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Welcome to Punaweb dreamoutloud,
I apologize for the delay in getting you authorized. We just installed a new system of registration to keep spammers out and it took me awhile to get the hang of it.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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Hi!Wow what a warm welcome! Thank you! So several things-we do like it very warm in the 80 s is great. However, we have dry heat here, so the muggy weather will for sure be a change. We really did not want to rent. Our business is clothing, shoe and fabric dyeing and is very very messy. Picture a permanently blue washing machine, dye stains everywhere. Not sure any landlord would have that and it would be so much work and expense to clean it when we had to leave. We planned on buying a house and living in it for a year. We live very simply and make due with what we have. If at the end of that year, we wanted to move elsewhere we would look into it at that point. We really love Kona but it is just out of our price range. WE did a ton of driving around HPP when we were there in January. Some great houses there too, but again out of our price range. WE are maxxing at 100k and it really limits the places you can buy.
All of your advice has been wonderful! Thank you! Our real estate agent did tell us about the Albezia trees. We plan to bring a chainsaw! LOL
We also do not plan on bringing much. Sell all the furniture, etc. Just bringing w/a very small amount of clothes, a few boxes of sentimental items, our guitars and drumset of course, and the business stuff. Oh and our VAN! gotta have that.
Kalakoa, do the business permits apply even if it is just an online business? This business is our backup plan and solid plan until hubby finds a job. We will probably keep it going as a side income even after he does find a job. Any thoughts on why the trades are so tough to get into?
Shave Ice, That is so crazy! It truly is a small world. We live in Kalispell so not far from where you lived! I was born and raised here in the flathead and My hubby is from Phoenix. The houses we were looking at were at 373 and 410 I think.
Carey-Are you the Carey I know from Konaweb?
Nana Valley- Thank you for your info-we would like to check out that church. It seems so hard to be picky about getting a bigger lot and not having albezia trees (especially in Nanawale) when we are on such a tight budget. We may have to settle for a while and go from there. I watch the real estate every single day. It appears that things move pretty quickly in this area which is interesting.
Gypsy69-For sure the only way to really know is to be over there, but we are going to have to depend on our agent to be our eyes and ears for awhile til we find something that really seems amazing. Then we can hop on a plane and check it out. Fortunately, we are not in a super rush so time is on our side
Rob, no worries at all! I am stoked to be here! Thanks for getting me taken care of!
have a great evening all!
Laura
Its a colorful life!
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Laura,
I was a successful professional textile artist in business with my husband for 25 years in Oregon before we moved here. I am now a teacher, but my husband NEVER has considered reopening our business here because the high cost of shipping for materials and the outrageous cost of electricity meant it would have been very hard to turn a profit. The third factor was that dyeing uses a lot of water, our catchment works great for just the two of us, but we realized our business would drain it dry in no time if there was a drought. Dyeing just is a water and power intensive process. Before you plan on moving the business with you please just do a couple of simple things: look at your current power bill, then multiply that by at least 3 probably 4, that is what your bill will be here. Look at your shipping costs for materials sent to you now, and double or triple them, check with your suppliers and see if they even will ship here, many do not. If you sell online you will have high shipping costs back to the mainland as well, unless everything you sell can be shipped in the cheap USPS mailers. All these things really add up, and even without the cost of heating our studio in the winter, we just couldn't make the numbers work. Maybe your processes are different enough that you can make it work, but I would hate for a fellow dyer to get stranded here with a family and no source of income. (I had to laugh at the blue washer description, ours was often fuschia and the floor of our studio was pretty saturated with dye too.
We brought all our stock here and sold it on island until I got a job, our product was popular and sold well, but we still could not figure out a way to make a profit without raising our prices drastically to cover the higher cost of doing business. I have no regrets about moving here, but the lifestyle change had to include a whole new way of earning a living.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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Laura, Yep! Did miss you this winter...glad to see you are here & still looking toward your move date...
There are still some places within your reach in many areas of the island (a caver friend of mine sold a 2 bedroom house in HPP for well under your price... it had a fairly new roof & great bones, but would have needed work, as her mom had lived there a year with no electricity...or water pump...it was not disgusting, but not spiffy & she wanted to sell it ASAP...)
Coming from the upper midwest, the weather here is less muggy than a good ol' GoM influenced summer day there & the nights are almost always nice & cool!
We do have a lot of artist & craft friends, and some are able to make it work nicely here, others it is more of a hassle... I have gotten into cutting tiles, but have a fairly limited palette due to the fact most tile places here stock mainly earth tone tiles! (I am an amatuer, non-pro, so have no idea about the business end of this!)
ADD: Oh, and 2 resources for you to check out your business compliance would be the county code, chapter 25 (Zoning) on this link:
http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/lb-countycode/#countycode
and the county Planning Dept:
http://www.cohplanningdept.com/
Some subdivisions do have more restrictive covenants, so make sure that if the perfect home is in one, that you have checked their websites!
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quote: Originally posted by gypsy69
I have lived a few times in Nanawale and never had a good experience. Mostly small lots, dirt roads with huge pot holes, lots of mosquitos and loud frogs, Plenty of traffic very few sidewalks, Lots of drugs, robberies or domestic disputes happen to close for comfort. The geothermal is next door and in many parts of Nanawale you are blessed with the Geothermal rotten-egg smelling waste or the noise from the drilling. The price is high for what you get and its expensive trying to protect what you have, I recommend renting in a few places before Buying.
How tragic you never had a good experience here. I've been here 2.5 years and still love this area. The main roads are paved, yes, the traffic on them can be fast and reckless. The cross roads are mostly gravel or lava shelf. I have walked almost ALL of the roads and none compare to the ones in Orchid Land! Except for Nanawale Blvd, the streets have light traffic most of the day. Nanawale has a crew who takes care of deep holes when people complain. There are no sidewalks but what subdivision does? There are mosquitoes and coquis but what subdivision doesn't? There are neighborhoods that have crazy people, drug labs, domestic abuse, loud lifestyle, but tell me, what subdivision doesn't?
Again, when you select a house to purchase, visit the neighborhood morning, afternoon, evening on weekday and weekend. You'll have a pretty good idea of the lives of the neighboring humans. One family moved here some months back and they had a problem with a neighbor and nudity and friendly gesture to share pot, LOL. But you'll find that in ANY Puna subdivision!
He who hoots with owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning.
He who hoots with owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning.
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quote: Kalakoa, do the business permits apply even if it is just an online business?
Most of Puna is zoned Ag; any non-Ag use is technically "special use". (This doesn't include the primary dwelling, which is "by right".) There is hardly any commercial-zoned real estate in Puna. A little bit of Nanavale is actually zoned Residential, which is highly unusual.
All enforcement is "complaint driven", so the entire "special use" issue is often ignored as a technicality.
Trades are difficult because the State doesn't recognize any foreign credentials; to achieve licensure, you will need apprenticeship, which is generally only available to "friends and family". This isn't just the trades; it seems to apply anywhere someone has cornered the market and wants to protect themselves from competition.
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To the best of my knowledge home operated business which does not involve a drive in (parking) retail trade are allowed. An internet business should be fine.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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The irony of the Home Occupation permit is that it requires you to operate in such a manner as to be undetectable: no signage, no employees, no clients, no deliveries, no visible storage of materials...
There's effectively no difference between having this permit and keeping an ultra-low profile in hopes of avoiding detection... except that the permit grants County the right to inspect your premises at their whim.
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I don't know about Hawaii county, but most places allow deliveries to home businesses, just not "regularly scheduled deliveries or pick up" so you can have occasional UPS trucks show up and make deliveries, but cannot have the UPS truck drive by every day to do a pick up and deliver.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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Section 25-4-13. Home occupations. ...
(b) All home occupations shall comply with the following standards: ...
© A person desiring to engage in a home occupation that involves any of the following activities, shall file with the director, a declaration in the form designated by the director, verifying that the home occupation will comply with all of the conditions contained in subsection (b) and will not involve any of the activities listed under subsection (e):
(1) Frequent customer or client visits;
(2) Frequent deliveries or pickups;
(3) Storage of materials, supplies or products related to the home occupation outside of the dwelling or other fully enclosed building;
(4) Activities conducted outside of the dwelling; or
(5) Group instruction.
(d) A special permit shall be obtained for any home occupation on a building site that is situated within either the State land use rural or agricultural district.
(e) The following activities shall not be permitted as home occupations:
(1) Contractor storage yards, including without limitation, the storage, use, repair or fabrication of equipment designed or intended for use in land excavation or in the construction of buildings or other structures or other similar heavy equipment.
(2) Repair, fabrication or painting of automobiles or other motorized vehicles, except those owned by household members and which are not sold or made available for sale within one year of such activity regarding any particular vehicle.
(3) Care, treatment or boarding of animals in exchange for money, goods, services or other consideration.
(4) Any activities and uses which are only permitted in industrial districts.
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