Yep, We Finally Have A House!

Well, "have" may be a bit of a strong word, but we do sign on Monday so I'm gonna go ahead and count it.

You know how we were looking on the Windward side, over by Kailua and Kaneohe? Well, we didn't find a house there.

Nope, instead you can look out on the grounds of Tripler Army Medical Center from our backyard. And not over anyone else's house or yard either. Theoretically, Derek could just step out the back door and head to work. Not sure how the whole ID check works with that, though, so he might wind up driving anyway. Or biking. But in any case, chew on this:

$200 a month in gas: SAVED

35-45 minute commute to/from work: ERADICATED

Derek did some quick math and found out how much time that will truly save him:

40min commute x2 (there and back) x 5.5 days a week x 52 weeks x 3 years /60 min /16 conscious daytime hours = 72 DAYS of extra time for Derek that he doesn't have to spend in a car.!

That feels good.

Furthermore, it's $100 under our max we were willing to pay, 2000+ sq ft, and has guest room possibilities. It's a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home with Oriental touches throughout, hardwood floors and a stunning view from the terraced back yard. It has an Asian rock garden in the front yard and the rest of the property is paved: READ: No upkeep. Plenty of room for the kids to scooter around, or practice their biking/tricycling skills. Tons of outdoor storage, gated property, garden potential, wilderness at the top of the terraced hill with great exploration/fort/treehouse potential.

It's an older home, too, so the fixtures are all 1960's hardware in the kitchen, original stove which looks quaint and hopefully I won't be using much. Beautiful stainless steel fridge. Another perk of older homes is all the built-in storage- shelves, cabinets, etc. In fact, the whole floor plan and house in general is just really interesting. You know I'm a sucker for interesting. I'll pick old house with character over new cookie-cutter box any day. I mean, as long as I'm not dealing with a lot of weirdness (e.g. mold, termites, overall nastiness that sometimes comes along with old-- in other words, NOT character.).

It's also located in a 9/10-on-greatschools.org-scoring school district, which is a BIG deal in Hawaii. The school system is pretty sketchy over here. Did you know high school graduation rates are 60%? Appalling. As a result, many people put their kiddos in $900+/month private schools. I don't think we would do that anyway for K-2nd grade, I feel like I can supplement at home to make sure she's up to speed when we move. But I'm glad I don't have to make that choice.

So where did I find this great home? Can I see pics? Is there an online link?

Nope. Sorry. I found it in the paper- and that's the only place I've been able to find it, even knowing all the details on it. I don't think they listed it anywhere else. Supposedly it's going around Tripler, but Derek never heard about it. And we haven't taken any pictures ourselves.

But I will give you this much--- my slightly PSed version of Google's streetview. Thank you Google!

This house was literally an answer to prayer. I was starting to lose hope that we'd find something big enough, in the right place, at the right price. I was starting to think maybe we'd just have to settle. But letting go of MY timeline and MY expectations allowed the Lord to provide us with something that is perfect for us. I finally left it in His hands and we've been amply blessed for it. And here's the thing- I know that Derek's heart was in the right place. He kept telling me to hold out, we didn't need to settle, the Lord would provide what we needed- and even what we wanted. I was the Doubting Thomas, wondering if the answer to our prayer was that we needed to live smaller, more simply. As I thought about it, I felt instinctively that I was the one holding us back spiritually from this blessing. It was literally the day after I "let go" that we found this house and fell in love. It's true- God answers prayers- in His own time and His own way, He gives us what we need and more.