- Aloha Nui!
Maybe some of you who have been following my Blog have noticed
my absence over the last two months? Hey, like the kid whose
dog ate his homework, I have a brilliant excuse!
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- Well, maybe
not so brilliant, but it's anyway and excuse. I got sidetracked.
Seriously sidetracked. And in the process, my Lovely Bride
and I are now residing in the awesome redwood forests of Sonoma
County's Russian River, in Northern California.
- I've been blogging
about this possible move for a long time. It's a bit ironic,
after all the times we've heard the same story over and over,
“We're moving back to the Mainland to be closer to our grandkids.”
and the advice we were always so quick to offer, “Let them
come to you!”
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- Years ago when
I had young kids of my own, we always made the 500 mile trip
to see our parents. They “were old,” and it was not
even questioned that they were not about to drive that far to
come see us. Well, things have (apparently) changed, and now
the kids call the shots.
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- Which is only
fair, I guess, since our grandkids control their parents, why
not have our kids control us? It's the new way.
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- All of our kids
earn way more than we ever did when we were working, and now
that we're “retired,” their six-figure incomes seem
incredible to us. Yet they cannot afford to come see us, so we've
been taking the necessary $3-4000 out of our meager savings to
go see them several times a year. And even then, when we're
there, we all of a became a part of their gonzo-frenetic lifestyles
and there is really no quality time to spend with anybody. Baseball
camp, softball, football, soccer, dancing, theater, gymnastics,
horseback riding, whatever. Anything to keep the kids' young
minds fully occupied with external stimulus at all waking hours.
When they finally get home (the nanny drives them home from
the last extra-curricular experience of the day), they plug into
the Wii or just sit at their computers for more mindlessness.
And yes, even the seven-year-olds have their own computers,
and of course iPhones.
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- It seems the
kids have no time or opportunity to develop interests of their
own. No time for imagination; for inventing fun things to do.
Or even things that would offer new learning experiences that
were not in the regular programs of their highly programmed lives.
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- OK, enough ranting
already. The bottom line is that after doing the math on the
travel expenses and on the comparative costs of living on the
Mainland versus living in Hawaii and then factoring in the potential
pleasure of being able to be normal grandparents to our five
grandkids, we decided to explore making the move back to the
Mainland.
- We decided early
on that if we were going to do this, we would not, could not,
live in or near any city. We are country folks and had to be
out in the woods. We like the forest, the ocean, twisty roads,
tiny villages and rivers.
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- The California
research began. Of course, this ideal spot had to be within
an hour or two (max) of our kids, all of whom are in the SF Bay
Area. Bay Area real estate was way out of our grasp, and we
didn't want to live right close in anyway, so we headed north.
It didn't take long to zero in on rural West Sonoma County and
the gorgeous and peaceful Russian River area.
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- Over about a
year, we made many trips over to look at over 100 properties
for sale. Early in our search we found this great little place
in Forestville, deep in the redwoods but at the top of a sunny
hill. It was a short-sale, so our Realtor advised us to forget
it. He gave us all sorts of reasons for avoiding short-sales,
and then kept turning us on to more and more homes that were
totally unsuitable to our needs, so we finally just told him
to write up an offer on our little Forestville find.
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- Even after we
wrote up that offer, we went back over to look at several more
“perfect” properties, all of which turned out to be
a waste of our time and travel expenses. Finally, after many
months of waiting, the bank in control of “our” short-sale
notified our agent that they had tentatively accepted our offer.
Our agent still advised that we not hold our breath, because
all sorts of issues could still come up that would unwind the
deal. So we waited, and waited, and finally things started coming
together on our little Forestville house, and in the end, we
bought it.
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- The house was
never intended to be “our home,” but rather a temporary
place that was ready and waiting for us when we sold our Hawaii
home. Our Hawaii home had been on the market for several months
already when we closed escrow on the Forestville place, so we
decided to make a two month trip over for two main reasons.
First, two months would allow us to fall into the groove of “living”
in the Forestville community and feel what that would be like,
and second, we could take that time to furnish the house from
garage and estate sales and then use it as a rental until our
Hawaii house sold.
- At near the
end of our two months, we had completely furnished the house
and had become quite comfortable living there. We had our kids
and grandkids up on several occasions and even spent some time
playing in the warm and wonderful Russian River with them. There’s
a great little beach only minutes from the house. The beautiful
Pacific Ocean is only a 20-minute drive away, too.
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- We believe that
our beliefs create our reality. We believe that where our attention
goes, our energy flows. One day near the end of our two month
stay, we looked at each other and asked each other, “do
we feel at home here?” After all, that was reason #1 for
our extended stay. The answer was yes. We felt very much at
home. Right after that realization, we got a call from our Hawaii
Realtor that there was a full-price offer on our home there.
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- So we went back
to Hawaii and started in on the Big Job of getting the Big Move
under way. Two months and a ton of hard work later, we are California
residents and we’re spending a lot of time with our grandkids.
It feels good.
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- Do we miss Hawaii?
That’s what everybody asks, of course. And they say, “What?!
You left Hawaii to live in California?” And of course,
many exclaim that we must enjoy not having to deal with the high
cost of living in Hawaii.
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- Right. Let's
see, our real estate taxes in Hawaii were $800 a year; here they're
$4200. We had to pay close to $300 a month to Helco for Hawaii's
overpriced electricity. Here, our electric bill is only about
$40, but we're paying over $300 a month for gas to heat the house.
Our car insurance doubled, even our Kaiser Permanente co-pays
are higher. Food prices are lower, but not much except for some
specific items, and even those are the same price if you want
to drive to the Kona side to Costco occasionally. The bottom
line is that our overall cost of living in Hawaii was lower than
it is here, and we are living in one of the lowest cost-of-living
areas of California. You can actually buy a house here for
under $100K! Not much of a house, for sure, but a livable house.
Kind of like Puna prices.
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- So how is this
all going to affect Affordable Paradise, future editions, and
my interest in keeping alive the concept of affordable living
in Hawaii? Hawaii will always be a part of me. I love Hawaii.
Were it not for the grandkids syndrome, we'd be there forever.
So my interest in helping folks find ways to live affordably
in Hawaii is as strong as ever. I'll keep this Blog alive, at
least if people keep visiting and posting. And at this point,
I believe that when the Fourth Edition of Affordable Paradise
is sold out, the Fifth Edition will probably be published as
an eBook only. The sales of the print version do not justify
shelling out the thousands of dollars necessary to get another
print edition going.
- The expenses
of publishing a book are high and many. Just the ongoing costs
of managing our small publishing company are such that we're
doing it as a labor of love. There is no profit in this venture!
I always find it interesting that folks will cough up with $6
for a magazine full of advertising but resist paying $12.95 for
a 300-page book chock full of valuable information that could
save them thousands, but that's the way it is. The eBook will
cost about half of the print-edition and it will reward the buyer
with instant gratification, too!
If you have any thoughts on this that you would like to share,
we would love to hear them. Please post them to the Affordable
Paradise Blog so everybody can benefit from the collective wisdom!
With abundant aloha always,
Skip & Camille
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- ________________________________________
- You are always
welcome to check in to the Affordable Paradise Blog and respond to this article and to talk story
about your concerns. You can read some of the many postings there
and learn from the conversations of others, too. You can also
go on konaweb.com and punaweb.org and either participate in the
discussions or just eavesdrop for a while!
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- We wish you
all the best, and never forget to
- ~~~~
- Please
Live Aloha!
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- Mahalo
for "listening."
- Skip
Thomsen & Ohana
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