House-hole

The hubs and I have lived in some,

well,

let's call them

interesting

living spaces.

Our first shared living space was an expansive 

200-some square feet. 

We thought it was heaven.  

We had only been living in Hawai'i for about a year,

so we had few belongings to take up space.

Our little studio was at the entrance to a beautiful hike into 

Makiki valley. 

It boasted:

 orange laminate tile, straight from the 70's

...vintage, no?...

a gecko that liked to watch me in the shower

...what a creeper...

and a little lanai on which we stored bikes, a small table, and a washing machine.

...truth, the washer came about a year into us living there when mom came to visit and couldn't figure out why we wouldn't just buy a cheap washer rather than hauling our nasty, stinky Hawai'i sweat-laden clothes down the stairs, up the road to our non-permanent parking space, to the Launderland....

 We loved our little spot.  We lived in Hawai'i after all and wanted to spend more time outdoors than indoors.

...which happened because we worked about 4 jobs each to sustain our "lavish" lifestyle...

Most importantly, we got engaged inside that little studio apartment.

...story for another post altogether!...

Link to see our little beaut

Shortly before our wedding, our landlord informed us that a 2-bedroom apartment on the bottom floor was going to be opening up...

well, lah-ti-dah!

So began our fascination with HGTV.

We moved in,

expanded into the space,

but never quite felt at-home.

The apartment above us (also a 2-bedroom), housed close to 20 people and 2 washing machines.

...explanation: the lady of the house would start one washing machine full of nasty, dirty clothes, and then when the spin cycle would start, she would hang the drain hose over the lanai and plug the other washer in to start washing her next load.

Let's just say, horribly disgusting wash water would cascade in waterfall amounts onto our back porch/garden space...

daily.   

A few months after our wedding,

our spacious new apartment

was burglarized.

Most of what we had displayed in our space,

so happily and thoughtfully placed onto shelves,

    was taken from us.

Apparently burglary is big-business in Hawai'i 

(have to pay the drug lord somehow, right?),

because most of my friends/neighbors had a similar story to share...

none too surprised that we, too had joined that club.

So, I thought to myself,

where can I live in Hawai'i that I won't be frightened of someone popping off those stupid jalousie window panes

and helping themselves to my belongings?

Ah-hah!

A high rise!

On we moved,

with a much lighter load,

to

The Castle in the Sky

 for which we paid an arm and a leg 

...thank GOD we had so many jobs...

 The old blue carpet was a major improvement from the ancient orange tile

 

We had enough space to decorate for Christmas....

 We had an entryway, and a hallway...

The view if you looked down...yikes!

There it was! The ocean! As viewed from the rooftop!

 The shared rooftop grills...
look how happy we were!

We watched the sunset

 We saw the moon rise over the Honolulu city lights

 We had nooks

 We watched the sunrise

 We worked our way through grad school

 We watched dolphin-shaped clouds jump over the Ko'olaus

 We saw rainstorms make their way through Manoa valley

 We sat in bed and gazed out the window

We decorated walls

We decorated rooms... 

I'll never forget how I felt upon first opening our front door
 seeing the Ko'olaus
right outside our huge windows!

 Haha....thought I'd share the view we had of the 4th of July...

 Great place to light a firecracker

 People partying in their garage bc no one has enough space inside...this crew had tables set and all! Yep, I was that neighbor...taking pictures...

 The sunset from the shared rooftop grills

 We could walk down to this sweet little waterway

 We grew lettuce on our windowsill

Double Rainbow as seen from our window

 We loved having a kitchen to cook in...though only one at a time...

 Another enchanting view from our window...VOG

This was our front door (decorated for Halloween, duh).  We had that funny little screen that we could close (that made our door look like a closet) if we wanted airflow...however, when the breeze would flow a bit hard, the door would fly off into the hallway.  Once, it almost took someone down...can you say "lawsuit?"  Yikes!
 
...and I'm on a tangent...what's this post about, anyway?
Oh yah, the continuum of spaces we have called "home."

So, came the time that the owner of the Castle in the Sky wanted to sell her condo.
We decided to move back to the mainland 
(another story for another post).


My older brother SO KINDLY 
offered for us to live with him
until we could get on our feet.

His house felt, again, like we'd reached 
heaven on earth.
In Hawai'i, we settled for
old
dirty
broken
unsafe
and the list goes on...
At my brother's,
we were living in a new townhome with a 
gorgeous kitchen
newly painted
carpet that was well under 10 years old
new furniture that was NOT bought on Craigslist 
(nor was it scored on the side of the road)
       and in a gated community, to boot!

  

 We had a lot of fun all living under the same roof for the first time in about 10 years...
Good Night JohnBoy

 Here's Nick cooking with onion goggles on...however, I believe those are dried onions...safety first...


The time came, about 6 months later, that we found a rental much closer to where we were working.
So, we loaded up the truck and we moved to 
Beverly
the beach.