Photos

Here is the living room.  Can you find the bunny?

We painted it in december, but I kept forgetting to take photos when it was dark.  The light from the windows makes for poor photos during the day.

This is the progress on the side yard.

Today I am getting plants at the punahou carnival.  The goal is to make the side yard as low maintenance as possible.

Dinosaur eggs and other fun stuff

Home repairs are coming along. The living room is no longer tan-barfy-peach.  The master bedroom ceiling is 100% white. Previously it was a mix of white and beige on different ceiling panels.  I have Ethernet for my desktop computer.  The garden space increased by 250%. Half of our light switches are new, and we have a new landscaping project started in the side yard.  Now for some photos.

Matt is preparing to install a new light switch in the carport so we can turn the light on and off with out going back into the house.  The old light switch seemed to be broken.

Upon removing the old light switch, we found some eggs.  

It felt very Jurassic park.  We think they are anole eggs.  2 were still unhatched (just to the left of the wiring).  We tried our best not to disturb them.

Here is the living room in progress.  The new color, pensive sky, is much nicer than tan-barfy-peach. I need to take another photo of the room completely finished.  Master bedroom is still being put back together after closet painting this weekend.  

Sunrise (not related to home repairs), but this is what makes it worth while.

Drainage is working!

For the first time, we have had consistent, measurable rainfall at our new house.  We have received approximately 1 3/4 inches of rain in the past 7 days.  The drainage system Paul designed seems to be doing its job.

The water is following the drain tile and staying away from the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7BT-An1l-M


It's getting all the way down the driveway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsDuum41M1M


And it's staying out of the basement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=logliqeHYqo

We will call this a victory for now.  The next test will be a heavy storm, with multiple inches in one day.

A compost bin and new kitchen faucet

I finally made a compost bin for the back yard.  Now the trick is to remember to put my compost in it!

The dripping faucet in the kitchen finally started getting worse (and the persistent bloop bloop bloop was getting on my nerves).  Since the old one had 2 handles and I prefer 1 handle, the clear answer was to replace, not repair.  The faucet selection at Home Depot and Lowes is quite extensive.  The biggest problem was finding a faucet we liked with a handle that wouldn't be obstructed by the backsplash.

Old faucet.  Sorry about the lighting, the sun was shining directly into the window.

New faucet.

Now we need to keep ripping off the old paneling so we can tile the walls under above the counters. 

Yard Improvements

We have three more banana trees in the yard now.

It will be a while before we get bananas, but they should be delicious!

The avocado tree has plenty of fruit out of reach.  We're planning to get the 15 ft telescoping fruit picker from Home Depot soon.

I'm even trying my hand at a garden.  So far, I have basil, rosemary, and a pepper plant.

I pruned the pomegranate tree.  I still can't tell if the fruit is edible or strictly ornamental.  So far none of the pomegranates have been very good.

The middle bedroom

I wanted to call this "the only finished room," but then I remembered there are a few floor boards that need some love... and the window is in place, but not very nice.  Even with those issues its the nicest room in the house right now.

Here's the middle bedroom, the room with the most progress.

Its sort of small, so its hard to get a good photo.
 

The ceiling fan was one of our early projects.

Stay tuned for yard pictures.
M

Happy December

Here is the recent progress:

Matt made a permanent bunny door for Hank.  This was especially timely because Hank had learned how to move the cardboard bunny door himself.

Bunny door closed.

Bunny door open.

We also finished installing the railing/fence the insurance company wanted.  The blue is our future house trim color.

Fence was a salvaged item from ReUse Hawaii.

The yard is coming along with 2 papaya trees and 1 banana tree in the back and two plumeria trees closer to the upper cement slab.

 Papaya are by the pipe.  Can't quite see the little banana tree.  Plumeria are the sticks up front- look carefully!

Over the past weekend, we painted the hallway.

 

Yes, its lavender.

 The nicely painted hallway (which was formerly white with hole filler marks) makes the kitchen look really grimey. At least the kitchen is one spot closer to the top of the list now.

Classes end on Thursday for me, and I'm looking forward to home projects over winter break.

Stay tuned.

M