Quick catch up

So it has been a very long time since I have posted and I must say, a lot has happened. Let me just say, I'm typing this in Maui. Somewhere along the line we decided to move here for no real reason than we wanted to see it because it has a great reputation for being one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

Well gosh, where to start? I guess I will back up a little. This summer has been a whirl wind of busy. We finally got the house ready to sell. We first tried for sale by owner and Craig's list. Not a single bite. So I took out an ad in the paper. Nothing. Then I listed with the MLS (the same thing the realtors use) and still nothing. We lowered the price a bunch. It was rediculous. I really didn't want to come to Hawaii with a rental on the mainland, but I only got interest with people that wanted to rent it. We offered a lease/buy option and it was snagged up in two days. They love the house.

Then it was time to set up for a garage sale. Interestingly, Darin ended up having to work all week, very long days the week I set up. Hmmmm, that sucked!

Another interesting thing, my things were worth way more than his! I mean thousands. LOL. I consider it all "our" stuff, but you know, the boy stuff and the girl stuff.

We barely got out of the house on time. There is so much last minute stuff to do and so much crap to get rid of. I had a friends and family pre-sale. Then I had the sale. The second day it all went half off and then at the end of that day I had my friends come back over and take what was left for free. And I still had a boat load of crap left over that never got put out at the sale! I have promised myself that I will never aquire that much "stuff" again.

If I were to do it again, I would have the garage sale a month before leaving and then one last one just before leaving. Don't worry about not having enough stuff to sell. If you are anything like me, you will have plenty.

Before I end this post I would like to say that originally I wanted this to be a generic post for anyone to read. However, I am feeling the need to journal my experiences more and for me that means that I have to share more about my faith because that plays a huge part in my life.

Anyway. I think that is all I will post right now. More on the trip over later!

Aloha

One Down, One to Go!

Well, we have sold the rental and signed final papers on it yesterday. I am so excited! Now we just have to get our primary residence up for sale. Ugh! Actually, it is almost there. We are planning an open house next weekend.

I am attaching pictures of the new bath. We are reallying enjoying it. When you shut the curtain, it is like you are transported to a spa. I will never have anything but tile in my shower again!

A quick update on Hawaii, Darin's cousin was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mom, Darin's aunt lives on Maui and would like us to come housesit for her while she goes to be with her daughter during treatment. First off, her prognosis is very good and it is a very slow growing cancer. Anyway, it would give Darin, Ariel and I a great opportunity to see another island and just do a little R&R. We will see. Otherwise, we are not in a rush. I believe we are not going to take our trailer over there, which I am sad about. But it just wouldn't last. It would get all moldy and such and I want it to stay here where it will see lots more fun.

I had my last day of work! I haven't gotten to enjoy unemployment yet except to say that it provides more time for me to work on the house :) Such is life. We are headed over to Bend for four days for Jonathan's graduation and so that will be a bit of down time, but Jonathan has our time pretty packed.

So, that is what is going on with us! I hope all is well in your world and I will check back in, hopefully sooner than I did last time.

Sharlee

Our Trip

Hello! We are back from our trip and just overwhelmed at how much we loved it there. It is definitely the place for us. We had a wonderful time and left plenty to do and explore for when we move there.

Because of the time change we were up everyday for the sunrise. In an earlier post I described how I traded my sunset for a sunrise and I must say, Hawaii makes some beauties. In fact, there was so much vog in Captain Cook, we only saw one sunset while we were there!

Speaking of vog, the volcano is really acting up! It is amazing! We plan to do some real exploration when we get back. To see that kind of natural power is awe inspiring.

I never wore anything more than a tanktop. Since I like to be warm and have always said I would get a second job to pay for heat before I am cold in the winter. So, it is pretty awesome to be warm all the time.

The people are very friendly. I really have nothing negative to note at all except maybe I don't think we went faster than 45 mph anywhere on the island!

Can I just say that Oahu is an amazing island? It was just stunning. I did try to find my house that I lived in as a little girl, but was unsuccessful. I just take that as a sign that we will have to go back.

I am adding a video of our trip. Enjoy!

We are now working like crazy to get the houses on the market. Darin fell ill this last week and we are having a house full of guests this next week. I am feeling a lot of pressure. Little by little, a lot of projects are falling off my list. It is quickly getting to the point where it is good enough. We will not get any more money out of it. The bathroom is looking good. I painted it yesterday. We will caulk the shower today and seal the tile. Then we can move out of the girls' bathroom and back into ours. I am excited about that! I will put up pictures soon.

While I was updating the girls' bathroom I had to take a few steps backward to move forward. That is frustrating but it will look good. I will add pictures of that as well.

Lastly, I bought a new comforter set for my bedroom and think it will really add some pop to the place. It will also go with anything we do in Hawaii as well.

I am planning on placing the right price on the house right at the get-go and get this thing into escrow.

More updates later! Enjoy the video!

Hey, Where have we been?

I haven't posted for quite a while. I was determined that I would not talk about getting my real estate license again until after I took the test. Well, I took it today and passed, so check that bad boy off my list! I have no idea what I will do with my time. Darin reminded me that I used to paint not too long ago and since I have promised several people paintings before we move, I may want to pull that back out. Woo Hoo, actually time for a hobby maybe!

Well, 40 days until we leave for Hawaii for our recon trip. We are over the top excited. Where are we in our journey? Well, it is pretty much a done deal. Dar still refuses to give the final stamp of approval. He is far too practical for that. But all of our plans and daily doings are about us moving. So, here is what we have done so far:

• We have found all of our dogs really GREAT homes. One person said that if we end up not moving we could get Brody back, but we decided we couldn't do that because where he is he is basically living in the lap of luxury.
• I gave my letter of resignation at work. I gave them a 4 month notice. It takes a long time to find an executive for this area. We hope to begin interviewing right when I get back from Hawaii.
• I took my exam! Woo Hoo!
• Dar got all the rest of the stuff at the rental so I can get that on the market next week hopefully.
• Dar and I are jogging every other day and getting in shape and getting healthy to begin our new life.

So, as you can see we are definitely making strides to head to the islands. AND it will not be at all too early. It has been a really cold winter this year. I hear it is the same in Hawaii. Very wet. We have had snow here a couple of times. But the wind has been biting cold.

Dar has been working with a guy that is going to be building a house in Hawaii and wants to share a shipping container with us. Our travel trailer might actually fit in it! It will be a total squeeze, like 1 inch to spare squeeze. We will see. It would be a lovely solution for us. I have also contacted a shipper that might take it over there loaded for us. But she isn't emailing me back. But I will persevere and keep you updated.

Well, there you have it. A quick update. I should be posting more often now.

Sweet Dreams of Hawaii!

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