Author: Amanda McMahon

Dave and I officially live in a pink house.

Why pink? I looked at a lot of “exterior paint ranch house inspo” pics on Pinterest. None of the houses looked like ours. There was not a board for “plantation style houses in Hilo.” Our house is single wall construction. There are at least 2 different kinds of siding. There are random horizontal covered conduits and vertical covered conduits. There are several different kinds of windows and doors. So, I was not finding a perfect match.

My favorite houses on Pinterest were pink. Pink with white trim and grey doors. Pink with green vines. Pink with teal doors. So, after a lot of debate and knowing that some people would hate a pink house. I decided that I did not care what other people thought. Dave was fine with it, so I chose pink. I decided not to add any contrasting colors. Our house, although vintage, looks very modern because of the shape and all the windows. So, the trim is the same color as the house.

The paint crew started on January 30. They had a week of great weather followed by 6 days of wind and approximately 9 inches of rain.

As expected, they found some rotten wood under the peeling paint. I found a carpenter on the “Hilo Happenings” Facebook group. After several days of prep, Benjamin Moore’s Pacific Grove Pink was sprayed onto the house.

During the paint job, my friends from Nebraska visited. Their trip was pretty much ruined because of a storm. In Oahu everything was shut down. Although, they did get to see Pearl Harbor. Maui really got slammed by the storm, and their resort lost power.

We had a great time on the Big Island. I explained that it always rains in Hilo, which it did. We took them to see: Hilo’s black sand beach, sea turtles, Japanese garden, waterfalls, thrift shop, farmer’s market, and lava tubes. They hung out on our lanai, which truly is one of the best places on the planet. We took them to Volcanoes National Park, the Punalu’u Bakery, and Buddha’s Cup Coffee Farm tour (the best!!!).

The day after my friends left, the painters wrapped our lanai in plastic and drenched the walls, ceiling, and railing in pink. The house looks so good. Before it was a dark, oppressive gray. Now it is light and bright.

Today it is still raining off and on. There is more sun than clouds. The paint gun is humming. The screens are being painted and are going back up.

Cue up your John Cougar Mellencamp, check out these before and after pics, and come see this little pink house for yourself.

Lower Lanai before and after

South side grey, prepped, and pink

North side before and after

Harding and I went to Germany via New Jersey in December 2025. We flew into Berlin where we stayed for a few days. Then we took the train to Stuttgart where we had a house/pet-sitting assignment. We watched a turtle, fish, axolotls, and a cat. On January 7, we flew out of Munich.

I loved Deutschland. Harding wrote a manifesto regarding future travels. In a nutshell, he will not be leaving the Hawaiian archipelago for the foreseeable future. He certainly will not travel anywhere the temperature goes below 50F.

To be fair, Europe is so far from Hawaii. We had to buy winter clothes. Our new house is hard to leave.

Upon return, we moved everything out of our old house. We started receiving supplies for the remodel of our current house. We continued to have meetings with our designer regarding our home remodel.

When we weren’t working on house projects, we sat on our porch and watched whales. The humpback whales come to Hawaii every year from around December-April. The ocean has been flat, which is bad for surfing, but great for whale watching.

On January 24, we hosted a group of people off the cruise ship. Cassie Ohl’s in-laws and Christian Ohl’s parents, Maynard & Joy, came into Hilo on a Princess cruise. I offered to show them around. About a week before they were slated to arrive, I texted Joy to confirm. She said, “Yes. There are 14 of us.”

14??!!

I rented two minivans, which still left two people in each van sitting on the ground or squished into the seat with another passenger. But, they were all very appreciative. We took them to Richardsons, Akaka Falls, our house, Liliuokalani Garden, and the farmer’s market. It was a blast.

On January 30, our painters arrived to start prepping the house. This is a very exciting development. We took “before” pics and are looking forward to posting the “afters.” It may be a while. It’s a two-person crew and today only one person showed up.

Any house project is disruptive. We had to move everything away from the outside of our house, including vegetation. In reality, this was great. We had amassed a lot of crap outside. The outside of the house looks so much better.

The painters are using a power washer to remove some of the paint. So, we have to close our windows, and the house was around 91 F today in the living room. It was probably 100 on the west side. We don’t run air conditioners at the house, because the breeze usually keeps us quite comfortable. Some days, like today, it gets hot.

My cousin Megan and her husband Earl moved onto the island. They bought a house in Kona and arrived last week. We had a wonderful BBQ with them on Saturday.

We are expecting visitors in February and March. We have been in contact with a new handyman (to fix the rotting pieces of wood the painters are finding). We were contacted by a general contractor recommended by my sister’s coworker.

2026 is looking bright.

Successful, middle-aged couple seeks a competent carpenter to remodel our home in Hilo. 

I knew that renovating our house on Big Island would be challenging. Contractors are in short supply. They only want big projects. Our project is small. Allegedly, remodels are harder than new builds. 

The work culture is relaxed. People do not work before 10am or after 3pm. Nobody is working if the surf’s just right. 

Locals who need work done have learned to be patient. They’ve done the work themselves. They know someone who knows someone, or they have adapted. I am still adapting.

Early in the project, I naively envisioned our own little HGTV series. “Dave,” I said excitedly, “we could advertise a work trade! We’ll offer the downstairs guest room in exchange for a set number of construction hours. We’ll get so many carpenter surfers. This job will be done in no time!”

Dave was not convinced. He trusted the process. We hired a local interior designer, because she has the contacts. She knows the good contractors. Contractors are going to want to work with her, because then they’ll get more work.

Our designer’s first choice for a general contractor passed. The second passed because our property’s location might cause a permitting nightmare with the county. The third said he wasn’t able to start until 2026.

After the first contractor passed, Dave started talking crazy. “Amanda, how would you feel about me tackling some of this remodel?”

Even though it was dark in the bedroom, I’m sure he saw the horror on my face. The few home projects he completed in the past made our house uglier. “You are good at so many things, but I don’t think carpentry is one of them,” I said.

I thought that ended the conversation. Sadly, it did not. Dave continued to expound on the virtues of being our own carpenter. The quickest way to my heart is frugality. But, I didn’t want to make our house worse and NEVER be able to find anyone to fix it, because there are no hireable workmen on our island.   

I whined to our contractor, “Dave is threatening to do the remodel himself. He is researching the owner/builder regulations of the Hawaii County Code.” 

“Don’t worry,” she said, “we’ll find someone good.”

The next day Dave ordered an Audible book called, “How to Be Your Own Contractor.” I panicked. I started asking everyone I knew for carpenter recommendations. 

If I sound like I’m complaining, please know, I’m really not. I live in a beautiful house overlooking a surf break. My husband is literally the sweetest man alive, even when uber focused.

Plus, I’ve been through this before. Finding a contractor for my 1940’s plantation-style beach house in Hawaii is exactly like trying to find true love online. Possible, but fraught. In the end, it will be better than I ever imagined. I just need to be patient.

Dave and Amanda contracted a parasite 5 weeks ago after dining out at one of their favorite Hilo restaurants to celebrate the upcoming closing on Home-o-li’i. At first, they suspected food poisoning. They thought the next time we get sick, it’ll be nice that we’ll have more bathrooms.

A few days after moving their sleeping mats into the new house, the stomach bug struck again. They learned that while having more than one bathroom is nice, getting off the floor in the night when you’re in extreme GI distress is not ideal.

Amanda and Dave were perplexed by the second round of stomach trouble. Could they have been infected by someone or something else? Dave did a deep dive into the norovirus and concluded reinfection was unlikely.

Amanda’s Aunts Jeanne and Loyce visited from the mainland and came down with the stomach flu. Were they infected by Amanda and Dave? Or, did they catch something on the plane?

Jeanne and Loyce recovered while Amanda and Dave continued to be plagued by stomach pain, nausea, and all other associated grossness. Finally, they contacted their doctor.

Dr. H referred Amanda and Dave to the lab for a blood test and stool sample. They are happy to say their marriage still stands after home collection and preparation (shudder) of two stool samples. Although, Dave could not look at “the room where it happened” for many hours after his wife collected her sample.

Amanda’s labs returned normal. Amanda excels at giving normal labs even when her body is in great distress. While Dave’s labs indicated a high presence of a white blood cell that is a marker for a parasitic infection. 25% of Dave’s white blood cells were fighting the parasite. Dave’s body excels at fighting external threats.

Dr. H diagnosed Amanda and Dave with a likely parasitic infection and prescribed a course of medication. There were no side effects to taking this medication. The doctor warned that the medicine could not kill bug eggs. He said if any eggs hatched Amanda and Dave would need another round of drugs.

Amanda and Dave took their pills and went back to life sleeping on their floor mats. A week later, Amanda was struck down with another round of the parasite flu. Amanda took a second course of antibiotics, but continued to feel ill for an entire week. She missed a week of work and completely depleted her sick leave.

Dave was struck down three days later. This time Dave did a deep research dive into the parasite Giardia, pictured en mass below eating intestines.

Amanda agreed their symptoms aligned. Unfortunately, Dr. H was camping in a remote part of the island for spring break. So, Dave wasn’t able to get medicine immediately.

In order to deal with possible disease vectors in their house,they turned their hot water heater to scalding and ran all faucets for five minutes to rule out water borne infection. They used Clorox on all surfaces. Now that Amanda is recovered she will drive the bedding to the old house for laundering.

Despite the illness, Dave has amassed an impressive collection of yard tools. Their home inspector noted several trees that needed removal, including one large palm tree that was hitting the house. Dave removed all shrubbery contacting the house.

Dave aims to prune the southeast cliff to improve their view and expand their yard. He also plans to eradicate all plants from the driveway. Amanda has unsuccessfully hidden her frowns about the heap of lawn equipment, the ugliness of Dave’s landscaping, and the trail of grass littering the new house.

Truly, despite the bugs and Dave’s lawn project, they remain very much in love.