buying a house | They went west

Hale = house in Hawaiian and it is about dang time I told you a little bit about where we have landed now that the flip house and project that brought us to Kauai in the first place is under contract.

It is a long, long story full of misfortune, adventure, redemption, surprise, and incredibly good luck and great timing. BUT it is a little too long for one or even two blog posts. The cliffs notes version goes like this. . .

Sometime in November we realized the Ele’ele house was nearing completion and we would have to find a new place to call home on the island. we had no idea where that would be or what kind of budget we would have or if financing would be an option now that we were both gainfully employed in the eyes of the state.

We put together a list of homes to see on the east side of the island (our favorite part of Kauai for the incredible mix of people, places and activities. Also, mountains. We are mountain people and Kauai has incredible mountains that were most definitely calling our name) and hit the road with our realtor to check out something like 10-12 properties in one day.

We walked into the first house that happened to be at the tippy top of our budget (and truly out of it if we were being realistic) and fell in love. Really. Hard. The rest of the day of showings was a total waste of time, we knew nothing would compare to the first house and that sadly, we could probably never call it our own.

Cue the incredible good luck – our business partners on the flip house (also partners with R’s mom on another property on the north shore of the island) decided it was time for them to list their north shore property and move on to focus on their health and other businesses. This meant that R’s mom might be looking for a new property to invest in on island and maybe some new ‘business partners’ a.k.a family members to share a home with. Fortunately for us, that is exactly what she wanted to do and the three of us combined just might have the budget to get our dream home.

There is so much to tell about this house and how we nabbed it – it was slightly more complicated than the the short smash-and-grab job described for you here, but for now I’ll just say it was on the market for about 6 years and the way our offer, closing and the sale of the property went down it is hard not to believe in fate or that this house was just waiting for the three of us to show up.

We closed the last weekend in January and moved out of Ele’ele that weekend with only a few minor things left to take care of before that one would be listed for whoever it had been waiting for.

Living in this house and finding our place in Kapaa has been a dream. We have wonderful neighbors, mountains all around and a yard Ellie gets to explore and I get to mow with a riding lawn mower. It is a little bit country, a little bit mountainy, but one hundred percent our home. Enjoy a few select pictures and come visit!

Next time. . .playing tourist, being too uptight for the tropics and leaving the rock for the first time!

I’m really embracing the occasional blogger thing, but it’s time to share some really exciting news! The house R and I came to Kauai to flip has been flipped and it’s currently on the market! If you have followed along with our story on this blog, through social media, or caught our episode of HGTV’s Hawaii Life (yes, we had a hot minute of reality TV fame this year) you know this little house has been a big deal.

Lots of things brought us to Kauai, but this house was the biggest. It was the final piece in our “Let’s do something crazy while we’re young and move to Hawaii” puzzle and it fell into place at exactly the right time.

This little house with it’s insane ownership history and total disrepair was not exactly comfortable living for our first few months as island dwellers, but it was the perfect jumping off point for us to get settled here in Kauai. We grew to love the neighborhood, especially our neighbors, the local brewery, the short walk to glass beach and the quick jaunt over to salt pond beach and Hanapepe town. It got us out of our comfort zones and tested our strength mentally, physically AND emotionally. It hosted our first Christmas Eve dinner with friends and the rest of our tropical holidays away from friends and family in Colorado – for that I think a little piece of our hearts will always be in Eleele.

R has worked on flip houses most of his life and while he has encountered challenges and hard work in the design + build field, I bet he would say no previous job (or future for that matter) will ever compare to the amount of sweat that went into this one.

Not only did R contract and design the heck out of this house, it was also the first project we were able to bankroll with our own investment money. We bought into the house with a few other parties, but we were able to fund most of if not all of the construction materials for the work R did while we were there all on our own.

We are SO proud of this house and what it has become. It has been completely transformed and is a beautiful Hawaiian home now. We hope that it sells quickly (cross your fingers please!) and is as lucky and charming for the next owners as it was for us.

Enjoy these few pictures of the finished upper and lower house, and check out our listings online as well. If you’re ready to do something crazy, like move to Hawaii, this little house might be just the right piece for your puzzle as well.