ALOHA! When you arrive in the airport
, you feel the gentle Hawaiian air and know that you
are in a tropical paradise.
We have adopted Kailua,Oahu
as our home and corner of paradise.
By way of introduction, Paul
is an architect and Rachel is a landscape architect.
We love flowers and have opened our home to the
gardens and to travelers to share this corner of
paradise with others. We are from Georgia, Texas,
Singapore and California, and moved here in 1986 on
our honeymoon and never left. We have one teen at
home and two in college, and a frisky cocker spaniel. The cocker spaniel
greets every guests as her new best friend. Scratch
her head behind her ears and she is so
happy. In most cases she will roll over on her back so you will scratch her stomach.
We have lived in Kailua,
Hawaii since 1986. Every time we walk on the beach we
marvel. We remind each other that we live
here!
Sheffield House is a Hawaii
owned business..
We are listed in
Frommers, Foders, Seira Club, Lonely Planet, and
Rough Guide to Hawaii as well as other guide
books.
These listings
have come through guest recommendations to the
authors of these books. All of these guide books are
independent authors who do not take payment for
listing their recommendations. In other words you can
not buy a listing from them.
FAQ's
1. Where are the high waves? The really high waves do not occur all year round. They only occur in the WINTER months of Dec. Jan. and Feb or in extreme storm conditions. High surf conditions occur usually on the N. Shore of Oahu when certain wind, weather, and currents happen. Surf tournaments are scheduled when those weather conditions are predicted.
2. Do you have squirrels in Hawaii? No, there are no squirrels on Oahu. We do have mongoose which look a little like skinny tailed squirrels. Mongoose were introduced to control rats.(Remember the mongoose who is the hero in ther children's book Rikki Tikki Tavi.) However, mongoose are daytime creatures and rats are nocturnal.
3. Do you have fireflies or lightning bugs in the summer? No, sadly there are no fireflies or lightning bugs in Hawaii. But lets not be hasty with introducing bugs. (See above.)
4. Are those rhododendrons blooming on the sides of the road? No, probably what you are seeing are plumerias. They have a dark green glossy leaf which is similar to rhododendrons.
5. Why don't you have a sign? The sign laws in Hawaii are very strict. No sign on the Street. Amazingly, one of the rules is that we are not allowed to have a sign on the road. If you drive by Sheffield House you see a home in a residential neighborhood. (Yes, it is down the street from the beach.) We are NOT able to post last minute vacancies with a sign as many bed and breakfasts do across Europe. Actually the strict signage rule on this island is really nice . I am sure that you will notice that there are no billboards on our island.
6. What are the Bed and Breakfast rules on Oahu?
Bed and
Breakfast licensing on Oahu.
To have a bed and breakfast license on Oahu involves many rules and regulations.
Sheffield
House has a Bed and Breakfast license. There are only 57 bed and breakfast licenses on Oahu.
The government has put a moratorium on the issuance of licensing while they
work out kinks with the zoning laws. Further complicating the zoning issue we are not
allowed to sell food unless it is prepared in a commercial kitchen as
determined by the State of Hawaii Department of Health with hoods, drains in the floor and no children in the kitchen. We only have a residential
kitchen. As a result we are not doing breakfast every day. Sheffield House does a first mornings' complementary
welcome gift of breakfast of pre-prepared pastry, juice and fruit.
To rent a
place on Oahu in Hawaii for less than one month the house or rooms must be
licensed as a (TVU ) transient vacation rental unit or a (B&B) bed and
breakfast. According to Honolulu zoning laws a bed and breakfast license requires that a host be on site. The Transient vacation rental units do not require that the host be on site. Many advertised vacation
rentals are being shut down because they are not licensed.
7. How do you know if a bed and breakfast or vacation rental is legal? Before you make a deposit by phone or send a deposit check do look at the
list below to confirm that you are dealing with a bona fide bed and breakfast
or a transient vacation rental propertyThe most current list that I can find is
dated July 2008. It contains all 906 licensed (TVU’s) Transient Vacation Rental
Units and 57 licensed Bed and Breakfast places. This list can be found on the pdf below. All of these licenses were available to
renew at the end of September 2008.
So, if you
want to check an address here is the list.
http://honoluludpp.org/HotIssues/NUCreport.pdf |
