Hi everyone! 

The floors, tiles and beams on building two are done. The railings are mostly done, but all should be done this week if the stars are aligned. Scaffolding is going down on building two and going up on building four. Building four may take longer for various reasons, primarily because rotten upper beams will need to be replaced and there will be Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

Building one will probably start in February.  It too has rotten upper beams and will take longer.

The island still has a bunch of COVID rules that affect our gutter contractors with fourteen day quarantines, so the gutter construction is way behind.

The island is back to normal in the slow season. Living Foods has reopened with new owners, but Tortilla Republic and Ruth Chris are gone forever. Pizzetta in Koloa is also gone. They are starting to build new condos and hotels again. Traffic has returned to the Eastside.

PLEASE have your property managers remove plants from your balcony. They are a source of broken tile and potential leaks. They seem to always be dirty and muddy and attract bugs. After spending two million dollars, we need to protect our investment. Also, lanai furniture with heavy/solid wood/block type legs should have waterproof foot glides, so the furniture legs don’t absorb or hold water and debris and stain the new floor.

Building two construction is going well, some railings are done, all the floors will be done in a few weeks. Gutters eventually. 

Scaffolding will go up on Building Four by the middle of October, maybe sooner. They will work on the west side first (units 411, 421.)

Building four will take much longer because of rotten beams that need replacing and because the guys will take Thanksgiving off and some time off Christmas.

Building one will be after building four. Building eight and nine will be early next year. Each building takes about three months.

Most of our main sewer lines have been cleaned. We will restart cleaning individual unit lines this January. Please have your property managers put hair traps in your bathtub drains. We simply can’t afford any more floods. If your water heater is due to be replaced, please do it now. Tourism is way down again.

The Close Down of the island brought us multiple disastrous floods that cost us all a lot of money. Delays in entering the building were a big problem because there are so many inexpensive property managers nowadays (Air B&B, Craigslist, etc.) that have their own keys/entry codes and are often very slow in answering calls from our security team. Our security team has at least fifty keys on their key chain. All the locks will be changed soon to allow for easy access in emergencies.

We are not sure if there will be an in person October meeting yet. 

A whole new wave of Covid flu anxiety has gripped the island. The governor just clamped things down again. It is hard to keep up with all the rules. Check before you come. Plane fares are astoundingly cheap. There is a great deal of anti-tourist sentiment on the island right now and the angry buzz word on the island is “over-tourism.” 

Building three is rentable with new decks and railings. Building two is one-third done, the two middle units are being demoed now. In a couple months, work will start on building four. Building one after that.

REMINDER: When a building is being worked on, the whole building is uninhabitable for two to three months. 

Please have your property managers place screens on your bathtub drains.

Our Board budgeted $50,000 for possible floods last year. We spent $192,000 reimbursing homeowners for water damage in 2020 and 2021 from sewer backups. As a result, our insurance premium is going from about $37,000 a year to $68,000 next year! Obviously, what we are doing isn’t working. We are working on new protocols. 

Please don’t forget to check all your flood warning alarms. 

—

Gordon LaBedz 

808 634 8535

Be sure to visit our owner website KahalaOwners.org

(4-27-2021) Ceilings are going in as crews finish lanais. The images below in the gallery are of Kahala 623. The vent in the center allows the ceiling to remain dry.

(4-24-2021) Building 6 will be complete and all units rentable by end of May.  624 is completed with railing.  633 and 632 tile is complete, grouted and sealed.  622 and 623 have the first coat of the HydroBan membrane, tile starting next week after the new vent and ceiling prototype installed.  If viable, Sal will start reinstalling ceiling as he goes to avoid having to return to the units in the future.  Scaffold and tent erected on 621, demo to start next week.

(4-18-2021) The lanai replacement project continues to go well. As Sal and his crew work through each building, they are learning techniques to be more efficient. Look for an updated schedule soon but you can expect a twelve week period where you unit is not rentable. 

So far Buildings 5 and 7 are complete. Sal and the crew are working on Building 6.

Building 6 wrapped in tarps

A partially demo’d lanai.

Building 7 with new lanais

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0089.JPG

Building 7 lanai

A view from above Building 7

High above Building 7

Looking down from a finished lanai

Looking out from a new lanai

One of the new mailbox units

A new mailbox unit

Sal and crew at work

New gutter design

Tiled lanai

A leveled lanai

Closeup of lanai ceiling vent

Lanai with new ceiling installed

I’ve attached images that show finished lanais and also what a shrouded unit looks like so you get the idea of why you can’t rent it out!

Also see new pictures of the mailboxes. You can pick up your keys from Marlene in the Poipu Kai office. Be sure to go down to the Koloa post office and fill out an activation form.

We have had very heavy rain here in Po’ipu all week. 

Po’ipu is still pretty much a ghost town. Great for us who live here. A few restaurants are open part time. The big hotels are all closed.

Aloha Kahala Owners!

The demolition and tile replacement are finishing up on Building Five. February will be building six. Remember, the workers will be accessing your unit. The tiles and equipment are simply too heavy to carry up over scaffolding which would add days of extra work and cost.

The railings and gutters are not up yet. I will let you know.

Kahala has had six floods this year. Two of them cost our association $72,000! That is your money that paid for it. Other Po’ipu Kai condos are also flooding all over the place. None of this would happen if the units were occupied. Please have your on-island representative check your water flow and drains regularly.

The resort is empty and everyone is parking wherever they want right now. No problem. However, when visitors return, we are going to crack down. One vehicle parking spot per unit (including two bedroom units.) If you haven’t paid for your reserved parking spot, we are going to tow you away, same for Kaua’i residents who store their extra vehicles in the Visitor spots. Our construction workers will need those spots. Right now, everything is cool. There are no visitors.

There are five units for sale which is quite unusual. Restaurants that were open are now closed. The “resort bubble” concept seems to be a flop. On the other hand, as an owner, if you can get here and stay, the island is nicer than it has been since the seventies.

Another clampdown with a ten day quarantine has closed the island to tourism again. There are a few snowbird owners here, but the place is pretty empty.

Below is the condominium unit order list as to what order construction will begin for lanai replacement. The order is listed in groups of two or three units (the bottom floor unit is listed, as it will be effected by noise and scaffolding, but no entry into the unit will be required). Units not listed are already completed or work is currently being done. Timing of this work will be
extremely fluid.

The order should remain firm and timing can be estimated as this project progresses. We will send emails to owners and rental agents as completion of units occurs with regular updates to all.

In January 2021, work should begin for the first units. Each part of the project includes the repair of two lanais (the side units have two lanais).

The ceiling of the lanais will remain off all of the units until all repair work is completed. Ceiling structures will be replaced by appointment sometime in 2022. Due to each lanai presenting unique repair issues and coordinating between the construction/tile, railing and gutter contractors and material supply, giving even a vague timeline for that part of the work is unfeasible.

Click on the link to download the pdf schedule.

Again, mahalo for your patience. We know this project impacts you at a time when we are already reeling from the effects of COVID-19. 

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