Hello, Wow, an A-frame house that looks to be an exact copy of a West coast designed and built homes by a company called Lindal Cedar Homes. “Lindal Cedar Homes (est. in 1944) is an American manufacturer of prefabricated post-and-beam homes. Since 1950s it is the largest North American manufacturer of prefabricated cedar homes. In the 1960s it was the largest US manufacturer of A-frame houses.” “In the mid 60s, after relocating to Tacoma, the company entered the A-frame houses market. In 1965 it developed a patented low-cost A-frame house that made it market leader in this segment.” After my wife and I stayed with our friends in Kauai for the whole summer one year, we were making plans to come back to the Hanalei area. Our friend had skills well beyond mine and he had designed his own house from a model he built out of scale model pieces. We were all amazed and listened to his plans. He knew he could duplicate the pieces, gather them all together and then ship them over to Kauai arriving in the Nawiliwili Harbor. He and his wife had already bought the land and now wanted to built a home on it. At first, it was going to be a vacation home. But as plans got rolling, he decided to ship, build and stay for the summer. Then as the winter rolls in, rent it out until they could come back again next summer. But, after the plans and house got going, they did not want to come back to So Cal. But, he needed more things to complete the whole house and yard. So, eventually they built, we visited and they came back to get ready for the final move. It was later decided to make that house a permanent move. While we were there, a permanent move sounded good to my wife and me. So, we looked into the property across the street that was for sale. 12k for a large lot on a corner and we could wave hello to our friends across the street. Did I tell you Hanalei Bay waves were just down the walkable street? Yowza! So, the real estate agent was ready and told us to secure financing to buy the lot first. So, we talked to several local banks. It may have been the beach worn sun tanned look that both of us portrayed, but the banks said “no loans.” Why? They said we had good credit, but were “out of state folks.” The local bank policies did not allow sales of empty property to out of state buyers. My wife talked to a family friend who was a vice president of a local So Cal Savings and Loan bank. She was happy we found a place. But, said that the local USA bank’s policy was that “no loans to buy empty, out of state property,” were allowed. So, now, we were caught in a middle tug of war. Jnaki What did we do? As we were on our way to Los Angeles to talk to some other banks and have a nice dinner + music events, we drove by on the 405 freeway near Lion’s Dragstrip. Off to the side was a flat area and frontage road, that had the look of the photo posted. It was a large parking lot with a nice modified A-frame house we had been researching for our vacation home/possible permanent home. The two homes were about 1100 sq ft each. Since we were living in a 600 sq ft apartment, 1100 is huge! Two bedrooms, two bath, one upstairs in a loft area and one on the main floor. Small but perfect for a couple of 20 somethings with a new direction… and a world class surf spot nearby at the end of the short street to the harbor. At the time, the sales guy said the whole house kit could be packaged to ship to Kauai and we would assemble it on site. So, we kept looking and planning in our heads. Our friend said we could stay with them while the building was going to take place. Finally, we both decided to put some money down and keep the house plans on hold for us. We still needed to secure financing for the property. Note: After a zillion conferences with various banks, savings and loans and our future plans. We decided that it was not going to be feasible to buy the property as we did not have 12k cash. So, everything got cancelled. But, our A frame deposit was not returnable as we found out. We thought that was shaky, but soon afterwards, the house company closed the property, models and left the area. No, we did not buy any property or cabin and that portion of our lives was a passing history that we always see in our minds. It would have been a different direction than the long lasting So Cal residences/lives we eventually started and are still around to enjoy. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
