BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON

Once we got the batteries and solar panels all hooked up, we could finally get to putting all the electrical outlets, switches and lights in place. The day they were installed just happened to be the full moon and we loved how the lights we chose mimicked the bright glowing ball of light in the night sky. The 3 round lights upstairs and the one downstairs we got at RESTORE/HABITAT FOR HUMANITY at a whopping .50 cents each. The others were a tad more, BUT we did get them at slashed prices. Everyone that sees the round globes automatically says how 70's they look, which is rather funny to us. We love aspects of the 70's but we find that the round white globes are just simple and classic.

In all we installed 8 exterior lights and 21 interior lights. Mind you, those are just the ones that are hard wired and we have several table lamps that will be unpacked for the first time since moving here 2 1/2 years ago. It will be so nice to have them shine once again.

Here are a few shots of the lights and the full moon.

So nice to finally see it coming to life. It's like it now has a heart.

Stair lights done. Now if we could only tackle and finish that railing.
Check out that moon to the right.

That tiny dot to the right of the reflection is the full moon. Pictures just don't do it justice.

This detail is a bit better.

The amazing full moon rising over the pacific. It's times like these we wish we could collect energy from the moon.

Stay tuned for more updates soon. We are almost done with the floor and hope to have that done by Sunday.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

About a week ago, this little guy/gal was found hunkered down under our propane tank. We had just had really bad rains with no trade winds so we thought it might have gotten disoriented with the weather. We at first thought he was sick or injured and whenever I got close he sort of made a low growl sound. He only wanted to hang out under the propane tank and on top of the water tanks. Propane tank ok. Water tanks, not ok. It's a sanitary issue with the droppings it leaves behind. So we have to shoo him/her away which sort of kills us being the bird lovers that we are.
We have not caught or held it, as we did not want to either frighten it or have it get too attached.

We found out that it is a homing pigeon and obviously belongs to someone. It has two tags on it's legs and we were able to retrieve the numbers after coaxing it close with some bird seed. NOW IT WILL NEVER LEAVE. Not that we mind, but it does belong to someone and we'd like to think that if we lost a pet of some kind, it would be returned to us. We have taken to calling it - HOMIE. We don't like shooing it away, but it's a bit of a sanitary issue and our water catchment. We don't really have a problem with bird droppings on our roofs and tanks at the moment and we'd like to keep it that way. We have left some food in low places away from the roof in hopes it will hang out elsewhere. Not really working. Homie is after all a roosting bird, and obvioulsy the higher the better.

So now it just loves to perch high on our roof. Why here? Where is it's real home? Did it get lost? Did it fly away from home? How did it find us? Is it on Holiday? Did it hear through the Coconut Wireless that our house is the place to hang if you are a bird? Whatever the reason, we enjoy it's company.

We thought that after regaining it's energy after a few days it might find it's way home. When not perched on the roof(s), it spends most of the day walking around the house and the lanai or following us around. It willow follow us into the grass and let us sit with it while eating... of course you know we love that. Late in the afternoon it perches on the roof, looks around and takes off for the night. Maybe Homie is not lost, but just likes hanging out here with us Bird Boys during the day and returns to his real home at night.

I have finally looked online in order to return Homie to it's owner and was quite impressed with the American Racing Pigeon website and the LOST BIRD section. Seems we did all the right things in the way that we have cared for it this past week. I have sent a few e-mails in hopes that Homie be reunited with his/her owner. We'll keep you posted.

This was this morning.

Homie likes to have a bite to eat, then perch on the nearest rock, or chunk of concrete.


And for those of you that remember how Kekoka would show up at the door looking for food, Well it's seems that he has been talking to Homie on how to get handouts as well. Here he'she is on the lanai looking in at John trying it's best to get noticed, and yesterday morning while I was having breakfast at the kitchen window, Homie paraded around just outside wanting breakfast as well. I mean really. Too cute.

BATTERY OPERATED

We finished this project a few weeks ago and are just now getting around to posting. These are a few ... ok a lot of pics showing the process of building the box that houses the batteries. We originally wanted to store them in the same room as the inverter and water pump, but found out that was not a good idea. The batteries omit a gas that could cause a fire or explosion from a spark from the inverter… sooooo we opted to build them their own external box.

Start with scraps of wood.

Build the frame. We left the bottom open so that any acid or water that leaks from the batteries has somewhere to go.

Next, dig out a spot for the box to be semi-buried. Then dig holes for the concrete blocks that the box will rest on.After the first block is level, place in remaining blocks and make sure they are on at the same level, side to side and front to back.

Then we lined the bottom with heavy plastic and a layer of gravel. This was done to catch any acid or water that overflows from the batteries, as we did not want it seeping into the ground. This way it will land on the plastic then evaporate.

Once the frame was assembled and primed, we set it in place to make sure everything was going according to plan. So far so good.

We then started attaching the siding. The bottom part that would have dirt resting against had cement board applied to it. three air vents were added to the back a well as one on each end. The back side pictured above.

With the batteries in place and enough room for 4 more batteries at a later date, it's time to attach the lid and call it a day.

The only thing left to do is fill in around the box and do a bit of landscaping.

Stay tuned for more VERY SOON. We Promise.

PRIME TIME

It's been one of those insanely crazy weeks here at CFC Headquarters.

Last week we had our friends Denise and Peter visiting and we took some much needed time off to act as tour guides... how sweet it was to be atop Haleakala for sunset.

Once they departed, we quickly kicked it back into high gear and started painting the interior of the new office. Floors had to be mopped and swept and mopped and swept, taking up an entire day.

We finally started priming and attaching all the door trim last Sunday and we still are not done.
We might be further along if we were painting at night too, but we have been glued to the TV watching PBS: The National Parks.

We are looking to be complete with the painting by Sunday so we can install all the lighting, switches and outlets on Monday.


The color of the back wall is called Vintage Map by Martha Stewart for Valspar.
We are also using Coastal Dune Grass on the Far wall with all other walls and trim being White.
The Desktop is going to be the small red swatch on the window sill... called Grenadine. Not sure I am totally loving the Vintage Map as much as John is, but we both Love the Coastal Dune Grass. We will also be using her Peony Red (which is a perfect match to the desk) for small accents on the bookshelves
The overall feeling will be something like this (the blue is a bit deeper in real life). Imagine the bed being a desk.

Stay tuned for the finished room soon.

THE ART OF MEETING PEOPLE

Here's one of many "funny coincidence" stories that we've experienced here. A few months ago during one of our weekly reviews of used building materials on Craigslist I spotted some outdoor tile that mimic'd the look of stacked sand-colored fieldstone that had a wonderfully retro style. That's how I met the artist Lisa Kasprzycki. She was selling the tile that she got from a contractor friend. She admired the mid-century aesthetic of the tile and planned on using them herself but never had the time.

I contacted her expressing my interest in the tile. Turned out, her truck was on the mend. She asked if I could pick her up then drive up to her painting studio in the old Pauwela Cannery to see the tile and decide if I wanted to buy them. On the way to the studio we talked about the fact that she had just put the finishing touches on a painting she submitted to Art Maui, the annual juried art show at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. She described the painting to me and how she had struggled with the image, how it wasn't really representative of her style. It was a treat to see her work. Richly layered, naturally dark tones distressed and textured. I told her it reminded me of Diebenkorn and she confirmed that he is one of her favorite artists. While there, she showed me a picture of the piece she submitted to the competition. I understood her dilemma. The piece was figurative and narrative where as most of the work I saw in the studio was more abstract and loose.

We talked about her background a bit. She grew up in California and Lahaina, her dad is an artist here on Maui, and her mom was fond of Scandinavian design. She also had a semester or two at the School of Visual Arts in NYC whose painting studios I happened to live across from at one point.

Anyway, cut to about two months later, Conn, new-found dear friend Deb, and I check out the Art Maui exhibit. As we wander and take in the many pieces of art created by local artists, we turned a corner and I gasped. There was her painting--rather large and stunning in it's sparkly, sereneness. If you watch the video on the Art Maui webpage, the interview with the local art teacher takes place in front of the painting. Also, you can see all the works featured in the show here.

In the course of our emails back and forth, this was a PS, I love her description:

here's an image to enjoy; they are the endangered Hawaiian Tree Snails, which are said to make a sweet whistling sound in the trees, and which people on horseback used to pluck off leaves like little jewels as they rode through the native forest.

ARRAYS OF LIGHT

We had been experiencing some unusually still and cloudless days earlier this week so we shifted into high gear with our contractor and electrician to get our solar panels reinstalled on the roof.
Here we see the 2 arrays laying flat, our contractor Todd and 2 helpers (Matt and Max) set about freeing them from the temporary base I created back in May.

There are no pics of the roof hoisting of this 10 panel array because all hands were needed to lift it up into place! Here we see Todd, Hernan (the electrician) and Max getting it all bolted down.

Matt was there too but he was under the array tightening screws at the base.


Here's an action shot of Max making his way down the line tightening the bolts and screws.

The second array was easier to re-install because the support rails were broken up into 2, 5-panel sections. Here's Matt's backside (sorry Matt!) Max, Todd and Hernan once again bolting it down and securing it against our strong winds.


We did help. Really we did! I pointed and Conn took photos. ; )

Here the guys are troubleshooting a tricky connection on the last set of 5 panels.

Then Conn and I took over erasing all trace of the lawn solar takeover. Here's the spot where they sat for 4 months. In another 3 weeks or so, the grass will recover. I am so relieved to finally have them off the lawn. They were getting very dirty from all the dust and dirt and also it was a pain to trim the grass around and under them. Also, it was good to get rid of all conduit going hither and thither.

Hernan had to come back the next day to hook the panels back up into our system. Here we see just his foot hanging off the edge of the roof. We had been charging the batteries with the generator which got old very quickly (the noise, the gas, the annoyance). It was late in the day yesterday when he made the final connection and our power meter jumped up to 100 percent. whoo-hoo! He fixed some suspicious wiring on five of the panels which he guessed was decreasing our efficiency by about 20 percent... we'll see how we make out today.

ROOM DIVIDERS

Did you all think we forgot about you? We're still here, but we have barely had time to think about posting any of the oodles of images we have been snapping up.

Last week we got the insulation in, the sheet rock up and it's being skimmed as you read this. It makes such a difference having white walls in place of the yellow wood. We can now get a feel for each room... although we can't walk through walls like we used to and we are now taking the actual traffic patterns, both inside and out rather than shortcuts that we were getting used to. By being forced to actually walk around the structure rather than through it, it is forcing us to now think about the landscaping and what we can and can't plant in certain areas that we will be using as walkways.

Here are a few pics of the process and new ones of the skimmed walls, stair rails, battery box and re-location of the solar panels will be added soon. The solar panels get re-located tomorrow and we are ready for some heavy lifting.

Stay tuned...

Pre-drywall

Post-drywall.

The insulation is a bit of a hodge podge, but we got it on Craigslist + from a friend for free.
We did not insulate every single wall. Only the south and west walls that take the harshest and warmest effects of the sun. The yellow and pink wall above is the only interior wall that is insulated and that is because it is the wall that is dividing the workroom from the utility room. We hope it cuts down on the noise from the water pump, inverter and charge controller for the solar power conversion. The silver foil back insulation is only on the ceiling to keep the heat out.

Future home of the red laminate desk along the back wall.
Did we mention the AMAZING DESKTOPS YET? Pics coming soon.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Well.... technically it's our Photovoltaic System but that doesn't sound as nice. Please to enjoy our latest baby step in completing our studio/office: a diagram of how we make our own electricity. Unbeknownst to us or our electrician, our solar electric system was not permitted with Maui county. It's a long convoluted story, but there you have it. The electrician who originally installed the system (about 5 years ago) never filed a permit to do so. There was a bit of fuss last week when we were told we were going to be fined, shut down and that we'd have to apply and pay for a new permit. Talk about drama. yeeesh. And, to make it even more aggrevating, the county just raised the fee for PV permits this year.

Our electrician dutifully drew up some plans (literally with a pen and paper) outlining our system specs and took them to the county office. But he was turned away, laughed at, made a mockery of, etc... So he remembered we were graphics guys and asked if we could draw up some fancy plans on the computer. Three hours later, we created what you see above (click it to see the larger version) I called him yesterday to find out how it went and he said they practically applauded. Problem solved.

I don't really mind having to jump through these hoops, it just should have been done already--like when it was installed. I could see why the county needs these specs for systems that back-feed to the grid. But in our case, being that we are a stand-alone system, I don't see the value in them spending their time and resources. Especially, since we knew we were going to be responsible for our own electricity as stated in our deed so we have no legal right to hold the county responsible for anything that happens in regard to our electric (or our water-catchment system). But thankfully, it's done. And on the bright side, we now have a detailed illustration of how our system works... and how we get by on only 1500 watts is a small miracle.