A Clean and Inviting Island Home

After months of silence, I am back on the blog.  Lots had happened in the past few months. My oldest son graduated from high school. We spent two months traveling in the summer (possibly topics for future posts). We also have been quite busy with a little project in the past six months: we bought a house and renovated it from head to toe.  

The property is located in beautiful Kailua, my home town, and when we bought it together with my friend Debbie and her husband Brian, it was in less then perfect shape.  In fact, I called it "the icky house".  It was in dire need of help.  After six months of renovations, the house is all done, and looks perfect, inside and out.  

The inspiration for the house was a clean and neutral beach look, with driftwood colored floors, grey tiles and creamy white walls (Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee).

A Beautiful Vancouver Home

After what seems like ages, I am back with a post on my friend Annekatrin's house.  If you are a faithful reader of this blog (hi mom!), you may remember that my youngest son and I visited Vancouver, BC in October to check out fall leaves and spend some quality time with our friends who live there.  They have recently renovated their home and below are some pictures of the results.  They worked with an architect and an interior designer, and the final product is stylish and welcoming.  But let the photos, taken by the design firm, speak for themselves. Lovely, isn't it?

A mosaic tile focal point in the French country kitchen

A Foodie Tour of Upcountry Maui

On Valentine's Day weekend, which coincided with President's Day weekend and thus was one of those wonderful three-day affairs, we flew over to Maui for some quality relaxation. For those of you not from Hawaii, Maui is about a 30 minute airplane ride from Honolulu. And that includes taxiing. Flight takes off, you get a tropical juice drink, you have five minutes to drink it, flight lands. Just my kind of travel.

View from our room at the Grand Wailea

Crystal Beauty

I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with giant crystal chandeliers. No, I don't own any. I also don't own a mansion or palace. Which is exactly where these beauties belong. Or in a theater - and that is where I found the specimen below. It hangs in the Baroque Theatre in the royal palace in Gödöllő, Hungary. The theater was recently restored (one of only two existing baroque theaters in the world) during the latest phase of the palace reconstruction.

Isn't this chandelier gorgeous? 

A Charming Castle Hotel in Central Wales: Craig-Y-Nos Castle

Last summer on our tour of United Kingdom and Ireland we stopped at this lovely castle hotel, situated in central Wales, in the Upper Swansea Valley in Powys. Craig-Y-Nos ("Rock of the Night")  was built between 1840 and 1843 in neo-gothic style. 

A Perfect Little Japanese Garden in Kailua

One of my favorite things about working with real estate is the ability to check out properties. I get to see it all, the great, the good, the bad and the ugly. This past Thursday was an especially lucky day to check out the offerings on the Windward side of Oahu: the first place we visited had this lovely garden as a surprise. The house itself was also very nice, but the garden was simply perfect.

Help Me Pick Out Wall Mural for Budapest Apartment

About a year an a half ago I wrote a series about the remodeling of our small apartment in Budapest (you can find the before here and the after here). However, even though the apartment is practically done, a few finishing touches remain. There is a wall in the bedroom where I have been thinking of putting a mural. 

"Excuse Me, Is That a Dead Body Floating in the Pool?" - A Great Gatsby-Style New Year's Eve Murder Mystery Party

My friends and I really like getting together and having a party. We are not the going-out-clubbing-until-dawn types, rather the throwing-a-fabulous-soiree kind. And the perfect occasion to have fun is  New Year's Eve. This has been a tradition in the making: for the last few years, we have put together an elaborate event for this special last night of the year. One year we had a group cooking contest, another time an Amazing Race style dash around Kailua town. Last year we did a progressive dinner where we the party migrated between four different homes.  

The roaring 20s have come back to Kailua

An Adventure in the Sonoran Desert

Happy New Year!  My absence over the holidays was due to a 10-day trip over Christmas.  Had a chance to fill up on snow and cold, and of course, ski/snowboard. As soon as we got home, it was time to party and ring in the new year. More on that later.
Today I wanted to share some images of the beautiful Sonoran Desert, taken early December. We went on a two-hour drive with Green Zebra Adventures in Fort McDowell, AZ.