January 2005: We build a Cabaña

January 18th, 2005

We are blessed with expert help.

James and Robin, long­time friends from the main­land, arrive to make a huge con­tri­bu­tion to the energy and form of Lokelani Ranch. We have been look­ing for­ward to this for some time now, being one of the big steps for­ward in our plan to refur­bish the house. This project has been at the top of the list since we got here, but we had not been able to make any progress on it— mainly for lack of expe­ri­enced help to get us going in the right direc­tion. When James and Robin vol­un­teered to give us two months of their time, we knew we could begin to move for­ward on the house in really sub­stan­tial ways. Woo hoo!

First, how­ever, we wanted to build a lit­tle cabaña, a place for James and Robin to stay, and a small room we could also use for yoga, med­i­ta­tion ‚etc. We began on this right away, select­ing a fairly secluded spot near the old banana grove just behind the coconut tree… and not too far from the house.

Kea, the ‘build­ing inspec­tor,’ checks the fram­ing of the shala, to the amuse­ment of James, Robin and Lisa. Photo by Annette.

Our design goals for the project were to cre­ate a pri­vate, yet open space, immersed in the nature around. We needed to keep the size under 100 square feet (it’s 98) and of course the cost as low as pos­si­ble. All the lum­ber was pre-painted with primer… we want it to last!

Painting the rafters.

It’s so sat­is­fy­ing to have the work done so metic­u­lously. This lit­tle build­ing is tight! We are learn­ing a tremen­dous amount about how to build things.

This view gives an impres­sion of the set­ting of the cabaña. The hills in the dis­tance are the ‘feet’ of the Giant.

I said before the house refurb has been at the top of our list since the begin­ning. Actually, the yoga shala/sanctuary/meditation space has been at the top of the list well before we moved to Kaua’i. We knew we would need a space for those pur­poses if we were to man­i­fest our “direc­tion, def­i­n­i­tion and pur­pose” for this land. And here it is… or at least the first ver­sion of it. We still plan to cre­ate a sacred space, larger and ded­i­cated solely to those pur­poses, as this one will be called into ser­vice as a guest space fairly often, I think.

And here we are with the com­pleted cabaña! Annette, Lisa, Robin and James right­fully beam­ing over their work.

And it’s now a space we can use, although some fin­ish­ing touches and amend­ments will be required: light­ing, a front porch and a way to raise and lower the blinds from the inside. Of course there is the space for an artis­tic impulse to dec­o­rate the place… it’s kinda plain at the moment, but that will change with time. Also needed is a name for the build­ing: var­i­ous sug­ges­tions have come up: The Shack, The Yoga Shala, The Cabaña, Banana Cabana, Shambhala Shala… etc. In the end it will name itself— got a suggestion?

Next we begin the refurb of the house, thank you for bless­ing us with your help, James and Robin!

Lisa and Annette in front of the com­pleted cabaña.

I want to thank and acknowl­edge our good friend Annette, whom we came to know and love dur­ing our time at the Findhorn com­mu­nity. She brought the gift of her open-hearted intu­itive work and fur­ther con­nects this place with the net­work of cen­ters of light. We loved hav­ing you here! Thank you for all you have con­tributed and we hold the space for your return and your part­ner Innes, also. Lightworkers essen­tial to all we intend here.