Windows and deck

George had some help with the windows and lanai thanks to our good friend Roger, who works for the Hawaii State Department of Health on Oahu. Roger was on the Big Island for a week for some work with the Hilo office, and was able to take some time off to lend a hand. If you look closely, you can see Roger looking out the bathroom window in the center.

Roger's help was particularly critical when it came to installing the big sliding glass door to the back lanai, which weighed a ton. I can only imagine what it was like for George and Roger to haul that heavy glass door up the ramp (or as George calls it - the chicken board) to the level of the deck. On top of that, imagine the chicken board wet and slippery from the rain and you have a horrible accident just waiting to happen. Fortunately, George and Roger managed it without incident.

Getting out of the rain

One of the facts of life in Volcano is the almost daily rain. Many days, it's just a light, misty sprinkle. But other times, it's a steady downpour. So we really looked forward to getting a roof over the house so that the inside could actually dry out. 

Raise high the roof beam

After I left at the end of spring break, George and Dave managed to put up the huge roof beams. This was a herculean feat! You can also see by the shine on the floor that there was a good bit of rain at the time.

The beams are one of the distinctive features that we really liked about this home design. Our original plan was to have a contractor do the house framing. Unfortunately, our budget was not quite big enough to accommodate his idea of a work schedule, which apparently included a lot of down time. He tried to convince us to just sit back at home in Idaho while he eventually got around to business, but that sounded like a great way to make him rich at our expense. So we told him thanks but we would muddle through without him.

And sure enough, George and Dave wrestled those beams into place and the roof started to take shape.

The walls go up

I spent a week in Volcano over spring break and helped with putting up the exterior walls. All the boards were pre-cut and numbered so we would know where they went. The exterior is made up of three layers of cedar in a single wall. There is no insulation in this design.

While we were working on the walls, our friends Dave and Beth came to visit from Honaunau, along with their dog, Snickerdoodle. When our place is finally finished, we have big plans to swap houses occasionally. That will give us a chance to enjoy the ocean and Dave and Beth can spend some time in the rainforest!

By the end of my spring break week, most of the walls were up. We had hoped to be able to get the big ceiling beams up together, but Dave ended up volunteering for the heavy lifting!

Sitework

October 16 - November 12, 2014

It took about a month to prepare the site for the house and driveway. We had to make a little bit of a dent in the jungle and remove a pile of lava rock. Our sitework contractor, Moore's Excavation, did a fantastic job saving as many trees as possible!

First, George needed a dry spot to get out of the rain.

  








 Then the small equipment arrived for the initial tree clearing.



 






























The driveway was opened up to allow the bigger equipment in.

Once the trees were cleared, it was time to take out some rock.
















 We used the rock that was removed on the driveway.

 




























Next, the septic tank was installed.



















 And the driveway and house site were compacted.

A little lot plotting

Fast forward one year, and we are back in Volcano to do a little clearing and ponder how a house might fit on the lot.

George slashes away at the dead uluhe

A new hapu'u frond getting ready to unfurl

Among the ohi'a trees and hapu'u tree ferns, there was also a tangle of uluhe fern and invasive Kahili ginger. We did a lot of hacking! It will be impossible to get rid of the ginger with its huge, spreading rhizomes. All we can do is keep chopping away as the shoots appear. And some will actually be useful as a screen around the perimeter. All the brown stuff in the photo is dead uluhe fern, which is tough and scratchy. But we were able to make a nice little clearing and figure out a good location for about a 1,000-square foot house.

A mass of ginger rhizomes

During the week we spent swinging our machetes and lopping, we stayed in our favorite Volcano vacation rental - the Crater Rim Cabin. We feel so lucky to have found this place! The owners, Barry Stokes and Jim Griggs have made this the coziest vacation rental you could imagine. Jim is a long time photographer for the USGS and has taken some of the most stunning pictures of Hawai'i volcanoes. Many of these are on the walls and in books in the cabin. One of Jim's photos was even selected for the back of the Hawai'i quarter.

A piece of the rainforest

Our Volcano rainforest lot

We bought our half acre in Volcano Village in the spring of 2013. This is what it looked like from the street, Kekoanui Blvd. (also know as Road B).

We loved this lot for so many reasons - some that were immediately apparent, and others that we came to appreciate over time. First was the beauty of the fern-ohi'a forest lot that was more or less in a natural state without too much intrusion by invasive plants like ginger and guava.

We also loved the surrounding area, across the highway from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. I don't think we could ever run out of places to explore in the park. And if we get tired of the rain (100 inches a year in Volcano!), it's a two-hour drive to warm and sunny Kailua-Kona.