We've reached the very inspiring stage in our sustainable living dream project of designing our home.
This is the initial dwelling we are constructing to be able to live on our property. Dreadknot has designed the entire house with my input on aesthetics and personal desires for certain features like double front doors and a grand wide staircase leading up to them.
We then hired an architect JKK Designs here in Hawaii to draw up the official plans to be able to have them approved and stamped by an Structural Engineer and present them to the permitting office for an "Owner-Builder Permit". Yes, I will be helping with the hauling, digging, hammering and nailing.
The principle of the house design is based upon our original dream of living in a round house or as they call it in South Africa, a "rondawel". The structure is not especially big but has high walls and an extra high ceiling with the inclusion of a fairly wide cupola on top of the roof for lighting and ventilation, keeping the house cool without the need of artificial air conditioning. Roundness allows the free flow of energy and has a very calming effect on anyone entering the structure. Rounded structures also survive hurricanes and severe storms much better than squared or rectangular houses which act as obstacles to high winds instead of allowing the wind to simply flow around them and move on. The aesthetic quality of a round, high pitched ceiling is also very pleasing to both of us and the general layout of the home is an open plan living area and kitchen, one bedroom and bathroom and a large lanai or deck outside so that we can enjoy the outdoors as much as possible in the midst of our own personal Ohia forest.
So now we have the blue prints and hopefully we'll be able to get started soon! The first task will not be very glamorous as we will have to have the septic tank installed. The property is rural and as part of being self sufficient, we have to manage our own waste.
I recently inspected the additional grading and grubbing and was very happy about the increased area for our house pad.
We also checked up on our fruit trees and added a few more to the collection. So far we have coconut palms, figs, apple bananas, papayas, lemons and tangerines....all in their infancy and not producing yet. Thank you Sian and Kanaloa for helping with the fruit trees!
A huge "Mahalo" to Jerin Kelly for helping us with our plans. We will never be able to complain of boredom again in our lives!
