Time travel.. to the past...

Since I rarely delete any emails I came across this gem tonight. This is the picture the real estate agent sent us back in November 2007 before we bought the property. You can see how much work went into it getting it as far as we did till today.

Final pictures for a while..

So sadly since the snow has set in we can no longer build anymore and must return home to Canada. As you can see from the picture below the ice & snow has really set in and makes building very difficult. Especially when you do not have a proper warm shower opportunity, etc.

Of course we're kidding. We're back home after our stay of 5 months 19 days (171 days) in Hawaii. We feel we've achieved quite a bit in this time from the nothing we began with. Considering the building is enclosed entirely with some working plumbing and some electrical completed its a fairly big achievement. Granted we thought we'd be along further and it wouldn't take as long as it did.

It however has been a labor of love and I have tremendously enjoyed working on it thus far. When you can look at something and say that you've built that with your own two hands, its certainly gratifying and gives one great satisfaction. I think i'll post some more things in the coming days to reflect on some of the successes and pitfalls along the way. I was always under the impression that America meant efficiency and little bureaucracy to get things done. This may not represent the every state in the USA, but efficiency and bureaucracy are what frustrated us the most. People believe Europe has a lot of this, which I'm sure it does, however I wasn't expecting it in Hawaii.

So thats it for now.

Outside lights with dimmer..

Here I have setup a temporary dimmer switch with timer. The timer will turn on the lights at 7pm and off again at 6am, everyday. It should provide a measure of security and add's for a nice effect outside. Since they are LED lights, the power usage is extremely minimal, only 12 watts per bulb at max lighting. With the dimmer it is using only 2.4 watts.

On the left I have a dimmer set to 20% and on the right I have the timer. The timer has a built in battery which holds the schedule incase of power failure.

Completed final corner window..

We finally finished the final corner window siding this morning. This means we have completed the siding everywhere on the house we wanted it to be on.

Honda maintenance..

Since we finally don't have use for our trustworthy Honda generator I did the needed maintenance and long term storage requirements. The entailed replacement of oil and spark plug. It also required that some small oil be put into the cylinder and lubricated. The valves also needed to be closed. Honda explains the process in their manual and its rather easy. Pull on the cord partially to close the valves, preventing any air from entering the chamber during storage.

Here's an inside shot of the generator. Oil drain on bottom left of image. They have a carburetor drain screw also. The filter is the big black box in the middle which needs only to be washed with soap and water. Inside the engine cover it shows the engine being 99 cm3. Its a four stroke engine so it doesn't need any oil in the fuel. Rather remarkable for a single cylinder engine.

As expected, we had zero issues with this wonderful generator. I would never buy anything else. There is a Honeywell for 1/2 the money but it's worth only 1/10 the quality. Its difficult to start, etc. This unit starts on the first pull and in this climate doesn't even require the choke toggle to be on when starting.

Corner window placement and finishing..

We finally received the corner windows from our window company (Alumside). We are rushing as much as possible and are quite tired at this point. We haven't had any break for several weeks now and definitely feeling it. Anyway, the work must go on...

These are corner windows which require special treatment to be plumb, level, etc. They came somewhat assembled and we needed only to install the side pillars.

We also managed to finish almost all the siding above and below the windows. The only reason we couldn't finish was because ran out of material. Our estimate was for 320 pieces to cover the entire house. Unfortunately these things are very difficult to estimate when you're dealing with odd angles, etc. We will probably need an additional 50 pieces to totally complete the entire thing. For the moment however our primary focus is to cover the entire house which is exposed to the weather. Parts which are non-essential like the big beam will only get finished at a later time.

The corners are epoxied and screwed together for maximum strength.

Night time lighting pictures..

We finally got around to setting up our LED lights outside. We are putting only two at this time and shall add 3 more in the future. So far we are very impressed.

Finished recessed lighting outside..

Here you can see we installed one LED light outside already. There will be 5 lights outside eventually in all.

Finshed Gutters..

Here you can see the finalized and installed gutters. In two days of rain with tree leaves you can see how much we have collected already. The tree's might be nice but they are definitely a nuisance.

You can see the final flashing also on the skylight area as well.

Water tank finalization..

Here you can see the final pictures from the completed watertank. We've hooked up all the necessary pipes which will need to be hooked up, because next time we are here it will be under water making access more challenging. We need to wait 7 days for the waterproofing compound to fully cure before it can be put under water, though it looks dry already.

This is where the rain will flow into the tank. The "T"connection will prevent the rain from disturbing the bottom too much which will help keep the turbidity down.

Floater for our pump. The best quality water is from 6 inch's below water line.

Our pump will suck from this pipe through the wall. This is above the waterline to prevent any leakage, we siliconed it just in case.

Finished tank with waterproofing applied on walls (twice) and floor.

Our tank inspector visiting for the first time.

Here you can see where the rain will enter on the left and floater is on the right side.

Security installation..

Yesterday we split up our tasks with my dad and I worked on more electrical and did all the wiring for the security system. My friend Jim will be here tomorrow to help me finalize the hookup since he has experience with such things. He claims also he was one of the first who started doing the "I've fallen and I can't get up" emergency pendents for old people at home.

The wires are thin and rather simple to run when you have open walls. I'd hate to have to do this in a finished house for sure.

Radiation..

For any who are concerned with our proximity to the Japan nuclear situation, nothing has been detected here on the islands as a result. Here is more:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/117976249.html

Middle bedroom electrical work..

Since we were having poor weather this morning, we decided to work on the electrical work this morning. We got all the pot lights wired as well as the electrical outlets. I also installed the security panel as well.