Exterior Trellises

While working on the doors, I've also been painting a lot of 1x4s for trellises installed under the lanais and breezeways all around the house. The trellises aren't required for the final inspection, but they are required for homeowner's insurance on houses that are raised above the ground.
We installed most of them this week.

Front lanai

Other side of the front lanai

Dryer Vent Box

We ordered a special dryer vent box that is recessed into the wall so that the dryer can be pushed almost up to the wall without squashing the vent.

Drywall cut out from the wall. On the other side is the cement board and a liner under the shower pan in the bathroom.

Walter cutting through the bottom plate

 The box is designed to go between the studs, but unfortunately, because of the placement of the washer and dryer, we couldn't put it between the studs and had to cut one.

We put in additional bracing to compensate for the cut stud and moved the dryer outlet. Then the box goes in and is screwed into the 2x4s. Then we patch the wall.
The vent goes straight down through the floor and outside. The dryer has to be exhausted to outside the perimeter of the house, so we also have to install a duct from here to the edge of the house and a vent.

Front Doors Finished and Installed

After many hours of work prepping, staining, and applying, the front doors are finally done and installed. This is a major step towards completing all the work done needed to pass the final inspection. Now I can repeat the entire process for the kitchen door and laundry room door.

Macaws

I saw a couple of macaws fly, which are not native to Hawaii, by a few days ago. Today, they came back and landed in a tree near the house. They are probably pets that are allowed to fly freely at times.
The top one is a blue-and-yellow (or blue-and-gold) macaw, and the lower one is a scarlet macaw. They are quite vocal while flying and can be heard from a long distance.

Growing abiu from seed

We were recently fortunate to find some abiu fruit at the farmer's market, and I decided to try growing the seeds. The abiu is a tropical tree with round/oval fruit about the size of an medium orange. The inside is white and translucent, a bit like a pear, but has more of a creamy texture. They are sweet and quite tasty. We find them only occasionally at the market.
The seeds are almond shaped, but about twice a long. The first two germinated after about four weeks, and a third germinated about two weeks later.
A mature tree can produce from 100 to 1,000 fruit each year, and they can fruit multiple times per year. Hopefully, we'll get some fruit in a couple of years.

The stem is just starting to emerge from the seem

This plant has been growing for about two weeks

Baby Mongoose

One of the few wild animals (other than birds) on the island is the mongoose. The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s to control rats (also an introduced species) in the sugar cane fields. Although mongooses do eat rodents, rats are nocturnal, and the mongooses are diurnal, so they have little impact on the rat population. They do, however, eat birds and bird eggs and have devastated many native bird populations.

The mongooses are very shy and usually stay well hidden in the vegetation. We occasionally see them running across the street.

I spotted this baby mongoose walking across the yard in the open. I suspect it got separated from its mother.

Exterior Door Staining

The first two doors are stained. After letting the stain dry for a couple of days, I'll put four or five coats of polyurethane finish on. While the doors are removed, I'll also stain and put finish on the door frames.

Exterior Door Prep

I've started working on the exterior doors. The spaces around each pane of glass is sealed with a sealer, but the bead there's a lot of excess sealer, so the first step is to carefully cut away the excess with a razor, being sure not to cut into the wood.  Doing all nine panes takes about one hour per side.

Closeup of excess sealer

After removal of the excess

The next step is to tape all of the panes. This step also takes about one hour per side. Total prep time for two doors: about eight hours.

Exterior Doors

We finally got the exterior doors. They had to be special ordered, and it took several weeks to get them. They are all-wood, nine-light doors in mahogany. The front door is a double (French) door.
The wood is unfinished, however, so they need to be stained and finished. The door are hung and can be taken down individually for staining.

Kitchen door from the outside

Kitchen door from the inside

Front door (with plastic left on for protection)

Breakfast Nook Bench Continued

The next step for the bench was to put in the seats. These are 3/4-inch birth plywood that I've spent the last couple of week staining and finishing. When the seats are on, the backer supports go on, and then the back boards.

To finish, we have to install the tops, which will be part of the window trim, the side, and the faces, but the bench is ready for use now.

Breakfast Nook Bench

We want a built-in bench in the breakfast nook, and decided that a wall-mounted would be good (and match the various other wall-mounted items we have).

To get the strength and rigidity needed, we decided to install the frame right into the wall. We cut holes into the wall on both sides and at the end of the bench (by the door). Then we installed a 4x4 on blocks in wall and attached it to the studs. We also put in two pieces of 3/4-inch plywood screwed together and attached directly to the stud.

 
Next, we put in 4x4 between the first 4x4 and the plywood frame. This is everything that will hold up the bench.

Then we put the drywall pieces back in and sealed them.

Office Floor

We moved the work to upstairs and installed the floor in the office.

Full Moon

And More Flooring

The work on the floor continues,and we finished the living room and kitchen. There's just a few more feet to go.

The view along the island looking into the living room

Now that the floor in the kitchen is finally done, we were able to install the dishwasher (which we've had for weeks) and the board the matches the cabinets and goes next to the dishwasher.

Even More Flooring

We continued working on the floor in the living room, working back to the first ohia post. The boards will have to be scribed to fit around the post as tightly as possible.

Looking towards the kitchen

View from the opposite side 

More Flooring

We put down a few more rows of flooring in the living room and then did the adjoining section in the breakfast nook and pantry.

Living room with the pantry and breakfast nook on the right

Pantry

Start of Flooring in Main House

We started installing the flooring in the living room (in the main house). This is the area in front of the main door, with the laundry room to the left.



We've also been working on getting the stairs ready for flooring. Until now, they had temporary treads. We put in risers and treads between the stringers so the floor boards can be placed on top.