Our Building story

[rbonplaza]

We have a 220 circuit in the shop for the Unisaw and another 220 for the water pump. The contractor has been running all of his saws and compressor with no problem from the solar system. During really cloudy periods, with everyone working, the generator ran for about four hours every-other day to recharge the batteries. With some sun, the generator did not run at all. I don't expect to be doing any production work, so I'm hoping the system will be adequate. The marine generator does not seem to use a lot of diesel. Still will need to see when we are there full time.

[EightFingers]

It would be fun to meet and talk ww-ing! Nice to know you can run a Uni on your system. Unfortunately, I wont get started building our house for about 4 years (have to retire first) so all I can do is visit and get my Punafix.[]

[Royall]

quote:

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Originally posted by EightFingers

It would be fun to meet and talk ww-ing!

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I'm a woodworker also. My ears always perk up when "shop" is mentioned! Hope you have a punaweb party so we can talk shop. What are your interest in wood?

Gotta love a Uni!


Royall

What goes around comes around!

[kohalakat]

Great job! Can you post costs of construction?

[Ed Smay]

Ok, I will jump in here too!

Ralph answered most of the questions ( I think)

It seemed as if it took forever to get to this point, but
here is a run down of how it went

Purchased the property in Mar 05
Cleared the road and house site Jun 05
Decided on a design by Oct 05 and then worked on pricing.
Once we decide on a design, had the arch draw them up.
Submitted the permits in March 06, took about 3-4 weeks.
Signed the contract with the builder in Oct 06 and started on
the foundation.
It took 21 months to finally get a construction loan and started
construction of the buildings in Aug 08.

Ralph retired last June and was very beneficial is monitoring
the project and kept things on track. It would have been
much harder for us if that hadn't been the case.

Now the big challenge is the landscaping.

Ed

"From knowledge comes understanding"

[rbonplaza]

By the way, the main building went from sub-floor to roofing paper in two days. A good crew!

[Blakeyboy1]

Landscaping is the fun part! Just gotta watch out for the devil centipedes and caterpillars!

-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/

[rbonplaza]

During the five months I've spent on the site, I am constantly watching for the centipedes. Stepped on one barefooted years ago on Maui, and never want to go through that again. Haven't seen one around the site yet. Moved a lot of wood piles and was especially vigilant. We are really looking forward to landscaping, but will take it slow- the budget will dictate that. Exactly what I wanted to do in retirement to keep (or get) in shape! The house design definitely does not reflect an "end-of-life" concept. Lots of stairs and if you forget a tool from the shop, it's not a matter of "going out to the garage"- it's a trek back and forth. I love it! Walking out to the road is a 2000+ ft round trip, but a great walk down a country road.

[Ed Smay]

I have threatened to get an ATV because the road is so long![][]

"From knowledge comes understanding"

[EightFingers]

Ed and RB,
It looks like you cleared two years ahead of building, what did your land look like after two years' worth of growth? Or did you keep it maintained somehow?

Royall and all other fellow woodworkers: A get together would be great, we could all talk shop and see who has the biggest "tools". [] Unfortunately, the soonest I'll be able to be permanently on-island will be about 4 years []. I will have about 11,000 pounds of woodworking equipment to move (Oh what fun).
I will be visiting in about 3 weeks so if there's gonna be a Punaweb party at that time, LOML and I would love to be there!