LAYERING IT ON

We are ridiculously behind in our posts but we have been burning our candles at both ends. Here are a few pics of us filling holes with putty and caulk and putting the primer on the structure. We are well past this phase and have at least 3 coats of the green on most of it. The hard part is waiting for the perfect painting conditions as we have had a lot of rain this summer. Most of the trim has been added as well. The cutting in of the trim also takes a good amount of time... especially 13 feet off the ground on that 12 inch wide plank. The sprayer proved to be a bit tough with our trade winds you can tell by the photo of me below. Photo's of the green soon...we promise. WE LOVE IT SO FAR...

Off to paint some more... we have a small window of no rain.

John 13 feet above ground taping off the windows before spraying.

Priming before filling the holes and cracks makes it easier to see what needs to be filled. The wood filler starts out light pink then dries white, so I marked all the spots with blue tape that need to be sanded and re-primed.

The winds carried the paint my way. I think I got more on me than the structure. The goggles were covered... so they came off and a mask kept blowing off. It got better after this.

DEB AND HER FAMILY

Last month we had the pleasure of finally meeting Deb, of deb and her camera fame.

We "met" Deb here on CFC after she found us by searching for Hawai'i blogs. She grew up here in Maui and was back for summer vacation so we decided to meet up after so many great conversations in the blog and facebook world. We are fascinated by her growing-up in the now dusty, somewhat deserted town of Puunene. We were so happy to see them that we forgot to take pictures of their visit. Luckily, Deb is a wonderful photographer and snapped most of these shots.

She came along with her husband Scott and daughter Malia...aka Bean and brought a delicious lunch courtesy of Cupie's in Kahului which is now our must-stop lunch spot when we are in town. Conn made a delicious liliko'i coconut pound cake for dessert. We set up a table and chairs under the royal ponciana in the backyard and for 3 or so hours enjoyed each other's company and were thoroughly entertained by Bean's intermittant demands. At one point she decided to commandeer her mom's camera and become a frantic photographer with commands like, "Could someone please move those bottles?" and "Big eyes, big eyes!!"


She was also obsessed with Kekoa after seeing him on the blog. We were extremely thrilled to receive 2 portraits she had created of our beloved bird. Really amazing. Right down to the fairy twinkle stickers. Never has a pheasant been so well regarded. The first thing she said when she emerged from the car "Mommy where are the Kekoa drawings?" Too cute. Oh then the other question, "Is it John and Conn or Conn and John?"


I like how in this one the butterfly is kissing him.


We had to break the news that Kekoa lived somewhere else now but his dad sometimes comes around when we put out some bird seed. So after lunch Conn let Malia throw out some seeds under the banana plants hoping Big Daddy would show.


With great relief he did.


She then disappeared into the house for a bit and returned with a drawing of a bug and a carrot. Conn asked her if the pointy spikes at the top were mountains. She said "No, it's grass! Bugs are tiny!"


It was a great day getting to know people who we already felt like we knew. Looking forward to the next time.

ONE MAN'S TRASH...

It's a bit hard finding great vintage pieces here on Maui that are not too kitschy. We have a few places we like to browse from time to time as well as craigslist. Last week we managed to come up with a few really good finds. Some for the new office, some for the kitchen.

Last winter John was looking through a vintage copy of House Beautiful from October 1960 and saw this ad. He commented on it and we wondered why we did not have any of this china. When all of a sudden we got the long dish pictured below from a friend for Christmas. The exact pattern in the ad. How random is that?

Then last week we walked into one of our favorite little shops (I'm keeping it a secret) when John spotted these 2 little beauties. The leaf patterns are cute, but we really flipped over the shapes of the bowls. Price: $1 for both.



We had also been looking in all the hot spots here for a BIG mirror in a simple white frame. We had seen a few that were $100 or more and they were just ok. In the same shop that we found the dishes, we came across this in the 50% off section. It's 43" x 30" with brown frame that had been painted white... in need of a makeover. But a really easy one. At $20 it was PERFECT! Our plan is to strip it as some of the paint has peeled off and either re-paint it white or maybe a gold/brass metallic color as we plan on hanging it right above the orange chest pictured below.We found this little beauty on craigslist. A vintage 70's piece... not really made all that well or in great shape... BUT HELLO...IT'S ORANGE! It's 30"x 30' x 18"and it too needs a bit of a birthday.
It also smells like an old grannies house... lot's of perfume had been sprayed into it over the years so we are airing it out. All the drawers are out and filled with wadded up newspaper to absorb the rosewater or whatever it is. And it's working quite well. We may even be able to use this piece as a pattern to make a new one if we cannot get the stink out altogether.

And lastly, we picked this up at the same shop as the dishes and mirror. Although it is NOT vintage it will fit in perfectly with all our pieces. It's actually from IKEA. We don't have IKEA here and cannot even get it shipped over. Luckily we paid less than sticker price... $10. I think it will be perfect on the chest under the mirror.

Ok now that we have "that" corner of the room done... next?

WE DO WINDOWS

This week things really started to shape up. The new office structure is coming together... but we still have a long way to go. This week the builder got most of the siding on, the windows and doors arrived and were all installed the same day and the stairs were installed (with temporary treads). The Trex Composite Decking arrived. We will be replacing the entire lanai with the Trex as well as using it as the stair treads. The treads will be added AFTER the entire structure is painted.

The Trex was actually our second choice. We wanted Veranda which is only sold at Home Depot - (the You Can Do it - WE WON'T HELP Store) - but they took 5 weeks to tell us the price and when they could deliver it. Then we were told we needed to wait for a special SKU # from the Oahu store which was pushing us into week 7. Then another 6-8 weeks just to get it... if and when we could actually order it. 7 WEEKS? Just for info? It was a comedy or errors. Home Desperate was also 3 weeks late in delivering the windows. So we went to LOWES because we knew they stocked the exact color we wanted. I called the day before going in and found out they had the amount we needed. I walked in the next day, paid for it and was on my way in 15 minutes. All was delivered exactly as we were told Friday morning. It was a FAR more pleasant experience.
The decking is not as red as it looks here, it's more brown. It is also reversible and we plan on using the smooth side. Something about a fake woodgrain on fake wood the is not right. Don't get us wrong, WE LOVE FAKE WOODGRAIN... FAUX BOIS if you will, but not on fake wood.


Stay tuned for more updates soon.

The wood that was on this crate is so beautiful. Just some pressed particle board, but it was so smooth. The turquoise edge also added to it's appeal, and we could see ourselves giving it a good coating of polyurethane using this in the office as bookshelves.The West wall. It looks a bit drab until the railing and exterior lighting go in. We are also thinking of some sort of "island-themed artwork" on this wall inspired by this Ladybug on the home of artist CHARLEY HARPER. We shall see.

The North wall in 2 stages. What a difference some siding makes.

The South wall and John dismantling the window crate.

The East wall.


And a few interior shots.

TRAINING SEASON

The new website I designed for TIGER ATHLETICS is finally up and running. You might remember the business cards and logo I designed for them a few months ago. Stop by and have a look.

Next up: The TIGER blog and sister site IGNITE ATHLETICS.

UP-GRADE

As of today we have the 2nd floor on as well as the sub roof and deck. Stairs may go up tomorrow.

I must say... we are super excited we put all those windows in... the mountain and sunset views are amazing as are the peek-a-boo ocean views. Stay tuned ....

Front/West wall.

Back/East wall

Inside the upper office looking out the North facing windows and our peek-a-boo ocean views which you can also see when sitting at the desk which is the wall to the right in this shot.
Our biggest concern now is...
HOW DO WE PAINT ALL THE WAY UP THERE UNDER THOSE EAVES??
Maybe we will hire someone after all.