Absolutely incredible. Thank you all so much for your perspective and advice. I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am. You have helped me tremendously! Many thanks. Ian Lilkendey

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Getting closer

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 9/23/2008

Things are moving right along now.  The two back bedrooms are trimmed out and ready for flooring. All the lights and ceiling fans are in, along with the whole house audio.  The bathrooms are ready for the Texston finish that will cover the entire shower walls and be the wainscoting finish in the bathrooms.  To match the ocean theme in the master bath we did a wave pattern for the wainscoting trim.  The Texston finish will have a handmade wave pattern in it also.

My son was able to help again after several weeks recuperating from his broken ankle.  It worked out to be good timing to help set the cabinets and finish the trim.

Photos

Second bedroom windows and doors trimmed and getting ready for floor.	Third bedroom ready for flooring. Notice the surf board ceiling fan.	Short hall to the two bedrooms and bath with linen closet on the right.
Second bath with wainscoting trim.	Master bedroom in the trim process.	Wave wainscoting in master bath.
Shower stall waiting for Texston finish that will go from floor to wave trim.	Kitchen cabinets going in.	Living room/work shop.
My son back to work after ankle surgery.	My wife had to have a wine rack, cabinet on right is file drawers.	Lanai looking in, living room on right master bedroom on left.
Entry way.	Garage door. Front entry on the right.

Still behind

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 9/6/2008

A lot happened this month.  The drywall got hung and finished and we got two coats of paint on the walls.  They finished the stucco and we are very happy with the colors that we took so long to pick out.

The cabinets have been delivered and we are starting to trim things out.  The garage doors have been installed, although I don't seem to have any pictures yet, I will get some.  We can secure the house now, I was a little concerned about painting and getting stuff delivered as a neighbors house was "tagged" just after he painted.

The eight-foot wood entry door has been stained and installed and it looks incredible.  I will get some better pictures of it too.

Once the drywall was finished most things have gone pretty smoothly.  Home Depot is a little upset as I would not let them deliver the appliances until after the garage doors were in, they were ordered through them also, but I got them to understand my concern of theft or damage until the house was secure.

We put in three Solatubes, one in the master bath, one in the second bath, both with exhaust fans and one in the master closet.  All three have the light kit option but we rarely ever use the light.

Photos

Stucco is finished.	The mess in the garage is getting bigger already.	Drywall done and getting painted. This is living room to dining.
Front door stained and hung.	Entryway looking in to green living room.	Master bath cabinets going in.
All the window boxes stained and ready to go in.	Finished Solartube in Master closet. They are very bright, we hardly use the light.	Living room with stain bench and drying rack for the trim.
Second bath getting ready for custom shower finish.	Second bedroom, this color didn't last.	Relaxing on the lanai.

Time to catch up

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 8/2/2008

I got a little behind on this blog, only eight months, lol.  The house is pretty much done, a few little things to finish yet but we have been living here since November.  I will try to catch this thing up, this is being posted on 03/02/2009.

These pictures are from the first of August.  We got the tubs set, passed both the plumbing and electrical inspections and are waiting for drywall.  I decided to sub out the drywall, they did a good job but ended up putting us behind some more.  Time was one of the main reasons for going with a sub and not doing it ourselves. As a new neighbor, he did give a really good price too so that helped, but may have something to do with the time it took.

As kind of a last minute decision I went ahead and installed a central vacuum system.  Now that we are done and living here I am very glad I did, even with no carpeting in the house.

Photos

Jetted tub in Master Bath	Central Vac lines with one wall hook-up and one toe kick intake.	Looking through kitchen into garage. All cleaned up ready for drywall.
A clean Three car garage, that didn't last. It will be clean again someday.	Looking through the kitchen from the garage entry.

Not much progress...

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 7/7/2008 1:44:31 AM

...on this blog, lol.

Where has the time gone?  The roof is just about finished, just need to button up the ridge with the vents.  Things had been going real good then my son broke his ankle skateboarding then Matt came down on his foot and strained it pretty good, also skateboarding.  So my main labor is down for awhile or out for 3-4 months.  Good thing I am to the point of subbing out some stuff.

The crew came in for the stucco and knocked it out in about 9 days total.  We are still waiting on some lights so the rough electrical inspection has not been completed which means that the lanai ceilings have not been soffit-boarded yet for the stucco.  Matt is going to fly to L.A. to pick up the lights and the last minute house audio equipment so we can finish the electrical this week.  Good thing he gets free flights.

The whirlpool tub came in last week and we are getting that framed in tomorrow so they can finish the plumbing.  I completely forgot about the shower fixtures for the master bath so I ended up running around last week to find the valves for rough-in.  I found the setup I wanted but ended up costing a lot more than we were planning.  I guess when it is the only thing in stock on an island in the middle of nowhere you take what you can get when you don't want to wait or pay for shipping.

The electric is hooked up now, so no more generator.  That whole thing got a little stressful, dealing with the HELCO inspectors and they only come out one day a week and she forgets to tell me about a major problem when she checks it before we pour concrete over it.  I was so mad but had to keep my cool and just try to figure a way to deal with it.  It worked out fine; just had to do a little grinder work and she was happy.  Now that it is done I can get the rock walls finished and they started on them yesterday.

We had a good cleanup day a couple weeks back and got rid of all the rubbish.  One of the guys where I live works for a tree trimming company and we were able to use one of their one-ton Ford dump trucks.  Loaded everything up and off to the dump.  I saved a couple of hundred bucks over getting a dumpster and still had the scrap available if we needed something, which helped a lot to keep the waste down.  To this point we had less than two tons of scrap to haul out. it didn't even fill the truck.

My electrician has been great, he has maybe 10 days on the job with one full 8-hour day and I have done almost all of the wiring myself.  It has helped me do some extra things that would have cost too much otherwise.  I have a ton of outlets in the garage and throughout the house, I put 220 lines to the range and dryer, just in case, even though I am going with gas.  "Do it now while the walls are open", he keeps saying - makes total sense to me.

Photos

May 28 pictures, windows in.	Rough plumbing, guest bath	We had to reframe this opening as it was built for 2' windows, not the 3'.
Ready for shingles	Looking from the garage into the house, you can see the panel is in.	Ginger, the "guard" dog.
The roofer friend Clint and son Mark before the broken ankle	Sliders all in	Most of the shingles done. The color sample in front of the garage, we are thinking the gray.
Utility trench is pau (all done).		The entry door
Master bath plumbing, a mix of PEX and copper.	Brown coat done - let it cure	The panel all made up
Meter, phone and cable boxes	Solar hot water valves	Flush AV box from HD
Lots of brackets and clips	Clips and hold-downs	From kitchen looking out over the bar
Exterior trim, half-round door and windows with rounded bottom band	Front door looking in	Hansgroe shower valves, $$$.
Three-car garage	Had to hammer out the slab for four of the drains the first plumber missed.

Guy's Forum Posts: 64 Interview Answers: 1 Average Forum Rating: 3.71 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 7/11/2008

Aloha Mark, glad to see your posts!  Just visited a friend who works for a high-end rug store in Kona.  She was back in CA for a vacation.  Sure made me nostalgic for the Big Island.  Can you give me the names of the subs you have used that you recommend?  Hopefully you will be getting better prices now that things have slowed down.  I'm busy looking at alternative construction methods to bring our cost of construction down, but most of it is difficult to have meet standard building codes.  I emailed the Engineering Dept. to ask if they have standards for trench depths for underground power and water lines and they said our plumber should know!  I guess that's Hawaii for you.  House looks great, any idea on $/s.f. yet?  Cheers, Guy.

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A month already???

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 5/5/2008 3:01:39 AM

It's hard to believe that a month has past since my last post.  We are starting to sheet the roof tomorrow, Monday or today for most of you, we have a couple of interior walls to put up yet too, and a fair amount of metal to put in.  The framing has gone good for the most part; we had to make some changes on the fly, but all worked out.  The worst thing was a post bracket that was out of position by three inches set in concrete.   I just realized that the septic was done in two days and I didn't get any pictures; I'm slacking bad.

There are a few more rocks that need to be hammered out for the utilities to be put in, but most of the trench is ready.  I finally fired the plumber/excavator, I should have done it a long time ago.  He has cost me too much time on this, two days to dig 20 feet of 3'x3' trench and even then he wasn't to depth.  The new guy finished 100' in half a day. This same guy did the septic too.

We have decided to go with a stucco finish and have been getting bids for that.  I still need to decide on a new plumber, SOON!  A least I have a couple of options for that.  All of our doors and windows are ordered and most are in.  We are doing shingle roof, so now just pick style and color.  Will set up for a hard measure for the cabinets soon and get the flooring ordered.  The appliances have all been ordered too.  My biggest problem has been colors, I couldn't pick a color to save my life and my wife is just as bad.

Enjoy the pictures.  I will try not to go so long between posts.  Any suggestions for colors will be appreciated.

Photos

Foyer out door opening to drive.	Kitchen	Dining area to the two bedrooms.
Driveway into garage.	Entryway and the one that had to be removed due to me putting 83" instead of 8'3". That one little mark makes a big difference.	More rock walls, and I will have rocks left over too.
The first gluelams and the post that had to be moved.	The garage door openings.	More wall.
Interior walls, guest bed and bath.	Exterior sheeting almost done.	Mauka, (mountain) view looking to makai (ocean), east to west.
Makai to mauka view.	Trusses all in, 7 hours with an excellent crane operator.	Starting to look like a house.

Guy's Forum Posts: 64 Interview Answers: 1 Average Forum Rating: 3.71 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 5/7/2008

Aloha Mark, looking good.  Why are quality plumbers always so difficult to find?  The best advice I ever saw for colors was an article in Fine Homebuilding.  The owners walked around their lot and gathered natural elements like bark, leaves, rocks etc. and made that their palette of colors.  This made their house blend in with the lot and tied it into the land.  I suggested that to some friends on their lot and they ended up with a beautiful house color scheme with various sage greens for base and trim colors that ended up on a lot of other houses in their neighborhood later.  I always like the earth colors myself.  Check out the wallpaper samples at www.bradbury.com for some great Arts and Craft colors.  Keep on postin and truckin, Guy.

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Very busy week

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 4/7/2008 1:57:30 AM

Both pours went smooth, on Saturday they did the slab and garage then finished the lanais and drive apron on Monday.  We snapped lines on Tuesday and got our framing delivery on Wednesday.  We had three walls up by Thursday, two more on Friday, and Saturday both.  It has been a little slow going, as Matt has the only real framing experience and it has been awhile for him too.  We have a lot of sliders going in the makai (ocean) side of the house along with multiple beam-pockets and shear-wall specs to figure out, so we are taking our time.  The perimeter walls are just under halfway done. By the end of this week we should have them all finished and be working on interior walls.

Pedro, the rock wall guy, and his crew are amazing.  They are using rocks from my lot and very few of them are being broke.  They put the big ones in by hand, no equipment, hand cut and all.  The lower wall is along the drive coming up as it is a flag lot.  The second wall will be a retaining wall/fence for the yard and privacy from below.

The utility trench has been started now that the pour is finished and we can block the drive.  There are still some issues with the plumber/excavator Bobby.  BJ, the backhoe operator, did not show up on Friday, as he was out of fuel and could not get ahold of Bobby to get more or get paid.  I told him I would pay him directly and deal with Bobby myself.  The only good thing with him has been he left me the backhoe with keys to use for four weeks NC.

Photos

The start of the slab pour on Saturday the 29th.	The house and garage being finished.	All finished, house, garage, lanais and drive apron.
The lower wall with a second four feet behind started.	The mason crew,l to r, Marshal, Marcus, Scottie, Daryl, Sonya, Ben, Gary, Bennie and Rich.	The first wall is up.
First Day of framing.	The first day's work, my son Mark in the background.	The first 50 feet of the 310-foot utility trench.
The rock walls coming along.	After two days work.	After four days, Saturday was a rough one.
From the lot below. The walls will continue to the lua (toilet) on the right after the utilities are finished.

Ready to Pour

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 3/28/2008 1:21:50 AM

The plumber finally got his act somewhat together. We were very close to parting ways with him. We passed our plumbing inspection; they came and applied the termite spray, we passed the foundation inspection today and if the electrical ground inspection goes good tomorrow we will pour on Saturday.  It's about time!

We will set the framing materials delivery for Monday, as my friend Matt will be helping and his wife is about to kill him, as he hasn't worked for three months now, we need to get started.

I have some more rock walls being built on the front of the lot.  There will be two walls here, one along the drive that is four feet high then on four feet back from it that will be about 8 feet tall.  We will backfill in so there will be more yard out front of the house and have a planter between the two walls.

Photos

Ben compacting the drive apron, the lanai in the foreground to the left, unformed. My son Mark standing by the truck with Daryl, one of the masons, sitting.	The rock wall builders hard at it. This was a day and a half of work.	Ben is still compacting the apron. With big brother Marcus watching. The three-car garage in the foreground. The drive will come in from the right, behind the pallet.
Start in the garage, then the kitchen, Dining and livingroom in the center, master BR to the right, two BRs on the left, lanais on the far side and the Pacific about three miles out. The house is 1,784 sq ft and the garage is 912	Spraying for termites.	The mason crew, all in the family, father Benny kneeling, he is 73 and has 13 kids, the big guy Marcus is 17, Marshal on the left is 16, Ben on the far right is 14 and their friend Daryl, he is almost 60. What a great crew they have been.
Vapor barrier and rebar, ready to pour, almost.	Two days of work.	A shot from the lot above.
Another one from above with the first wall that was done a couple of weeks ago.

Guy's Forum Posts: 64 Interview Answers: 1 Average Forum Rating: 3.71 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 4/5/2008	Aloha Mark, your project is a real inspiration for us.  We want to owner-build on BI also, up in Kohala Ranch.  Looks like you are coming in at $150.00/s.f. or less.  Would you be willing to share the bids you received and recommended subs?  I take it you are an experienced builder and know how to maximize your time and budget.  Have you checked out the moonoverhawaii blog and punaweb and konaweb?  Punaweb is run by Rob Tucker in Pahoa and is a great resource for construction technology.  Really looking forward to more posts.  Mahalo Mark!  Guy (kohalakat posts on this site).
Mark's Forum Posts: 4 Journal Entries: 11 Interview Answers: 170 Average Forum Rating: 3.33 Send Private Message Image from Mark's blog 4/7/2008	Aloha Guy, Although I am behind schedule we are a fair amount under budget.  I am trying to keep it under the $120 mark, I should have a better idea on that in a couple of weeks.  I have found a great source for windows and cabinets in Kona, Shawna at KBS, they are between HD and Honsador.  Kelly at HD has been a big help, she has beat any materials price I get.  The only bids I got from subs where for the slab, plumbing and electrical as I am planning on doing the rest myself.  The only reason I went with this plumber is he bundled the plumbing, septic and excavation together.  I have two others that I will deal with next time and another option for the septic/excavation.  I have a great electrician that will let us work with him, he does a lot of owner-build work.  My rock wall guy is incredible.  PM me and I will get you more names and numbers if you want.  I check konaweb everyday, Mark Sh, and I have seen the others a couple of times.  Good luck on your project.
Guy's Forum Posts: 64 Interview Answers: 1 Average Forum Rating: 3.71 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 4/7/2008	Thanks Mark, really looking forward to more photos and comments.  I will PM you as we get closer to our build date.  Our biggest initial expense will be site utilities and a long driveway.  We are trying to avoid retaining walls over 3 ft. high.  You might also contact Harry Pritikin for sub recommendations.  He's a local realtor who has built a lot in Kailua.  He's listed at konaweb. We also found a neat book called "The Hawaii Home Book" by Karen Anderson which gives some good tips.  Sure wish we were there watching for the green flash.  Aloha, Guy.
Mark's Forum Posts: 4 Journal Entries: 11 Interview Answers: 170 Average Forum Rating: 3.33 Send Private Message Image from Mark's blog 4/8/2008	Kohala Ranch I would imagine has looong drives, utilites above or below ground?  Why do you not want to go over 3 feet on the rock walls?   Thanks for the tips.  I have seen the green flash 3 times.  Aloha, Mark
Guy's Forum Posts: 64 Interview Answers: 1 Average Forum Rating: 3.71 Send Private Message Randomly Selected Image 4/18/2008	Aloha Mark, had to attend to some personal matters and just checked back on your posts and progress.  KR requires underground utilities which will be an expensive undertaking for us, estimating 600 ft. of trenching!  We are trying to build on a high point of our lot which is unfortunately the farthest area from the cul-de-sac where the utility boxes are placed.  We really want to avoid retaining walls that require engineering and expensive footings so hope to stay under 3 foot high.  Heard to expect to pay around $30k for tall retaining walls.  Could use some recommendations for subs for grading, utility trenching and septic install just for budgeting purposes for now.  Hope everything is going well for you.  Guy.

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Retaining wall

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 3/13/2008

So almost another month has gone by with a lot of finger pointing and little to no changes.  I finally got together with my plumber's partner today and we got the plumbing permit and hope to get the inspection tomorrow, fingers crossed.  I don't know who dropped the ball and at this point I don't care. We just need to get moving forward.  I have a concrete and a framing crew sitting around waiting for this plumbing inspection so we can get the slab poured.  We have backfilled as much as we dare and probably more than we should have prior to the inspection.

On some good notes I have gotten the rock wall finished, it took them four days to complete the retaining wall, and it looks great.  I was also able to get the piles of rock and dirt moved out of the way to make room for the concrete trucks and ready to be used for the front retaining wall and backfilling.

Photos

Our building permit is posted.	The four-day rock wall, at least something is getting done	Was a big pile of dirt and rock and our forms.
More of the wall and a kukui nut tree, upper left, that was cut down a year ago

Slow going

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 2/16/2008 1:37:39 AM

Things are moving along, although a little slow still.  They will be doing the ground plumbing tomorrow and should get the inspection for that next week.  If the hillside can get dug out to make room for the garage soon, they will be able to finish forming the slab and they hope to be ready to pour after next week.  As building has slowed down here. too, inspections are not taking very long but still a couple of days each after ordered.

I got out today to several suppliers and got out new take-offs for bids again as lumber prices seem to keep dropping, good for us.  Due to the cost we are going to go with wood construction on this one.

The revised floor plans are here now, with the three-car garage.  Virginia has not downloaded the camera yet, so I will have to add pictures later.

Files

We closed on the lot

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 1/26/2008 1:58:17 AM

After a month delay the lot is finally ours.  I don't know if I could recommend IndyMac or not at this point but we closed and now I can get started.  I went out today and marked off some of the corners and cut weeds.  It started getting dark, so I will get more pictures tomorrow.  Here is our site, elevation and floor plans, I am extending the garage to make it a three-bay so I will have some shop room. 

I have decided to buy a backhoe if I can find one with a hammer; supplies are limited and shipping is horrendous.  With the driveway cut, rock wall building, digging for the foundation (slab on grade) and the utility trench we will need one for a while so it will be better in the end for us, I hope.

I am meeting with two rock-wall builders tomorrow as I need a retaining wall on the north corner for the larger garage.  After that, I will spend some time cleaning up some brush along that edge of the property.  When I get tired of that I will do a rough layout of the house on the lot.

Here are some pics of the lot too.

Photos

View from our lot.	Our lot and the view	Our lot and the view again

Files

getting started

Posted to Hawaiian-Bungalo by Mark in Holualoa, HI on 1/2/2008 5:42:27 PM

We have a contract on a half acre lot in Kailua-Kona, HI.  A lot of the planning work has been done as it comes with a set of permitted plans for am 1,800 sq ft three-BD two-BA house with a two-car garage plus 700 sq ft of covered lanai area.  My initial cost estimates came in at $285,000, not including the lot.  As I plan on doing most of the work myself, I expect to be able to bring that number down a fair amount but I went with the bid amounts to keep the lender happy with the numbers.

We are supposed to close on the loan on the 7th; it has already been extended once due to appraisal and loan issues.  At this point we are just waiting. I am working on getting everything ready to go on the foundation.  It will be a slab on grade, the lot is clear and level with a driveway cut already.  We will be on the grid and have county water with a private septic system.

I have thought about using metal framing due to the termite, mold and other issues here in Hawaii but have not made a decision yet; better do that soon.  I like the ease of construction, weight and no warped, splintered, etc. lumber but I have not talked to anyone that has used it here yet and no cost comparisons to lumber, so we will see.

More and photos to follow soon.