House Hunting, Diamond Head and a little Karaoke

Hey there! We are moving in a little over a week. It is unbelievable! I still am convincing myself of it. I think it is going to take an empty house here in Hawaii to get it through my thick head. I have been slowly getting the house ready for the movers. Thankfully, they pretty much do everything. We just have to stand by and make sure that things are labeled correctly and not broken or packed poorly. We have not had any bad experiences with the movers yet, so hopefully this will be another successful move.

So our lives since I last updated...Well, it has been forever.

We were blessed with leave to go house-hunting in NC. We flew to the east coast and drove to Ev and Meghan's home in NC around 4 am, woke up around 7 am to meet our real estate agent and started looking at houses. Ev and Meghan were out of town so they let us stay at their home. That saved us a lot of trouble finding lodging, and we saved more money for the house. Thank you again!

We covered 18 houses that first day. Our agent is fabulous. She is helpful and just comfortable to be around. She drove us around that first day so we were able to learn a lot about the area we were going to live in a matter of hours.

We had made several lists of what we wanted in a home so we came prepared. Daniel also brought the video camera and I brought a pen and paper to make notes on as the day went by. We were so thankful for the video work Daniel did because after 3 hours of sleep, 18 houses can really run together.

We reviewed the tape on Sunday and narrowed down the selections to 5 homes. Our agent wanted to show us a few more on Monday so we looked at about 5 more homes. That Monday morning we saw the house we wanted. There was no doubt about it. It had everything we wanted. It is a new construction being finished this month. We wanted an open floor plan so the family room was open to the kitchen. (It is nice to not be cut off from company when you are making their dinner. I am a chatty person.) Besides, the open floor plan feels like more space anyways. The kitchen is spacious, just thinking about it makes me more excited. The rooms are great and there is plenty of storage.

Well, after seeing this house all the others on our top ten were pushed down. No other house could compare that we had seen. We discussed it more together that afternoon over some amazing sweet tea and chicken at this local food joint. (Oh goodness, I am going to have to work hard to keep the pounds off down there.)

We decided we would make an offer and start figuring out things from there. We went back to the agent's office and worked up the offer. It is scary and exciting at the same time. We left the house feeling giddy and pretty anxious. About 1 1/2 hour later our agent called and told us that they denied the offer but made a counter-offer. We accepted it and decided to meet the builder the next day. That next morning was even more exciting as we were able to see the last few touches that were being added to the home; the tile, carpet, counter tops and lighting. The builder had brought samples of each. They were being put in after we left NC. The appliances were not yet chosen so we were able to go and pick them out for ourselves.

So there it is, the home we are in the process of buying. We are planning on closing in August once we get there and do a walk-thru. You will just have to come and visit for shots of the inside. Let me just tell you, it is beautiful. I cannot wait to get there and make it our home. I know, I know, we need to do something with that yard...Thankfully they will be sodding it and doing a little bed work around the front porch.

There will be more about the house once we get to North Carolina.

Our movers are coming on Tuesday and our internet is being cut off on Wednesday. I will not be able to update anything for over a month...haha it will be like normal. This time it will be because I can't get to a computer not because I am a lazy blogger.

We have a long list of things we wanted to do on the island before we move, and we have tackled a few of them since we got home from NC. One of them was to be super-touristy and climb Diamond Head crater. This is one of the number one tourist spots on the island. It is basically a photo-op on top of a large hill that was once the edge of a volcano some millions of years ago...ha millions. We got our hiking gear on on Saturday and climbed up to get a few good pictures.



Yeah for Maryland Gear Hats!! We had a guy stop us and say he went to UMD as well. Thats right...FEAR THE TURTLE! even in Hawaii.

This lighthouse and several expensive homes were on one side and this view of Honolulu and Waikiki was on the other. I think the Magnum PI house was supposed to be on that side of the island somewhere.

We enjoyed that morning. It was a great day for hiking because it was a little overcast so it didn't get too hot climbing the crater.

Later that night we celebrated my birthday with some friends at this great karaoke rental place. We rented a room for 4 hours, brought our own food and drinks, and sang the night away. I was a little worried about it in the beginning because everyone was saying they wouldn't sing much, but once we got there and everyone realized how much fun it was it was hard to get a song in.

The controls were in our room so we didn't have to leave to request songs or to turn up the volume. It was a great evening. Here is Daniel making a funny face, probably in response to my crazy singing. I was singing Queen's "I Want to Break Free" I was getting into it as you can see...

Here we are singing "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. ( We didn't request this one :))

Here is Amaya and I singing our hearts out on who knows what song... There were so many that night.

Here is the crew from that night. Daniel had bought balloons and a little hand pump. He made Rhiannon some kind of dog. She seemed content with sucking on it. We didn't realize that Pink had been invited to the party...ha!

Well, it has been a great past week. Daniel and I hit the beach one day after he got back from work. It is always nice to relax as the sun goes down. We are trying to soak it all in before we leave.

We are mostly busy with house and moving plans. Almost every moment we are together we talk about the house or the flight and drive over to NC. This next month is going to be some adventure.

Love Ya'll!