Construction

Kitchen Island Cabinetry Replaced

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After many years of heavy use, the cabinets and drawers under our kitchen island counter were showing the signs of wear and tear, and termites had moved in. It was time to replace it. Longtime devotee and carpenter Kanda Alahan, from California, was kind enough to build a new set at home. He pre-assembled it, then disassembled and packed efficiently in a crate for shipping by sea, then reassembled it here. Our hired cook, Mani, took a couple days off while Kanda, along with multiple monks and our employee Doug, went about demolishing the old, cleaning the underside of the countertop for reuse and installing the new. It all went very smoothly and they were finished sooner than expected. Thank you Kanda!

  • Kanda Alahan and Kumarnathaswami pleased as kitchen island is complete!
  • Rewinding– the shipping crate containing the cabinetry and drawers
  • Unpacking
  • Cutting out the old cabinets
  • Termit infestations
  • We have to chisel off the old material which is glued to the underside of the countertop
  • Figuring out the electrical plug wiring
  • Kanda and our employee Doug install new plywood base
  • Cabinets are assembled in the woodshop
  • Positioning the cabinets
  • Gluing two sides together
  • Preparing to put the countertop back on
  • Ready to install doors
  • And done!

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Workbench Construction, Flower Cutting

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  • Two on left are glued, with one more to attach
  • All three are attached
  • Kanda unveils the finish coat after drying
  • The table will be attached to this leftover support frame
  • On a side note, new flowers arrived for making garlands

Kanda Alahan from California is here to serve for a couple weeks in his expert woodworking capacities. His main task will be to install replacement kitchen island cabinetry in about a week that he had crafted back home. Before then, he and Kumarnathaswami are creating a new workbench for the tented area adjacent to the main woodshop. They’re making use of three glulam beams that we had left over from another project. They planed and sanded to make sure the beams are the exact same dimensions, then glued them together to form the wide workbench. Finally, a simple finish coat was applied.

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Iraivan Northwest Corner Buildup

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The ground-level perimeter of Iraivan is planted with two types of grass, separated in the middle by paver stones that form a pradakshina path. One can perform the circumambulation walking on the stones or on the light green short grass next to them. For a while now, the northwest corner of this grassy area and paver stones has been sunken, accumulating mud and standing water. We are now in process of rectifying this. Paver stones in the corner were removed and dirt brought in to raise the area. A pipe was placed under the new dirt to help channel water around the corner and away. When our employee returns to work, he’ll finish re-installing the paver stones.

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Efficient Use of Space for More Storage

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For decades we’ve been using “Big Max” small storage sheds to hold many construction, maintenance and repair supplies such as plumbing parts, electrical parts, etc. The sheds served a good purpose, but are inherently flimsy and more susceptible to corrosive elements than a actual building. Now that we have the new Hale Hana metal building, the Siddhidata kulam is gradually moving supplies into secure, better-protected storage space created above the welding station. They are fashioning shelves with unusually-thick plywood that was gifted to us by a local contractor.

Across the room they also recently installed safety poles and ropes along the storage space up there.

After capturing these few photos, we saw taskforcer Aran Malhotra weeding next to the “Tiki” sculpture outside Hale Hana entrance.

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Kadavul Temple Reroofing Begins

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  • Reroofing begins
  • Tiles passed down to scaffolding…
  • Moved along more scaffolding…
  • Then pushed across this beam…
  • into the dump trailer

After protecting Kadavul Temple’s wooden roof from the elements for about 40 years, it’s finally time to remove the monier tiles, which had begun to crack here and there, causing some water damage underneath. They will be replaced with shingle tiles after conducting any necessary repairs of the wood ceiling beams underneath and placing a new layer of thick plywood and tar paper. As can be imagined, this project causes quite a disruption to the flow of visitors who normally attend puja and mill about throughout the mornings. To be fully on the safe side, we have shut down public access to the temple and surrounding area for the duration of the project.

Yesterday was the first day of work for the contracted team. The first photo shows how much tile they have removed from one side (under the blue tarp). The job is estimated to last a couple weeks or longer, pending discovery of needed repairs or weather issues. Just today, it rained a fair amount (needed by plants after a dry spell), so the workers can only resume when that stops.

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Hale Hana Update

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  • Sadhaka Shankaranatha flattening the edge of the boards.
  • Sannyasin Vishvanathaswami glueing the wood together
  • This is one of the legs for the angle desk
  • Bandit cat, in his usual spot

Jai Ganesha!

The Siddhidatta Kulam’s new office is now nearing to its final stage of construction. Sannyasin Vishvanathaswami and Sadhaka Shankaranatha are now working on a new base for the aquarium for the new office. They are working along with Acharya Kumarnathaswami, who is coordinating and guiding them to construct the new base. Apart from Acharya’s many years of woodworking knowledge, he also has recent experience building aquarium stands, after working with Mayuresh who was here on taskforce last year. The two of them had built a stand for the Ganapathi Kulam’s aquarium which you can checkout at this link: https://www.himalayanacademy.com/archive-taka-single-post/?taka_post=898852 “

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