Speaking of quality building...

I've ranted before about how bad our house is, but I realized today that nobody out there understands the degree of poor craftsmanship involved. Now granted, the main problems are;

1. The house is old
2. The house is on a poor foundation which itself rests on hydraulic clay (that expands and contracts with, um, copious amounts of rain).
3. The house is single wall construction There's very little drywall or studs, and no insulation. A few beams and mostly 1" thick solid wood planking around all the outer walls. Prevalent in older Hawaiian homes. I've never seen it anywhere else. Even the mighty Google found very little information on it.
   

So, since a picture speaks a thousand words, here's an essay. You may need to click on some of these and view them full-size to grasp the details.

The door on the left was added on a few years ago and is actually level, but the siding isn't.

The roof extends out over our "garage" from the house. As far as I can tell, that 4x4 post is original, the beam hasn't moved, and the cinderblock wall is definitely original. So why does it lean in about 10 degrees?

This crack in the foundation starts under the Pergo in the kitchen, runs out the Lanai (patio) all the way to the exterior of the house.

More superb concrete work



On the left, the floor in the kitchen, on the right, the floor in my daughter's room at the other end of the hall. The 4 foot level doesn't have a bubble-reading that far off....

Just say the word "hurricane" and we'll be packing off to grandma's.