HAWAIIAN BLISS!!!

 Now anyone who knows me , knows I love Hawaii! So doesn't take much to get me headed in that direction!

 Let me just start there .. My husband ,our daughter , Nicole (Nici to us) and her hubby Derick decided to whisked Nici away to Hawaii , while their youngest 15 yr old. Christian was touring Europe playing concerts with  200 other kids from across America . Her son being the youngest on the tour.... nail biting time for mom... So While he was going to be gone for 16 days , I thought we could at least break up the time with a trip to Hawaii right?? yeah!

 We have owned timeshare at the Bay Club at Waikoloa Big Island  for years so we headed there. If you ever get the chance to stay in this area it's  great !   They have a service where you can order groceries (mostly breakfast  simple lunch chips etc)  it was awesome . It was nice to know you wouldn't have to go hunt for a store right away !    They offer free shuttle service to shops every half hour .

Guest  includes 2 free movie rentals

 Master

  one of several pools

 master bath suite full kitchen, washer and dryer and barbecues  each has their own patio.

As you can see very nice ,exceptional service, they offer trips , hula lessons, parties on site, movie nite. All kinds of things to do if one wishes to participate. 
The Waikoloa Resort has tennis courts, golf, 2 shopping centers the Queens Market and Kings Market. They offer everything from clothing ,fast food ,jewelry restaurants art . Just about anything you they have it.  
Highly suggest Ippy's Three Pig's Happy Hour 
$5 drinks !!!   see happy daughters face! Pork sliders  chicken wings, full sized cheese w/ fries on their appetizer menu !! Yummy, full and easy on your wallet!

 Three Pig's 

Appetizers 

   No, it wasn't just about the food but I will say this IF you want to save money and have great food and drinks , hit the happy hours at the good restaurants.

 They have awesome ,delicious appetizers $5 drinks including my kind Blue Hawaii's , MaiTai's ,beers, well's.   
  Sam Choy's had THE MOST yummy chicken wings EVER! They were HUGE, 8 of them crispy to perfection in a zesty sauce and then we ordered the short ribs to 6 meaty ribs yummy! $ 5 drinks .... We were good to go! Bubba Gump's is even better ! at $4.50 an appetizer  we ordered 5 different apps 4 drinks and two full meals that we split bill came to $101.00 for the entire bill!

    Cruising around the Big Island  my husband Terry always with the 'tude!

           

 Stopped at the  Ancient Hawaiian Village P‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park 







Nici getting cheeky with the tiki!

LAVA-LAVA BEACH  this beach is near the Bay Club about 1 mile away parking available. There are restrooms and  places to wash sand off , best to bring your own chairs or towels

 not many lounge chairs available.   Glass bottom boat leaves from this location . They charge $27.00 per person VERY reasonable !  Make reservations early!

We saw some amazing sights, ate some awesome food, bought great art,swam with the fishes, took lots of pictures, spent quality time with my lovely daughter her great husband , and my own great guy! 

Hated to come home ! Aloha!

My Husband's Newest Knockoff!

            Our cute little beach house has been getting neglected of late . Now that our remodel is finished it is time to turn our attention back to the beach house!   
  We inherited a lot of the furniture with our little house , much of it was in good shape. As people do,  we prefer to replace it with things of our own taste , which we have been doing little by little. 
   Our current coffee table is actually quite functional, not bad looking . The top slides open in the middle to reveal a nice deep space for stashing books ,games extra blankets etc.  and a lower shelf for additional storage which we use for our collection of board games. The problem is it's  size. It is just too big for the space when all the family is there to get around it. Measuring 45" by 24" which probably isn't all that big but with these oversized couches it is. Which we will be keeping for a while yet, it is tight!

Enter this cute table! This is Ethan Allen's version at a whopping $1598.00   ,which I am sure it's worth every penny !  Hand cut hewn wood from some forest somewhere exotic yada yada yada! I think artisans were thrown in there somewhere  

 Just not my budget ! Here is my husband's knockoff version! 

It is just about finished is just waiting to be giving it's top coat . SCREAM! I love it!   It's pared down size 34" by 22"  gives us back some valuable real estate around the couch I still have storage for board games!   Cost you ask?  

$140.00  total for wood . Our exotic wood was Hemlock , wood glue, nail brads, sponge brushes, minwax pre stain conditioner , minwax kona stain, minwax varnish.

For do it yourself projects this one went really well. I was amazed how quickly and easily he seem to make this one.   Hope you enjoyed this knock off! He's going to make another one for the den of our main home. I'' ll take WIP (work in progress) pictures next time. Bye for now~ 

It's finally Done!!

Our gorgeous new kitchen is finally done! It is amazing how much damage "hidden " damage water can do!  One the floor was removed around the sink and dishwasher area , it was discover that water had seeped under the floor to the cabinets warping them as well. 

  After inspection underneath the house water had managed to find it's way underneath there too. Good news was it was easily taken care of under the house with massive air dryers. 

 The kitchen cabinets were another story altogether. They had become warped, the drywall was damp behind it and had to be cut out so large portion of lower cabinets and wall were removed as well as the floor 
   down to subfloor. the kitchen was completely taped off with industrial vinyl sheeting , heavy fans and dehumidifiers ran 24/7 for about 3 weeks!  Trying to dry out everything . It has to be bone dry before remodel can begin, not black mold please!!!! 

The inspection resulted in complete removal of all my cabinets ( they had been designer built no longer available) and couldn't be matched , my granite counters couldn't be saved, so I received a new kitchen!  Thank GOD for State Farm Insurance! Our experience went smoothly , our agent was great!   I can not say enough great things about the service we received! our service! My neighbor has another big named insurance  company  and is going through a nightmare for the same thing . 

My desk used to be 2 levels a high side and low side ,  now it's one nice level surface which I love! I swapped out the 2 doors on each side for deep drawers for files and such. The cabinets above the desk only were 36" one full cabinet and the a half one . We went  with 42" cabinets and doubles! My wonderful cabinet builder suggested building the cabinet over the refrig out and adding slats so I could place all my oversized cookie sheets and baking pans in there instead of my over worked pantry! I love it!

The glass cabinets were my idea, I really wanted them! As long as we could add them and stay within the insurance budget, I wasn't paying anything out of pocket!  The cabinet over the sink didn't exist, for whatever reason the builder left it a empty space which always bothered me so I had a vintage shelf there. This was a perfect opportunity to add one! We decided to take these up to the ceiling . I have 2 !! ount them 2 pull out spice cabinets for all my spices! SCREAM! no more drawers stuff with spices everywhere! One is bottom right side of the stove the other right above next to microwave.

Backsplash was the only thing that was saved from original kitchen.   I wish I would have taken pictures of before but forgot. Our kitchen had white cabinets, with a nice granite. 

 The center island and the cabinet on the left side of this picture all are now drawers. I no longer have any cabinets except the upper ones and the one under the sink.  All the others are wonderful heavenly deep drawers that hold my pots, pans, electric skillets, mixing bowls, Foreman grill, Bella blender, assorted Corningware French ware & lids!

The granite is the most gorgeous stuff I have ever laid eyes on. 

It beyond anything amazing! It is white with bits of grays tan

black  

has shades of  violet , blue, greens veiled by layer,of white iridescent  quartz so that you only get to see hints of color here and there. There a bits of black onyx with tiny shells the patterns of what looks likes ancient sand.  Serg,  our granite guy, does not have one seam in this granite ! NOT ONE!!  The way he creates his pattern is the craziest thing I have ever seen , it involves , long sticks that he glues together with a hot glue gun , but hey , NO SEAMS and it fit perfectly!  We love the finished kitchen and our new floors, my hubby repainted so it's like have a whole new downstairs. Since we were having the floors done we decided to take the new floors into the livingroom and dining room area , and I am happy we did. I love the way it turned out too.  I and had been wanting to turn  the dining room into a real dining area so this was the first step in getting that done. 
 Well I've chatted long enough , next time I will show off my $150.00 dining room set !