Time off

We decided to take a weekend off and head to Honaunau for three days of sun, hot showers, laundry and great company with our friends Dave and Beth, who run Beth's Hawaiian Hideaway. We'd been planning this getaway for three weeks - as soon as there was an opening in our favorite Paniolo Suite. We were dying to dry out for a few days. Since we arrived in Volcano on October 16th up until November 20th when we headed to Honaunau, we had been blessed with over 24 inches of rain, according to hikermikes Volcano weather station. Everything was starting to smell moldy to me, including me!

This break was just what the doctor ordered. On the way back to Volcano we made the required stop at Costco in Kona and took the long way home through Waimea and along the Hamakua coast.

Geckos on the kitchen wall

Poolside at Dave and Beth's

Riley and George at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau

Another gorgeous sunset

Hiking and wiring

Last week we had visits from our plumber, the electrician, and the guy who will be building our water tank. It was hard to relax with contractors coming and going every day. But it was satisfying to see what was accomplished in just a few days.

First, our electricity meter was installed.

Then the electricians did most of the wiring to all the outlets, switches, lights, and smoke detectors. For some reason, our little 1,000 square foot house is required to have five smoke detectors. There is plenty of overkill in the Hawaii residential building code. The electrician crew finished all the rough-in in two days, including covering the exposed wiring with redwood channel.
 

Besides the numerous smoke detectors, another overkill item is the requirement for two 8-foot long copper grounding rods that have to be drilled into the lava rock. The poor guy who ended up with this job came out on Saturday morning. One of his drill bits got stuck fast in the rock and he spent most of the afternoon trying to unstick it. He finally gave up and went home to take his kids trick-or-treating, leaving the rod sticking out of the ground. He came back Sunday morning after church, with his cousin in tow. But even cousin did not have the magic to get the Excalibur drill bit out of the ground and they ended up cutting it off. After that, things went more smoothly and both rods were installed by early afternoon. Now we're more than prepared if the house is ever struck by lightning!

While the electricians were working in the house, we decided to go on a hike so we would be out of their way. Our neighbor Robert had an idea for a 4-mile round trip hike to the Pu'u Maka'ala Natural Area Reserve, which is just a couple of miles down the road from our neighborhood. If you ever decide to try this hike, pay attention to this note in the hike description: The trail is often very muddy, so boots are a good idea. There was plenty of boot-sucking mud! But our dog Riley, and Robert's dogs - Mystic and Boggs - had the time of their lives.

Boggs even has his own favorite bog to swim in!

 

Return to Volcano

We arrived back on the Big Island on October 15 and spent a blissful evening at Beth's Hawaiian Hideaway. If you're considering a trip to the Big Island, you could not find a better place to stay than this place in South Kona, away from the Kona crowds and close to snorkeling at Two Step and Kealakekua Bay. It's also just up the road from the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park - one of our very favorite places to watch the sun set.

The following day we headed to Volcano, where our daily life is best described as "roughing it." However, I've learned that scaffolding makes excellent furniture. For example, who needs fancy kitchen cabinets?

And a piece of metal roofing makes a handy dish rack.

There's nothing like adding a little makeshift to those daily routines you used to think were boring!

Enclosed and lockable

The metal roof was the final piece that needed to be in place before George could come back to Idaho for the summer. We had a great roofing contractor who did a nice job on the installation. The gutters will be installed later and will direct the rainwater from the roof to our catchment tank when it's in place.

Finally, the house was fully enclosed, weather-proof, and lockable. Time for George to come back to Idaho!

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.