The Second Half of August 2024

🔨 📐 More framing! 📐 🔨

it's beginning to look very house like

August 18th, 2024

August has been a 'framing' month, with the project becoming very three dimensional. The whole house building project started more or less with March & April's hole in the ground. From there it progressed to May and June's concrete everywhere. July gave us short wooden walls and floor joists for the main floor. July ended with the big flat platform of the main floor subflooring. Which gave us a great lovely huge flat spot to start August. Now, throughout the month of August has been wall framing so we can start to walk around among the vertical boards and imagine the final result.

Now that most of the walls are at least delineated, even if just by a few vertical boards, we can begin to experience the upcoming shape of the house - we can walk around and feel how it's going to be.

For a beginning impression, the living room is going to be HUGE! I'd initially envisioned some 'curtain' wall portions dropping down from the ceiling between the living room and the 'living room extension' on the Hilo side of the house. (I'm sure there's a better name for the area, but not sure if it's an "office", "den", "library" or exactly what it will be.) Anyway, I'd thought it would be more of a separate space defined by about four feet of wall coming down from the ceiling- perhaps even with a wide doorway consisting of three or four moving door panels, although I hadn't drawn a detail of that idea on the plans. Nick built the wall so the upper portions aren't necessary (using a big beam across the opening) so now there isn't that portion of wall up there. The living room is now a much more spacious and is now a bigger room. With the big opening between the two, the side 'extension' doesn't feel like a much of a separate space anymore. Which will be a good thing, I think. We can always add in the dropped ceiling bits later if it seems too big, although I can't see how too much space can be a problem.

This is the view from the avocado plateau as of August 20th, 2024 - on a nice clear day with no more fog. The bit of framing on the right side of the project with the big "X" of suports across it are two of the lanai "posts" (they're actually narrow bits of wall) framed in with a header across them. Those two posts will define the outer edge of the lanai and the beam will be holding up the lanai roof.

There will have to be quite a bit of work on the 'front' lawn (it's actually on the side of the house, although it's the side folks will enter from so I think of it as the 'front'). In any case, there will be some sort of landscaping here, not quite sure what just yet, though.

For some reason, someone thought "Hone" (they've been pronouncing it "Hoh-neh") is a good name for a hurricane. Whatever it's name, though, it pretty much only brought a lot of rain and not much actual wind.

There had been nice weather and much progress on the house, but then "Hone" showed up and everything became immensely soggy. There are sill plates (a 2x4 laid flat and nailed to the perimeter of the subflooring) around all the edges of the project except the big opening where the dining room will be. So, all the water from the flooring fell over the edge by the lanai and made a big puddle in the under lanai area. Which then made a fast running small river heading downhill and erosing things.

In the areas of the construction that had the sill plate all the way around the room, the water from hurrican Hone made a huge puddle. We have since drilled some holes in the subflooring so if there's another hurricane there won't be puddles but we haven't had another hurricane since we've drilled the holes so we aren't certain if they will actually be big enough to make a difference. Sometimes around here it can rain ferociously.

The wind also blew a lot of leaves off the neighbor's bamboo so we had them everywhere. It's planted really close to the fence which is okay, it's their yard they can have bamboo if they want. (Although it was the previous owner who planted bamboo everywhere which is still being a problem for the current owner). Anyway, it is planted near the fence which then puts it a bit too close to the house. It being bamboo, it's pretty relentless about growing and even though it's a 'clumping' bamboo and not a 'running bamboo', it will still increase the clump radius by several feet each year. I'm planning on digging a hole alongside the fence and burying a line of tin roofing to keep the bamboo roots and shoots on it's side of the fence. The top of it will still be brushing on the house, though. Even when the clump is kept twenty five feet away. We will see how it goes. The bamboo retainment system will be part of the final landscaping unless I get bored and want to play with the excavator before then.

August 28th, 2024
lower foundation walls covered over

The lower foundation area got plywood siding installed so it's much more structurally secure now. It's also darker now. At some point, we may do something with the under house area, make a workshop or some such, but until that happens, it's just a foundation. A coat of white primer will make it brighter and help preserve the wood, though. But, that's a project for after we get a big paint sprayer.

August 29th, 2024
side view from the Avocado Plateau

August 29th, 2024
side view from behind the work shop

August 29th, 2024
another side view from behind the work shop

August 29th, 2024
view from the back Hilo side

These pictures are from August 29th. What I find to be the most amazing thing is that somehow Nick & Ethan managed to get the main ridge beams up and installed. Those two beams are twenty four feet long and are huge glulam beams. I have no idea how they did it. One day they weren't up there, shootz! One morning they weren't up there, then by the afternoon, they were! Just Nick & Ethan, no antigravity devices necessary!

August 30th, 2024
the current view into the dining area

The picture above was taken from the catwalk across the top of the living room while looking down into what will eventually be the dining area. This is one of the first pictures taken from the upper loft area. It now has the sub-flooring installed so we can walk around up there, although there's still no stairway (or guard rails)and access is via a ladder. The dining room will be in the big open area and extend out onto the lanai almost to where the white paint on the lanai floor joists starts.

The kitchen is on the small side with no 'eat in' capabilities, but it's directly next to the big dining room area, so eating in the dining room won't be a burden. There will be a 'pass through' area between the kitchen and dining room (the "window" at the top of the triangle of plywood leaning against the wall), although it's only passing around a short bit of wall. I think the change in ceiling height helps to make the kitchen feel "small", although it's basically a galley kitchen with five feet between the counters. With the kitchen door at one end and the access to the rest of the house at the other, it will possibly seem more a corridor than a kitchen.

August 30th, 2024
the current view into the living room extension area area

This is the view on the other side of the catwalk, looking down into the living room extension. This is the wall that - when I was making the blueprints - I had thought might have had the bit of "curtain" wall that descends down from the ceiling. However, since a detail of that wasn't drawn, Nick didn't build it. Now the living room extension is much more a part of the living room. Now the view from the catwalk looks down into the extension instead of a portion of living room wall. We can probably also have drone races here, if we want.

August 30th, 2024

This is two views from the catwalk, one from each back corner. There will eventually be some dormers in the loft area but it will still have a shorter slanted ceiling. Which is sort of the basic description of a 'loft'.

August 30th, 2024
looking from the catwalk into the loft

There will be some dormers here which will increase the headroom in some of the area. At the back wall is a door which will lead out to the sun deck on the carport roof. Add in a few railings here and there, and that will be the loft. Not sure yet what to do to improve the post there in the center of the room. That holds up the ends of those monster roof beams, but at a bog standard 4x4, it's not exactly an ornamental architectural element.

August 30th, 2024
from the loft to the crow's nest lanai

At the end of the catwalk will be a crow's nest lanai tucked up in the eves of the main gable of the house. Overlooking the ocean and with views of Maui. Hopefully, anyway.

August 30th, 2024
Ethan cutting rafters

Last day of August and Ethan is the last man on the construction site cutting rafters in a light sprinkle of rain.

He cuts the basic notch with a small battery operated circular saw and then finishes it off with the sawsall. Rafter after rafter after rafter. The pile on the right side of the picture is only one of three piles of rafters he's cut today.

It's rather amazing the amount of work that these two guys with a minimalist assortment of tools can do. They show up in a small sedan, quietly work and then disappear leaving an amazing amount of work behind.

August 30th, 2024
Roof rafters soon!

More piles of rafters leaning up against the house, these are the rest of Ethan's rafter cutting work today. This is the last work day of August so this is probably as far as the project is progressing for this month. From the looks of things, this upcoming September should be an excellent construction month!