November 8, 2010: Cutting the Hole in the Wall!

Big day today! The kids are moved into our old room, and we're moved into the one finished room in the new house. So today our two homes become one big one!

First step: the tiny hole in the wall to access the power from the new house.

More on this later...

Because our house was originally built as a single-wall structure and is rather old and somewhat termite-eaten, Eric needed to make sure that the wall was shored up, so he and Roger framed it and placed a shear wall.


More fun with the tiny hole in the wall...


No more fun... the tiny hole is now a big hole!


The next step will be to make some steps so we don't fall as we make our way back and forth!
Starting today; finishing tomorrow.

Fun photo asides:
These are the weights from the old window in the kids room (no longer existent), which kept them at whatever level you opened them. I understand their new home will be aboard Jon's boat!


And a peek at the water lilies in the backyard:

I believe there are at least four of them blooming right now. Hope I have this much success with all of the plants that will be in the yard! God is a great gardener, cuz it's sure not me!!

May 27, 2010: The Walls are Up (well, some of them!)

All kinds of fun! And that's just two walls... wait til the weekend, when all the guys are working!

Oh, and the head supervisor was on site again...

May 26, 2010: Continuation of yesterday

The roofers continued their work, while Eric, Thomas and Rodney marked all the rooms and did a lot of the prep work for tomorrow (like moving those heavy posts!).



Their work area happens to be in the spare bedroom/my workroom!

May 25, 2010: The Roofers Start on the Old House

Jeff & Joey Ho'okano of Ezra Ho'okano & Sons Roofing will be doing the roof work on both the new house and the old. So they are getting a jump start by clearing off all the old stuff.


This is Kai & Josh, who work for the Ho'okanos. Hard workers, those two!

Jeff also came by to check out some things with Eric.


So the subflooring is complete. Tomorrow will be more prep for the next step.

May 24, 2010: More of the same...

...just without the rain.


I wanted to share some of the detail work:

I love the pattern of the blocking!


I think these are the hurricane ties?


Very securely attached joists!


And ample crawl space (and playspace for grandchildren who may show up someday!).


And so here we are thus far.

May 23, 2010: Blocking

Sunday was a pretty rainy day, but the guys stayed at it. They continued putting in the blocking and started installing the subflooring.


You can see the rain coming down in the last photo.

May 22, 2010: Full Speed Ahead!

The guys finished placing the joists, put in the floor beams and cross beams on the side lanai, and put up the 6x6's on the makai side and front. Lots of very detailed, beautiful construction going on here! Jeff Ho'okano, the roofer, came by to consult with Jon regarding the roofing to be started Monday on the existing house, and Calvin Lam, the painter, came by to check what needed to be sealed in the lanai area.

Start of day...




We watched Charlie using this aMAZing tool to set the nails!


The head supervisor was on-site today, checking out the work.




It's starting to shape up quite nicely!


Oh, and Charlie even had enough time after work to check out the surf report!