Those who know me in real life as well as those who have been following my blog for a while, know that my husband and my sons have all worked in Hawaii. Specifically, they’ve traveled to the island of Kauai to help our friend build a unique, quality home in Anini Vista. I’ve posted pictures of the home here and there, though we have hundreds of the building process, and actually have some photos of the empty lot with nothing but block laid out on that rich red soil where a house would someday stand.

The home is now finished and is on the market. I’ve tried to find words to describe it but can’t. Magnificent isn’t quite enough. Spectacular doesn’t capture it. Breathtaking is an understatement. This is a house that you have to see to truly appreciate. It’s casual elegance and top quality craftsmanship. It’s a home like no other.

Don’t believe me? Well, just take a look. Visit Hanapai North Shore Kauai for a tour of the home that my husband and sons helped to build. The home has 50 arches, all built by my husband. My son, Jesse, built the bridge over the salt-water pool and moved the rocks to create the unique lagoon landscaping as well as the stone grill.

Take a photo tour of the house and grounds or watch a video walk-through. Then imagine that what you’re seeing is only a fraction of the true beauty of this place.

Okay, I know that most of us – maybe even all of us reading this now – can only dream of ever living in place like this. I know I feel privileged to be married to the guy who did all the masonry on it, and very fortunate to have been able to swim in that pool! Somewhere out there, though, is the right person for this house. Someone who has the means to buy this house and will truly appreciate the work that went into it is out there, I just know it. I don’t know if that person will read my blog or not but if he or she does, there will be no doubt this is the right home.

If you’re interested in purchasing this exquisite home, head on over to the Hanapai North Shore Kauai site and contact Linda Kelly about it. Make sure you tell her that Marisa sent you. And let me know by posting here, too. I’m anxious to find out who this home calls out to and who answers that call.

Even if you can’t afford it, you can still let me know what you think of it. We can all dream about it together while we wait to find out who is lucky enough to live in it.

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It won’t be long before HDTV is here in our little hole-in-the-wall town. I think the magic date is February 2009. That gives us less than half a year to replace our TVs with HDTVs.

I really want a TV to hang on my family room wall. The wall is long and would be perfect with a new modular couch surrounding it. The kitchen isn’t that big of a deal since it has it’s own TV ledge and we mostly watch the news in there.

The real challenge will be my bedroom. Right now, the TV is way up high on a chest of drawers. I hate it there. If we get a nice LCD for the bedroom, I’d really like to get a tv lift cabinet, too. If I move the furniture around a little, maybe get rid of one of the chairs, I think it would fit in nicely.

I have a few months to plan this, though. And to save up for the transition

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When my husband and I renovated our home we had to work within a budget. We were careful not to skimp on those things that are most important, like plumbing and wiring, while cutting corners on some of the easier-to-replace items like faucets and light fixtures. Over the past 15+ years, we’ve replaced a few ceiling fans and bathroom fixtures but now I’m ready to do a major overhaul in my own master bath.

For the most part, I’m satisfied with the vanity lighting that we chose. The vanity is long with a kneehole space for sitting and primping. My husband convinced me that recessed lighting would be best there and it’s worked out well. What hasn’t worked out well is the ceiling light in the center of the bathroom. My husband picked it out and made a huge mistake. It takes special (i.e. expensive) light bulbs. They’ve been burned out for over a year and I’m ready to replace the fixture and get something I’ll actually use.

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the fact that my husband spent a little extra in order to make my bathroom special for me. It’s just that I’d rather have a light fixture that takes regular bulbs rather than special ones that never get replaced. I found a progress lighting flush mount fixture that I really like. Not only does it coordinate well with my bedroom ceiling light/fan, but it takes three 100 watt bulbs. That means no special bulbs! What do you think? Do you like that fixture?

Speaking of special bulbs, I did look into the difference between using regular incandescent bulbs or fluorescent ones. I’d read that fluorescent lights are more energy efficient but according to Wired Magazine, their life is cut short by turning them on and off repeatedly, as would happen in a bathroom, so they’re not the best choice for that room.

I’m still considering fluorescents for other rooms in my house, though. I’ve always wanted under cabinet lighting throughout my kitchen; I wonder how that would work with fluorescents. The Wired Mag article I mentioned says that you can control the “tint” of fluorescents by choosing the correct CFL, measured in degrees Kelvin. The upper warm range would probably work well for the “mood setting” kitchen lighting.

I’m going to do a little more research on the various brands of fluorescents because I do plan to update all of my lighting fixtures in the house over the next few years. If you know of worthwhile sites regarding energy efficient lighting, let me know in my comments.

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I was looking around the house at my furniture and realized something. When we bought all new furniture in 1993, we had visions of it lasting for several decades. Ha!

It took less than a year for a teenage son to body slam his buddy onto one of the couches, breaking the frame. Over the next several years, the kids put a hurting on virtually every piece of furniture in the house.

My bedroom furniture is still fine and other than the chairs, the dining room furniture is still good. Kids’ beds and dressers, kitchen barstools, living room end tables – all gone and replaced. Boys are hard on furniture.

In 7 years Levi will graduate from high school. In 7 years I will buy all new furniture. And not until.

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As some of you many know, I designed my house and my husband built it. I was limited in what I could do since we initially intended to simply remodel our home. The more work we did, the more we tore down. Finally, we’d torn down our entire house, right to the poured concrete foundation, then rebuilt it according to plans that I drew. Considering how it all happened, the house turned out pretty good.

Of course, 15 years later I have a short list of things I’d do differently. One change in particular would probably never get approval from my husband. That’s because he likes things to be the “usual” way and I like to experiment. Anyway.

I hate to stand on a ladder so changing lightbulbs in the hallway has been a problem for me. I have to bribe and threaten a son to get it done. My idea (and there’s no reason we can’t make the necessary changes to do this) is to eliminate those darn light fixtures on the ceiling and place a lighted wall sconce here and there in the halls instead. Wouldn’t that be great? They’d be low enough that I could change the bulbs myself and still be controlled by the light switches. Also, I think it would look really nice, too.

The trick is getting my husband to agree and make the changes. He won’t be home from Hawaii for at least a month so I’m going to be thinking about a way to convince him that this tiny little remodeling project would be a good idea. Time to put on my thinking cap.

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Boomer and I stopped at the store yesterday, on the way home from school, to look at new curtains for his room. We didn’t find curtains that either of us liked but I did find these interesting roller shades that I’m going to try.

The shades were all one size but the box claims that they’re very easy to cut down to size. Most interesting was that they hang without any extra hardware. They’re sticky! I’d never seen shades like that. I don’t know how well they’ll stick or stay up, but I figured it was worth a shot.

So I bought two shades and I’m going to hang them in my bedroom. I have nice draperies in there but the sheers underneath are old and should be replaced. If these shades stick and stay, I may just toss the sheers.

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When we remodeled/renovated/rebuilt our house, I got to pick out most of the details. Things like light fixtures and faucets were my department. The choices were huge – paring it down was quite a job! All in all, I think I did a good job.

The one thing that Brian did insist upon was that we have marble bathroom vanities in every bathroom. My mom’s bathroom has a fomica top, which is nice, but I have to admit that I really like the marble much better. Except that I’d like to change the color of my main bathroom and I’m not quite sure I can afford it. I haven’t priced marble vanity tops for over 15 years so I have no idea what the prices are now.

Looks like I’ll have to do some research. If the cost is low enough, I may be able to spring for ceramic tile on the floor, too!

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I am so wanting summer to get here soon. I want to go swimming!

I really miss not having a pool in the backyard but it was just getting to be a pain to keep up. The kids would rather go to the public pool with all there friends (and away from their mother) so mostly, it was just me in the pool most days.

Anyway, I was thinking of filling up the jacuzzi tonight but it always takes so long to get it filled. We made a huge mistake when we bought it. It’s huge – like 5′x7′ – but it isn’t a hot tub that stays filled with water and chemicals. You fill it up like a bathtub, and drain it when you’re done. I guess it’s like a giant bathtub. Or a double bathtub with jets that make bubbles.

Because it’s so big I have to fill it up to a certain level and then wait about 45 minutes for the water heater to heat up another tank of water. And that’s a gas water heater! Imagine if we had to wait on an electric one. I was hoping to find a better way to fill the tub and wanted to look into tankless water heaters. I wonder how that would work if we used it only for the jacuzzi. I believe we’d have a choice of electric or propane and I think propane would probably be more cost effecient in the long run.

I’ll see what the husband thinks. Since we won’t be getting a new pool in the near future, this seems like a reasonable trade off. For now, at least

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Anyone with kids knows that they can do unbelievable damage to a home. Well, at least boys can. I don’t remember ever being as destructive as my boys are and even my mom has said the same thing.

My sisters and I loved baths. We played in the tub just as any kid does. We did not, however, remove the detachable shower head and spray water from the bathroom, down the hall and into the living room. My boys have. That’s when they weren’t splashing most of the water out of the tub, of course.

The boys are older now and take showers. Things are not much better. I have no idea how they manage to get so much water on the floor when there is a very nice shower door surrounding them. I do know that the bathroom floor is going to need replaced soon because of all the water that they’ve splashed out of the tub or shower over the years.

We’re trying to save money to do the floors in the main bathroom as well as the kitchen. When we do, I’m going to look into new bathroom fixtures, too. I’d like a new sink but I don’t think we’ll be able to swing that. I’ll just be happy to get the floor replaced!

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How do you convince a kid that an artificial Christmas tree is just as good as a real one? Better yet, how do you convince him that fake is better, at least in this case?

Nick keeps talking about wanting a “real” tree. Never mind that he has allergies, just as Levi and Jesse do. Never mind that he has never had to pick up pine needles for 5 months after the tree has been discared. He has no clue what he’s getting himself into.

Apparently he was watching a TV show promoting the Wilmington NC real estate market that featured lavishly decorated homes, all with real Christmas trees. Okay, first, these trees were over 10 feet tall. We’ve already decided that we can’t put a tree in the foyer and that’s the only place in the house with high enough ceilings to accomodate a tree that size. Besides, those homes were almost certainly decorated by professionals who will also come in after the holidays and remvoe the trees and make sure that no pine needles remain.

Nick keep telling me that next year he’s buying a real tree before I drag out the fake one. He also wants to plant one in front of the house and decorate it. Brian has said NO WAY to that. He does not want pine needles in his gutters!

Poor Nick. He has all these great ideas yet all we’ll let him do is climb on the roof to hang lights.

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