03-05-2008, 03:47 AM
Aloha to all! First to Robin, this house plan was designed by David with some very old software....Obviously, the house is relatively simple in design (only 4 rooms: bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom, plus the large lanai on 2 sides of the house). Friends of ours who live here had suggested building the house up high - for good air circulation (paramount here in Mountain View with all the rains), and also for future usable space that is almost "free" in terms of building permit fees and also building materials. The space under the house is already being used for storage (and our laundry room is under there as well), but if we wanted to enclose a portion of the space (say for a second bedroom), it wouldn't be that difficult or costly to do. But I also have to say that aside from the practical considerations, one of our primary joys is to feel like we're living in a tree house up here with a grand view of the birds (including cardinals!) at our bird feeder, and our little garden, plus of course all the lovely green ohia trees (now in full red blossom mode!) and hapu'u and uluhe ferns.... It almost feels like a playhouse/tree fort. David has built two houses before this one (in Canada), and really enjoys playing with the design software that he used on this home, but I'm sure that any of the available software house design programs are probably just as fun to play with. Don't be afraid to try it! And if you want further information, we'll do our best to help. When you design your own place, you end up with just what you want...not that we couldn't tweek our plans a tiny bit if we had it all to do over again! But essentially, we're thrilled. Make sure you get a software program that allows you to "walk through" so you can "see" what the space feels like!
Mella, yes, that is a dehumidifier - a very wise purchase for us since we had a zillion inches of rain up here in Mountain View in Dec./Jan. Of course, with the recent "drought" (I laugh at that!), the dehumidifier hasn't been used at all. When you consider that the house was really damp from rains during the building process (not at all unusual), and then add on the wall texture after the drywall was taped, and then paint on top of that, you realize that there's a lot of moisure in the house that needs to be removed....apparently it takes about a year for a house built in a "normal" humidity environment to "dry out" after building, so you can imagine that here in the rain forest, it takes some extra help (or a long spell of dry weather!).
Thanks to all for your sweet words.... and yes, we will continue to post photos - I'm just trying to convince David that he CAN put the time and energy into a new blog[
]....probably to be called www.moonoverhawaii2.blogspot.com so check that out in the future...Nate, we'll post photos of our new areca palm (just got planted yesterday) and also photos of David's recent treks to the lava flow, and whale sightings (a cow and calf), and some great photos of our resident (altho infrequent) visitor to our lanai, a gold dust day gecko. All of which I missed while visiting the mainland, and boy, was I happy to get home!
Lucky to live Hawai'i......
Katie and David
Wherever you go, there you are.
Mella, yes, that is a dehumidifier - a very wise purchase for us since we had a zillion inches of rain up here in Mountain View in Dec./Jan. Of course, with the recent "drought" (I laugh at that!), the dehumidifier hasn't been used at all. When you consider that the house was really damp from rains during the building process (not at all unusual), and then add on the wall texture after the drywall was taped, and then paint on top of that, you realize that there's a lot of moisure in the house that needs to be removed....apparently it takes about a year for a house built in a "normal" humidity environment to "dry out" after building, so you can imagine that here in the rain forest, it takes some extra help (or a long spell of dry weather!).
Thanks to all for your sweet words.... and yes, we will continue to post photos - I'm just trying to convince David that he CAN put the time and energy into a new blog[
]....probably to be called www.moonoverhawaii2.blogspot.com so check that out in the future...Nate, we'll post photos of our new areca palm (just got planted yesterday) and also photos of David's recent treks to the lava flow, and whale sightings (a cow and calf), and some great photos of our resident (altho infrequent) visitor to our lanai, a gold dust day gecko. All of which I missed while visiting the mainland, and boy, was I happy to get home! Lucky to live Hawai'i......
Katie and David
Wherever you go, there you are.
Wherever you go, there you are.