A Rolph Ativities Update by Kayley Rolph

This week has been really busy. Mia and I have been flooring like crazy people, Zander has been doing electrical, Sarah has been sanding a piece of wood and helping daddy, and mommy is still painting and getting her Bondo fix on a daily basis.

Mia and I have been installing the Versalock flooring all week. The flooring is pretty simple to install, it practically clicks together but the hard part is all the prepping and the thinking that it involves. The fact that we get paid a dollar a square foot has helped our mood and willingness to work.

The back bathroom and bedrooms have been a group effort and they are mostly finished now. But the electricity needs some help, the walls need some touch ups, and the sink in the bathroom has yet to spout water.

We are almost done with the master bedroom and bathroom. Zander and Daddy have been working really hard to get the plumbing, electrical and appliances in working order so that they can move on. As of today, the bathroom lights don't work most of the time, the fan doesn't work and needs replacing, and we are lacking in the shower door department. But it still looks pretty good even though there are very few things that work.

For the last four days Zander has been working on installing lights, fans, switches and plugs. Zander has been stuck with one of the worse jobs. to wire some of the electrical, Zander had to work in the attic which is practically a biohazard that is really hot.

The plan was to move into the back bedrooms and master by Friday so that we could work on the other parts of the house. Being us, we were behind schedule and we moved in on Saturday afternoon. Sarah and I are sharing the bigger back bedroom while Mia has the other, smaller, one. Zander is sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's old room while they moved into the semi-working master bedroom.

The end is in sight but there is still tons to do. Some of the electricity and plumbing is pretty questionable, that will be Zander and Daddy's job next week. Mommy will be working on repainting and repairing the last of the exterior. Mia and I will be finishing the flooring in the common areas and helping Daddy install the counter tops. I think that Sarah will be helping daddy install the cabinets but that is questionable. Bye.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

master bath in progress

master bedroom

Mia's room

Sarah's and my room

cabinets and other materials in the living room

A Rolph Activities Update by Kayley Rolph

This week has gone by really fast, like, one minute I'm at the beach on Sunday then I'm working on Wednesday. We are still very behind schedule but we are all scrambling to catch up. This week Sarah and I finished all the painting of the lumber, we finished installing the deck railings, Bob finished tiling the master bath, Mommy finished painting the back bathroom and one of the back bedrooms.

Sarah and I have been painting all the deck railing parts and lumber all week and we finally finished today! We're done! This is great! No more paint spattered clothing or hair or legs! We are free of the stubbornly clingy nuisance that is known as paint! Ok. Calming down. As you can probably see I wasn't very fond of painting, but let us not dwell on the past. On the bright side, Mommy is really exited because she has now repainted three quarters of the house exterior and the neighbors are really liking it!

On Thursday Sarah, Mia and Daddy began to install the railings. The deck railings come up really fast! They started midway through work on Thursday and are already finished! Installing the railings was a group effort. Sarah and I painted the pickets that Mia cut. Then Daddy, Sarah, and Mia glued and nailed them to rails and then put them on the posts. Zander helped on Saturday to finish it of. This took only two and a half days, which is great because most of the projects that are like in size tend to take around five days with smaller groups and some haven't been finished yet.

Mia and I haven't started the flooring yet, even though, we planned to at the beginning of the week. The window repair got in the way, so we are now even more behind schedule. The flooring is supposed to be really easy to install, especially compared to the Trex decking, so it shouldn't take to long, but with us you never know. flooring could take a week of more for all we know.  We hope to be done with everything in the master and back bedrooms by next week so we can move into them. 

Mia officially finished the windows on Wednesday. Since we were really behind, she had to move on to cutting the deck railings right away. Mia cut at least 40 pickets in like three hours. The window repair took a lot longer than expected because we had to wait on new window hardware and glass to replace the broken stuff. That took an extra three days. The windows have been really dragging us all down, but on the bright side, we can now see out of the house through clean, kinda new windows!

Mommy's mission this week was finishing up the painting and Bondoing in the back bedrooms. The termite damage back there is a nightmare, so by the time she is done it will be mostly made of Bondo and structural paint. At the moment it smells pretty funky back there from all the chemicals, paint, and Bondo. She has become quite obsessive over this, she works late and she never stops thinking about work, I think its all the Bondo she's been inhaling.  thinking about work, I think its all the Bondo she's been inhaling.

This week we all worked really hard to finish the stuff we started and the house is starting to look kinda livable. Next week we plan on finishing the flooring and moving into the back bedroom to begin phase two of he master plan, insert evil laugh ;). Bye. 

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

 pic from before we started

pic from today

 pic from two weeks ago

mommy painting one of the back bedroom

painted back bedroom

mia working on the window renewal.

newly tiled master bath

A Rolph Activities Update by Kayley Rolph

Hello everyone! Since we are nearing the end of our stay we have been working more to finish before we go back to California. The house still needs a ton of work and we only have four more weeks so we are all getting a little nervous.

This week Sarah and I were doing a junior lifeguard program from 8:30 to 2:30. The program was only five days but we did a lot of stuff, like CPR, rescue scenarios and first aid. There at two guys who run it, Uncle Hulka and Captain Cris. Uncle Hulka is retired and loves fruit, the ocean, and smiling. Captain grew up in  Southafrica and manages the lifeguards. The JG program was really fun and the fact that it was all day and we didn't have to work made it even more so. Uncle Hulka taught us the hula and the haka which was really fun to learn. On the last day we canoed to the end of the world to go cliff jumping, it was so awesome!! At the end of the course we even got a fancy certificate and a t-shirt not to mention that the whole thing only cost $20.

Mia and I have been fixing up the termite eaten windows this week. Well only Mia during the week but on the weekend I help her. All the windows were in need of some serious Bondo (refer to next paragraph), cleaning, rescreening and repainting. Mia did all the rescreening and repainting during the week and all the cleaning and replacing the hardware is for the today and tomorrow. We only have one wind completely done and it looks a lot better than when we got here but there are eight more to do.

For the las few weeks Mommy has been using Bondo liberally for patching up holes in the walls mostly due to termite damage. Bondo is like cocking in the sense that it fills holes in walls and such but it drys super fast. Because of the chemicals that make the Bondo dry really fast emits some extreme fumes that leave you feeling a little faint and weird. The Bondo is pretty gross stuff but it is probably the strongest part of the house now, which is really disturbing if you ask me.

At the beginning of this week and the end of last week Sarah and Momma were Bondoing and repainting the exterior back wall. The whole thing looks as good as new, but better because there are now some nice windows in it.

This week Zander, Daddy and Bob have been working on much of the back areas, including the back bedrooms and the master bath. The master bath is now painted and the shower surround is mostly tiled thanks to Bob. There is now one more bedroom in the back due the Zander nocking down a wall to join a closet and a pantry together. The boys also put a shower in the back bathroom with the pluming and digging through the slab to put it all in.

There has been tons of progress on the house but there is still so much to so that its depressing. On that note, I hope you all are having a fun summer, not working as much as we are and if you are I hope you are making more. Bye.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

A Rolph Adventures Update by Kayley Rolph

The first two updates were solely focused on our progress on the house, so I thought, I would fill you in on our extracurricular activities and adventures.

On Tuesday us kids got in a little scrape, pun definately intended. Zander was instructing Mia on how to park in the library parking lot and we left a bit of paint on the white rental car next to us. We also have some damage but unlike the tourists with the white rental car we don't really care. They came out with three footlong red stripes while we got a 4 foot long scrape.

In our third weekend here, we went on a little beach hunting expedition and one of our stops was the Pololu outlook which is just past the northern most point of the island. The outlook was at the end of a narrow, windy road with a few parking spaces for us tourists. There were tons of tourists, from backpackers to Asian tourists with big cameras and Bermuda shorts. After a short, steep descent there was a some trees with rope swings hanging of them and tiers scattered about. The trail went through the trees and came out in a very rocky beach with tons of rock tower/piles. We didn't stay for very long, just long enough to take a look around and for Sarah to take a swim.

The other stop on the beach hunt was the biggest white sand beach on the island, which wasn't very big. The beach was pretty small by California standards but for a relatively brand new island, Hawaii has some great beaches. The water color is the most beautiful blue-turquoise imaginable. Hapuna beach was supper touristy, kind of like Avila beach in Cali.  

The 4th of July festivities in Kona started with a parade through the downtown at around six in the afternoon. After the parade there was a chaotic firecracker festival that ended in an awesome fireworks show. The parade was pretty boring but the fire and explosions afterwards made up for it. The firecracker chaos was so cool. People just started seting of fireceackers on the street in the middle of downtown. The air was so thick with smoke I felt like I was choking but all the noise and explosives kept me alert. After a half hour of chaos and ice cream everyone settled down to watch the firework show over the harbor. The fireworks were pretty great, they even atemted to spell out USA, but the U came up upside down. 

The King's swim was last Saturday at eight in the morning in the Kona harbor. The King's swim is run by Steve, our swim coach and he was adamant that the whole swim team participated. We had to be there at 6:50 the day after the 4th of July, to say I wasn't very happy about that would be an understatement. Imagine waking up at such an ungodly hour just to swim 1.2 miles around a harbor, it was torture. Just kidding, it was OK because we got free food and t-shirts.

So far we have been keeping pretty close to Kona which is OK because it's really nice here, but I think we are all getting a little restless. Soon I hope we get around to visiting Hilo, one of the volcanoes and just explore more of the island. Bye.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

A Rolph Activities Update By Kayley Rolph

Sorry for the belated update, I was too busy being a teenager. This update will be super long because the last two weeks have been really busy with fixing the house, my birthday and the death of one of our roofers.

Hans passed away on June 20th, 2014. I briefly shared with you about Hans in my last update. But to tell the truth I don't know much about Hans except that he helped Bob roof the house, he liked to sleep in the back of the house during work, and he made some very entertaining remarks outside of the window two weeks ago (afore mentioned in my last update). The fact that my dad won't stop cracking jokes about Hans being dead is really disturbing though. His mentality is that it's easier to laugh than the other alternative. This is true but laughing about some one who has been dead for two days is a little much.

Now for some thing happy! The lanai roof is finally done!!! It has been framed, sheeted, painted and roofed to my dad's specifications. The view is awesome! and once we get it all decked it will be the place to be.

Last week was a painting week for Sarah, Momma and me. I still have a little white paint on my legs 4 days later! Trust me, I tried everything; swimming, scrubbing, scrubbing with sand, but the paint primer just doesn't want to come off! Sarah had the same problem, but worse. Our swim coach, Steve, kept making fun of her when she went  to swim practice covered in white paint splotches. 

This week Mia and I have been installing the Trex decking. After messing up a lot we are now pros at Trex decking! The deck is far from perfect but at least the mistakes are hard to see as long as you don't look closely. The Trex really expensive, it costs around $2.50 per linear foot so working with it was pretty stressful. Mia and I have been working really hard making sure the deck looks good so its a good thing we get paid!

Last Friday we moved the old appliances that were on the side of the house and put them in the dumpster. The appliances were all pretty moldy and trashed, but the ice chest was by far the worst. It was filled to the brim with murky brown water and it was rusted through in some places. The worst part of the whole thing was when we had the brilliant idea of emptying it out before we moved it and most of the water ended up in the house.I forgot to tell you about the cockroaches that infested the ancient ice chest. All in all, the whole adventure was a disaster.

Our second week here, we joined the Kona Aquatics team. This swim team has some of the best young swimmers in Hawaii, and I am definitely not one of them. It's not like I compete, so it's no wonder I'm slow. But the fact that kids two thirds of my age and a foot shorter than me are kicking my butt, is embarrassing. 

 Bob, our only remaining roofer, is almost done reroofing the house. Now our house resembles a French flag with the red roofing, white trim and blue house. I think it really pulls it all together and is so much better than the old roof. To refresh your memory, the old roof was all rusty and sported various questionable patch jobs. To say the least, the old roof wasn't very good at it's job.

On Monday, Sarah and Mommy painted the master bath. After they painted over the various layers of very pretty wall paper, the room looked newer and cleaner. Now its harder to notice all the termite damage and rot on the walls or, shall I say, non existent walls. I think that the wallpaper made up most of the walls, seeing as there was multiple layers of it and the original walls are about and inch thick.  

Sunday was my 13th birthday. Even though I officially have been on this earth for 13 years, I feel no different. That's the thing about birthdays. You think that it might make you feel a little older and more mature. But its not how old you are that makes you more mature or knowledgeable, its experiences  that change you. It's the same with most holidays. We make such a big deal out of something like some dead dude's birthday and use it as an excuse to give people presents, eat ridiculous amounts of food and trick little kids into believing in a mythical person who supposedly decides if they are good or bad people. Not that I'm complaining about the food and the presents but its weird that we think so much about these annual traditions. Anyway, we spent most of the day at the beach and went out for dinner on my b-day, it was all very relaxing. 

Almost every day we go surfing at our favorite spot on this island, Pine Trees. Pine trees is a beach, if you hadn't gather that already, and miraculously there is not a pine tree in sight. The origin of its name shall remain a mystery forevermore. My favorite time to go there is during the sunset because the temperature is perfect and the colors are truly breathtaking. To make it even better, the surf there is also pretty good and there's really good snorkeling.

Even though we have been working a lot lately, we've been playing a lot as well. With this balance, we are all pretty happy. Next week, we plan on demolishing a wall, painting and installing the deck railings, painting the exterior of the house, and hopefully finishing the master bathroom. I almost forgot, all us kids are doing the king's swim at 8 tomorrow.  Sadly, we have to be there at 6:50. Bye, at least until next week.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

The Women of Hawaii By Kayley Rolph

Wherever we go in the world, I always wonder about the native belief regarding the women in society. Were women regarded as equal, lesser, or greater than men? How or if they were treated differently than men? These two questions are always something I was curious about in a new place. Hawaii was no different.  The women of Hawaii were unique in their strength and they protected their people in the only ways they could.
 
Before the European invasion, Hawaiian women were kept separate from men. Men and women were not allowed to eat together, or even eat the same food. Women weren't supposed to eat pork or bananas because it was the food of the gods, but men were. That makes me think that women were treated like lesser beings than men. While men fought wars to protect their land, the women taught the next generation how to survive in this world. The jobs of both men and women are of equal importance, the men protect the lives of their people in the present while the women taught the future people how to protect their culture and survive. 
 
One of the most important woman in the history of Hawaii was the Queen Liliuokalani. She was the last queen of Hawaii and the annexation of Hawaii followed her dethroning in 1893. Although she only ruled from 1891 to 1893 Queen Liliuokalani dedicated her life to the independence of Hawaii and the protection of her people. she worked to please the people of Hawaii by looking out for their happiness and independence. I think that it is great that the woman's place in society can change from not being able to eat the same foods as men to ruling them.

 

The women of Hawaii worked hard to protect their people and keep the Hawaiian culture alive. As heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Princess Victoria Ka'iulani visited the United States to help restore the Kingdom of Hawaii. Although she was reluctant to participate in politics, in 1893 she made many speeches and public appearances denouncing the overthrow of her government and the injustice toward her people. They taught the next generation and fought for the preservation of their culture, beliefs and lives of their people. Bye 

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

A Rolph Activities Update By Kayley Rolph

The Rolph's are still at it! We have been working about three hours a day this week and accomplishing a lot. Between surfing, swimming,reading, and writing we have been tearing it up working on the house, literally. We framed the lanai, painted a ton of lumber, reroofed the back part of the house, demolished the back closet/pantry, and cleaned up the hazardus attic.

My dad, Mia and Zander have been painstakingly erecting the lanai for the last few days. Although not quite finished it is exactly what we were looking for. The lanai doesn't obstruct the view and when it is finished it'll be a nice place to hang out if we can keep the bugs away.  

Our roofers, Bob and Hans, while providing much enjoyed entertainment and conversation starters, have been reroofing the backside of the house. The walls are so thin that when Hans makes a remark regarding his body odor we have to suppress our laughter. The old roof, creatively patched and rusted through in some places, when removed, reveled an even more messy attic. 

In the beginning of the week Sarah and I received the disgusting chore of cleaning out afore mentioned rat remains and Styrofoam peanut infested attic. Armed with gloves, a broom, and a dust pan we set to work removing insane amounts of termite and rat remains, Styrofoam peanuts, and... leaves? Don't ask why, it still boggles me that so many leaves (at least three trash bags full) could get in the attic, its supposed to be closed of.

My mom, being the the artist that she is, took over the painting of the new lumber. She decided that painting the lumber before installing it was the easiest way to go about it,  so that's what she has been occupying herself with all week. Since we don't have a paint sprayer, painting is tedious but great for revenge on an unsuspecting little sister. Long story short, Sarah and I had a paint fight on Wednesday and we still haven't been able to get all the paint off.

Friday found Sarah and I gleefully nocking down shelving in the back closet and pantry. Although our parents were planning on salvaging the shelves they are all pretty heavily hammered. It was and good day, ah, fond memories. The shelving was supper simple but was held together by tons of nails, so it took a lot of pounding to get it out.

I am sure the lanai and the rest of the house will be worth all the hard work. Next week we plan on finishing the roofing, including the lanai, and doing some more demo. I will continue to update you on the Rolphs miraculous adventures and powerful progress for foreseeable future. Bye, for now.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

The Basic Geology of Hawaii by Kayley Rolph

Hawaii is known for it's overall awesomeness, but there is much more to Hawaii than good surf and beautiful beaches. The Hawaiian islands are volcanic islands ,as you well know, but they are no where near the edge of a tectonic plate, where most volcanic activity is situated. This was puzzling for the early geologists who studied Hawaii, but they have figured out how the Hawaiian islands formed and explained the basic geology of Hawaii.

The Hawaiian islands are far away from the edge of the Pacific Plate, where most of the volcanic activity is. Tectonic plates are irregular and unpredictable, they have thin spots in the crust and thick spots, they can spontaneously change direction when it collides withe a nearby plate. A hotspot is a weak spot in their earths crust where magma can push to the surface. Since the Pacific Plate is always moving, so is the hotspot. 

 

The Hawaiian islands are all shield volcanoes. The rock that they are made of low viscosity magma or fluid lava. This makes the Hawaiian islands supper wide and not very steep, like a shield. The older Hawaiian islands have been eroded so much that some don't even break the surface of the ocean any more. Since Hawaii is the newest island, it is also the biggest because it hasn't had time to erode as much as the others.
 

If you were to look at a map of the chain of islands created by the Hawaiian hotspot, it looks as though it just started popping up islands in a different directions. The hotspot that created Hawaii also created the Aleutian islands that streach southwest of Alaska and the Emperor Seamounts, which connect the Hawaiian and the Aleutian islands. The pacific plate was moving Southwest at that time but it has changed direction two times to get to its current course of southeast movement. More shield volcanoes are developing southeast of Hawaii and some will break the surface soon.

The Hawaiian island's geology is facinating and unique. I find it amazing that one weak spot in the earths crust could open up an opertunity for three island chains, whole cultures, ecosystems and much, much more. Bye, for now.

By Kayley Sienna Rolph

P.S. I have some diagrams to help illustrate and explain the geology of Hawaii.

A Rolph Activities Update by Kayley

The Rolphs are at it again!  Daddy bought a house in Kona to fix up as a summer project and an excuse to spend the summer in Hawaii.  The house appears to not have been maintained since its original construction in 1957. So the walls are a little bendy and missing parts as a result of termite damage and rot, the appliances don't really work, and the roof is very leaky. My parents, Mia, Sarah and I have been here for about a week,  and in that week we have made much progress on the house. We trimmed the trees, demolished a bathroom, started redoing the roof and deck,maybe gotten rid of the termites, torn out the carpet.

Because of the jungle that has sprung up around the house, the first three days were alotted to the removal or triming of said jungle. The result of the enthusiastic sawing of tree limbs is an awesome view of the ocean and a power line. The two men who were responsible for the clearing of the view, climbed the trees to get to the branches and resolutely sawed them of with chainsaws. If you are wondering about the sanity of these to tree trimmers you are not alone in that thought. What they were doing was not entirely safe or sane but it worked, it looked fun, and that was the whole point.

The house was crawling with critters ranging from geckoes to termites when we first got it. The geckoes are not a problem because they eat mosquitos! But the termites, on the other hand, are eating everything that is wood, which unfortunately is what the house is made of. So we had the house tented in April but the termites had been there a few decades before we arrived so the damage is extensive. We can see day light through the walls in some places and in one bathroom, the bottom part of the wall isn't even there. We aren't sure if the termites are still here, but, we haven't seen them so thats a good sign. Right?

The bathrooms in this house are pretty moldy and rotted, so we removed one of them! The other two are in use, so we haven't gotten to those yet. Wednesday and Thursday were spent ripping out tile, kicking down showers and sawsalling cabnets to scrap. Destroying the bathroom was gag worthy and surprisingly fun. Nothing like hammering tiles to bits to blow of some steam. The bathroom is still pretty gross but every thing is out in the open at least.

When we ripped out the moldy, splotchy and orange carpet, it was a disgusting experience. We were masked, gloved, and armed with a knife. We had no way of escape, so we just had to get it done. By cutting the carpet into strips and then rolling it up and hauling it out, we were able to free the house of the carpet and the weird smells that accompanied it. Underneath the carpet was concrete and in the living room it was painted green. I think we are planning on putting in tile for the flooring because wood would be eaten and carpet or linoleum would get moldy. 

 Thankfully we don't have to do the roofing, daddy hired Bob and Hans to do that. First they had to stripe the deck of railings and some of the plywood to get to the beams to which they attached the new beams and eventually the roof. They have yet to reroof the whole place. My dad has plans to turn the rotting plywood deck into a lanai with an awesome view of the ocean, which is an awesome idea. If you don't know what a lanai is, it's practically a covered deck.

The house still needs a ton of work, much to Zander's dismay (he was hoping that all the work would be done when he got here from water polo camp at USC). I can't wait to see the end result. next week we hope to finish the roof and the lanai. We may even get to the new bathroom! Sarah and I will continue to fill you in on the magnificent Rolph activities, achievements, and observations with weekly blog posts. Bye.

the magnificent house!!!

By Kayley Sienna Rolph.

Sara doing some demo

view from the deck

remnants of the bathroom

Mia hammering the tile to bits

NYC!!! by Kayley

I thought I'd never write another blog on this site but here goes.

Bippy and Gramps took Sarah and me to New York City!!! It was everything I thought it would be and more. It was fun to shop there. The streets were just the right amount of busy and the museums weren't to boring.

Everyone says that NYC is a walking city and its true. We probably walked 5 miles every day to and from museums, land marks, and best of all, up and down 5th Avenue, the shopping paradise of NYC. Judging from the other pedestrians, they walked everywhere too. Walking the streets of NYC you wouldn't see the usual American obesity, everyone looked pretty fit, even if they ate fast food every meal of the day. They walked of  most of the calories.

What makes NYC so different from all the other big cities I've seen if that on the bottom floors of all the buildings are shops, eateries and other businesses, and everyone walks everywhere. You could literally go shopping right next door or even on the first floor of your apartment building! New York has the widest side walks I've seen and they are put to good use. The sidewalks were probable 5 times the width of a regular sidewalk, so it feels really spacious when you're walking down the streets.

Going to museums in NYC wasn't that different than in other big cities, and surprisingly Bippy only made us go to two, MoMA and the Museum of Agriculture and Space. MoMA or the Museum of Modern Art was pretty wacky. You know how Modern art is nowadays, random and so complicated that sometimes even the artist doesn't even understand it. My favorite piece of modern art was a painting of an eye with a picture of the sky as the iris. The other 5 pieces I liked were late Impressionist.  Three of them were by Vincent Van Gogh the others were by an artist I did not recognize.

I loved visiting  and getting to know NYC. I have a feeling you would to, if you like walking, shopping or giant museums. Thank You!!! Bippy and Gramps for taking me because I've always wanted to see NYC.

by Kayley Sienna Rolph