Hawaiian Memories

It is quite a long time before the next growing season. I have never posted my Hawaii photos and thought its a perfect time. I won't hit you with them all at once. As the photos are beautiful, the subject not the photography, too much can even bore me, and I was there. It was the most amazing trip and I think about it often. I am even in the stages of planning our next trip. Not to mention I have to save the money first. So it won't be in the immediate future, but it will be here before I know it. Until then I can remember our first trip.

What a view. When we arrived it was dark. But when we woke up this was my first glimpse of Maui. OMG You could not have slapped the smile off my face. It was very moving and we had the entire vacation ahead of us. And this was the view from our balcony. The small horseshoe shaped island in the center of the photo is Molokini Crater.

This was our view from our back lanai at the condo. I probably took a hundred photos of this condominium complex. The flowers and landscaping were exceptional. If you did not know, tropicals are my favorite plants. I am a sucker for a Palm tree.

We had been in Maui for a couple of days when we went to our first Luau. The Feast at Lele. I love the name. I had found out about this Luau on the Internet. I had read good reviews and decided this was the one for us. We could not have been more pleased. Another OMG moment.

The greeting with a cocktail and a lei. Now that's a party.

I wish this was my back patio.

This in the backyard wouldn't be bad either. Sorry for the bad photography skills in this one. Fuzzy or not we remember the servers.

We had appetizers waiting on us. I even tried to recreate this when we got home. It was good but without the pacific ocean it couldn't compare to this.

We we served 5 courses before the dessert came. Sorry I did not take any photos of those dishes. They were worthy of a close up but to be honest I forgot. But isn't the dessert fabulous.

From Mai Tai's to Lava Flows the drinks flowed all night long.

And I mean, all night. We were loving them. Needless to say there was only one of us that were able to drive. Mahalo

On our last day on the island we went to the Sea Watch Restaurant at the Grand Wailea golf club. I can't even describe how beautiful I find this to be. The entire place is gorgeous. I can't remember if I took this photo before or after the wedding that was held there. Can you see Molokini crater in the distance. That island beyond is Kaho'olawe.

I took this photo right when I got out of the car. One hell of a landscape plant. This bloom was the size of a soccer ball if not bigger.

This was the view from our table. Do you see the wedding taking place by the bougenvilla? I can see Honey and I having a ceremony here. I can also see us in white linen on a beach in Kauai so who knows. What do you think Honey?

This was absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that hands down, I have never eaten a prettier lunch. BTW my recreation of this dish was a complete disaster. ugh. I will try again however.

Oh and yes more Lava Flows. Hello gorgeous...

After lunch I wandered around the restaurant and grounds. How awesome it would be to be the caretaker of these grounds. The only thing that took away from this moment was knowing we would be on a plane coming home in a few short hours. Don't worry Hawaii, you haven't seen the last of us. Mahalo

This photo was taken right outside The Grand Wailea Resort.

We were fortunate enough to have watched the sunset every night but the first night.

Now its back to planning our Kauai vacation. Aloha

Siding presentation

Millie was not feeling up to helping today.

What can I say other than she needs her rest. lmao

Mike took the first day and put up all the J-channel. Its the little red trim you see in the photo. For all of you who do not speak carpenter. lol

Lots of things to trim around.

The second day he started to put up the siding itself.

We got all the siding finished by the end of the third day.

Mike also got the last little piece of the deck finished. We had to wait to do this piece until after the siding was put up. You can see what I am talking about int he next photo. It is the piece between the house and the stairs. It will also be nice when they get the guttering put back in place.

Mike is doing some last minute touches. All that remains is to reset the light fixtures. The exterior of the family room portion of the house is finished. Yes it is in desperate need of some landscaping and not to mention a walkway in front of the door.

Mike also put back up the board at the end of the eave.

We had a nice crew working today on painting the trim work. Throughout the day we had; Jr and Amy, Me and Honey, Chrissy, Blue, Cat and of course our handyman Mike. We painted almost half the house today. The rest of the painting will have to wait a bit. I am too busy to go back up anytime soon, but if a day arrives, we will finish before winter. Jr is also replacing the top three windows. They desperately need some work but I want them to keep the same style.

I only see one thing that needs to happen in this photo. That is to trim out the vent above the light. I hate how the screen is just stapled on the vent with all the rough screen edges showing. Not very Martha Stewart. LOL

Oh, did I mention, we also need clean up the porch/yard.

Painting up under those eaves was a nightmare. OMG It will look less awkward when the guttering goes back up and the brick is repaired.

The painting we have left. The upper west side. The east and west side of the bunk room roof. We need to finish the upper southeast side. And we have the entire upper south side, but pending the window installation. The concrete man will hopefully be there this next week and I am also hoping to have a day next week that I can get up there and finish the painting. Keep you fingers crossed, or better yet if your able to get up there and do some stroking, by all means. lol

Last day before siding

We started today by ripping off what will hopefully be the last of the rotted boards. We also added some 2 x 4's on the bottom of each opening.

Jr looking like a carpenter. lol

This is how Chrissy works. lmao

Now that looks much better, minus my finger covering the lens. lol

Time for the blue board to go up. Again.

Voila.

Chrissy got the fascia painted.

Is it not amazing how a little paint can transform things.

This keeps looking better and better. I can't wait to do a before and after.

Once I get the eaves painted, all the painting around the carport/family room will be finished. It is exciting to know that by the end of this week, this outside part of the house will be finished. Jr is putting the last of the paint on the fascia.

A blue day

In trying to keep cost down for Jr we started putting up the insulation sheathing. I call it blue board, its easier to remember. lol I don't think our handyman will mind missing out on this cold day. The wind was making us crazy also. It kept trying to blow our blue board away.

I think we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. She is sealed up tighter than a frogs OOPS.

This was the smallest and easiest wall to finish. However over by the chimney was a pain in the A$$.

This was and is the side I was dreading. Chrissy looks a little nervous with the ladders. lol

This gives you a good idea of how much we got accomplished today.

And of course it wouldn't be the same if we didn't run across some badly rotted boards. After removing the remaining old barn siding today we realized that some boards needed to go. It was so late in the day at this point we decided to start again tomorrow. We only had about two hours of daylight left and needed to go to the lumber yard again. ugh It is suppose to be nice tomorrow, thank god, and hopefully we can finish and get to painting. OMG if we can get everything painted that the vinyl siding will be next to, it will be awesome.

Another Butch Day

We had our handyman today to help us out. Yeah. To the untrained eye you might think this is the same photo that I posted yesterday. It is not. The boards are now level and square. It was definitely good that we worked on this yesterday, we just needed to adjust a few of the boards today.

The soffit is starting to go up.

Voila. It will look much better when painted.

Mike is admiring our work. I sure he is thinking I am an amazing assistant. lol

I pulled the old fascia board down. It was a mess as you recall.

Then I discovered this hideous problem. More rotten wood. OMFG Will it ever end. lol

Out with the old, in with the new.

I wanted to have one continuous board going across here, but it was not meant to be. Apparently the two sides of the chimney are not level for starters. It looks as if the right side is a sagging mess, I assure you it is not it only appears that way in the photo.

This is still under construction. If you recall it looked like the number 7 made of two by fours to support this eave. I knew that installing the vinyl siding was going to be a problem if it was not addressed. This is our solution. As I said its not complete but you get the idea.

This gives a good idea of what is going on thus far. A touch more of the old barn siding to remove and its going to be time for the siding. Now if I can have Mother Nature to help me with my endeavors I might be able to get some paint on the trim before hand. Not looking promising when I hear the weather forecast. Damn winter.

I can't wait until all this debris is removed. Would it really pain me to put away the shovels and things? lmao