A remodeled 1959 cottage in Kailua town remains true to its traditional kamaaina country style, thanks to opened interior spaces and expanded square footage. The careful work by contractor Xie Rui of Rui Building Supply included the addition of a 500-square-foot master suite and the conversion of a lanai into an enclosed sun porch. The improvements turned the two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,100-square-foot cottage into an airy home with three bedrooms, three full baths and nearly 2,100 square feet. Although it has almost doubled in size, the white cottage, tucked away from the road on a gentle rise, appears seamlessly put together and well-proportioned on its expanse of green lawn.


In addition to its pretty, pitched roofs and many-windowed facade, ample breathing space (afforded by a 10,000-square-foot lot) increases the home’s liveability.


Rui Building Supply added several new, low-emissivity (low-E), double-glazed windows, plus two sets of double French doors, which provide easy access to the yard. The French doors open from the sunroom onto a new cement lanai of about 100 square feet, perfect for early-morning or late-afternoon lounging. “The homeowners wanted a small terrace,” says Rui. “They left lots of green yard and put the tables right on the grass,” he adds with approval.


“We just wanted enough room out there to hibachi,” says homeowner Grant Sumile, an architect, who provided Rui with plans for the remodel and addition. Sumile and his wife, Julie, an interior designer, have two sons, ages 4 and 6. “We like being outside, but we also like that we can sit in the sunroom, open the French doors and watch the kids play outdoors,” Sumile adds, noting that they kept the original, high-set jalousie windows in the sunroom in order to preserve airflow. “The house really breathes well because he took care to enhance this in his design,” Sumile says. Because natural breezes keep the house cool throughout the day, there was no need to install A/C.


Sumile wanted to keep “that kamaaina cottage sort of feel,” while adding  “a more open relationship between living room, dining room and kitchen,” Sumile says. The kitchen and original bedrooms felt too segregated and closed-off. To open them up, “I had to take down four to five walls and add a support structure,” Rui says. The dining room replaced a bedroom, whose closet wall was removed to make a 5-foot, extra-deep closet for an adjacent bedroom. With three walls opened up, a freshly daylit kitchen is bordered by two granite-topped counters. One, containing the stainless-steel sink, overlooks the sunroom. The other houses the induction cooktop and leaves plenty of space for a breakfast bar.

The new master bath combines Victorian/plantation accents — a crystal chandelier, freestanding Kohler tub and spindle-legged white vanity with double sinks — with a dark, ceramic-tile floor and a glittering mix of marble and glass tiles on the tub wall and in the shower.

Throughout the kitchen, living and dining areas, Rui replaced old vinyl and damaged wood floors with light cherry laminate, whose warm glow invites bare feet. Where the owners desired, he left original materials in place and matched them as needed. Between the hallway and dining room, original tongue-and-groove walls with crown moldings and baseboards stand neatly opposed to the black, custom-engineered wood cabinets with stainless-steel pulls and handles that Rui built into the adjacent kitchen. “That eclectic blend of old and new maintains the vintage feel,” Sumile says.

The renovation entailed replacing all the plumbing and electric wiring and light fixtures, as well as all the wood beams. Meanwhile, the addition had to be built up on a wood platform in order to meet the original floor plan, and, “for the island climate, we put deep eaves under the roof,” Rui says.

During any renovation, one runs into conditions on site that aren’t anticipated, but “whatever changes came, Rui and his guys always had great attitudes,” Sumile remembers. If issues arose, “[Rui] always had good ideas, helping us to achieve our goals.”

It was a big job, made bigger by three weeks of heavy rains, “right at the time he was trying to pour his footings,” Sumile says. Nonetheless, Rui completed the job in three months, as promised. “Rui was extremely fast, but he made something we were happy with.”

Unfazed by the various challenges after 25 years’ experience, Rui cheerfully sums up the job as “a piece of cake.” The homeowner, a seasoned architect, remains more sanguine. “Rui is fantastic. We’re really happy,” he says.