....After the Thrill is Gone

Or, should we say, after Iselle is gone!?

See the "cutout" for our round window to the left of  Phil

After picking up the pieces, we are back to work on the lanai, and as you can see, the roof is now on, and Phil is painting the beams on the inside roof.  Also, our contractor cut the circle on the north side for the round window that will be adjacent to the round cedar hot tub.  Cool, huh?

Notice the beautiful Ohia log as the corner post?  We have a great story to tell you about that as well.  Typical Hawaiian house construction includes using our sturdy hardwood Ohia trees that are featured as corners, banisters, exterior and interior beams -- any place you would find a normal support beam.

Beginning to really take shape.

As our plans developed we all agreed that having an Ohia pole in the front corner would be nice....but right now, we just didn't want to add another layer to the project, so we planned to use a 4x4 that could be removed at a future date.

Our Ohia log is the lanai corner post

Just a two days after our decision to forgo the Ohia post for now (but before the hurricane) we decided to take a path less traveled and turn left on Luana, instead of right.  There was a sign advertising a garage sale, and although we don't really need anything -- garage sales are great way to meet your neighbors.  We parked the car, and headed up the driveway when we both stopped suddenly and couldn't believe what we saw.  A stunning pile of cut and debarked Ohia logs -- maybe a couple dozen.  After recovering from the surprise, we introduced ourselves to the people who lived there and found out that the guy who lives there as an Alaskan Sawmill -- and he harvests fallen Ohia logs all over.  Yes, he said, we could buy some, but had to take them today as a Kona contractor was coming to pick up the pile the very next day.  And, YES, he would deliver as many as we wanted.

A GIFT FROM THE PATH LESS TRAVELED!  Just in time to place one at the corner just like we really wanted to.  Phil sanded it down, took off the rough edges and stained it.  In the photo, you will see some of our young live Ohia trees in the background.  We were happy that during the hurricane only one of them came down.