So the roofers have been here for three weeks, father and son, Jerome and Gabriel Lampro, from Eureka California. They are experts at roofing geodesic domes. The father Jerome, has done 70 of them all over the US. We figured an expert was needed, especially since we selected a difficult but beautiful shingle, Celotex Presidential, the same shingle we used on the Ohana house. Also, it is worth noting, the dome is all shingle, right down to the deck. It is in your face, as it were. It reminds me of the native American who was asked by an interviewer why he wasn't cold. The indian said "Is your face cold?" "No" replied the interviewer. Replied the Indian, "Indian all face". Well, dome all shingle. For your reference and in case you need your dome shingled Jerome Lampro's web-site is www.domeroofer.com, and Gabriel's web-site is www.archangelbuilders.com.

        So, after some e-mail correspondence, we came to terms. I paid for their airfare and put them up at Lorene's who, our good fortune, was away on the mainland for 6 weeks. They've lived up to their billing. But, woudn't you know it, after a two year drought, the rains are back. It started about the time the roofers arrived from California. We now have rain almost every afternoon. In spite of this, as of today, they've completely roofed the new construction and have about 70% of the dome finished.

        This is how the shingle looks. Notice the varied and sculpted bottom edge and the deep shadow line. The overlap from course to course which in most shingle is 5 inches, is only 3 inches, producing a strong depth effect. It's the only composition shingle that has a shake look. At Karen's urging we decided to use copper flashing at all exposed edges and facias.

       I've recently finalized the design for the interior finial and have given the drawings to Incom, the local metal-working shop that does most of my steel brackets and structural weldments. This time I gave them an art-deco piece cut and welded out of 1/4 inch thick steel plates. This 3 ft. long piece will be hung from the 12 inch diameter pipe that is the keystone, some 16 feet above the center of the pavilion floor. A 14 inch diameter milk glass globe with a 100 watt bulb will be affixed to its lower end. The piece has been made and I've had it powder coated a semigloss black. The drawing shows a cross-section. There are six zigarat (stepped) shaped steel fins, spaced equally, at 30 degree intervals around the central piece of 1 inch diameter pipe. together with two discs at the top, one fitting into the structures keystone, and one fitting against its lower face, there are a series of diminishing diameter discs, again cut from 1/4 inch thick steel plate, resting on the inside steps of the fins. I've brought power up into the keystone pipe and wires fed down the fixtures central pipe will connect to the globe fixture affixed to the finial's lower end.

        We've also decided on the exterior finial, the finial that will be affixed to the center of the roof of the pavilion, surrounded by the twelve skylight panels. We've commissioned Charlie Corda, a good friend and an artist that sculpts in cast aluminum. He is designing a piece that will consist of four figures, cast in aluminum, with their arms raised up holding a six inch diameter green glass crystal, cut like a diamond. This crystal was given to us by Saul Binder as a wedding present. He recently died. We've always referred to the crystal as "the Clopman Diamond".  It will now grace the pavilion's roof. For both these finials I had built two steel brackets, one to affix to the top of the keystone pipe and one to the bottom. The next photo shows Babu and I putting those brackets in place.
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        This last Thursday we installed the 12 laminated glass panels that form the central skylight of the pavilion. All of us were up on the roof, with Karen windexing the inside of each panel as Jerome and Gabriel applied a butyl rubber gasket along the glass edge. Afterward we accurately layed the panel into its pre-cut nest that had been cut by Timberwork at the required 8 degree angle in each 4 by 4 riser screwed to the top of each rafter. With all the panels in place we ran butyl rubber gaskets along the two 8 degree surfaces milled by Babu in the redwood cap strips, placing each strip carefully over adjacent panels and screwing them down. The next two photos show this installation work.
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        We have recently completed our 18th week of construction. Along with the major work of roofing the new construction and reroofing the dome, both rough plumbing and rough electrical have been completed and we've passed electrical, plumbing and framing inspection. There is a certain magic to the project. When I was managing large projects as a consulting engineer, I often tried to pre-think problems, project resources and generaly control events. Here in Hawaii I've learned to be a lot looser about running things. Things often run themselves and at their own pace. It reminds me of someone who told me of a Vietnamese word that, he explained, was a lot like "manana" except much less urgent.

        I was worried because the electricians I had worked with in the past, Dale and his crew at Hart Electric, were not responding to my request for a quote nor to promised site visits that didn't materialize. So I called in another electrician. This new guy walked through the job site and saw nothing but problems. His quote came at $4,800, much higher than I expected. Finally at the last minute Dale showed up. He saw nothing but solutions and his price was much more reasonable and his crew, who I knew, did the job beautifully. And I knew I needed a sheetrocker. Our friend Saul called and during our chit-chat I mentioned needing a sheetrocker and he told me a good one had just finished doing some work for him. Brian, the sheetrocker came over the next day, gave me a reeasonable quote and has already spent two days on the job.

        Here are some overall shots of the construction as it now looks, one from the makai side and one from the mauka side.

       Things are moving more quickly now. We've even used the pavilion this last Sunday for Barak's Seder dinner, our fifth celebration in Barak's honor. 22 people to a sit down dinner in the room. It was perfect. The first photo shows Barak and I discussing some fine point of Talmud while he is roasting the three legs of lamb to be eaten during the Seder Feast... the fine point being where did we ever find a three legged lamb (incidently this is the only time Karen and I eat meat during the year).The second photo shows the table set in the pavilion. The third shows everyone seated around the table, low, on cushions, just like your supposed to for the Seder Feast. We all chipped in to clean everything up afterward so the sheetrocker and Babu and the roofers could start work early Monday morning.
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