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Successful, middle-aged couple seeks a competent carpenter to remodel our home in Hilo. 

I knew that renovating our house on Big Island would be challenging. Contractors are in short supply. They only want big projects. Our project is small. Allegedly, remodels are harder than new builds. 

The work culture is relaxed. People do not work before 10am or after 3pm. Nobody is working if the surf’s just right. 

Locals who need work done have learned to be patient. They’ve done the work themselves. They know someone who knows someone, or they have adapted. I am still adapting.

Early in the project, I naively envisioned our own little HGTV series. “Dave,” I said excitedly, “we could advertise a work trade! We’ll offer the downstairs guest room in exchange for a set number of construction hours. We’ll get so many carpenter surfers. This job will be done in no time!”

Dave was not convinced. He trusted the process. We hired a local interior designer, because she has the contacts. She knows the good contractors. Contractors are going to want to work with her, because then they’ll get more work.

Our designer’s first choice for a general contractor passed. The second passed because our property’s location might cause a permitting nightmare with the county. The third said he wasn’t able to start until 2026.

After the first contractor passed, Dave started talking crazy. “Amanda, how would you feel about me tackling some of this remodel?”

Even though it was dark in the bedroom, I’m sure he saw the horror on my face. The few home projects he completed in the past made our house uglier. “You are good at so many things, but I don’t think carpentry is one of them,” I said.

I thought that ended the conversation. Sadly, it did not. Dave continued to expound on the virtues of being our own carpenter. The quickest way to my heart is frugality. But, I didn’t want to make our house worse and NEVER be able to find anyone to fix it, because there are no hireable workmen on our island.   

I whined to our contractor, “Dave is threatening to do the remodel himself. He is researching the owner/builder regulations of the Hawaii County Code.” 

“Don’t worry,” she said, “we’ll find someone good.”

The next day Dave ordered an Audible book called, “How to Be Your Own Contractor.” I panicked. I started asking everyone I knew for carpenter recommendations. 

If I sound like I’m complaining, please know, I’m really not. I live in a beautiful house overlooking a surf break. My husband is literally the sweetest man alive, even when uber focused.

Plus, I’ve been through this before. Finding a contractor for my 1940’s plantation-style beach house in Hawaii is exactly like trying to find true love online. Possible, but fraught. In the end, it will be better than I ever imagined. I just need to be patient.

We had a video call Wednesday with our interior designer, Kassandra. Since our last update over two months ago (sorry!), we’ve made a lot of progress and are almost ready to begin applying for construction permits. Here are some of the highlights:

Porch, staircase, and railing

To access the backyard or downstairs guest suite, we currently need to go out the front door, walk down a crumbling stone staircase, and walk uphill on some grass (often wet). Alternatively, you can walk an even longer downhill path entirely on grass. Neither path has any significant protection from rain, which is inevitable here and occasionally heavy.

Kassandra experimented with multiple staircase designs, including a spiral staircase in multiple locations and a diagonal staircase in the middle of the home. You can see both in the image above, but we’ve decided on the diago=

nal staircase. Dave, who exercises downstairs and often sits on our hill overlooking the ocean, is especially excited. We also think it’ll be great for anyone staying in the downstairs guest suite.

Although seemingly hardly worthy of note but something we’re both very excited about is the updated railing. Our current railing consists of slats of wood that block about 30% of the view. The new railing will consist of thin metal wires that block very little of the view but still prevent pets, nephews, and nieces from falling.

Living room

The living room is a wide space—too wide to create a focus on the fireplace and TV. Kassandra suggested several layouts, but we both immediately loved the one shown: two couches back-to-back. One faces the wall-mounted TV (shown) and one faces the fireplace.

Not only is this a good use of the space, it matches how we like to spend our evenings. Amanda likes to relax by watching TV. Dave likes to relax near Amanda but doing almost anything but watching TV, and finds a TV in his field of view distracting. Back-to-back couches will allow us to enjoy the living room together, even if we’re doing separate things.

The current fireplace is a wood burner but it’s in a state of disrepair. We don’t think it’s worth fixing: neither of us ever feels cold enough in Hawaii to want a heat source and piles of wood in Hawaii attract bugs, including scary centipedes and millipedes. Instead, we’re going to update its interior face to make it look good but will decommission its functions. Amanda imagines burning candles in it on special occasions.

Entry, kitchen, and dining room

The current main entrance to the home is in the hallway between the living room and bedrooms. It’s an odd spot, cramped and unnatural feeling. There’s an alternative entrance in a more natural spot but it’s a sliding glass door that doesn’t currently slide easily. Kassandra suggested turning the sliding door into the main entrance, such as with a double french door. We never would of thought of that but jumped on board immediately.

The old front door will become a window, including one with a pane near ground level so the pets can look out onto the driveway (as they do now).

After coming through the new front door, you’ll be in the dining area. We haven’t chosen any specific furniture for this area but we expect a medium-sized table and chairs.

North of the dining room will be the kitchen. We’re keeping the same general layout (sink, refrigerator, most cabinets and drawers) but will remove the peninsular section of counter and drawers and replace it with an island in the middle.

Laundry, bathroom, and garage

Beyond the kitchen will be our laundry room with stacked washer and dryer, a half bathroom, and garage. The garage will be for Dave’s bicycles, the pet area (feeding and waste), and storage.

Dave’s office

The current upstairs guestroom will become Dave’s office. He’s already moved his temporary desk and computer in there to test it, but it will be much nicer after the improvements.

The existing interior door into the room will become a wall, allowing the master bedroom and bathroom to be expanded. He’ll get a new door on the wall in the middle of the hallway, which he thinks will improve the already good airflow.

The front of the office will remain a sliding door onto the deck, giving Dave easy access and an ocean view. A couch will be added—Dave does his best thinking during naps—and Kassandra has proposed some shelving that exactly meets Dave’s preferred industrial aesthetic.

Master bedroom and bathroom

The existing master bedroom is huge, with floor-to-ceiling ocean-facing windows on one side (and part of the other side). It’s bright and hot during the day. Its bathroom is immediately behind those windows, so if you forget to draw the blinds, you’re giving a show to the surfers below.

Early on, we decided that we wouldn’t make good use of all that space. We want it dark for sleeping and private for bathrooming. We had some initial ideas about how to partition the space but they weren’t quite right (more precisely, Dave had ideas that would’ve been ugly and Amanda kept telling him to wait to see what Kassandra said). During an in-person visit, Kassandra quickly iterated over various ideas until we found a solution both Amanda and Dave liked.

Then Kassandra worked on it even more and found an even better way to use the space. You’ll walk down the hallway to a single door into the bedroom. Straight in will be just the bed and maybe a dresser or vanity.

To the left will be the entrance to a spacious bathroom with hub (for Amanda), shower, and separate his/hers sinks. Past the sinks will be a walk-in clothes closet.

Dave was especially surprised by this layout. Sleeping and disposing of waste are, to him, things that you’re forced to do instead of what’s exciting (like typing at a computer for 10 hours). When it came to the design of the master suite, he was content to see Amanda happy. But this design wowed him, and now he can’t wait to experience it.

Amanda’s office and upstairs guest studio

The extra space from the current master bedroom with its oceanfront vista will become Amanda’s office, with a sleeper sofa that can be used by guests. A new wall will split it from the master bedroom and a new door will be added to allow access to it from the porch. It will continue to contain full bathroom amenities and will be decorated to Amanda’s desires.

Kassandra’s sample decorations for this room have done a great job of capturing what Amanda wants, so we have high expectations.

Downstairs guest suite

The downstairs guest suite will become much more accessible with the addition of the staircase from the porch. The bathroom will be updated and the bedroom will receive a closet to hide the ugly back wall. Dave currently uses this room for riding his bike rollers (similar to a stationary bike), and there will still be room for that even after the guest bed is installed.

Conclusion

This post’s focus on the details of the redesign obscures our excitement about the changes. Today the house feels weird. We could continue living in it and find ways to fill the space, but it would never quite suit our tastes. The renovation plans are for our house, a home that has the things that we want in the places we want them

Dave and Amanda contracted a parasite 5 weeks ago after dining out at one of their favorite Hilo restaurants to celebrate the upcoming closing on Home-o-li’i. At first, they suspected food poisoning. They thought the next time we get sick, it’ll be nice that we’ll have more bathrooms.

A few days after moving their sleeping mats into the new house, the stomach bug struck again. They learned that while having more than one bathroom is nice, getting off the floor in the night when you’re in extreme GI distress is not ideal.

Amanda and Dave were perplexed by the second round of stomach trouble. Could they have been infected by someone or something else? Dave did a deep dive into the norovirus and concluded reinfection was unlikely.

Amanda’s Aunts Jeanne and Loyce visited from the mainland and came down with the stomach flu. Were they infected by Amanda and Dave? Or, did they catch something on the plane?

Jeanne and Loyce recovered while Amanda and Dave continued to be plagued by stomach pain, nausea, and all other associated grossness. Finally, they contacted their doctor.

Dr. H referred Amanda and Dave to the lab for a blood test and stool sample. They are happy to say their marriage still stands after home collection and preparation (shudder) of two stool samples. Although, Dave could not look at “the room where it happened” for many hours after his wife collected her sample.

Amanda’s labs returned normal. Amanda excels at giving normal labs even when her body is in great distress. While Dave’s labs indicated a high presence of a white blood cell that is a marker for a parasitic infection. 25% of Dave’s white blood cells were fighting the parasite. Dave’s body excels at fighting external threats.

Dr. H diagnosed Amanda and Dave with a likely parasitic infection and prescribed a course of medication. There were no side effects to taking this medication. The doctor warned that the medicine could not kill bug eggs. He said if any eggs hatched Amanda and Dave would need another round of drugs.

Amanda and Dave took their pills and went back to life sleeping on their floor mats. A week later, Amanda was struck down with another round of the parasite flu. Amanda took a second course of antibiotics, but continued to feel ill for an entire week. She missed a week of work and completely depleted her sick leave.

Dave was struck down three days later. This time Dave did a deep research dive into the parasite Giardia, pictured en mass below eating intestines.

Amanda agreed their symptoms aligned. Unfortunately, Dr. H was camping in a remote part of the island for spring break. So, Dave wasn’t able to get medicine immediately.

In order to deal with possible disease vectors in their house,they turned their hot water heater to scalding and ran all faucets for five minutes to rule out water borne infection. They used Clorox on all surfaces. Now that Amanda is recovered she will drive the bedding to the old house for laundering.

Despite the illness, Dave has amassed an impressive collection of yard tools. Their home inspector noted several trees that needed removal, including one large palm tree that was hitting the house. Dave removed all shrubbery contacting the house.

Dave aims to prune the southeast cliff to improve their view and expand their yard. He also plans to eradicate all plants from the driveway. Amanda has unsuccessfully hidden her frowns about the heap of lawn equipment, the ugliness of Dave’s landscaping, and the trail of grass littering the new house.

Truly, despite the bugs and Dave’s lawn project, they remain very much in love.

We completed the purchase of Home-o-lii, our new home next to Honolii surfing beach!  The sale concluded on schedule last Tuesday (Feb 18th), although not without some last-minute craziness.  In particular, a few days before closing, we asked our realtor to schedule the final walkthrough to check that all of the old furniture had been removed, that the home had been cleaned, and that there were no new problems.  This was clearly specified in the contract, but the sellers told our realtor that we didn’t give them enough advanced notice and that they were prepared to cancel the contract if we were going to insist that they clean before the contracted deadline of 5 days before closing.

I don’t believe we want to print on this family friendly blog the kind of words Dave had about this.  However, we agreed to instead accept a walkthrough of the uncleaned house with much of the furniture remaining.  Since the sellers were apparently not reading the contract (and had chosen not to use a seller’s agent to help guide them through the process), we asked our realtor to gently remind them that the contract terms said that any furniture remaining on premises after closing would become ours.  Happily, they did manage to get rid of almost everything before closing, although they definitely didn’t clean the house in any way.  (As a point of reference, the floor was so dirty that Dave—AKA “street feet Dave”—mopped it without even being asked.)

Stuck in limbo

As mentioned in our previous post, we found an interior designer to help us renovate the home.  Her name is Kassandra and now that we officially own the home, we were able to sign a contract with her.  Her partnering architect, who sometimes surfs at the beach next to our house, will be by this weekend (Mar 1-2) to take measurements so that Kassandra can model the redesign in 3D.

Based on our previous conversation with Kassandra, it was our intention to delay moving into the home until renovations were complete.  An empty house would be easier and faster for the construction professionals to work on, saving us time and money in the long term.  But for the first night of owning the home, we brought our beach chairs over and sat on the porch to enjoy our new view.

The next day, Dave brought over a table and his laptop and started working from the porch.

A couple days after that, we brought over floor mats and began sleeping at the house.

Over the next few days, Amanda bought a dorm fridge at a garage sale, we brought our microwave from the old house, and Dave brought an increasing amount of office supplies.

Finally, we stopped kidding ourselves and moved our pets over.  Bean the dog loved the new place instantly but required some training to not pee on the floor.  Kona the cat hates all change but adapted over the course of a few days.  Both pets do clearly wish we had more furniture to lay on/under/behind.

The reality is that we absolutely love the new home.  The interior design needs all of the help it can get from Kassandra, but the view outside is spectacular and the place as a whole just feels like… home.

Although we’ve moved many of our essentials over, we’re still keeping the bulk of our possessions at the old home.  We’re waiting a bit longer to see how the design process goes and what estimated timelines are produced before we make any major decisions.

Aunts, ants, and bugs

Amanda’s mother’s sisters, Jeanne and Loyce, arrived last Wednesday (Feb 19th) for a 10-day visit.  They’ve traveled all about Hilo and the nearby countryside, seeing waterfalls, attending a silent movie with us at the Palace Theatre, visiting Amanda at her library, and spending lots of time hanging out with their family here.  They also came by the new house one afternoon while Amanda was at work to check out the new digs and watch some whales.

Homophonically related, it’s very important in Hawaii to treat your property for litte fire ants, an invasive species that packs a powerful toxic sting in a miniscule body.  The toxin only affects those who are allergic (Dave isn’t; Amandna very much is) but even those not affected are rightfully terrified of these pests: they like to eat eyeballs.  They’re a major menace for pet owners, especially older pets that might sleep through the initial stages of a swarming.

Unfortunately, it looks like the new house hasn’t been treated for a long time—certainly months, possibly years, maybe never (little fire ants only arrived on the island about 20 years ago).  Within hours of arriving at the new house, both Bean’s and Kona’s food bowls had been swarmed.  We treat monthly at our old house and had some spare bait, so Dave began the process of treatment immediately.  Ant activity is down massively since then, although we’re still taking precautions as it may take a few months to fully cull the population.

Synonomically related, Amanda and Dave recently went out to eat after a day of home buying stress.  A few hours later, we both didn’t feel well.  The next evening, we both felt very ill.  We both had the symptoms of a stomach bug, with Dave’s progression being a few hours ahead of Amanda’s.  We dealt with it, like you do, and were very happy that we were upgrading from a one bathroom home to extra bathrooms.  Eventually, we thought it was over.  But then it happened again a few days later, and again a few days after that.  Other people began to experience it.  At this point we don’t know what it is, but we’re tired of it.

A whale tail of a conclusion

We love our new house.  Ten days after concluding our purchase, we don’t have a single regret.  We are, however, a little stressed by not being able to move in properly and a little distressed by our ongoing stomach ailment.  We’re sure both problems will be resolved soon and forgotten soon after that.  Until our next blog, enjoy this video of a whale slapping its tail a few hundred yards off of our back porch.

We’re still on track to buy Home-o-li’i, the house next to the Honoli’i surfing beach. We’ve learned a few things about the property since putting an offer on it, and we’ve also started making plans about how we’ll use the space after we move in.

Sewer, surfers, and whales

We’ll start our update with the shit news, literally and figuratively.  After canceling our previous contract to buy a different house over sewer-related misrepresentations, one of the first things we researched after becoming interested in Home-o-li’i was its sewer status.  We immediately noticed that it had a sewer manhole cover near the driveway.  When we contacted the county about it, they sent us a letter signed and sealed by a civil engineer saying the house was connected to sewer.

YES! This made Dave very happy.  Underground sewers have been a staple of civilization since at least Roman times, and it was very nice to know that our waste would be traveling away from our house.

However, the sellers reported on their disclosure that the house was on cesspool.  In case you don’t know what that is, as we didn’t before we started this process, it’s a rock-lined hole in the ground with a cement slab on top into which your excrement drains.  Rain water (of which we have a lot in Hilo) penetrates the ground and eventually carries the waste into the sea.  It is the opposite of civilization; pooping in the ocean is what animals do.

We asked the sellers for clarification and they admitted that they were just guessing.  They didn’t have any records either way.  Dave did a bit more digging using the county’s public online database and he found a $2,500 plumbing permit for the house around the time sewer was added to the street 20 years ago, which was marked as inspected and closed.  So we assumed that the signed report from the civil engineer plus an inspected plumbing permit that was probably for sewer meant the house was on sewer.

Then came our home inspection.  We used the same inspector as for the previous home we attempted to buy, Jake Bierman, as we really liked him.  He found lots of problems with the house, but most of it was stuff that we either expected or that we were planning to update/replace anyway.  However, he pointed to where our pipes led to the cesspool.  “Cesspool?”, we said, “but the county says it’s on sewer!”

We told Jake about the evidence that it was on sewer and he was clearly confused.  It was already getting dark that night, but Jake amazingly went back the next day to investigate further.  He told us that he was pretty sure all of the waste was still going to the cesspool.

Dave was disconcerted, so we had our Realtor find us a plumber to investigate further.  Dave went to the house to wait for the plumbers to arrive and they were 90 minutes late, so he just sat and enjoyed the amazing view, occasionally taking photos of a whale and videos of the surfers using his mediocre phone camera.

The plumbers confirmed the house still uses the cesspool but also that the county sewer connection has been installed.  Even more surprising, the equipment necessary to connect the home to sewer was sitting unused in a box under the house, where it has probably sat for the last 20 years.  At the end they gave Dave a rough estimate for connecting the home to sewer: $30,000.  The high cost is because the bottom of the house is almost 50 feet below the height of the road where the sewer main is and because running a pipe in Hawaii is expensive (we don’t have dirt; we only have small rocks and medium rocks and big rocks).

We decided that’s ok.  It’ll be one of the first projects we contract for after we close on the house.

Interior designer and a delayed move

As mentioned in our previous post, the main impediment to us buying this home is its appearance.  Its view is amazing and its single-level ranch-style layout is good, but the interior needs a lot of work.  Amanda was feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the work.  She didn’t even know where to start.

After telling Dave about her stress, he wanted to help, so he began learning about the process of hiring an interior designer.  The next night, he surprised her with an evening of looking through designer portfolios until they found someone local who they thought could do a good job.

Amanda emailed the designer and Dave created a document describing our requirements, requests, and ideas for each room in the house.  It also tried to answer the questions we anticipated the designer asking, such as budget and how we plan to use the house.  We put in some stretch goals, like adding a hot tub, although we think we might leave some of those for later to keep things simple.  When Dave was done, and Amanda had a chance to review and edit, the document was a dozen pages long and included several simple illustrations.  We sent it to the designer and scheduled a video call.

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A few days later on the video call, we were amazed to find that the designer didn’t think that we were crazy people for sending her a 12 page document before even the initial consultation.  She even read it, as evidenced by her being able to refer to requests we made deep within the document.  We really liked her and Amanda was delighted to discover that she had designed the gorgeous interior for a local bar.

However, the designer did give us a reality check on timelines and the feasibility of living in a house that was being remodeled.  Depending on the exact scope of work we agreed to, she anticipated design, construction, and furnishing to take 4 to 8 months.  We asked about living in the house during that time and she said that would add a lot of cost.  It’ll be significantly cheaper, and probably faster overall, if the house is unoccupied and devoid of furniture during the work.

We talked about it after the call and decided that we’re ok continuing to live at our current home until the renovations are complete.  But we did decide that Dave will set up a temporary office in the new home on a folding desk and we might get a queen-sized air mattress to sleep on some nights.  We’ll also get a dorm fridge and some chairs for the deck, even if just our folding beach chairs, so we can have a few guests over to enjoy the view.

Ebike

Dave doesn’t own a car.  He doesn’t like cars or driving.  He chose the location of our current home based on it being in the downtown Hilo area, so he can walk for most errands, from shopping to visiting his primary care physician.  On rare occasion, he needs to take a bicycle or the bus.  However, one of the tradeoffs we made in choosing the new home was that it’s in the suburbs.  The grocery store will be three miles each way, which is too far for walking.  It’s also hilly, so any bicycle ride into downtown will be a sweaty affair, which is fine for shopping but less appealing for medical or professional appointments.  So Dave decided he needed an ebike.

He also decided he didn’t want to wait for the new house to close before buying the ebike, so it arrived last Friday night (Jan 31st) and he’s been riding it for a week now.  He loves it.

The ebike turns long trips by bike into medium trips, and it turns hills into flats.  Dave removed the throttle from the bike, so he still needs to pedal, but the bike has five levels of pedal boost, from “a little help” to “warp speed”.  It also gets good range; Dave rode 30 miles yesterday (Feb 8th), starting out on level two (moderate help) and heading home on level five (warp speed), and he still had plenty of battery left.

Dave’s only regret is that he didn’t get an ebike earlier.  Living car-free is a challenge, but a moderate-priced ebike that goes moderate distances at moderate speeds without making its rider all sweaty is a huge improvement.

Old photo

The house overlooks what has been the main surfing spot for this side of the island for about a hundred years (since the construction of the Hilo breakwater in 1929 prevented large waves from entering Hilo Bay).  That means the house appears in thousands of old photographs and videos.  Dave was researching old videos to determine when various improvements and extensions were made to the house when he stumbled upon a photo of Honoli’i Bay from 1893.

Dave believes the photographer is standing on the property that we’re buying.  The area has eroded a bit and is overgrown, but on recent drone videos you can still clearly see the dirt path the photographer is standing on.  Dave hopes to create a modern replication of the photo after we move in.

Conclusion

If all goes well, we should close on the house in a little over a week.

We’re under contract for a new home for our $100 cabinet!  About a week ago, Dave discovered a house for sale by owner that didn’t have any pictures uploaded.  He checked satellite imagery and online property records, which looked reasonable, so he contacted our Realtor to reach out to the sellers.  Amanda drove by it on her way home that day and confirmed that the outside of the house looked reasonable and that it had an epic view of the local surfing beach, Honoli’i.  Unfortunately, our Realtor started texting us pictures he received from the sellers and we discovered the interior wasn’t to our liking.  Built almost 80 years ago and having clearly gone through several rounds of retrofitting, it was a frakenhouse.  At the listed price, we decided to pass.

A few days later, the seller told our Realtor that she was dropping the price by $150,000.  We were still concerned that the interior wouldn’t work for us but acknowledged that looking in person is more reliable than deciding based on photos.  We, Amanda’s mom (Verna), and our Realtor arrived and discovered what might be the best view anywhere near Hilo.  Not only does it have a great view of the ocean (a common sight on an island), but you can watch surfers catching waves every sunlight hour of the day; there’s a sweeping view of the downtown area and the port, where 100 cruise ships dock a year; and straight out from the porch is one of the best places on this side of the island to watch for whales during their annual migration (December to February).

Still, there was the problem of the inside of the house.  On the positive, it was a ranch-style house with the main area all on one level, which we’ll increasingly appreciate as we age.  However, one of the four listed bedrooms was a hastily converted garage and another is an independent suite that requires walking outside and down a steep staircase.  Neither of those appears to be a permitted addition, so they can’t be insured and will make it harder to sell the house to a buyer with a mortgage.

Similarly, the advertised three bathrooms are one real bathroom, one half-bath in the laundry room with only a curtain for dignity, and a bathroom in the under-house suite that’s inaccessible without leaving the house and walking into full view of the beach.

The inside of the house is… brown.  It looks like an attempt to build a moderately stylish house for a modest budget from 80 years ago.  The ceiling has a style we recognize from old Hawaiian resorts in Waikiki (O’aho), but which clashes with modern furnishings.  What we think was originally a secondary bedroom was turned into a new master bedroom by extending it out onto part of the original porch, glassed in, and given a bathroom—a shower and toilet in full view of the surfing beach.  If we were to forget to draw the blinds, we could give a couple hundred people on the beach a good view of our marital relations.  We think we would’ve preferred the original full-width back porch.

As mentioned in our $100 cabinet story, we wanted at least three bedrooms: one to sleep in, one for Dave’s office and his mess, and one for Amanda’s office and her pretty things.  This house had a weird master bedroom we could live with, a guest room (probably original master) that’s actually quite nice, and a walled-in garage that neither of us wanted for an office (storage, sure!  Exercise room, great!  Office, nope!).  Neither of us really wanted the independent guest suite either, it having a lesser view and being detached from the rest of the house’s amenities and human/pet social opportunities.

The house is also three miles outside town, a trivial distance by car but a significant one for Dave, who doesn’t own a car and prefers not to drive.

The view was perfect but the house and its location were not.  We were divided.  Dave, who is style blind, wanted the house.  He works from home and loved the idea of being able to look up from his work to see the sun rising over the ocean, surfers catching waves, cruise ships and working boats coming into port, and mother and baby whales breaching every winter.  Amanda, who now wasn’t going to get her own home office and would be in charge of updating the home interior, was much less enthusiastic (although she did also love the view).  We compromised by putting in a lowball offer, leaving it up to fate and the sellers to decide our home buying destiny.

Alas, fate and the sellers refused to cooperate with our attempt to dodge a hard conversation about our competing desires.  They refused to sell for our offered price but did counteroffer another $100,000 off the original listing price.  We now had a price that Dave would be happy paying.  Amanda was still hesitant.  We talked about it on and off for hours.  Dave saw Amanda’s reluctance and suggested we pass.  Amanda saw Dave’s excitement and took another look at the pictures to reconsider.  Dave had an idea for how to solve the problem of giving Amanda a home office, but he didn’t think it would fly, so he didn’t say anything.  Then, Amanda suggested the same idea: starting with a temporary solution, we’d split the master bedroom into two rooms—much like we think it had originally been designed.  Dave would get the part with a view for his office.  Amanda would then get the guest room for her office.  The converted garage would just be a storage space and exercise room.  The under-house independent guest suite would be for guests.  With our savings from the lowered house price, we’d have plenty available for painting and other livability improvements.

All the major problems were solved, so after a few final negotiations with the sellers, we entered a contract on the morning of Saturday the 18th, with closing expected in 30 days (February 17th).  While we waited for them to sign, we visited the surfing beach (Honoli’i), watched the surfers, saw several whales, and occasionally looked up at the home we hope will soon be ours.

Wordplay

The beach beneath the house is Honoli’i, pronounced hoe-no-lee-e.  The title of this blog post plays on the similar sound of “hono” to “home”.  Hono means “bay” and lii’lii means “little”, so Honoli’i might mean “little bay”.  The word for Home in Hawaiian is “hale”, so perhaps we should call this house Haleli’i (our little home on Honoli’i bay).

We’re not getting the home we previously blogged about.  Our due diligence revealed two major concerns, one of which would have eventually cost $10,000 to $40,000 to resolve and the other which endangered the home’s amazing view, which was the home’s greatest asset.  We were still willing to buy the house, but not at the agreed-upon price.  We asked for a 3% discount, which we thought was more than fair, but the sellers disagreed and the contract was cancelled by mutual agreement.

That was the only home currently on the market that we liked enough to consider moving from our already nice (but small) home.  We began to wonder if we had made the right choice by not letting go of the 3% difference.  Would we forever be trapped in a small house with nowhere to put our $100 cabinet?  We had what investors call fear of missing out (FOMO).

Although Dave is a technical writer, he’s spent almost his career working for software startups and other investment products that often go through cycles of FOMO buying (“the price is going through the roof!”) and selling (“it’s going to crash!”), so he’s very familiar with FOMO’s emotional rollercoaster and the risk it creates of making hasty decisions.  He also knows that one way to deal with FOMO is to attempt to quantify the risks of missing out; if the risk is small, then there’s no reason to fear.

For home buying, we decided to calculate roughly how long it would be until another great house would come to market.  We found a listing of every house in our target area sold in the last three years that met our main criteria.  We then looked through pictures and details and compiled a list of homes we think we would’ve bought.  There were 18 homes in 36 months, indicating a house we would be willing to buy comes to market every two months on average.

That eliminated our fear.  We’re not missing out on much if we only need to wait an average of two months until our next opportunity.  Also useful, we found a lot of homes (including sales in the past six months) that were better value for money than the home we tried to buy.  It convinced us even further that we were wise to cancel.

Better informed than before and steeled against FOMO, we’re back on the hunt for a new home in Hilo.

Dork appendix

Although our research indicates that a new candidate home will come to market every two months on average, the actual amount of time we’ll have to wait is better described by a poisson distribution:

It was a rainy Saturday morning, December 14th, when we decided to work together to assemble a $100 wood freestanding closet that Amanda had ordered online. Despite the usual tribulations of assembling flat-pack furniture, and the contention of two people trying to comprehend the same under-specified instructions, we successfully assembled it in about an hour without any serious complication. Our marriage survived its first great test—assembling furniture—and we were feeling awesome. What could possibly stop legends like us from achieving amazing things?

Well, apparently finding a home for that closet could. You see, because it was only $100 and about the right size and shape, we hadn’t measured the place where we thought it would go. When we put it there, it took up too much space. When we tried putting it in the guest room, there was already a desk, a bicycle trainer, and stuff for the cat taking up all the space. Dave offered to move the bicycle, but Amanda didn’t want him to be inconvenienced. Still, there was sadness about not having enough space. We decided to take an early nap.

A digression on how to fall asleep

Amanda’s pre-sleep routine is pretty normal. She scrolls the social media or watches videos of people cleaning until her eyes droop, puts down the phone, and sleeps.

Dave, in this and many other things, is weirder. He usually doesn’t take his phone into the bedroom. He just closes his eyes. To fall asleep, he thinks about how to solve a “problem”. Most of these “problems” are not problems for anyone but Dave, and they’re often not anything Dave can do anything about anyway, but trying to solve them puts his mind at ease.

Alas, Dave’s method is a source of constant frustration for Amanda. Most of the time, he’s asleep within two minutes of laying down, filling her with envy. Other times the “problems” he’s trying to solve affect their relationship, so he’ll turn over every little bit and pester her with questions that could affect the rest of their lives together—not the kind of thing that will help her relax and fall asleep.

That was the case this rainy Saturday. As we laid down for our nap, Dave began asking about getting a bigger house. It was something we’d lightly discussed a few times before, but now Dave had that nutty gleam in his eye that is the harbinger of change.

A forever home

We don’t recall if we ever did nap that day. We do recall deciding that the house we buy next should be our forever home—the place we plan to live for the next 40+ years (or until we change our minds, which is ok!). We wanted:

• 3 bedrooms. One for our master and one for each of us as an office (which can be guest rooms when we have visitors).
• 2 baths so neither of us ever has to wait for the other if it’s urgent.
• Near downtown Hilo. Dave still prefers not to drive.
• An attractive home design (especially interior). Critical for Amanda.
• A view worth looking at. Otherwise, it’s not a forever home as we’ll always be dreaming of a house with something more.
• A good place for entertaining guests (local or traveling friends). If you have a view, you want to use it.

Three homes on the market met our criteria, but one of them would’ve been a stretch on the budget and the other was lackluster on the interior layout and the view. That left us with only one current option. We drove by it ourselves that Saturday night, slept on it, and reached out to Dave’s Realtor early Sunday.

The McMahonsion (we hope)

About a mile from downtown with three bedrooms, three baths, two floors, and a two garage, the house met all of our essentials. And the view—well, that was the kicker.

There’s also a hot tub—which now seems like it should’ve been on our required list—a kitchen significantly larger and better laid out than our current kitchen, a living room with the same view as the patio, and an open interior that’s more than satisfying.

The house also has a split air conditioning unit in every bedroom plus the kitchen, a gas fireplace (dunno if we’re gonna use that), and enough space for about six cars in the driveway when we’re entertaining.

As with anything, there are some downsides. The house is expensive; we were able to negotiate down some but we’ll still have a few frugal years ahead of us. The view is over a hill, beneath which is a highway so there’s some road noise when sitting on the patio (closing the doors eliminates almost all of it). There’s a bit of termite damage (common for Hawaii) and Dave is concerned about the age of the roof (our current house sprung a leak in its old roof three days after he bought it, necessitating a $15,000 replacement). However, the new house is also in a lower-risk lava zone and tsunami inundation zone than our current house, so we’re less likely to have some of those problems that are special to Hawaii (and our annual insurance is lower).

The offer

The day after viewing the house, we put in an offer. We didn’t lowball it, but we did negotiate. After some back and forth, we accepted a counteroffer on Saturday the 21st—exactly a week after we assembled the $100 closet.

As of this writing, we’ve deposited our earnest money, the home inspection is scheduled for Wednesday the 1st, and we’re starting to get everything in our current house packed up. If everything goes as scheduled, we’ll take possession in mid-January.

We would love to sell our old house in downtown Hilo to a friend or family member, so please let us know if you have any interest. Otherwise, we’ll be listing it on the market after we complete the purchase of the McMahonsion.

Addenda 2025-01-08: the deal fell through, but we’re still on the hunt for a new house to hold the $100 cabinet!

The couple that blogs together, stays together. -Aristotle

We’ve both been writing blog posts for many years, and our existing personal sites AmandaMcMahon.net and dtrt.org will remain independent, mainly so that Dave can post about geek stuff. But posts about our adventures together (and occasionally apart) will appear here.

The site’s domain name is portmanteau of our last names that came to us while joking with friends at our wedding rehearsal dinner. Our wedding officiant, Mel, took the joke a step further and used it in our ceremony. In case anyone is confused, it’s not actually our new surname—we both kept our original names—although Dave has a gleam in his eye that says, if we had thought of McHardmahon before we filled out our marriage paperwork, we might now be at the DMV getting it printed on our drivers licenses.

Come back to the site again soon for more news. Until then, enjoy our wedding photos.