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Hawaii Without A View

Karen at Kcinnova’s World asked us to share the views from the windows of our homes.   My home is on Oahu in Hawaii.  I can hear you all oooh-ing and sighing, but Hawaii or not, I live in a city — a flipping BIG city with over 900,000 people in it.  Plus, this is a small island so those people have nowhere else to go; plus, plus, the total population of this small island is right around 1.2 million people.

For the purposes of description, there are some things you need to know about island living — this island is neither round nor rectangular.  The volcano was not neat and linear when it laid out the land and set up the mountains.  There is no such thing as due North, due South, Due East or Due West on this (or most likely any other) island.  Here we use destinations as direction.  From my house Ewa (city) is west-ish and Koko Head is east-ish.  For North-ish we say mauka, which means toward the mountains, and for south-ish we say makai, which means toward the water.

So, the views from my windows — sure to disappoint:

Starting at the Koko Head-makai corner of our little square house we have the kitchen door (leads to the carport).
kitchen door

Facing Makai, the dining room windows:
dining room

Also facing makai, the front door (leads to the front yard):
front door

Still facing makai, the living room: ling room 1

Facing Ewa, the living room: living room 2

Now, kitty-corner from the kitchen door, the Ewa-makai door (off Amoeba’s office and into the back yard):
Ewa door

The mauka facing window above Amoeba’s desk:
office view

The mauka view from the spare bedroom where Jientje will be staying soon:
spare room

The mauka view from the mater bedroom:
M bedroom

The Koko Head view from the master bedroom (into the carport):
M bedroom 2

I told you our windows are boring! We have a 12 foot Mock Orange hedge surrounding most of our house. We also have neighbors all the way around.

You may notice that save for the dining room we have no curtains.  That was choice.  We have white walls and windows every few feet.  Our house is bright and airy and I often feel as though I am living outside, but with all the benefits of inside.   The views might not be great, but we really do like this little house.   Maybe someday I’ll show you the inside.

39 Comments

  2. Oh, but you’ve still got the year-round flowers, lush vegetation and beaches just a hop, skip and a jump away, correctamundo? And I don’t believe I have the view of a mountain out any of my windows…

    1. Gigi — you know that Amoeba is a botanist, right? When we arrived here the lawn wasn’t green. He took that as a personal challenge.

        1. Sorry, can’t take credit. All the plantings were here before us. I mow and (somewhat) weed the lawn, and trim the mock orange hedge on occasion. That’s about it … about all that I have time and energy for.

          1. Love — I told them you made the LAWN green — the fertilizers and the weeding and the mowing and the loving (but I did most of the watering).

  5. Thanks for the tour. I won’t remember those directions. I have enough trouble with North and South. The view from our windows is not that beautiful.

    1. Dr. John — I didn’t think any body would remember the direction, I just wanted to explain why I wasn’t using compass points.

  6. For living in that size of a city, you do have a lot of green outside your windows. I was expecting maybe skyscrapers. 😀 I like the bright, airy feel, too.

    1. Barbara, there are a lot of sky scrappers. There is even one that can be seen from the kitchen window I didn’t photograph (too dirty). We happen to live in a little valley called Kuli’ou’ou and it is mostly single family dwellings.

  7. When you’ve moved back to the mainland and are looking back, you’ll say, “Hawaii is great, but to visit for a while, even an extended while, not to live long term.”

    I look back on Vegas that way. Of course, I had young children when we were there and my daughter was learning to read with the billboards, “Mom what’s topless?”…

    Smiles, and thanks for the views. I feel we know a little more about Quilly world now. Of course, it won’t help a BIT when I’m guessing puns.

  9. Quilly, I don’t want to be a bragging Texan (Houston is the 4th largest city in the U.S. and has about four times the population of your island. We don’t live in Houston but outside in the Metropolitan area.) so I will tell you thank you very much for showing all of us around. That is a fun thing, looking , and showing. I’ve done both.

    Mostly you see green from the trees so, sure, there is no need for curtains. Is it legal in Oahu to shoot Peeking Tom’s?

    I have a link to your blog in my ‘posthole filler’ that will be up in the morning. The other link goes to a cartoon that I hope you will like.
    ..

    1. Jim — I don’t know about shooting, but I’m pretty sure that if some big Brah caught a dude peeking in windows, he’d get a beating he’d not soon forget1

  10. I see alot of green shrubery around your home. That is nice. As I was reading your post and looking out your windows, I felt a warm tropical breeze blow across my skin and then I realized it was Cooper breathing on me after he ate a coconut lifesaver! That dog gets into EVERYTHING! !

  11. Looks to me like Jean-sha gets the best view in the house! And all that matters is that you LIKE it! That’s important in a home! 🙂

    Day one – full of laughs and deeply unsuccessful!

    1. Melli — one of our bedroom windows is just a few feet from Jean-sha’s bedroom window. I just angled the shot across the room from the Eva corner rather than the Koko Head corner.

  12. I love how the window slats become tinted with whatever color is available! I see blue out one living room window and green out another. 🙂
    And while I can understand the desire to keep the windows and walls clear of curtains, the golden/bronze dining room curtain adds an ethereal quality to your photograph.
    Jientje is very lucky — she will have a wonderful view from her bedroom!

    Seeing bright pink flowers was a bit jolting on this rainy, breezy autumn day. Thank you so much for playing! 😀

    1. Karen — That ethereal quality is exactly why I have the curtains on the dining room window — plus that’s the largest window in the house and the curtains help block some of the heat from the sun. The curtains are tucked into the windows (which I have never closed in all the time I have been here) because when the wind blows they snap out across the room and either flick someone (and it hurts!) or get tangles in the ceiling fan which could cost us a repair bill.

  13. My My My this looks very familiar and come January there is going to be one sad person here in Hawai’i cuz he isn’t going to get to see it any longer 🙁

  17. Your views are beautiful because they’re full of SUNSHINE! I always love your photos.

    A few weeks ago something Kay wrote about driving across the island made me finally look at what the size really meant in terms I could visualise…and I was amazed that you’re living on an island roughly the size of my home county. I’d always pictured it bigger! We have nowhere near as many people in the same area, unless you count the sheep.

    When I look out my windows, I can see miles over rolling hills and pastureland and a few distant forests, but it’s usually under such gloomy skies or rain it’s almost not worth looking out. Your house sounds wonderful.

  18. Well there’s plenty of greenery through your windows and you can see the mountains! Oh and you have sun! What I wouldn’t give for sun most of the year. :

    Thankyou for showing us your views and I would love to take a peek inside. (wink)

  20. I Love my house but it is dark because of the way it sits we even put solar tubes in and we are still so dim I would love to have all that light!

  21. Thanks so much for sharing these with us Quilly. I enjoyed seeing these photos, even if most of the view is of trees/shrubs. No wonder you don’t need curtains, no one can see in anyway. Most of my windows don’t have curtains either, and the ones that do it’s more for keeping out sun/heat in summer than anything else.

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