Where? Why? What?

Today, I do nothing but what I want to do. Studying is going well and I am doing great on my practice tests. Will probably take a few later today but only cuz I want to, not cuz I have to.

I was up until 3:30am this morning studying Hawaii again. It is pretty much all I do in every spare minute I have. Last night I even dreamed of clearing land in Puna to build a house!

So, I thought I would share with you the what, where and why of all we are doing. I haven't journaled it because I haven't wanted to be held to anything, but this is our blog and I am a woman and I can change my mind, right?

WHAT:

So, we have pretty much decided on the Big Island of Hawaii. That would be the Island of Hawaii in the State of Hawaii.

WHY:

Many reasons. The biggest is we are wanting to live our dream and we want to be able to afford it and it is the most affordable island. It wasn't a tough choice as when I was a little girl we visited and I fell in love with it then. I puked at the Hilo airport (I left my mark on that island even as it did on me). It was beautiful there. We got to walk right up to the edge of the volcano and see the lava shoot in the air. I remember watching every word I said and every move I made lest I incur the merciless wrath of Madam Pele.

The Big Island also seems to be the most "Hawaii" short of moving to one of the smaller islands. And "Hawaii" is important to us. Why move there to get away from it all if you don't get away from it all? People, relationships and community are our values; it's what's important to us. The BI is likeminded with us in that way and as we come with wide open arms, we feel we will arrive to arms wide open.

WHERE:

So, the big question is: Where on the BI will we find a place that compliments and supports our value system? That has been my driving force as I study and read about it. It is, after all, a big island and there are many cultures there.

When I first started dreaming of living in Hawaii, the picture in my head was of me sitting on my lanai at the end of the day enjoying the sun set over the ocean. I feel that an ocean view is not a matter of life and death. It is much more important than that. (I stole that saying from a plaque in someone's house that was listed on the internet.) The truth is, there are certain things in this life that are more than just nice, they feed your soul. Huevos Rancheros and white peppermint mochas from Starbucks are two (not at the same meal though). AND an ocean view. I want to surround myself with as many of these things as I can.

The most affordable places on the BI are in Puna and Ka'u. Ka'u is simply too far to drive for work and so that was quickly ruled out. Puna has some great pieces of land (2, 3 and 5 acres) that would allow me to hide and get away from it all. The rain forest is stunningly beautiful and the people seem to have our values. It seemed untamed and that was a little scary for me and the ocean views were in a lava zone that was going to cost a lot of $$ when it came to owning or building a house. Truthfully, as an outsider looking in on a community through forums, websites, books and such, there is a lot of negative said about the Puna district.

We also all know that the sun sets in the west and so if I was going to have that sunset I would have to live on the westside of the island, aka the Kona side. I started researching the area and found that anything we could afford was at least 1/2 hour away from Kona (where the work would presumably be). I didn't want Darin to have to travel more than 45 mins for work.

I found a completely dilapitated house with the phenomenal view I dreamed of. It needed a lot of work, but we were up to it. The realtor I am working with sent me the specs on it and the home inspection report. It is in really bad shape and they are asking a good $150,000 more for it than it is probably worth. At first we were thinking about how to maximize our money in our investment and realized that it might be better for us to just buy a lot and build. But I realized that in doing that, it would leave this dilapitated house there. Right next door is a beautiful home being built and it would have been lovely to rehabilitate this home and spruce up the neighborhood. I told Dar (Darin) that I wanted to start thinking differently. That we were thinking too "American" and I wanted to to think more along the lines of where could we be a blessing and be open to maybe not making the best financial investment but the best personal investment into the community, its people and ourselves. To truly live by our values, which for us is: if we are going to find life, we need to give ours away.

It was at that point I began to follow my heart and turn away from the dream of the perfect sunset and towards the daily promise of a sunrise and back to Puna and the east side of the island. Even from Oregon I can feel our hearts beating to the same rythm.

I realized that as I had earlier been looking at property, if I ever saw a neighboring house I would immediately reject that property because I didn't want to see anyone. I wanted as big a piece of land I could find and I would build smack in the middle of it with forest all around and be at one with nature. Now I realized that if I was going to be a blessing and be blessed I was going to need neighbors and they were going to need me. I realized that I would find comfort in the view of my neighbor's home knowing that we were now joined and building a dream together.

Between Darin and I, I am the dreamer . He keeps a good head on his shoulders, but I see him. I see the hope in his eyes. The slowly, but surely believing that this all can come true. The other day I asked him, "What are you thinking about?" I do this all the time. He said, "Oh, you just caught me dreaming about Hawaii."

End of the Year Update

Well, Hell Week is behind us. I should say Hell Three Weeks. The rental just about did us in. We ended up running 12-15 hour days, I took a week off work and I called in a bunch of favors to finish it, but it's done. Almost! There are a couple of things that still need done, but we told the new tenants we would do it in January. We need a break to enjoy the season. Luckily they were understanding and happy to just get in before the month was up.

Hee hee, Darin got upset with me last week because I was stressing about the carpet cleaner coming in 15 mins and needing to get everything off the floor so she could do her thing. He was on the phone with his brother, whom he hadn't talked to in two weeks. He said, "I thought we we were going to practice Aloha now and not wait until we get to Hawaii." Shame on me. He is now up to 85% sure we are moving. Woo Hoo!

My brain got fried from coming up with the move-out report for the last tenant and so I spent some time learning how to make the lovely above video for you. There is a turkey cooking in the oven and that is pretty much all I can think of right now.

I am starting to study to take my state exam for real estate. Tended the hot tub so that I could get in tomorrow and spend a couple hours out there with my books. I hope to take it within two weeks.

Mele Kalikimaka to all. It's my last cold one! Here's something funny, as a little girl I learned to hula dance to the Mele Kalikimaka song and always thought it was Mele KaMIKImaka. I only learned this year that it was liki, not miki.

Happy New Years All!

It's Christmas and We Are Still Moving to Hawaii

Well, it's been a long time and I thought I would give you an update on things. Our renter moved out and so we are over there most every spare minute getting it ready to have another renter move in. The phone rang off the hook for people wanting the place, which is good, but it kept me very busy. We are renting to a nice couple with a dog.

We are also hiring a new employee at work, so I have been very busy getting that stuff together and updating our agency website so that people can get the application right from the site. I finally got it done, but it only works in Explorer browser and none of the others. Grrrr.

The biggest piece of news I have is I took my final from real estate class last night and passed with an 87%. There were a couple of questions that I argued over whether they were correct or not, but they were questions from the state's exam and there is no sense in arguing with that since the state isn't going to do anything about it. I hope to take the state exam soon.

I have someone coming to look at both houses on Monday to give me a CMA. That stands for comparative market analysis and we will know what the going rate for the houses will be in today's market. That will give me a starting point in putting the houses up for sale.

Well, that's the news. In the middle of it all we are still trying to enjoy the Christmas season. We have a big party at our house Saturday night. It will be nice to relax and enjoy friends for the evening.

Merry Christmas and I hope you are enjoying your holidays as well.
Sharlee