KAILUA-KONA — For those starting from scratch, just dreaming, or putting on the finishing touches, there was a little bit of everything at the 12th annual Living and Design Show. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — For those starting from scratch, just dreaming,
KAILUA-KONA — For those starting from scratch, just dreaming, or putting on the finishing touches, there was a little bit of everything at the 12th annual Living and Design Show.
Insulated window frames?
Check.
Solar panels? You bet.
New counter tops? Got ya covered.
Home buyers, home builders and self-improvers came out Saturday on the first day of the two-day event to see how their vision could become reality. And whether they were just beginning on a home, or nailing down the last detail of their kitchen flooring, the Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa Kaleiopapa Convention was the epicenter of project planning.
“I just wish we’d come here a couple of years when we started on some of these renovations, it would have been nice to come to a place like this,” said Alana Feldman, who was perusing the 37 vendors with her husband Merrill, looking for odds and ends to put their Kona condo they’ve been refurbishing for years over the top. “We’re really far along, so what we’re looking at now is, well, did we miss something?”
Around 1,000 people had visited by early afternoon. The show continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Besides last minute detail, the show matched professionals with people building anew.
John and Kathy Boyd are working on a home. They’ve been in touch with contractors and builders and the show was the perfect spot to meet professionals they’ve been in contact with as they’ve planned.
“I think it’s nice to put a face with the names around here because a lot of the people we’ve been in touch with over email or we talked so someone over in the Hilo office,” John said. “It’s nice to put a face with a name.”
Plus, Kathy said, the more ideas one can pick up, the better.
“I’m a big researcher,” she said. “So to get a little bit of information and digest it, and then take it back (the better).”
Hosted by the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, this year’s show featured a few more vendors than the past few years. More than 2,000 were expected over the weekend, but with half that total passing through by early afternoon Saturday, Kirstin Kahaloa, chamber executive director, said she the turnout was a hit.
“This show brings people from all over, not just West Hawaii,” she said, adding that the show attracts, not only people putting the finishing touches on their homes or starting their planning, but visitors who are just starting to think about moving to and living in Hawaii.
Seeing actual prospects, she said, can help turn the excitement of a vision into real life.
“This is like them just dreaming,” Kahaloa said. “And I think for some of them, it becomes a reality.”
Sponsored by Hawaii Credit Federal Union, Hawaii Gas, P.A. Harris Electric, ProVision Solar, Inc. Renewable Energy Services, and West Hawaii Today, vendors also said it was a good venue to put a personal face to business.
“We thought this would be a way to reach out,” said Mike Brogan, of Valley Isle Building Products Corp., which does custom end windows and doors.
The best part of mingling with the crowd, he said, is seeing people visualize the certain products in their homes, watching them realize what details they want done in a place they’ll live and raise families — a human touch, so to speak. “That’s the only way you’re going to do it, one on one.”
Even for longtime handymen, like Jim Strait, the show was a place to pick up something new.
He’s been coming for at least eight years and is tidying up his place in Kona. He thought he had an idea for his front steps he was redoing, but then saw what a concreter at the show was offering.
“I was going to tile it, but this is a much better idea,” he said.
