Tracy shoots a video of the inside of the house complete with music soundtrack!

Just think, pretty soon there will be walls and such.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HThQ2JglGCs

New Rental House Coming Along

REMEMBER, CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT.

We dropped in on the new place yesterday and took a few pictures and had a good meeting with the owner/builders. It was a very rainy week and progress has been slow. The next step is to get the roofing on so no more rain gets in and things can start drying out.  This view is of the front of the house - garage is back right behind the pickup.

This is the front entrance. We scored a big bonus today by finding out that our builder, Cinco, will enclose this whole front porch with screening so that our kitchen, living, dining area will increase to nearly double. Here they call it a screened in lanai. We can dine out there, leave the front French doors open all the time and basically expand our living area greatly.

Back yard - room for lot's of plantings for which we are already planning.

View from the back corner of the property toward the back of the house.

Back in the corner there in front of the door opening with the windows on either side there will be a patio slab. This is a great spot for outdoor grilling and get together's. That mound of soil and shrubbery will be gone. This is a fairly private area. Just one neighbor on the other side of the horse pasture that borders us and those neighbors have big hedges and trees planted for their own privacy.

What happens to house with no roof in tropical rainy season.....this is the front entrance. It will have  a double French door system as mentioned above. Looking inside all the way back will be the kitchen and then dining and living room up to the doors. Master bedroom and bath and laundry room on the left and guest room and second bathroom and kitchen pantry on the right. Also, all the way back and to the right is a hallway to the breezeway which goes straight back to the 3rd bedroom and office and to the garage.

Not the greatest front yard picture. It shows the driveway into our house. Had to park the van there because that's where the graveled road ends and, for that day, where the deep mud from the week of rain starts. The van is very light in the rear end and has bad traction. We have been stuck about 3 times in situations where even a normal car would have had no problem.

The one and only mature tree on the property - a Christmas Berry tree. It's a wonderful shade tree and it will be a nice hang-out place this summer.

We mentioned above that we are planning our plantings. A couple weeks ago there was a big local flower festival and we picked up these three sprouting coconuts. They will go into the ground in another month or so. Coconuts take a few years to grow up and make more coconuts, but it will be fun to watch them grow.

We also got this sweet little Valencia orange tree.

Other plantings on our list are:  3 kinds of Avocado:  Sharwil for winter,  Green Gold for spring & Murashige for summer.  Meyer Lemon, Tahitian Lime, Liliko'i vines, Apple banana, & Breadfruit, to name a few.

Daylight Saving Adds an Hour Between You and Us!

Just a reminder that when this happens Sunday morning very early, where ever you are in the US other than Hawaii, you have to ADD an hour to the time difference between us and you. Hawaii does not have Day Light Saving Time.
So, for instance, for you on the West Coast the time difference will go from 2 hours to 3 hours and we'll be 3 hours earlier than you. So if you wake up early in the morning and decide to call, say at 7am, it will be 4am here - you'll get nothing but sleepy heads. We'll do the same for you: if we call you at 10 at night that means your phone will be ringing at 1 in the morning.
Have fun springing forward!

Snorkeling in South Maui with Natalie & Omar

Nothing like some snorkeling with Natalie and Omar. 

Beer at "Dumps" in the sandy Living Room

...and when you don't have snorkeling weather - you hit the Maui Ocean Center

Walk Through on West Kuiaha

We've done another walk-through and things are moving along. Really looking forward to moving into this newly built rental this Spring/Summer. Check it out!

West Kuiaha - Return

We've almost "secured" this very nice home as of our meeting this morning. Just a little paperwork and we'll soon have a completion date and more plans to make. This time - for the long haul.

All Dressed Up and Out on the Town

Benefits of welcoming house guest's. Good friends from Seattle took us to Mama's Fish House for drinks and pupu's and took our picture along with our luxury liner in the parking lot. Thank you John & Suzie!