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Friday, March 3, 2023 • B3
THE GARDEN ISLAND
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Julie Black, Principal Broker & Owner (808) 652-6174 with daughter Kela Caspillo, Realtor Sales Person (808) 652-6173 kauaidreams.com
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Off-the-wall
5 uses for retaining walls that provide function and beauty to outdoor features
BRANDPOINT
Koloa
5892 Wailaau Road A 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home located on a corner lot within walking distance to old Koloa Town. An original plantation style home built with redwood walls and wood floors. Lots of room for creativity and sweat equity. Moss Rock wall and other mature landscaping is in place. Sold AS IS. MLS # 668332; $707,200. Call Julie Black, RB-14203 (808) 652-6174 Kauai Dreams Realty, to see this property.
Segmental retaining wall (SRW) systems make attractive walls, but they also are used to build many beautiful and functional outdoor features for homeowners and professionals alike. As the most versatile resource in a professional landscaper’s tool box, SRWs can also be used by doit-yourself landscapers with a little know-how. Whether you need to transition a slope, shore up soil or create beautiful hardscaped features, one retaining wall system — the VERSA-LOK retaining wall system — can do it all. YouTube creator and construction pro Stanley “Dirt Monkey” Genadek calls VERSALOK the “gold standard” of retaining walls. “VERSA-LOK’s solid, pinned units are superior to hollow, lipped blocks that require fill and might trap water,” says Genadek, who owns a landscaping and excavating company in Mendota Heights, Minn. “It’s the one block that can do it all. VERSALOK is the gold standard in SRWs as far as I’m concerned.” Says Scott Arnold, manager of Villa Landscapes, a design and install landscaping firm in St. Paul/ Minneapolis: “Retaining walls are most often employed to address grade changes in the landscape and to retain soil. But as the ‘Legos’ of landscaping tools, retaining wall units can be used to create many beautiful and functional features.”
BRANDPOINT
stadium seats, retaining walls are for sitting. One popular application is a freestanding seat wall around a patio or fire pit. Retaining walls are perfect to set into hillsides such as amphitheater seating, where they retain soil while offering a place to sit. Other options include stadium seating, replacing aluminum bleachers as well as a couch or bench designed with SRWs. Functional features Retaining wall units can make beautiful tiered gardens, raised garden beds, planters, tree rings plus fire and water features. One common application is a raised patio, where retaining wall units serve as a foundation for a paver patio surrounded by freestanding walls in place of a wood deck. Creative homeowners and installers have used retaining wall units for lighted column posts,
Seating From creating seat walls to
waterfalls, hot tub platforms or mailbox columns.
or rail posts can serve as a fence solution.
Steps/stairs
Signage
Both residential and commercial signage can be created with retaining wall units. Stately columns with house numbers at the end of a driveway, a hardscaped entrance sign to a community development or a mailbox pillar are features easily created with retaining wall units. Monument signs can be built as Fencing freestanding walls, with channel letters, a signboard or neon Keep people moving the right mounted on the surface. way with freestanding walls used The endless design options as fencing or partitions. A parapet afforded by retaining wall systems wall is a back-to-back wall that serves as a barrier for vehicles and are limited only by the imagination. With a variety of pedestrians. Stepped-down colors and textures, retaining walls freestanding walls are used can do it all, beautifully. If you can alongside ramps for easy access. design it, you can build it with Custom columns designed with VERSA-LOK. lighting and fencing with timbers Going up and down a slope is easier with solid stair foundations created from retaining wall units. From stairs out the back patio to steps for access within a hardscape design, such as a multilevel patio, retaining wall units are a safe support for stair treads and pavers.
Hawaiiana Management Company, Ltd. Serving Kauai’s Condo & Community Associations with award-winning service
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate hits 3-month high
H
awaiiana currently serves nearly 60 residential and commercial associations on the Island of Kauai. Kauai native Sunshine Ruiz Hatto serves as Hawaiiana’s Vice President of Kauai Operations from its office at the Kukui Grove Executive Center in Lihue.
ASSOCIATED PRESS The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate hit a three-month high this week, reflecting higher Treasury yields and expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise its benchmark rate and keep it there until inflation recedes. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the benchmark 30-year rate rose to 6.65 percent from 6.5 percent last week. The average rate a year ago was 3.76 percent. The average long-term rate reached a two-decade high of 7.08 percent in the fall ,as the Fed continued to raise its key lending rate in a bid to cool the economy and quash persistent, four-decade high inflation. Rates came down this winter as it appeared inflation was steadily declining. But recent economic data reveal a still-hot economy and stubborn inflation. The recent rise in mortgage couldn’t come at worse time for the slumping housing market, on the verge of its spring buying season. At its first meeting of 2023 in February, the Fed raised its benchmark lending rate by another 25 basis points, its eighth increase in less than a year. That pushed the central bank’s key rate to a range of 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent, its highest level in 15 years. Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted at the time that some measures of inflation have eased, but appeared to suggest that he foresees two additional one-quarter point rate hikes this year. Minutes from that meeting released last week mostly corroborated that view, but the reemergence of higher prices along with some strong economic reports in recent weeks has some analysts forecasting more than two rate increases this year, including perhaps another half-point increase, to a range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent.
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Sunshine Ruiz Hatto Vice President Kauai Operations
BOB WILSON SR. MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
KATHRYN MILLER MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
99% retention rate among clients Local (vs. mainland) banking All employees are in Hawaii Serving nearly 60 associations on Kauai
LUCY TAYLOR SR. MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
RICHARD ROBERTS MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
AMY CAMPBELL MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
WHIT VAN BLARGEN MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
www.hmcmgt.com
KRISTEN KURZ MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
HINAHEA LANGI OFFICE MANAGER, SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
MIRISHAE MCDONALD MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE
RACHELE BURNS TOGUCHI OFFICE/LEAD ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
MARISA YOUNG ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Hawaiiana’s Kauai Properties: Alihi Lani Alii Kai at Hanalei Alii Kai II Aliomanu Estates Apopo Hale Emmalani Court Halaulani Condominium Hale Honu Halelani Village at Puhi Halemalu at Puhi Hanalei Bay Villas Hooluana Condo at Kohea Loa Hookena at Puhi Kahala at Poipu Kai Ka‘iulani of Princeville Kakela Makai Oceanview Kalaheo Pali Kai Kalihiwai Ridge Kamahana Kauai Beach Resort
Kauai Beach Resort Association Kawaihau Sports Villa K.G. Enterprises Condominium Kiahuna Plantation AOBO Kohea Loa Master Association Koloa Garden Apartments Kuhio Shores at Poipu Kukui‘ula Lae Nani Makanui Manualoha Marriott’s Kauai Resort and Beach Club AOAO Nawiliwili Estates Pali Ke Kua Paliuli Pikake Pili Mai at Poipu Plantation at Princeville Poipu Crater
Poipu Kai Association Poipu Kai Racquet Club Poipu Kai Water Reclamation Poipu Kapili Poipu Sands Princeville II Community Association Princeville II Community Association - Queen Emma Bluff Princeville Makai Ranch at Halele‘a Princeville Paniolo Princeville Sealodge I Puamana
Puhi Industrial Park Pu‘u Po‘a Regency at Poipu Kai Regency Hule‘ia Regency Villas at Poipu Kai Sandpiper Village I The Villas at Poipu Kai Villas at Puali Villas of Kamali’i Villas on the Prince Waikomo Stream Villas Wailua Bay View Waipouli Beach Resort
For more information about Hawaiiana’s services, contact Sunshine Ruiz Hatto at 792-0515 or email sunshine@hmcmgt.com.