Luana House

We didn't expect to buy a house!  But one day, while we were driving around the various neighborhood, we got our courage up to pull up the driveway to an open house.  Mind you, this was the first house we walked through, and we BOTH fell instantly in love!

Here was a new house, completed just last year, built by an artist with lots of lovely custom-built details.  It is on an acre of beautiful wooded land with fruit trees, orchids and only four miles from beautiful beaches.  We made an offer on the house three days before leaving at the end of February; the offer was accepted and escrow closed 60 days later on April 25th.  There's more to the story, but here you see the new homeowners.  The district our new home is in is Puna, and it's residents are referred to as "Punatics!" -- Of course we feel right at home!

"Green Flash

Lunel's art -- "The Green Flash"

This first entry to our new Haysmer Hawaii blog totally captures what happened to us when we visited the Big Island of Hawaii in February 2011.

Simply put, we were "struck" and after our return to Eureka's 30 degree weather, we immediately began to plan our escape!  Lunel felt so connected to the island she even continued to wear her "slippas" in Eureka instead of her customary wool stocks inside sturdy hiking boots.

We became obsessed with getting more information about the Big Island and spent hours on-line researching the different "districts," weather patterns (which vary widely according to elevation,) lava (that has been flowing for 30 years non-stop,) rainfall (that can be from 1 - 180 inches per year,) and of course, home prices. In only a few months, as we continued our homework, we were convinced "yes, we could," and our retirement plans began to take shape.

This February (2012) our month-long visit was specific --  narrow down the area where we wanted to live.  The island has many different climatic zones, and we needed to spend time getting a feel for the land, people and areas.  .