Living with Lava - Update on our new home and garden near Pahoa Hawaii

Friday, January 9, 2015

We moved in and LOVE it!

Eleven months after breaking ground, we moved in on December 29, 2014. A big 'mahalo" (thank you in Hawaiian) goes out to our contractor Bob Kirk and his team for making it all happen.

We have been busy setting up the master suite and guest bedrooms first, and the kitchen, living room and lanai sitting areas second. It seems that every time you think you've bought what you need for a room, one or two more items come up in a "oh yeah, we need one of those" moment. We've been spending a lot of time on buying trips in Hilo, our closest big city, and online. Amazon and Macy's seem to be on a first name basis with me!

Since we're totally off-grid, setting up the solar, catchment water purification, satellite internet, and cell phone antenna extenders has been my focus. Mostly everything is working seamlessly so far, except I am writing this while on extended hold with Exede satellite internet tech support. We keep losing connectivity, but I am sure I will figure it out soon. Any IT geeks who want to help will be on top of the list for next year's guests ;-)

We had our first dinner at our new home picnic style with my great-nephew Nicholas Moll. I included some pictures of our adventures across the island with Nick. He was bitten by the Hawaii bug, and has a yearlong plan to save enough to move here from Portland, Maine. Hawaii is a magical place- and even more magical now that we are in our own tropical home! Aloha!

PS The first five shots are from our friend and guest photographer Greg Sharpe. He's very, very talented, thanks Greg!

Robert, our friend Howard, and me on the lanai

After these five photos from Greg, the rest are my shots.

Robert assembling our bed

Great-nephew Nick helping assemble the master hale bed.

Robert at sunrise yesterday.

Outdoor dining on the lanai.

Master hale.

Master hale bathroom.

Guest bedroom suite one, all ready for Robert's Dad, Bill and his girlfriend Vonnie who arrive January 19. We are honored to have them as our first guests!

Second view of bedroom.
By the way, there's another guest bedroom. It's where we're storing all the stuff that will find a place within a few weeks when our next set of guests arrive in February. For now, we need the storage!

Outdoor shower, long view. This is what I see when I shower every day. Well, at least if I need a shower ;-)

View across our master hale to garden.

Master hale.

Sunrise with ocean view this morning.

Guest bathroom shower.

Nick at Waipio Valley.

Nick joining Robert and me for our first meal, picnic style, at our almost completed house!

Nick taste testing three sugary concoctions.

Nick, Robert and me at Waipio Valley.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Lights are on, toilets flush, moving in this week! Oh, and the lava's poised to take out our local shopping center, then the highway...

Last Friday, we had 6 electricians, 2 plumbers, our contractor and his carpenter, and excavation/driveway/lawn guy at our property doing all the little touches needed to make our house move-in ready. By the end of the day, we had, for the first time, electricity and running water! Only three major items are left, along with a list of minor ones, and the construction project will officially be our new home. First, we need our final inspection. After that, propane gas for the backup generator will be delivered. Then Jeremiah Augustine, our solar contractor, will come out to do his final tweaks of the solar system. We'll be spending our first night in the house before all that happens-yes, after 11 months of construction, we're ready to move in!

There's already furniture in the house. Our state of the art alarm and video system is up and running. All systems are (almost) GO!

With my husband Robert here, we're focusing on making the gardens sing. We have a great crew from the Gaia Yoga farm, and now that my great-nephew Nick Moll is visiting, we even have him helping in the gardens, too!

The travelogue has photos from our great-nephew Nick's visit to Uncle Robert's beach near us. There is bad news from Hawaii, though. He likes it so much out here he says he's not going back to Maine, and who can blame him? It's 60 degrees warmer here, and you can actually swim in the Pacific without freezing!

You'll see it all in the quick video followed by the pictures below. Aloha!

PS-Lava update:
June 27th Lava Flow Observations: HVO, along with Civil Defense, is monitoring a narrow flow lobe that branches off the west edge of the flow field below the crack system. Civil Defense reported, this morning, that the leading edge of the flow was about 1.6 km (1.0 miles) upslope from the intersection of Pāhoa Village Road and Highway 130, near the Pāhoa Marketplace. The active lobe is following a steepest-descent path that takes the flow towards the intersection of Pāhoa Village Road and Highway 130, in the vicinity of the Pāhoa Marketplace. In addition to this active lobe, a breakout from the lava tube on December 5, about 2.6 km (1.6 mi) from Puʻu ʻŌʻō remains weakly active.