Dinner out in Pahoa

We finished the water tank interior painting that was interrupted by rain the day before.

Mitch (our builder) and Valerie (our architect) invited us to go out to dinner with them to celebrate Valerie's birthday. We went to Kaleo's bar and grill in Pahoa, which is a few miles south of us.  The exterior does not look like much, but the inside is very nice and the food is excellent.  The menu is varied but has an Asian influence and includes many local specialties.

Water tank painting

The water tank needs to be painted, inside and out, to prevent corrosion caused by the high humidity.  We got started on the inside and were almost done when it started raining. Again.

Mostly-painted water tank interior

The driveway, looking towards the street from the house

The driveway from the gate

The driveway from the street. The thicket with the banyan tree is on the left.

The front of the property from the street. Our banana trees can be seen peeking out from behind the grass to the center-left.

Banana trees

 Some of the flowers and plants growing on the property

 

Ohia tree

Wild orchid

 Yesterday, some new neighbors moved in to the adjacent property (the pasture).

Car registration and licenses

We are now officially Hawaiian residents!  We spent the morning getting the car inspected, transferring the registration, and getting new driver's licenses.  The process was relatively painless, but there was only one person at the motor vehicle office doing licenses, so she had to do everything from reviewing the documents, giving the written tests (which we had to take), and giving the road tests (which one person took while we were waiting), so it took a while.

New license plate

In the afternoon we went to a building store, a tile store, and Home Depot to pick kitchen cabinets and tile for the two bathrooms.  Then it was back to the house to discuss some details with Mitch.

This moth, a Black Witch Moth (Ascalapha odorata) was in the carport when we got back to our rental.

The wingspan is about 7 inches, and it is the largest moth (and probably the largest insect) north of Mexico.  It's sometimes mistaken for a bat while flying.

Water catchment tank

We went to get the car inspected -- the second step for switching the registration -- but they were busy and said we'd be better off coming back the next morning.  So we went to the house to do some work.

The water tank had been delivered as promised, and we got started on assembling it. 

Water tank panels

 In our area of the island, there is no water (or sewer) service, so rainwater is collected from the roof and the house and stored in a swimming pool size (or larger tank.  The water is pressurized, filtered, and disinfected with ultraviolet light before use.  Our tank holds 10,000 gallons, which is typical for a house and should last about three months in the event no rain at all (a highly unlikely scenario).  The tank has a diameter of 15 feet and is seven feet high.  The panels are lined up in a ring and bolted together. Then the second of of panels is placed on top of the first row.

The first row is done and one panel of the second row is attached.

Tightening the bolts after putting up the second row

Inside. The sand gets flattened and smoothed to support the liner.

While we were doing that, Mitch was working on mudding the walls, and  Steve was putting up drywall in the bedrooms.

Bedroom

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Lanai painting done

We started the day by getting insurance for the car -- a requirement for changing the registration to HI.  Then we headed to the house to finish the lanai painting the was interrupted by the rain a day earlier.

The side lanai painted a nice chocolate brown

The water catchment tank (more on this tomorrow) was scheduled to be delivered at about 2 in the afternoon, but right around 2 Mitch got a call from the company saying that they would deliver it later, around 4or 5 -- a very typical occurrence here.  Since there wouldn't be enough time to assemble it and he didn't want to leave the parts unattended overnight, he told them to deliver it the next morning.

Rain delay

We went back to the house to paint the side lanai, but after finishing about one-quarter of the job, it started raining very hard.  The lanai is covered by the roof, but the water dripping from the eave and the splashing made it impossible to continue and washed away some of the paint. We waited a while to see if the rain would stop, but everything was soaking wet, so we gave up and went home.

It's been raining a lot since we got here.  It rains every day at least once during the night and again early in the morning -- usually downpours.  The temperatures have been very pleasant during the day (high 70s to low 80s), but the humidity is very high.

In the afternoon, it cleared up a bit, and we drove to the end of the subdivision towards the ocean to see the view and some houses.

That night we went Island naturals, a local Whole Foods-type store that sells a lot of organic foods and bought a few things.  The prices are also Whole Foods-like.

For dinner, we wentto Ken's House of Pancakes, a diner that's very popular with the locals.  Good, basic food with a lot of local influence.It's also one of the very few (perhaps only) place that's open 24 hours and on Sunday nights.

More Lanai Painting

We spent several hours painting the lanai boards a dark brown color.  When they are covered with the floorboards, the dark color will make them blend in.

We also started clearing some of the undesirable vegetation along the driveway.  The plants with the orange-ish stems are waiwi (pronounced vie-vee), also known as strwberry guava. Waiwi is a non-native, invasive species that crowds out native plants.  It's going to be a a long process, but we can use the thicker stems as posts for the lanai railings.

Some of the wildlife at our rental.

The Gold Dust Day Gecko (non-native)

To Hilo and Back

This morning we got up and out early to get some work done on the car, and while we were waiting we explored the new Target in Hilo (it's very big and the prices are about the same as in IL).

The view from the street where our rental is

On the highway to Hilo (Maua Kea in the background)

No explanation needed

Another view from the highway

View of Mauna Kea

 We went to the house in the afternoon, but it was too late for us to do any work, but we talked to Mitch about more house details and he showed us some of the desirable and undesirable plants.

Painting the lanai

We went to the house to try to help Mitch by doing unskilled labor. Today we painted primer on the support beams of the lanai.

After painting, we explored our property a bit.

The thicket between the house and the street. At the middle of the thicket is our banyan tree.

The thicket from the driveway

The edge of the cleared area, looking towards the back of the property

The cow pasture next to our property (currently unoccupied)

More of the pasture

Looking towards the back of the property along the the property line next to the pasture

The rainforest

We also checked in at the self storage site (where our belngings have been for two weeks) and visited our stuff.

Our furniture

Which box is it ...?