Two down three to go!

While Chris was here, he and Robert got the house leveled, the guest room, living room, hallway, and kitchen sheet rocked. Robert framed in a coffered ceiling (soffits with a vault) to add some architectural interest and remedy the question of what to do with the shed roof ceiling. We have the "disney" panel of lighting!

We are so lucky to have incredible talent as friends and family. We definitely will have a one of a kind home that belongs in Hawaii, not some lame Arizona house that doesnt look like it belongs in Hawaii. We have architectural resources from two people with incredible instincts who have designed multi-million dollar or way more beaches in Kona and Oahu, and they help formulate structurally the vision Robert sees in his head. Remodels are always hard because you have to many times work with existing pieces, and yet not try to make a simple cottage into an out of place cobbled together subdivision house. Too many people here do that with their homes. I want our "cottage" to be an elegant version of a beach house but still retain its original roots as a "surf" shack it was. To incorporate this takes a lot of thought and also sometimes as simple as leaving the granite behind. A surf shack may have had poured concrete counter tops but it would not have had granite ones. I want it to look like it was always here but maintained in good shape. In fact, my sweetie loves concrete so he has looked at the old driveways from numerous Green and Green houses to see how they did them - they used a lot of "tracks" instead of continuous concrete, and pavers and of course Brick (which Hawaii doesnt really have naturally occur for the materials!) So we will incorporate lava rock where some of the brick is used, and go from there!

I do admire all the diversity of designs here in Puna. Some are much less functional than others! We have a friend with a modern castleblock house but they incorporated big decks and over hangs that will catch the trade breezes! Thats a good example of mixing the theory of the plantation houses with a modern twist!