Introduce yourself

[punagirl]

Use this thread to introduce yourself. We have all been posting here a while so it might be interesting to know where everyone is from, when they are making the move, building plans etc. If you see a new person posting encourage them to enter a quick greeting on this thread.

Atlanta/Pahoa

[punagirl]

I am Aimee and I am moving to Puna with my sweetie, Bob and our three miniature dachshunds. We started this venture almost 10 years ago on our honeymoon to Maui. We quickly realized we were not millionaires so the next year we took advice from someone and came to the BI to check out land. That first trip we never made it to Puna but did buy two acres in HOVE. The next year we spent 8 days in Puna and hated leaving to go to the west side for the rest of our trip. We immediately started exploring land options in Puna. We finally found a lot in Kalapana Seaview right near the front with an awesome view. Seaview is one of the three neighborhoods down by Kehena for anyone that doesn't know. Lucky us, we bought just before the explosion. Our $12K lot is now worth $95-125K. We plan to built a home that takes advantage of the view. We are on a budget but want a nice place that we will be happy living in forever. We are close to finishing the renovations on our house here in Atlanta and plan to go on the market at the end of this year or Spring of next year. Then we will head over. Bob has owned a contracting company, been a plumber, and just about anything else construction related so his first "job" on the BI is working for me, building our house I have told him this job has great benefits and the boss is awesome. I am an insurance adjuster, please don't hate me 'cause it pays the bills. My real dream is a owning a gourmet cooking/food store but not sure if that will ever happen. Bob is also a musician and likes to create bizarre art. We both like snorkeling, hanging at Kehena and entertaining. I love throwing parties. We have quite a few friends that have made the move or are in the process of moving.

Atlanta/Pahoa

[nanasohana]

We started loving the Big Island on our 30th wedding aniversary about 6 years ago. We bought 2 lots in Tiki Gardens in Puna and 1 in Greensands in Kau also just before the price jump. We were there May of this year and got the lots cleared and leveled in Tiki and had to stay in tents because we couldn't find a rental we felt we could afford. We met Pam and some other folks at her place during a nice BBQ and got to see her progress and listen to her words of wisdom. We came back to Oklahoma because of the long building delay we were facing (3-4 months for a permit) and are staying with our kids since we had sold our home. I just can't bring myself to buy a house here. Our hearts are there. We will come soon but prepared this time. We have built 2 homes ourselves and have all the building skills. We put our money away till we come back and my husbands and his friend may start a greek sandwich shop here. I am sad but I won't let it come between me and life. All things happen for reasons, and I am seeing some already. Our property will wait for us there till it is time for us. I still had some learning to do to be able to stay and live in Hawaii.

[Glenn P]

I am Glenn and like Nancy my partner Dave and I spent two wonderful weeks on Kauai for our 25th anniversary. We immediately started thinking how we could move to paradise. We have lived on a boat in Seattle for the last 15 years. May of 2004 we bought three acres in Orchidland. We plan on moving and building our house as soon as we get our boat sold. Like punagirl we were lucky with prices. We bought our three acres for 32k and most are now going for 75k. We are eager to start new careers. We are both psychotherapists but I got my Hawaii real estate license last Oct and plan on starting a vacation rentals company. I read the posts daily and am most distressed at the galloping prices for building materials. The wait is driving us crazy. Can't wait to get home to Keaau.

[Noel M2]

Aloha,

My wife and I moved to Hilo a little over a year ago from the mainland. We decided to move to the islands after our first vacation to Kauai several years ago – I still remember having dinner at the Beach House, watching the sunset and thinking about how we can make the move. We later visited other islands and eventually decided to move to the Big Island due to it's climatic diversity, land value, and nice pace (particularly on the Hilo side).

While we initially planned to build, we decided later that moving into an existing home was more prudent, especially since I would still have the opportunity to work for my mainland company and would need a home office. We sensed the challenges of building from our friends who were in the process of constructing a home up the coast. We've settled in the hills above Hilo where it is relatively cool. We love our location and the neighbors.

While I still work for my mainland company, we're building a business that consists of vacation and long-term rentals and development (single family homes). It's now a challenge since prices for raw land and construction have skyrocketed but we were fortunate to have purchased a few parcels while they were still reasonable.

Our main project at the moment is a vacation rental by the ocean in HPP. We look forward to sharing it with this community. I'll announce it when it is open for business. We also plan to create rental homes in HPP dedicated to folks moving to the island and needing a temporary home while building as well as a rental cottage for those on scouting trips. The former will be ready early next year. The cottage will be available in a few months.

This forum has been a great source of information and is turning into a good community. I hope to meet more of you in the future.


Noel

[pslamont]

Aloha everyone. My name is Pam. My husband Bob and I bought some acreage up in Glenwood between Mt. View and Volcano. You can read about our adventures in the thread "Moving to Puna" by pslamont. It is filled with adventures and misadventures, successes and pitfalls....
He continues to work in California for at least one more year and will then retire form the California State Teachers Retirement System, which will allow a nice income and then the opportunity for him to come teach in the Hilo area (for the low salary they pay). He is a Special Ed teacher in Middle School with a Masters degree in Curriculum anmd Instruction, California teaching credentials for both single subject History and Multiple subjects (elementary school),Learning Handicapped, Resurce Specialist Certification and a community college credential to teach Hotel management/business!! This all just means he brings a wealth of skills to give to our wonderful new home and will probably settle into a position assisting Hawaii with Federal Compliance in Special Education. That has become his area of expertise. I am a retired ICU Nurse. I do not plan on returning to my profession for reasons of my health.

We feel blessed to have discovered the Big Island when we did. Although we expected to retire in San Diego, CA where we lived most of our lives, the draw of the island was strong and we have taken a new path. On this path we have met MANY wonderful people who have helped us in this major undertaking and are pleased to share any assistance we can provide to others.

Please enjoy our thread on Moving to Puna as well as contribute your own experiences. We only ask that you keep personal insults vacant from the thread, and thank you all for that consideration.

Puna Web is a great new home for us internet crazies who are traveling around the world as we attempt to gather in this wonderful and somewhat primitive place (or at least dream of it), learn the ways of the peaceful island and make new lives. Helping one another seems to be in the spirit of Aloha we all seek. I hope to contribute to that spirit in a positive way and am thankful for the warmth of spirit and new friendships you have to offer. Mahalo. Pam

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[punafish]

Aloha. Great idea for a thread, Aimee. Kurumi and I also fell in love with Hawaii on our honeymoon in Maui 22 years ago...but we didn't start planning our move until 3 years ago. Went back to Maui for a recon visit but were disappointed in the overdevelopment and discouraged by real estate prices. Unfazed, we did some research and discovered "Affordable Paradise" by Skip Thomsen. His book made us believers that a move to BI was doable. Been to BI 6 times in the last two years researching and experiencing the lifestyle. Found a beautiful home in Hawaiian Shores last year and closed on it in December. My sister Pamela is now living in our ohana, managing it as a rental until we make our move. (So if anyone needs a furnished rental while building a home there, let us know and we'll cut you a good deal
I lived in Japan for 10 years, two and half in the navy, the rest going to college and working. It was a humbling, life-changing experience that pried open my mind. It's where I had the great fortune to meet my wife, make many life-long friends and become fluent in a foreign language.
Kurumi and I have two children. Both are boys, both are bilingual. Our oldest is 19, now attending Teikyo University in Tokyo. Our younger son is 15, a sophomore in high school. Both are much better kids than their old man was, but let's keep that a secret, okay?
We're now living in suburbia about 40 miles NW of Chicago. Our initial plan was to make our move to BI in 3 years, but we're really itching to accelerate the process. Only two things stand in our way: selling our house here (which I'm confident we can do rather quickly), and the bigger challenge: ensuring our younger son, Grady, gets the kind of education and social life he deserves (see the "homeschooling" thread for more on this). So if anyone has or knows high school kids that Grady can hook up with this summer, we'd love to hear from you.
Kurumi is a Japanese language teacher, an aerobics/yoga instructor, a great mother and wife. She's also a painter and designs silver accessories with island themes. (Check out "Puna Muse Accessories" on Konaweb). Grady's a great kid, good student, very into gymnastics, and also a talented writer. I'm a self-employed, cross-cultural business consultant specializing in issues that affect Japanese and Americans in the workplace. I love blues, reggae and other roots music (Think Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Bob Marley, Willie K, etc.) I play a little blues guitar, but am much better at listening When I'm not working or goofing around, I like to read. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever stimulates the mind. Am particularly interested in culture and philosophy. ("Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is one of my all-time favorite books.)
We'll be staying at our house this summer from mid-July to mid-August, so hope to meet as many folks as we can.
Thanks for taking time to read this. Aloha!


Tim

[David M]

Aloha
First, to admit the obvious. Not a true Punatic, as our property is in Ninole, but we have stayed in HPP, have friends in Puna, and I really like this forum. Secondly, like Punagirl, we live in Atlanta. So, assuming I'm still welcome...

My love affair with Hawaii began BS (Before Sophie), when in 1977, the USArmy had the intelligence to reassign me from Ft Campbell, KY to Oahu. I stayed 4 years (only 1 trip to BI) living 2 of those years in Ewa Beach, and was misty-eyed as the plane rotated on the runway when the Army forced me to leave. I vowed to return. BTW, I also graduated from Hawaii Pacific College (now University) during that time.
Several years later, the Army again asked me to return, but only for a week, and from Germany (talk about a long flight) and most fortunately - mit Sophie. Of course, I did my best to show her all my favorite places and we made a quick trip to Maui. Then that darn airplane rotated again...
Unfortunately, life intervened and I became more and more separated from Hawaii, not just distance, but time. Fate intervened. Sophie's accident in '98 was a life changing experience - the kind you examine priorities etc. As she recovered, we investigated where we would end up in retirement. Although she had always spoken fondly of our previous trip, I never felt Sophie had the same desire to move there. But about 5+ years ago, after we had looked at some acreage in FL, she gave me one of those "wifely" looks, and stated," I just don't understand why we are looking at property in Florida, when you've always wanted to live in Hawaii." Thank God, I wasn't the slowest in the litter!! We haven't looked back. BTW, did I mention that Sophie is hapa Japanese and passes for local? The Polish half is pretty lovable too.
Our first BI trip also included our adult son, motherinlaw, and wife's brother. I think driving over 1600 miles in 9 days kinda wore Mom out., but we just had to get a feeling for different areas. Our next trip, just our son came with us, as our goal was to find our home on the eastside. Initially, I thought buying something existing, perhaps some remodeling, but the reality of it making a post and pier, older Hawaiian home ADA compliant is more than just a challenge. We did find a terrific realtor who eventually led us to the perfect place for us. It was a long 5 years when looking forward, but now as it is almost time, WOW, where did it go. We've made great friends, Besides Aimee, there are about a dozen others from Atlanta who preceded us. Most of us stay in touch and visit. We also have great neighbors. Our house plans are in the permitting process, we will owner-build a ProTec/Galvumet home while seeking refuge in our "shed" with our 2 boxers and 2 cats. Our son (a bride) knows where his inheritence is located.
I like to share what I've learned, and pick the brains of those before me. This is a great forum, thanks RT.
David & Sophie
Ninole in 2005

[aline]

aloha, I am Aline, Happy 4th everyone. Jim and I hope to be moving back to Puna. Used to live in Orchidland and had to move back to maine to deal with a family illness. We have one house on the market now and hopefully will put the 2nd house on market in a few months and then we will move back. We think the people in puna are the best in the world. I will probably go back to work at the hospital in Hilo. I also do stained glass panels,windows and mosaic tabletops. Would love to do it full time but as with everywhere the cost of living here in the NE wont permit it. I sure do miss huli huli chicken

[aprild]

Aloha All.
I am April. I have lived in Northern California my entire adult life. But for about 15 years I spent half the year living and working on Maui. I have substituted in the public schools, counseled in the Women's Center at Maui Community College and taken graduate courses at UH and teacher credential courses at Chaminade University. I am in the midst of finishing my credential at present and have the dream of teaching/counseling on the Big Island. I am seriously considering teaching in a private school only because the laws and regulations introduced with No Child Left Behind has made both being educated as a teacher and the actual job of teaching a very cold, artless and heartless endeavor. Pretty much the art inherit in teaching has been rung from the profession and replaced with such incredible demands that I have had 1st grade teachers apologize to me for not being able to provide me with a science lesson to observe; they only have time for the proscribed and scripted reading and math courses in their school day. So sad. I long to work with the little ones and would like, if possible, to give them a bit more broad and rich educational experience. I'm a bit daunted by the fact that HI will make me pass their teacher exam (after taking the danged California CSET just to get into a program! I don't think that most people appreciate exactly how much preparation, exams, certification processes and continuing classes every teacher has to fulfill. All this plus the demands of the classroom, meetings, committees, etc. for a very modest salary. Every teacher I know spends his/her own money for classroom supplies, too.) I also am considering Special Education. I am rambling... sorry. I chose Hilo side because I grew to love and cherish the rainy side on Maui and for the more local, less touristy ambience and the proximity to UH.

The first visit I made to Big Island, both volcanoes began erupting. I've always thought this was a significant event--of what, I'm not quite certain. My visits to Hawaii have been with friends living there, so I've been blessed to know and experience in intimate and adventurous fashion an amazing reality that perhaps many visitors may miss. Working in HI and, particularly, in the schools has given me the chance to meet many local and diverse individuals that just hanging out with my haole friends would not.

I have spent a great deal of my younger life on Makena beach back when Big Beach was the place to be--we would stay overnight. (A BI aside: I camped at Hapuna when the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't believe it! I also spent a night in a tent near Huelo on Maui where the wind blew so hard the tent was horizontal.) But I digress.

I have been caring for my mother so my friend and employer went to HI to look for an acre or two for me. I want to be able to grow a lot of food and flowers. But sometimes his ideas for me are a bit different than mine and I have ended up with a lot in Hawaiian Shores. I'm not certain how subdivision living will be for me since I've been blessed to live on and caretake 90 acres on a ridgetop in the redwoods for many years now. Probably in my perfect world I would spend six months in Hawaii and six months here forever. The best of both worlds.

I am fully aware of the trials the loving energy of the islands of Hawaii can test us with--but the spiritual energy of the islands no ka oi.

Many blessings.

april