It takes time to write find links and create the type of work that can be easily appreciated.
This is a detail photo from Bob1 #12.
https://res.cloudinary.com/roadtrippers/...00022f.jpg
Hopefully, the above image can be seen.
I didn't correctly know how the lava rock walls were made till Gypsy's feedback.
More man years went into making my home than perhaps any in Hawaii. So I want to document correctly.
The workers basically built a female mold of the entire foundation and walls.
To start, a structural wall,you need a footing.
Workers first dug trenches, and then filled to ground level with concrete, rebar and stone.
Next they braced materials left and right of the eventual wall to make a section of the mold. Most likely it was plywood braced with lumber and stone.
Then each side of the mold was carefully lined with pahoehoe plates they collected from the flow.
The best plates I understand came when lava covered an older flow. Workmen must have been searching along flow many many months to bring back all the pahoehoe required.
After large plates were added, smaller plates and chunks were packed in the gaps.
Next they added rebar and stone. At the end of each day they would mix and pour concrete so it would cure overnight.
Repeat.
Notice how Petricci continually challenged himself and workmen by building curved wall sections and round windows within a wall.
When mold sections were pulled away, inevitably some white concrete could be seen in the cracks. Therefore, a final step was to airbrush these areas with black paint.
This construction Gypsy termed grout-less. I the owner until his information thought the walls were first poured. Then the pahoehoe was faced onto the wall with an adhesive grout.
When the current owners took over, they added the bright glass tile seen above. These were grouted onto cement walls too. However, those walls from inside the home to out were built with:
Waterproof Sheetrock (The entire then current inventory in both Hilo and Kona was purchased.)
Ceramic exterior salt grade Sheetrock screws.
Framing lumber.
Exterior plywood.
A layer of galvanized roofing metal.
Glued and screwed.
A Hardy panel board with ceramic screws.
Adhesive grout
Glass tiles
Final grout
Now go ahead and get a good laugh in quick. The blueprints didn't call the two story building you see a guest house. Guest houses are not allowed.
Instead, since the property sits on a vast 1/2 acre of lava flow, a "fruit packing shed" was needed.
The building inspector on final approval remarked it was a remarkably nice fruit packing shed.
Interior tiling projects were more elaborate.
The main two of the bathrooms finished first were rather plain. Then a mural in tile of a petroglyph and volcano were made for the guesthouse. An artist that used to live in Kehena Beach Estates supplied custom tile for the main kitchen including a painting of Kehena Beach itself.
The most elaborate tile project was a floor to vaulted ceiling job in glass tile. 1100 individual tiles make up just the step to the shower. Six colors of grout help with the transition from the darkest navy blue down low to pale blue and pure white at the top.
