Kailua Hideaway

Homeowners in search of a calm beachside home found the perfect location, and a builder with a matching personality.

Once the renovations were complete, Annette, an interior designer, stepped in to create a tranquil hideaway atmosphere. With long-time friend and interior designer Hope Cromwell Hopkins, she started the interior theme with color. The outdoor environs were her inspiration. Calm tones, such as sunset gold and yellow, oceanlike teals and natural fibers in brown and black, were the basis of her design.

A: What used to be a media room/office is now a luxurious master bedroom and bathroom. B: The central living area features sliding glass doors to let in both courtyard and ocean views. C: The kitchen remained the same, except for an extension of the windows. D: The old master bedroom wing is now split into three guest rooms, each with a full bath. E: The fifth bedroom overlooks a bubbling hot tub. F: A game room features billiards and ping-pong for rainy day fun. G: The garage faces the street, hiding the rest of the property from view.

Three whirlwind days of house hunting, and then one unobtrusive entryway in Kailua didn’t seem promising. But, Fred and Annette Gellert knew they had found their Hawaii hideaway as soon as they stepped into the courtyard. “The house has little street appeal. But when you walk through the gate into the courtyard, it is a whole different world,” Fred says, referring to the Pacific Ocean view through the living room’s expansive glass doors. Annette agrees. “The thing we fell in love with was the outlook and the location,” she says. “We weren’t looking for an entertainment palace; we were looking for a hideaway, someplace where we could drop out, be quiet, become restored and revitalized.”

The kitchen window was extended by a few feet to take in the ocean view beyond.

Another benefit of the home was that it didn’t need a huge overhaul. Built for the previous owners, many details were just right for the Gellerts. For instance, the existing structure gave the homeowners plenty of privacy and living space. The main house creates two borders around the courtyard, with the pool house and entry gate providing the other two. Hardwood cabinets in the kitchen made the room warm and inviting, and provided plenty of storage. A concrete floor with a teal-tone acid stain made the homeowners feel as if they were stepping into the ocean as soon as they got out of bed. Intricate trim details (designed by the previous owner) around doors and windows added a personal touch.

However, some upgrades would need to be made to fit the Gellert family. Plans included reworking the existing three bedrooms and adding two more, plus adding two more full baths. And the homeowners were hands-on throughout the entire renovation. They even presented their own plans to an architect, James Matichuk of Hawaii Architects Inc. Luckily, Fred knew exactly what he needed from his experience building homes in the San Francisco area. Annette’s career as an interior designer also would prove helpful to this project. Fred had several ideas for renovating the courtyard, as well as a vision of a game room in the pool house.


To make all of these ideas come to life, the Gellerts called Denzer and his 3builders team. (Coincidentally, Denzer and Fred had attended Menlo School of Business Administration, in Menlo Park, Calif.) Denzer’s even keel was the perfect match to the homeowners’ detail-oriented drive. “Nick just seemed like a really straight shooter. He was very conscientious and he made it very easy for us throughout the process. We really had a wonderful experience with him running the show,” Annette says.

The homeowners’ requests included moving interior walls to enhance the living space. Because the house is built with trusses, the interior walls were not load bearing, thus were easy to move. The first project centered on the bedroom wing of the home. A master bedroom facing the ocean was a long walk from the master bath at the other end of the wing. A tiny guest room with an even tinier bath was squeezed in as well. This wing was divided evenly into three bedrooms. Denzer and his team created spalike bathrooms with luxurious marble and limestone showers for each. The center bedroom features a stone bathtub specially designed (by Fred) for two to sit facing each other. All three baths have outdoor access for after-beach showers.


At the opposite end of the main house, Denzer transformed an old media room and office into the master bedroom. Creating new hookups to the water and sewer systems made this room a challenge. But the outcome was worth the effort, Denzer says. This room is now a serene escape, featuring views and sounds of both the serene courtyard waterfall and the waves at the ocean. A plush master bath offers a private outdoor shower that leads directly into the indoor shower.

A custom shower doorway through the master bath leads you to an outdoor shower and the beach beyond .

The pool house bedroom, now the fifth bedroom, gave some of its square footage to extend the bathroom. Next door is a media room with a regulation-size billiards table. Just outside is the new hot tub, a free-form basin in lava rock that sits above the swimming pool. Gentle waterfalls cascade from each level of the hot tub and pool, creating calming white noise.


Fred’s next contribution was an intricate lighting plan. Natural light, can lights on dimmers, art lighting and accent lighting were all part of the design. Fred even helped with the installation. “There was one evening, as it was getting dark, that Fred and I were standing on the same ladder, trying to read a tape measure in the dark to install lighting around the pool,” Denzer recalls. “I can tell he really enjoys working on precise, quality plans.”


It was the collaboration between Denzer and the homeowner that made the details come to life for this project. Denzer says he learned a lot. “If you look closely at the house, you will notice the precise positioning of every door and window, the trim, the layout. You would be hard-pressed to find a way to lay this out any better,” Denzer says. �