Saturday's Accomplishments

This weekend, we had several volunteers to help us on the house.  Once again, what a blessing it is to have friends that are not only willing to help, but who tell us they're coming over to help!  Uncle Frank, Drew Stewart and Co., Mitch and Jared all helped out on Sat.  Our neighbors are continually astounded and repeatedly tell us, "you guys have SO MANY friends."  Yes, we do.  Yes, we do.  Here's what we were able to accomplish on Saturday alone:

• Poured concrete into both footings for posts (and beam)
• Removed a stubborn tree stump from garden area
• Removed "ghetto" solar panels from roof
• Installed upstairs new guest bath window
• Finished up electrical in attic and both upstairs bathrooms
• Made forms for pouring concrete footings

We had a lazy morning and didn't get up to the house until about 9:30am. Mike and Uncle Frank stopped by our friend's house from church who let us borrow a concrete mixer (thanks Josh Hvidding!)  They got to work right away on mixing and pouring.

Thirty-seven, 80 lbs bags of cement!

Mike, the apprentice :)

Pouring carefully.

Filling in the hole, finally!

Enter Drew Stewart and Company.  Drew brought Ez and Maddox, and Auntie April put them right to work.  We had a big stump to remove, and Dad told them they couldn't go swimming until they helped me get it out!    It was a great motivator... 

They weren't very excited about this job.

Picking up rubbish wasn't cutting it... EZ wanted the tools!

I finally caved and let them try out the bigger tools :)

Maddox in motion... he only nicked his leg once, after that he was more careful :)

We took a lot of breaks.  The boys got side tracked with other jobs too.  There are just many things to try on a job site like this one... and so many mentors :)

Maddox helping uncle Mike tap the concrete.

He liked this job.

Ez wanted something that was more skillful... 

so he tried out masonry.

Uncle Frank likes to start 'em out young.

Since Maddox was the master, he didn't need anymore supervision.

Ez was trying to coach him.

"Pound it harder, Maddox, like this... " (*note the fist and face).

Finally, after all that hard work, we let them swim!  Child labor laws.  There were a few minor incidents (let's just say Maddox can't quite touch the bottom of the shallow end yet).  Drew and Mitch had to jump in [on two separate occasions] to help him out.  It just taught us adults to keep a VERY close eye on the keiki.  Maddox, however, wasn't fazed.  Then Robbie came with pizza and snacks... and Asher (who ate all day long).

Maddox resting after a hard day's work

Asher with his cute "Shaka"

Lunch Time

Asher watering the lawn.  Not sure if I'll get in trouble for posting this one,
but his dad took the picture and it was too funny not to add :)  

After lunch, it was time for the "solar panels" to come off the roof.  These boxes were literally an accident waiting to happen.  Imagine 4 x 4's, plexi glass, aluminum roof sheeting, a hose and a slope.  These are the ingredients used in the home made solar panels that we removed.  Voila!  

Yikes!

Mike said they were heavier than they looked.

Roof walkin ain't no thang.

Comin' down.

Don't fall, Drew!

Professionals.

Spectators.

Panel # 2

Finally finished!

Of course, the day ended with a relaxing game of pool basketball, in which the "boys" (and by boys I mean Mitchell) broke the rim.  Oh well :)  Guess we have to get a new one!   Maddox and Ez loved cheering on their dad...

Smasher :)

2 v 2

A little "D"

Maddox getting super excited!

All "the Boys"

All in all, it was a GREAT day of accomplishment and recreation :)  Thanks for the help and company guys!

Weekend Update

When people ask me house the house is coming, it's hard to give an answer.  Everyday when I leave from working on it, I feel like I accomplished SO much!  Then I look at the big picture of the house and feel like it will still be months before we can move in.  I know it's a process, but I'll be excited when large items start to get installed.  You know, like a tub or shower, maybe a toilet or cabinets.  Right now, it's just gutted...

To be honest, we didn't work on the house hard core this weekend.  There are a few things we are still waiting on in order to get everything moving.  The main thing we're waiting on right now is the inspector to approve our footing holes before we can pour the concrete.  They're ready for inspection, we've just had a hard time getting a hold of him.

The footing ready for concrete :)  Mike was really proud of his rebar bending abilities...

The other side... again, Mike is hailed as the rebar master :)

Aside from getting the footings totally ready, we cut a hole in the ceiling of the hall for an attic access.  We also bought a bunch of 1/2 inch ply board to put up there for storage.  I was tasked with cutting it into smaller pieces.  

Just call me carpenter girl.

We also removed the old laundry room door and replaced it with a new one that actually closes all the way!

We removed the old door and busted up the concrete and tile underneath it.

Mike, preparing the entry.

No door.

Open door.

New, closed door.  I painted the trim and it should go up today.

The last thing we worked on this weekend was the downstairs bath and getting the floor cleared.  Using the chipping gun is hard work!  First, I attempted to use the scraper, but to no avail.  I used the gun for a whole ten minutes, then put Mike on it...  I'm not looking forward to the larger tiled area in the living room/kitchen.

The rubbish we needed to clean up.

I HATED scraping!

The chipping gun was better than scraping, but it is a full body workout!

Here it is semi-cleared, but it's hard to see texture in a picture.

Just another day in paradise...

Well, we spent another late night at the house again.  Mike almost got epoxy in his eye, and I nicked my leg with the shovel.  The sun going down is our cue to leave, but sometimes we just don't take the hint.

The yard is coming along; slow, but steady.  Here are a few before and current pictures.  We have a long way to go... but hey, it's a start!

May 2012:  Grass totally dead (when we first looked at the house)

June 2013:  Grass coming back!  (house is ours, but we're not moved in yet)

May 2012:  dead grass and no pool

June 2013:  grass is coming in and we have a working POOL!

The start of my oasis... a girl's gotta start somewhere :)

My Plumeria is blooming!

So purdy :)

The footings are almost ready for inspection.  Mike spent most of the day yesterday drilling the holes for the rebar and prepping the footing for cement.  He set up a nice hanging contraption that he's pretty proud of :)

Mike hanging rebar and epoxying it into the existing slab.

Look at my handsome hardworking hunk :)
[My English students would have appreciated the alliteration...]

Another little thing I'm working on is the back corner.  This is more than just weeding, folks!  I had to dig out the roots of this awful plant.  I was getting very angry; hence, the attack of the shovel on my leg.  I found a few treasures in the process though:  an extension cord, and an 8 plug outlet timer. 

My nemesis.

I still have to do the finishing touches of course, but this shot was literally taken in the dark.

Let's rewind a bit.  Before all the house work, I actually had an eventful morning.  I think I drove yesterday more than I have in a while on this island.  I went hiking with my friend, Emily, so I picked her up from Mililani (stop 1).  We then drove to St. Louis Heights for a little hiking excursion (stop 2).  We didn't do anything extreme, but it was so nice to be up in the mountains in the brisk air.  It was a nice ridge hike [Wa'ahila].  Emily and I decided to head to Kahala for lunch at The Counter, a build-your-own-burger place (stop 3).  I dropped her back off in Mililani (stop 4), and met Mike in Waikele (stop 5).  We left for the house but forgot the keys, so had to go back to Waikele (stop 6).  We made it to the house and switched vehicles to take a load to the dump.  We finally got rid of the jet tub!  After leaving the landfill (stop 7), we headed to Home Depot/Target/Costco (stop 8).  Back at the house, Mike realized he got the wrong bit to drill a hole in the concrete.  So, back to Home Depot (stop 9).  After working way too long, we finally drove back to Waikele to crash (stop 10)!

Emily, queen of the ridge :)

Beautiful view of town...

Gettin' my hike on.

Another lovely shot of the valley and town.

Hikers.

Until next time...