A 3 story monster with 2 entrances and multiple electrical meters in Foster Village

Wednesday was a GREAT day for us monster house opponents because the Honolulu City Council unanimously passed the 3rd reading of Bill 79, which made major changes to the LUO (land use ordinance) for Oahu.  In short, house sizes for our average 5,000 square foot lots or smaller are limited to 60-70% of floor area ratio to lot size, wet bars (which monster people would convert to illegal kitchens) are limited to 1, laundry rooms are limited to 1, electric meters are limited to 1, and number of bathrooms are limited to 4 1/2. Adequate parking must be provided, and at least 25% of the lot cannot be impervious (concrete or asphalt).  The bigger lots allow for more wet bars, bathrooms, etc. but size limits will still be in place, and inspections will be allowed for a year after occupancy to check that the house has not been altered.

Aunty and fellow members of HiGoodNeighbor.com testified along with others in support and thanks.  A pleasant surprise was that even representatives of Hawaii’s building industry showed support for the bill.  Prior to, they voiced strong opposition to any changes and instead blamed the Department of Planning and Permitting for not clamping down on (mostly foreign) builders who found ways to build huge – legally.  These foreign builders would then alter, subdivide, rent illegally, sell and repeat, all the while not get caught or stopped. This was a case of a few bad apples spoiling the face of our island neighborhoods for profit, so hopefully those bad apples go away.

But not soon enough

It had been a mission for Aunty for about 2 years ever since seeing and reading the news about monster houses coming up in Palolo Valley and Kaimuki.  Unscrupulous builders were buying up old houses, knocking them down along with all the wonderful trees, and putting up structures with the most bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens that they could fit without any regard to their neighbors, parking, or communities.  One of the most heartbreaking stories was that of Missy Mai’i, who bought a little house with a great view of the city and ocean a few years ago.  A monster builder put up a multi-level house on a slope next to her and totally took away her view.

Just recently, the same thing is beginning to happen to Aunty.  The property just behind Aunty was purchased by a contractor a few years ago and he received a permit soon after.  He did nothing for years but rented out the dilapidated 2 story house and cottage on the lot to several renters who came and went.  It was filled with weeds and random plantings and looked like a dump but Aunty could still look out her back windows and see sunrises over Maunalua Bay and Koko Head, about a half inch of ocean, and the charming rooftops of Kaimuki houses.

The bad apple seed is sprouting

This shows half of the total foundation, which continues after the 8′ concrete divide in mirror image to the street beyond

In October, Joey, a young local contractor working under the owner builder contractor began to demo the old houses and everything else on the lot.  The owner builder is foreign but at least he hired Joey.  A huge old mango tree, banana trees, moringa, and avocado trees were ripped out, laying bare the entire lot.  Slowly more work was done, hollow tile walls erected around the property, trenches dug out, rebars laid in, and truckloads of gravel dumped, filled, and leveled into semi-erected walls.

It was at this point, neighbors began to gather and would speak to the owner who occasionally came to view the progress.  Each person had a different story of what they heard would happen from him.  We organized a meeting with the owner so we could all get the same picture directly from his mouth.  He brought his wife who acted like she couldn’t speak English and his pretty young daughter.  He seemed like a nice person and would agree to remedy our concerns about water overflow if it rained heavily, making sure the contractor waters the site twice a day to cut down on dirt flying into our houses, and maintaining green spaces.  His wife suddenly could speak English and assured us that she and her family would start a garden.  They would live in the back house and their other daughter would come back from the mainland to live in the front house.

Construction continued, hollow tile foundation walls got taller, more fill came in and plumbing pipes were laid in and buried, a massive wall of concrete blocks grew right down the middle of the property.  The site was never watered down, water overflow concerns were not passed on to the grading contractor.  At this point, Aunty viewed a set of building plans from DPP (Department of Planning and Permitting) which is available to the public.  The 2 houses were only divided by a common wall and massive – each one were mirror images of each other and 2 stories high.  Two full kitchens, 2 wet bars, 9 bathrooms, 2 dens, 12 bedrooms.  7,386 square feet under roof for a 7,500 square foot lot.  120 linear feet of house with 12 windows on the 2nd floor looming over Aunty.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.

For now, Aunty still has a view and is taking as many photos at different times of the day and plans to paint the view as it is now.  Soon, it will be lost and blocked out by the 2 houses.   It will be like having a 30′ high fence, 5 feet away as Aunty’s new back view.  Hopefully this will be the last of the monsters, and that Aunty can get used to her soon to be altered reality.

One of Aunty’s favorite pastimes is gardening.  Every plant in the yard has a little story – where it was bought, who gave it, etc.  Lizards run around, bees buzz, and birds perch and poop.  One unwelcome bird pooper is the Bulbul –  an invasive species that was released in Hawaii, probably by a bird lover who let their illegal pets into the Islands. They are black with red butts.  These birds feed on fruits, vegetables, and flower buds – Aunty’s orchid flower buds in particular.

Aunty would stick orchid plants into the stone wall up front and they would do okay, a few buds here and there but not too many flowers because the Bulbuls would find the new shoots and eat them before they bloomed.

This year, Aunty’s orchid plants became profuse with orchid spikes and buds. The Bulbuls seemed to be leaving them alone!  Each day would bring more buds and these slowly grew larger until a few of them started to bloom. Happy happy joy joy!!! until petals seemed to fall off, so Aunty gave it some organic fertilizer to boost the plants. However, it wasn’t the health of the plant causing the petals to break off.  Buds were also being nipped off.  The dang Bulbuls had found Aunty’s trove of orchids and began to feast.

Google searching brought up several solutions and Aunty wrapped either thin wire or fishing line around CDs and hung them from the low hanging tree branches above the flower sprays. They sway hither and thither with the wind and reflect mirror-like light.

Aunty also bought some reflective pinwheels to stick into nearby plants as extra precaution. They aren’t pretty in the tropical garden setting, but they are better than eaten up flowers and destroyed orchid buds.  So far, so good.  Bulbuls are leaving the petals and buds alone.  Orchids are happy.  So is Aunty.

Pal Cookie is currently on tansu hunting missions whenever she goes to Japan.  And she goes to Japan a lot.  Aunty understands this behavior because she is guilty and vulnerable of buying tansus at the collectible shows here as well as at Robyn Buntin Gallery‘s annual 40% off sales.

A couple of years ago, Aunty decided to bring all of her wooden treasures out and display them together as a collection.  It was a wonderful creative and workable transformation of a blah wall.

BUT, at the last March Wiki Wiki show, Aunty found and had to have 3 more little tansus, without enough room on her shelves.  Her existing layout of tansus spanned 60″ over 2 short bookcases that were bought at City Mill, and the new tansus weren’t going to fit without awkward stacking, finding and purchasing perfect sized new bookcases, or major elimination of existing wonderful tansus.  After careful measuring and juxtaposing new with old, Aunty needed a 67″ base on which to add her new tansus to her old over the existing pair of bookcases.

Alex, Aunty, and Gary

The Solution

Min Plastics to the rescue!  Aunty has used Min Plastics in the past, for furniture toppers to protect wood surfaces such as dining tables or as connective “bridges” between desk and shelves with great success, so Aunty called in the order to Alex and picked it up the next day from Gary.  (808) 847-1511.

Aunty ordered a 67″ x 12″ x 3/8″ clear piece with rounded corners, flame polish.  This is quite thick, almost invisible, and pure functional perfection.

The staff there is really helpful and nice, even when Aunty later placed a dinky order of a couple of smaller table toppers in the 1/100″ thickness, with slightly rounded corners and sanded.  City Mill has this type of sheet plexiglass and can also cut, but Min Plastic has a wider selection of sizes and the price difference is only slightly higher with better attention to detail.

The result makes Aunty very happy.  So happy, that maybe Aunty will stop buying little tansus.

Maybe.

Hoolulu Street behind Zippy’s Kapahulu

Monster houses have been popping up on the island of Oahu in neighborhoods that normally have single family dwellings with yards and frontages allowing for parking of their inhabitants.

Granted, Kaimuki isn’t a ritzy area.  It is spotted with some derelict houses amongst nice old houses and a few new big houses that don’t always fit in, BUT, 10 – 20 bedroom houses are being built on average sized lots that are zoned for single family dwellings, passing the permitting process with unusual speed.  These “homes” do not have enough parking (wasn’t there a requirement of 1 parking available per bedroom?), some are 3 stories (what happened to the height restrictions?) and they take up the entire lot without setbacks (aren’t there 10′ setbacks for front and back and 5′ setbacks per side?)

Aunty’s beloved Palolo Valley has fallen victim.  Wilhelmina Rise, with its already horrible lack of parking has a community up in arms, but the building goes on.

A recent KITV news report highlighted one project on Houghtailing Street with 29 (!) bedrooms and 17 (!) bathrooms that has been permitted as a 2 family unit.  The same contractor is building another one on Kalihi Street – a 6 (!) story home with 20 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms.  The parking situation on those streets will definitely cause problems.  These look and act like apartment buildings.

Regardless, these “homes” have NOT been in violation of building codes – until a City and County moratorium was passed this February with the Mayor signing off in March.  This is a temporary halt with rough edges until the new building code laws are changed sometime this year.

Currently, our State legislators are pushing through a bill to make lying to county inspectors a crime, to strengthen the enforcement side of illegal building and/or use.

A question to determine our future

Thomas Bena produced a documentary, “One Big Home”. about monster homes that started popping up on Martha’s Vineyard, in Chilmark – a rather laid back township, sort of like Kauai.  Some of those monster homes had 66,000 sq ft of building!  Aunty went to see a free showing of it since Thomas was in town.

Kristin Andres, a reviewer, asked this question, “What is it we value about our town, our community, and what is our responsibility in protecting it?”

Aunty feels that this is a question that everyone who loves our island should think about and answer.

You can also share it in a comment below.  Aunty’s answer of value is growing up in a neighborhood that is safe and friendly.  Having mangoes handed over from neighbors that call me “Aunty.”  It does not include being invaded by monsters and an over growth of buildings changing our skylines, horizon, and density.

Share your answers with your elected officials.  Let your voice be heard, and in doing so, you are doing your bit to protect our island lifestyle that is getting more fragile with every pour of concrete and uninhibited change.

Aunty has been trying to grow vegetables from seeds.  Carefully planting Manoa lettuce seeds, Chinese parsley, and red lettuce in small raised beds.  Watering gently and keeping the surface moist.  Looking for sprouts that haven’t shown up.  Failure!

The next strategy was to buy starter vegetables from Koolau Farms for $1.49.  Carefully breaking up the clumping sprouts and transplanting them in the formerly unsuccessful raised beds.  Shade the transplants with a cut branch of mango leaves (neighbor Mrs. Fujitani taught Aunty that trick) and water gently, twice a day.  However, after about a week, these would become sparser and sparser and start to disappear.

Why?  Because of dang slugs.  Brown ones, blonde ones, black ones, and African snails – ooojey slimey mullosc that invade Aunty’s garden at night and hide behind rocks and pots during the day.  Creeps.  AND they are the carriers of the very bad rat lungworm disease that has become a problem in Hawaii.

War!  Humpf!  Ho – What is it good for?

A slug free yard and garden.  Aunty’s war on slugs is fierce, cruel, gross, and fun.  Pal Cookie calls Aunty “sick”.  Aunty calls her a wimp because just the thought of going out slug hunting at night will send her home immediately.

Slug bait is okay but they seem to have an innate sense of avoiding what will kill them.  Beer in a pan doesn’t seem to work with the slugs in Aunty’s yard.  Instead, Aunty now uses 2 relentless hunting methods that work.

Slow and torturous

The first method was taught by a sweet old neighbor, Mrs. Fujitani, who also taught her how to grow a garden full of great Manoa lettuce from seed.  She would wait until dark ~ about 9:00 pm or later, and go out into her garden with bamboo skewers in hand, and a flashlight.  Each slug would be poked all the way through the middle of their oojey bodies.  The next one would be poked, pushing the first one deeper on the stick, and so on and so on until she had a stickful of slugs (see the opening picture of skewered buggahs).  She would then insert the dull end of the skewer into the ground, and they would die in the sun and dry up the next day.

Faster and still torturous

Mrs. Fujitani’s method was good, but Aunty expanded her nightly hunts to the entire yard, and several times, the “harvest” included African snails, so Aunty discovered a new use for ziplock bags.

Latex examination gloves have also become Aunty’s favorite fashion accessory.  Donning those on both hands, and holding an open ziplock (sandwich size is just right) and lightweight LED flashlight in the gloved dominant hand, Aunty would wait until dark, and shine the light on the grass, sides of pots, inside gardens, even on concrete.  Each slug and/or snail would be picked up with the non-dominant gloved hand and popped into the open ziplock bag.  Find, pick, pop.  Find, pick, pop.  Occasionally one or two of those slimey buggahs would try to escape, so the non-dominant picking hand needs to push them back in the bag.

It is very important that only one hand touches the slugs and the other holds the bag and flashlight so that the flashlight doesn’t become slimed out.  After the bag is full or the hunt is over for the night, put down the flashlight, seal the ziplock bag up tightly and throw away in your rubbish can.  Then, carefully remove each glove, starting with the slug gathering non-dominant hand and then the “cleaner” hand.  Toss those.

Slime bagging tips

It seems that the slugs and snails come out into the open at night to socialize and party, as well as to destroy Aunty’s vegetable starters.  They like wet or damp grass or concrete.  So, water during the day before it becomes dark.  You are preparing the canvas for battle.

Hunt every night, if you can.  The first night is the biggest catch.

Make it a contest between friends – who can catch the most slugs.  Count and laugh – one slug, ah ah ah ah, two slugs, ah ah ah ah (just like Count Dracula from Sesame Street) but don’t be surprised if your friends decline and go home instead.

Make sure the bags do not have a puka or opening, or your rubbish can will have them crawling all over the next day (very gross, very gross, especially in the big grey bins that the City and County provide to us.)  Sometimes, Aunty will put the bag in an empty plastic bottle with screw on lid as an added precaution.  They are stinky while they are dying.

The best night to go slug hunting is after a heavy rain.  They really come out to party and your bagging fingers will be busy and the bag filled up in a very short time.  If you are feeling victorious and want even more of that feeling, go out again a couple of hours later when it is even darker and catch the latecomers.

If your neighbor asks you what you are doing, be honest.  It is better for them to think that you are weird than for them to think you lost your marbles (and are looking for them).

Hat, long sleeve dress shirt, long harem pants, and gloves = sun safe to the max

Aunty seems to be unsociable lately because she has been fanatic in doing her favorite task – every single day – from late afternoon to when the sun goes down.  Weeding, weeding, and weeding, non-stop.  This is a bit surprising because usually after a couple of days of weeding, Aunty’s hands and body are so sore and stiff, she has to take a break.  The difference has been the BEMER – a pulsed electromagnetic field system (post will follow one of these days).

Aunty’s blogging friend, Kay of Musings, has a blogging friend Linda of Linda Letters whom Aunty follows because she is a retired teacher with so much going on, is also a soccer fan, and has the most fantastic garden on 1/2 acres in Seattle.  She is a garden fanatic and shares with pictures and postings with weather reports so Aunty feels a bit more in touch with her #2 daughter  (teacher, soccer maniac, busy bee) who now lives there.  Another gardening fanatic was Mrs. Tsuneyoshi from across the street, who used to garden every day and share pots and pots of orchids, succulents, and fruits from her finely tended front yard.

Inspired by these 2 ladies,  Aunty wants to share some pictures of her ever changing garden – albeit small and wild.

Bonsai Bougainvillea in the driveway

Papaya trees, getting a bit too tall

White Pirie mangos – still green. Luscious when ripe.

Tillandsias stuck into rocks

Weird Tillandsia hung on nails and White Anthurium

Common Dendrobium orchid growing on rock wall

Brassia, on rock with spray of flowers

Hanging Heliconia, about 12″ long

Variegated Shell Ginger

Button Ginger

Golden Dew Drop

This year, Aunty was at a loss because the terrific cooking daughter of the family was living on the Mainland and not coming back.  Aunty had never cooked a bird bigger than a chicken and had always relied on someone else expertly cooking the turkey – so lucky, so happy, so spoiled, but now…

What to do this year?  Attempt to cook a huge bird that is very easy to mess up, drop, ruin?  Or try the Zippy’s turkey meal with all the fixings?  Aunty’s non-cooking sister Mimi was all for buying and even offered to pay, when youngest daughter came to the rescue.  She had won a Lanakila turkey dinner package – just in the nick of time, before the Zippy’s order was called in!

Pickup up was at 8:00 am on Thanksgiving Day.  The winner daughter said that it was bustling with volunteers delivering meals to the elderly and is now thinking about becoming a volunteer herself next year.

The turkey was huge, still warm, and absolutely beautiful.  Golden brown and savory.  Number one son carved it perfectly after watching YouTube videos online.  The entire bird was moist and delicious!  Aunty’s favorite part was the wing tip – which usually looks good but is too hard and tough to eat.  Lanakila’s wing tips were edible and SO onolicious, like eating chewy crispy chicken skin without the grease.

Box #1 had the warm stuff – gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes and buns.  Box #2 had the cold stuff – cranberry sauce, salad, pumpkin pie.  All were excellent, except for the buns (Aunty isn’t a bun person).

Aunty Mimi brought garlic eggplant from Wah Kun Chinese restaurant and Uncle Bob brought his fantastic seared ahi and his unreal fabulous poke.  Nephew Danny brought his homemade mac and cheese that got gobbled up.  Aunty made her traditional mochi rice stuffing and Grannie’s Crispy Skin Chicken.

The only things missing were the traditional pan of sweet yam with marshmallow and a couple of favorite family members.  Regardless, we had a wonderful feast and lots of leftover takeouts.  Thanks to our youngest daughter’s good luck win, Lanakila’s Thanksgiving Meal was introduced to us and will become a new tradition for Aunty’s stress free, no cook easy turkey day.  And that is a very good thing.

2 years ago, Aunty saw a lotus plant for sale at Koolau Farmers.  The flower was huge and simply gorgeous, rising above the water and leaves and smelling wonderful.  It was rather pricey at $75 and Aunty wasn’t ready for it yet.

Last year, Aunty was ready and went to a lotus repotting class at Mulkern Nursery in Waimanalo on a dreary wet Saturday in February with good friend, Bocho.  It was a great class about everything you might want to know about the successful planting of lotus, and a little about water lilies.  At the end we were let loose to choose our own tuber roots for just $10 apiece.  At that price, Aunty got 2 different varieties for $20!

These looked like little potato sausage links.  Lotus is also known as hasu – a staple in Japanese cooking.  I suppose we could eat them after they are harvested in a year or so, but these would not get as fat since these were the ornamental type vs. the food type of lotus/hasu.

Pretty pretty water lilies

Aunty has had her share of different water lilies which sometimes do well, and sometimes do not.  The pretty flowers would bloom and last for weeks at a time, then seem to die off with even the leaves falling off and rotting.  Boohoo boohoo, Aunty would push fertilizer tabs deep in the mucky soil for a couple of months, repot the seemingly dead clumps and hope for new leaves and/or flowers.  No luck.  Algae would grow like crazy and the only happy creatures were the fish that lived in the pots of dirty water.  Sometimes, after months of forgetting and giving up, the water lily plant would perk up and have leaves again!

One of the best lessons that Aunty learned was about fertilizing those seemingly fickle plants.  Both the lotus and water lily go into a long period of dormancy and rest.  During this time, no amount of fertilizer will revive them.  It is during the spring and summer, they arise and become beautiful again.  Thus, we fertilize AFTER the dormant cycle NOT during as Aunty used to do.

Another great lesson learned was about controlling algae.  Algae will overcome water that gets sunlight.  By introducing water plants that cover the surface of the water, such as duckweed (Aunty’s favorite – looks like little little dots that koi fish eat) or leafy floating plants that multiply quickly, the container water does not get sunlight, and algae does not grow.  Hurray!

Let us Lotus

If Aunty had to choose, lotus would be her water plant of choice.  Lotus leaves are like works of art – a complete green circle of radiating veins that sit on the surface of the water or rises on stalks reaching for air.  Water lily leaves are super fragile, and must lie in the water or else they dry up.

Both the water lily and the lotus have beautiful flowers with gradient color petals and showy stamens.  The lotus flower is much larger and dominates, like a queen in full dress.

Much mahalo to Kevin Mulkern of Mulkern Nursery for a wonderful mucky day of discovery and growth.  Next project – a water pond?

Aunty gets confused whenever computer/internet numbers are spouted for gigabytes of space, ram, speed, etc.  We currently have Oceanic Time Warner for our cable/internet connection and occasionally use our iPhone’s internet connection when Oceanic’s system acts up (quite often).

Sometimes, Oceanic sends our flyers about getting more speed, for free, and even more, for a few dollars more each month.  Currently, we get 50 Mbps, whatever that means.  Is that enough, just right, or too much?  That’s what Aunty would like to know.

Amy Lynn Andrews’ Useletter had a handy tool that she shared recently.  How Much Internet Speed Do I Need is a website link that will gauge your speed needs by asking a series of questions (i.e. number of computers, how often you stream videos, etc.), and then take you to a page with the internet providers close to you.  Aunty found this website to be very helpful (we need 21 Mbps, whatever that means) but the list of providers is not complete since only Oceanic and Hughes were listed, and Hawaiian Tel wasn’t.

Well, I suppose it is good to know that Aunty has enough speed, though sometimes, while watching Korean dramas on dramafever.com, it seems to take forever to load, and the WIFI setting option on Aunty’s iPhone becomes like a reset bomb that gets the ball (drama) rolling on a temporary basis.

Life was simpler with a tv set and rabbit ears antennae.  Simpler, but far less choices.  Progress is wonderful, but Aunty thinks nostalgically of watching television together with the family, and being the one who had to act like the “grounder” for the antennae so our reception had less snow and rolling screen.

Nostalgia for things that were inconvenient – HA!  On second thought, bring on the high speed and modern day wonders of today.  Bring on the self driving cars that will pick up Aunty’s Taco Bell food orders and run errands for her.

Life in the fast lane is quite marvelous.  We are living in a futuristic world.  We are becoming the Jetsons.