New Home

[harley00]

It's been a while, we moved in last summer. Just poured our driveway this past Saturday, connected all my homes finally to the main street. Starting a stonewall in front of the house and will be doing some landscaping after. Photos of my walk in closet I built on both left & right side walls and the end wall. My kitchen cabinets with quartz counter top, I designed and built all the cabinets in the home. My living rm & master bdrm have vaulted ceilings and all rooms have a split ductless AC. We were fortunate that the home was completed before material prices surged upward. Still have small projects to complete but, started to get arthritis in both hands and cannot do anything for the past 5 months.

really beautiful...

[PhilWynn]

I've been living at my house for 12 years. I want to renovate the kitchen because I had a bad experience with my previous designer and he did what I didn't want. But I'm very satisfied with my bathroom. I designed the bathroom myself, some tips so you don't repeat my mistakes, first of all, think about the right location for the tub, toilet and sink (I've changed it several times). Think about a tub surround (there is a big choice of it, look here https://bathroomer.org/tub-surrounds/) when I renovated my bathroom I found mold, because of the high humidity around the bath! Better the devil you know than the one you don't. Choose good designers and be careful!

[jabe]

My recliner is all leather bought from COSTCO years ago. My sofas are new all leather too none reclining. Both coffee tables are made with Koa wood, the live edge one was made by my late father in law and the other was made by my youngest son when he took woodshop class from me.

[jabe]

No lanai, my septic system took up a large portion of the yard, small lot 11,000 + sq ft. Hate yard work so small lot suits us. On special occasions, I just set up a canopy in front of my garage to party so no need for lanai.
Too costly to have a basement and wanted to have just a single level home due to our age.
Wife's idea to have garage on the backside of the house, so no one knows if we're home. Also have a semi smart home so lights can be programed to look like we're home. Still learning more about making the home smarter.
I used laminate flooring throughout the home and LVP in the bathrooms & pantry. A friend & I installed all the flooring, took us a week to finish, had to wait 3 1/2 months for the flooring material from HD. They were a pain to deal with. When you're 73 yrs. old, installing the flooring took a toll on my back and knees. I painted the garage floors with "Rock Solid", did 3 car garage in 1 day by myself, prepping the floors took some time.
My 2 grandsons & I built & installed all the cabinets, they also helped with all the interior painting (age 15 & 10 yrs old) whenever they were not in school.
All of my electrical wall outlets are a little higher from the floor& light switches are a little lower for easy access on a wheel chair.
We were fortunate to complete the home last year just when the material prices started going through the roof. Remember everything has to be shipped in so materials cost 3 to 4 times more than you folks on the continent. Materials get shipped to our main Island Oahu then shipped again to my Island so $$$$. Gas price range from $4.83 to $5.13 for regular today.

[atgcpaul]

Very nice house. Do you have a lanai, too?

Can you provide more details about that single recliner? Our last apartment had a similar one and I loved it. I haven't been able to find a similar one.

[twistsol]

Very Nice, beautiful home.

• I like the layout. It looks very similar to a house I had in Tacoma ... if you make everything 20% smaller, ditch the garage, and shoehorn it between the freeway and the end of the McChord AFB runways.
• I do like that the garage is not at the front of the house so the street view is a house, not a garge with a house attached.
• I'm pretty sure your flooring is identical to what is in our house, built at about the same time.
• And as a hardened Minnesotan, it's just weird that there's no basement.

[jabe]

More photos, open floor plan, only thing with open floor plan, you'll need to get a quiet garbage disposal otherwise you won't be able to hear your TV. I got from COSTCO a American Standard disposal, very quiet, affordable and powerful. My sink cabinet & cook top cabinet bottom is only 9" so the front is open so a wheel chair can roll in when both doors are open or removed. One side of my vanity in the master bath is also open for wheel chair access. For my kitchen, I got a single bowl sink with an offset drain on the back right so the disposal will not block the wheel chair from rolling in. All my base cabinets in the kitchen have full extension drawers so easy for aged or wheel chair bound person to access. Only the corner base cabinet has doors with a lazy susan. Also, get a pot filler valve so the wife won't have to carry a heavy pot from the sink to the stove. I should have bought a counter mount pot filler instead of the wall mount type, would be easier for a person on wheel chair to use. Another thing install GFCI outlets for the toilets that'll have a Bidet seat. I have them installed on 2 of the bath rooms and powder room toilet. We only have a TOTO toilet/bidet in the master bath for now. I planned the master bath to have at least 4' of space on one side of the toilet so a wheel chair can pull up next to it so you can just slide onto the toilet. I used pocket doors for the master bath & walk in closet, more conducive for a wheel chair bound person. We're not on a wheel chair yet (hopefully never) but, just planning ahead in case.

[jabe]

We have all kinds of service fees, fuel adjustment fee, taxes attached to our electric bill, with all that calculated in it's about 89 cents per KW. Each island has a different rate due to population. Of course Oahu has the larges population their rates are a little cheaper. I live on Hawaii Island (Big Island), we have the most land mass but not as many people. There will be a 20% hike added on top of that on our next bill due to the oil price increase. It helps to have a solar water heater system which is required for all new construction in Hawaii or on-demand electric or propane water heater. I think I only turned on my electric water heater about 6 times because of the rainy weeks we get sometimes.

All of the transfer switches, Tesla battery, etc. will be mounted on the left wall next to my driveway. No I didn't have to reinforce my roof truss to accept the weight of the PV panels. I designed the home to take advantage of the breeze coming in from the front of the house so we seldom need to turn on our A/C. With the breeze and our ceiling fans makes the home comfortable. My bedrm. AC units are capable of heating but, it's really not necessary. I did turn on the heat once in each bdrm just to check that it works. It's not a large home only 1772 sq. ft. living area plus 1056 sq. ft. attached 3 car garage & porch. more than enough for my wife and I.

[capncarl]

Is that the transfer switch located beside the service panel? What are the other pipes/conduit’s? What is on the perpendicular wall left of the service panel? Did you have to beef up roof trusses to be able to install PV panels on a 48” truss spacing?
In paradise are you able to have your house windows open much and not run AC? Are your multizone units capable of heating, or is it not necessary?

[LCHIEN]

What is the electric rate like?

[jabe]

My whole home is insulated with Rockwool including the ceilings. My eaves are covered soffit so no bird problems and it's 42" overhang. We don't have snow so long overhang is not a problem and it's good to protect the walls from rain. We average 100" of rain every year. Roof pitch is same from eaves to top.
Master bd.rm. and office is multizone A/C and 2 guest bdrm. are multizone only Liv & Kit stand alone.
Electrical service location was not to my liking but, my electrician had it installed already. I wanted it on the side but the wire would've been too long and would need another pole to keep it high enough which would be extra cost.
I didn't upload all the pictures but I have a 42" x 84" island in the kitchen, I built it std. table height 29 1/2" so we didn't have to buy a separate dining table, we can sit 8 chairs around the island. It has 12" overhang on both sides & back for leg space when sitting. My walkway space between the island and the surrounding cabinets/counter is 52" so ample room for a wheel chair to pass.
I made all drawers on the lower cabinet with full exten. soft close Blum slides and all doors use Blum soft close hinges. All wall cabinets have had adjustable shelves. I have my own Blum Mini Press so boring hinge holes and 7-hole drill attachment for adjustable shelves is no problem. I made my countertops low 32" and my sink cabinet & cooktop cabinet doors can be removed/open so a wheel chair can roll in under the cabinet same for my master bath vanity on 1 end of the vanity. We're both in our 70s and not on a wheel chair now but just planning in case. My wife is short to begin with so she loves the lower cabinet/countertops.
Our solar PV with Tesla battery will be installed next month just in time for the proposed 20% rate hike nest month. We pay one of the highest electricity rate in the USA, one of the price we pay for living in paradise.

[LCHIEN]

Low snow load in Hawaii.

[capncarl]

It’s a real beauty! I like the metal roof, that explains the 4’ truss spacing! Is the roof insulated? How about the rest of the house insulation? How about the eaves, it looks like they take the slope of the roof upward? If that is the case do you have any problems with birds wanting to nest under the eaves? Split ductless ac in each room? Each a stand alone or multi zone? Last question, is having the electric service entrance on the front of the house a “Hawaii” thing?

[jabe]

It's been a while, we moved in last summer. Just poured our driveway this past Saturday, connected all my homes finally to the main street. Starting a stonewall in front of the house and will be doing some landscaping after. Photos of my walk in closet I built on both left & right side walls and the end wall. My kitchen cabinets with quartz counter top, I designed and built all the cabinets in the home. My living rm & master bdrm have vaulted ceilings and all rooms have a split ductless AC. We were fortunate that the home was completed before material prices surged upward. Still have small projects to complete but, started to get arthritis in both hands and cannot do anything for the past 5 months.

[jabe]

2 x 4 wall studs r 16" OC. Roof framing truss 48" OC with metal straps and 2x4 purlins 30" OC. roof material will be pre-painted zinc alum metal held with SS pre-painted 2" roofing screws. In Hilo Hawaii with so much rain, only metal roof last and reason for larger overhang on the eaves. We don't have snow at sea level so no concern for snow load on roof, we only get snow on our 2 mountains and it's usually light and don't last long. Our footings r only a foot deep, we have no frost level to be concern with. We use a lot of simpson ties for hurricane & earthquake concerns. Everything on the plans are stamped/approved by my structural engineer and approved by our County Building Permit dept.
Some of our building methods are different from u folks on the continent, we don't have snow winters etc. Our weather is pretty mild except for the rains, just need to build on high ground or on post & pier construction. My current home is post & pier, 4' off the ground and 30 Yrs ago, we could build slab on grade with no footings. I never had any structural issues with my current home and my rentals that I personally built 25-30 yrs. ago.