Kitchen Window Saga

The original window over the kitchen sink was a sliding window that opened horizontally from the middle. Betty Liljestrand decided she did not like the window frames interfering with the perfectly framed view of Diamond Head, so Howard devised a disappearing window that dropped down into the wall using an old hospital bed motor and a system of pulleys and weights. A marvel of do-it-yourself design and engineering, the window worked for many years until it didn’t.

Years passed and one day, in the early days of the Foundation, a tour guest asked about the switch on the side of the window. Trudy, the Foundation’s Facilities and Events Manager, explained that window no longer functioned. The guest happened to be an engineer, and he offered to come back the next time he visited Oahu to fix the window. A year later, Dave Riedel and his wife Liz, arrived from Wisconsin and fix the window they did! It worked for quite a while but over the last several years, became more and more difficult to operate until finally, Trudy had to put a nail in the frame to keep it from sliding down inside the wall. 

In mid-February, Dave and Liz returned for a Hawaii vacation, this time with their friends Brian and Elizabeth. All four spent an entire day at the house, working on the window with Dave serving as lead engineer and Brian, Liz and Elizabeth providing expert assistance. For the first time since Howard installed the window, the entire exterior wall was taken apart to better see what was happening inside the wall with the pulleys and weights. The window is now operable though there are still some kinks to be worked out. Despite having returned home to the mainland, Dave is committed to devising a more permanent solution to keeping the window operable so stay tuned for an update in our decades long window saga! A giant mahalo to Dave, Liz, Brian and Elizabeth for spending a treasured day of your vacation at Liljestrand House!