat operator; four garden crew helpers; our friend Tom Piergrossi who delivered two pickup truckloads of plants; and Robert and me, on site on Wednesday. Oh yeah, plus the guy who delivered the cinder soil, that makes 15 guys total!

Our intrepid gardening crew with me second from left 

Next blog will be a video of the "entrance experience" so you can see some of the plantings Robert has done since he started landscaping the property in 2007.

One of dozens of flowering plants in our garden

Beach near our rental property-part of why we love Hawaii! 

Tom delivering plants for Robert

Forming up the house foundation

Look at the orange and the yellow lines on the left, which one is where the house should go???

Lawrence our excavator and Robert looking at the future pad for a 12'x12' hale

Finally, a house foundation is going in!

Mauna Kea with snow, nice to look at when it's 75 and sunny out!

More Mauna Kea

Matthew, our garden and house sherpa! 

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!

The first thing you need are plans, and 3D helps visualize the house

Using our architect's plans, we had a full set of 3D drawings made. They help to visualize the house much better than the black and white 2D plans.

The larger house has everything but the master suite. That's in the smaller house, and it includes a bedroom, office/closet, bathroom and an outdoor shower.

We break ground the week of January 13, 2014.

We started with the landscaping in 2007 so that once the house is built it will look as if it's been there forever, surrounded by mature plantings. Take a look at the post in the Gardens tab to see how nicely landscaped it's looking in these pictures from 2013.

Click here for the full set of plans, a couple of pictures from them are below too.  https://picasaweb.google.com/115786222779561877385/DavidAndRobertHawaiiHomeIn3D?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPz8rriVu_zMjwE&feat=directlink  

Enter your email  to the left to subscribe. Our next post will be for the Hawaiian blessing of the land and building site.