I am a long time reader of FHB, but this is my first time on this website.
Several years ago I started making a web page for clients to check out work progress – we build a few custom homes a year, you may enjoy some of our work.
Does anyone else out keep a website for owners to check out progress?
Bill in Maui
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Replies
That my sir, is some impressive work
Everybody on this site needs to ck. this web site out
Some great detail work and so many pictures.
It is gonna take a long time w/my dial-up to look at all those pictures.
Thanks for the link.
BC what is your capacity w/this company?
I am fortunate to work with a group of talented folks - I have been with the company for 7 years and hold the role of estimator, draftsman, construction manager, purchasing agent, contract administration, billing, bill cllector and runner/gopher. My current title is Vice-President, but we are a small (15 person) company.
Bill,
Great pics! Beautiful homes.
You do any building on the big island? A close friend landed a ton of land their a couple years ago and will be flying out in early spring to start construction on I believe 10 homes just to start. He specializes in Custom Timber Framing. It was an opportunity for me to go but I am committed to my life here. Right now he is in the middle of organizng/coordinating a local work force for the construction.
My home base was Kaneohe MCAS 25 yrs ago and been to all the islands. Beautiful climate and scenery.
Edited 2/20/2005 5:56 am ET by GaryJR
All of our work is on Maui. I have also worked on Kauai, Lanai and a little bit on the big island in the past, but I am happy not to have to commute on the airplane any more.
bump
I have been exploring the use of a weblog. You know, text and photos that display in a reverse-chronological format, most recent date first.
It's Blogger, Hello, and Picasa that I am working with. All of them operated by the good folks at Google, Blogger does the weblog, and Picasa is the photo manager, with photos sent my blog via the Hello transfer program.
It is very easy to use, and quite seamless.
I havent fully figured out the bells and whistles, but I think there is a way I can "privatize" the blog sites so that only authorized members can see, i.e., just the clients.
And while I can post text, pictures, and then edit same, the clients can post comments.
How 'bout dat?
Bill, your website is excellent, as is the houses you are building.
Since I'm a framing contractor, I'm most interested in that aspect and very curious about framing rates.
How much does it cost you to get those beasts framed?
blue
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. There are some in here who think I'm a hackmeister...they might be right! Of course, they might be wrong too!
We frame in house, so there is not a set rate, rather each is bid on it's complexity. I usually start around $10-12/sf for truss jobs, higher if there is more stick framing. I'll bid the ceilings separately if they are not part of the shell. To that you add work comp, mandatory Hawaii employe health insurance and a bunch of other costs of working in our lovely state.
we all take pictures of our work here in BT....your pic are outstanding.
DW was asking me the other day where we might move to next.
Hawaii or Jamaica might be possible but my guess is that HAwaii is as expense if not more expense then here on the Gold Cost of L.I NY.
My guess is when I'm done with my circa:1680 the taxes will soar to close to eighteen grand a year.
Whats it like on your island and how are material prices....
Be an island
a...
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
Andy,
Nassau County is going to hammer you with taxes just as they are doing to anyone else involved with major remodels. I'm extending the back of my house just enough to do what we need to do. Only 260 sq ft. Plus a new garage/shop. If it were not for the outrages taxes I probably would have gone bigger, but for what? so I can hand over more money to the tax monster. I am being practical and only doing what we need.
Gary....I live just accross the border in Suffolk Cnty ...CSH... I will keep renewing my permit (one last time) then sell cause as I said....my taxes will be beyond my means....yet on the other hand I'll be for sure making some serious dough when I sell in a few years....then do it again.....stop by when yer in Cold Spring Harbor...E mail me for a phone number when yer around town...
Be well
a...The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
Andy,
I must have passed your house dozens of times while riding up to Caumsett State park on my bicycle. You are in a gorgeous area, but you knew that already. Were you planning to renovate and then move to reap the benifits$ or the finances are what they are and put you into that situation. It's a shame we Long Islanders have to hold the fort "tax wise" for the entire state.
nahhhh....ain't moving till I find out what the taxes will go up to....Just gonna keep extedning the permit for the building I'm doing for as long as I can then we'll see.
Stop in next time yer cycling.....Email me and I'll give you my phone number next time youre around here.
a...The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
watch out , gary... it's hotel california-east..
you can check in, but you can never check out
good thing i had two womins with me....or i'd still be in that teepeeMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike,
Thanks for the warning! I was wondering why Andy was so welcoming. Iv'e heard stories about guys visiting his home who can swing a hammer and were never heard from again.
Many of you would choke if you were paying our material prices.
All the lumber (not just the bottom plate) is pressure treated. A 2x4x8 is $8. Concrete is $110 per yard. A 4x12x5/8" sheet of drywall is $18, and so on.
Taxes are high (that is income tax and we don't have sales tax, but rather a General Excise Tax which hits every buisness transaction). Work comp is 20-30% for most trades, health insurance is mandatory. Property values have really skyrocketed in the last 4 years (median house on price on Maui is over $500,000) But the weather is nice.
so why do you live there?
Reckon I aint movin; thereThe secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
I've been here close to 20 years - the place grows on you. I am glad I bought my place 12 years ago, when prices were a little more reasonable.
Little bit of a traffic slow down today driving to work - many people were pulling over watching the whales jumping offshore.
I've been here close to 20 years - the place grows on you. I am glad I bought my place 12 years ago, when prices were a little more reasonable.
And of course hindsight being 20/20, you probably wish you'd stocked up on land 12 years ago ;)
Little bit of a traffic slow down today driving to work - many people were pulling over watching the whales jumping offshore.
Friend and his family moved to Maui last year. He had sent me some pics last month about the "hellish" winter they were having (pics of them on the beach in shorts & tshirt). He included some whale watching pics.
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. -- Walter Percy Chrysler
BC those are some fantastic looking houses. What do they consider median in HA? 1500sq? 3k sq?
Do you build "median"? Hereabouts, a 1500sq single family with attached garage would run $80-150k. Is that gonna cost $400k to build and $100k for the land?
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. -- Walter Percy Chrysler
Here land (and in many locations a water meter) is a at a premuim.
Your average lot cost is 200-300K, and I'm guessing and average home is 1,800 SF, another 150-200K to build. Multiply those numbers by a few factors in the resort areas.
wow, that sounds downright reasonable! i can't build anything in the way of custom here in norcal for less than $400/sq ft. ...talk about unreal prices. by the way, i really liked the "p" family residence. i'm planning on doing something for client out on one of the points in huelo in the not so distant future, (probably door of faith road.). i'll keep an eye out for your work when i visit lahaina side. i recognize some of the locations.
I forgot to ask before - where/what is BT?
this is BT...
right here in yur face...
BT=BreakTime
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Now that was a newbie question - OK I get BT now.
ultra newbie...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
That's some sweet work you're doing there, Bill. I'm in Santa Cruz, and getting a business set up. I've built a few websites, and I'm working on the one for my business now. I will definitely have a place to post pictures for clients to look at as work progresses. A page I only give them the address to.
and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
....Robert Louis Stevenson
Allen in Santa Cruz
Bill
Great site, pictures are fantastic! Beautiful work.
But for me to better appreciate your work I think that I might have to fly over there and spend some time in one of your homes.
You of course need to have one furnished for my stay, I'll handle getting over there myself. Two weeks should be sufficient, don't want the wife to notice I'm gone.
I was in Hawaii about 30 years ago, loved it then but thought it was expensive, I see prices haven't gone down any.
Doug
ok
after shivering my arse off most of the day and wishing I was in a warmer place
and having a brewski (antifreeze) to thaw things out.Ill admit, you do nice work in a nice place
but after drooling for a few minutes. I have to ask
your website is a good leson to many, I would love to have a website like that that showed daily pics
but the time to do that must be a lot
im just a one man show ( well a couple of other great nail pounders with me) but th eknowledge and time to put a web site to push us, I dont have
well maybe I would if I didnt sepend time here, and more time at a web site that helped me do the kind of web site your doing
please beleive me , in no way am I trying to belittle your work or your website
I am so envious
nice work keep it up, good luck,
p.s, I can hear my wife now.......................
so why cant you take us and build in Hawaii
( my wife works 50+ hours a week , so nonone sugest that she does the website, matter of fact, her job is what keeps us afloat during the lean times)
Time spent on website...
After doing the web pages for many years, it takes me about 30 minutes to snap off photos, and another 30 to update the pages. Right now there are two active projects, and I update once or twice a month, so at the most I am spending 2 to 4 hours per month on this.
For us, it is a useful tool since many of our Owners only live here part time, they can check out progress from the mainland. Even the ones that do live here it is helpful for the mainland lender to also perform spot checks on progress. If the client is building a spec home, it's free advertising while the work is in progress.
There is a cost of hosting a large website, but you don't need to keep the old photos online and can save some significant $ there, if you wish.
Even if you don't make a website, getting in to a regular habit of taking digital progress photos is a great reference tool - especialy for underground work and right before you insulate and hang the drywall so you can see where all the pipes, columns, backing, etc. is. With the digital photography it is so cheap to take and store photos, and it works much better than just grey-matter memory.
You can make the webpages private as some suggest here, by having ours public it also serves as a marketing tool. I have gotten cold calls for what have turned into some very nice projects through the website. I have also wasted a bit of time as well, but overall it works for us.
BC, Great pictures! Did I say "Great Pictures!!" The other posts covered many questions and you answered them well. The only question I have for you is, "What model camera do you use? Those were some great pictures! Doug
I've had this camera for about 2-3 years - its an Olympus 600 something or another with a zoom lens. At the time it was $600 or so, and probably sells for $12 or so on E-bay. Trucks and technology depreciate instantly, but land and in-shape structures seem to hold it's own. We still need both. The web photos are 1/2 size (and 1/4 the storage space which you dial-up folks will appreciate) from the originals. Just keep a spare set of rechargable batteries plugged into the cigarette lighter and you are good to go.
I've really enjoyed my Olympus C-720 with its 8x OPTICAL (not digital) zoom. I've now had FOUR friends/coworkers who liked my camera so much that they bought the current version of it (740) with I think a 10X zoom. I think it is a 3.0 or 3.2 megapixel camera, so the full-resolution shots would be about 3megabytes in size (bigger than this forum could handle).
Since its easier to shrink a pic than to enlarge, I will usually take a picture in max resolution size, so that I can crop it later and still have a good, clean pic.
I picked up a 4-pack of AA Duracell rechargeables for $10. They are good for about 200 pics in my C-720 (actually have two sets of them, so I'm never without power).
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. -- Walter Percy Chrysler
Bill,
Please don't take this the wrong way, It really looks like you do great work and I love ALL the pics and I'm very appreciative that you shared these photos with us... But it sure seems like you could plan things out just a little better, so you don't have your guys putting a roof on in the middle of winter.
View Image
I sure hope they are getting paid well to work under those conditions... I mean come on, that picture was taken in the middle of January, what were you thinking? :-)
Please let me know if you need any help, I will work for food. That has to be the best office view I have ever seen.
Thanks again for sharing. Great houses and great views, it must be great to get up and go to work everyday.
-Chad
Edited 2/22/2005 1:14 pm ET by CAG21
Probably got allllllll the way down to 75! How could they handle it?jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. -- Walter Percy Chrysler
It's about 75 in the winter, but remember, with the strong trade winds (15-30mph) it is really 71 when you factor in the wind chill
It's about 75 in the winter, but remember, with the strong trade winds (15-30mph) it is really 71 when you factor in the wind chill
Holy cow! If that keeps up, they might be forced to trade in the shorts for Levis!
;)
The friend who moved out there really likes it...with the exception of the price of a house. He says most everything else isn't too outrageous.
I'm waiting to see if he suffers Midwest withdrawl in a couple years... the lack of seasons and all that. Starts missing the overcast days and cold...the dreary, rainy...you get the idea. :)
jt8
The reason so many people never get anywhere in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers. -- Walter Percy Chrysler
Great pictures...reminds me of last year. My brother has a few properties on Kauai. He sent me out there last year to do some work on them. (He never rents his properties out). Next month his is going to by 3 more properties on Kauai. I'll be waiting by the phone. Too bad the wife won't be able to go...
Forgot to add the picture.