By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Janice Fairbanks is proprietor of the Old Wailuku
Inn at Ulupono on Maui.
Old-style charm awaits you
By Nadine Kam
at a new bed-and-breakfast
Assistant Features Editor
Star-BulletinWAILUKU -- A home is not just four walls and a roof. It's living theater that evolves with the lifestyle, imagination and whims of its inhabitants. And Janice Fairbanks, for one, can't help but play director.
"Everywhere I've been, I've done something to the house," she said, to the point that she took a sledgehammer to a wall after her husband Tom cautioned her against making changes in a house in San Diego.
"I wanted to redo the bathroom. I knocked it down so we had to do it."
The Fairbanks' latest project is The Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono, a stately home in Wailuku with gabled roofs and Queen Anne detailing. The couple has converted the house into a bed-and-breakfast inn that recalls a rapidly vanishing era.
Early Bank of Maui president Charles Dexter Lufkin built the home in 1924 for his son and daughter-in-law when they married. Ulupono was one of several large estates and commercial buildings constructed between 1907 and the 1930s, when Wailuku was the heart of Maui government, business, tourism and entertainment industries.
"It was the beginning of the merchant class in Wailuku," said Tom. It was a very stylish place to be."
And it still is as far as he's concerned. He cites proximity to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Iao Valley, the Baldwin House Museum and the Maui Ocean Center set to open in mid-March as reasons to visit Wailuku.
More importantly, Wailuku has a sense of community the couple missed after spending much of their adult lives on the mainland.
Tom grew up in Aina Haina on Oahu but a career in hospitality with the Hotel Inter-Continental Group took the couple from New York to Texas, Florida, California and back to Texas before they arrived at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel on Maui, where Tom works as food and beverage director.
This leaves Janice with the job of innkeeper at Ulupono. She grew up in Lahaina and at first had doubts about returning to the slow life in Maui, but she said, "I actually loved being in Wailuku and having neighbors who actually talk to you. It's something I grew up with that I like. You don't get that in most places."
The search for the right home to tinker with took eight years. Fixing it up took another grueling six months.
"Exterior-wise, the house looked good," Janice said. "Then we started opening walls and discovered so much of it had been damaged by termites."
A wall in a breakfast nook looked like solid concrete, but upon examining a hairline crack in the exterior, they realized it was stucco, with no support. Termites had eaten through the wooden studs inside.
Two of the four second-story bedrooms were ready to fall through the floor because of dry rot and termite damage.
Another bedroom with a floor of eucalyptus wood and the main room with a floor of ohia wood were saved because, Janice said, "The termites didn't touch those.
In the long run, she said, "It would have been cheaper to build a new house, but we couldn't duplicate the architecture. We couldn't get this feeling with a new house."
Said Tom, "When local people come here they all say it looks like grandma's house. They feel comfortable here and it makes them want to return. It seems to be universally well-received.
"We've used feng shui to give it good energy, positive energy, especially in choosing colors that would be good for the chi (energy) of each room. Even the art work for each room has been chosen for color and content.
"We made this space for us, too, so it's really comfortable."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Feng shui techniques were used to choose colors and
decor in Ulupono's main room, shown here,
as well as its guest rooms.
The decision to save or destroy an older home comes down to how much an individual is willing to sacrifice. It takes a special person
to renovate an older house"That's a real tough decision," said architect Paul Osumi Jr. "We try our best to get estimates to help clients make the decision, but it takes a special person to renovate an older house and really appreciate it.
Osumi said many of the materials and hardware in homes made before the '50s are unavailable today. In addition, details such as rounded or scalloped siding standard in the past, would require custom hand-cutting today.
"All that extra labor is expensive," Osumi said. He estimates the cost would be 10 times more than ready-made siding.
Beyond cost, the bigger issue to consider is lifestyle. Older homes just seem oddly spare to younger families with a lot of toys and gadgets.
"Younger families usually want a more modern home and they want to get the biggest house with the cheapest price, with an entertainment room and a two-car garage," Osumi said. "They want their computer room, their library, and they're willing to make their bedrooms smaller to accommodate their stuff.
"People seem to have less time so their houses have to be efficient. Few people say they want something that looks good on the outside."
Susan and Stanley Victor decided to save an "old barn" of a home in Manoa in 1967, and today, it's on the National Registry of Historic Homes.
Susan said it was Stanley who insisted on preserving the home and making no structural changes. "I was young," she said, "I didn't agree."
Even in these tough economic times, those with property deemed preservation worthy can get a few breaks from government. Uncle Sam may help
Commercial properties on the National Register of Historic Places can get federal tax benefits and up to a 20 percent tax credit in rehabilitation of the building.
To be placed on the National Register, a private property owner must go through the Hawai'i Register of Historic Places application process.
Owners of residential homes on the Hawai'i Register of Historic Places are eligible to apply for a historic residential real property tax exemption. They will still be subject to the minimum tax of $100.
More information is available from the State Historic Preservation Office. Call 587-0047.
She wanted to tear the house down because its walls were rotting. The exterior had not been repainted since the house was built in 1929, and she said, "There were holes in the floor big enough to stand in."
Patching the house together again was difficult because boards had to be milled a certain way and replacement beams were hard to get. When the work was finished she had to make do with portable closets, because older homes do not offer much in storage space.
"Now I'm so happy my husband stuck with it. It gives me a feeling of pride for Hawaii. We've preserved something. We've preserved history.
Janice Fairbanks felt the same way about Ulupono, the Wailuku estate she preserved with her husband Tom. She said, "We tried to figure out how much termite damage there was," she said, "and weigh the cost of repairing the damage against preserving the character and architectural lines and decided we could never get the same feeling in a new home.
"With a brand new home, you walk in and you don't get a feeling of warmth until after you put your personality in it, and that takes a while.
"Preservation is so important now," Janice said. "When everyone wants everything new they forget their past, and I think if we forget our past we can't see our future."
Susan Victor said a trip to Europe last summer highlighted the difference in mind-set where old buildings are concerned. "We stayed in a village in England where almost every home was 450 years old. Here, we're thinking our houses are so old and it made me realize they're just little pipsqueaks.
"Maybe because this is a new country we think newer is better."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Lokelani Room of the Old Wailuku Inn on Maui.
Plan a getaway
Where: The Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono, 2199 Kaho'okele St.
