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The Boys Great Escape
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THIS IS THE TALE OF TWO SALT LAKE CITY GUYS WHO ARE MAKING PLANS TO GET OUT OF THE RAT RACE AND SETTLE INTO A SIMPLER, DOWN-SCALED LIFE ON ANOTHER PART OF THE PLANET. CURRENTLY BLAKE IS A DIRECTOR IN AN ADVERTISING AGENCY AND LYNN HAS A SUCCESSFUL CA
Recent Posts Tagged With 'housing and real estate'
Some Great Information on Island Building
I met Tony through this blog after he discovered it and contacted me. He had run across a post I did a while back that I had linked to an edited email between me and a builder on the island. We communicated back and forth a few times and compared not...
Why this home is probably not for us...
I know we must seem terribly indecisive to many readers. I am not sure that it is indecisiveness as much as it is just us wanting to get it right. This is part of the reason we set our move date close to two years out from when we decided to make the...
Mapping our area of interest
The above map helps demonstrate our area of interest within lower Hawaiian Paradise Park and shows the relation of various properties we have been interested in as of late. I get a lot of questions about this so I thought this would be the best way t...
15-1033 Wahi Heiau Place, Hawaiian Paradise Park
I mentioned in a previous post that we may be considering a different plan or strategy in pursuing homes in Hawai'i which is to say we might actually consider having a mortgage with a large down payment and then living off of savings for a few years....
15-0799 Paradise Ala Kai Drive, Kaloli Point
I was dreaming and shopping today and ran across this oceanfront home on Paradise Ala Kai Drive that I am rather enamored with. We wanted to be in the Makuu and Ala Heiau area and this is over on Kaloli Point but I think we could deal with that. It i...
Hawaiian Paradise Park Shoreline Aerial
This is a slightly dated aerial photograph of the Hawaiian Paradise Park shoreline in the area we are looking at buying. A friend and potential neighbor sent me this image a while back and I am just getting around to posting it. This is at the end of...
Keauhou Store Leasehold
Keauhou Store is the Kona leasehold property I mentioned that a friend saw and brought to our attention. Keauhou Store is on 1.7 acres of coffee in Kona and parts of the building are over 100 years old. It's rough and would need a lot of work but pre...
The Road to Hawi
I wanted to give a shout out to all of my island friends and my island bound friends that I have heard from since posting about the property in Hawi (post below this one). Some kind words, some helpful words and some genuine concern that we might go ...
Great Escape to Hawi?
This property in Hawi actually suits us and our dreams fairly well. It is located right off Highway 270 in downtown Hawi and contains 2 residential and 2 commercial spaces. We'd happily occupy the smaller 1 bedroom unit and while renting the larger 3...
I could see myself doing this... Whole tree construction
I ran across an article on Inhabitat today about structures built using whole, unmilled trees. I have to say that I am very intrigued by this concept. It is a green solution and whole trees are stronger than milled wood. I am not sure if it is practi...
It all started with H.O.V.E.
It all started several years ago with the boys looking for a place to escape. No one was really reading this blog back then and we were looking at escapes to places all over the globe. We did however have a dream of Hawai'i... though at the time we w...
A Practice in Patience
Just about every weekend I say to Lynn "Let's go take a walk by the ocean". Of course we can't because we are stuck in downtown Salt Lake City and not living a short stroll from the cliffs of Hawaiian Paradise Park. But man I crave it. I get this ove...
A New Blog Look and More Changes to Come?
I have been reluctant in the past to mention showings of the properties in advance out of superstition but that has not exactly gotten us anywhere so what the fuck right? Anyway we have another showing scheduled for our condo (above) for tomorrow... ...
Exterior Paint Color
I have posted the top image before as we like the style of this home and it represents an exterior color that we are particularly fond of. I have been spending some time on the Behr Premium website lately looking at colors and above are some choices ...
Beach Road No Longer An Option
Cool "SOLD" overlay graphic though huh? Any idea how long I have been sitting on it waiting to use it on one of my own properties here in SLC? Yeah well you don't always get what you wish for. My friend in HPP emailed me today to tell me that Beach R...
The Rental is Done!
After weeks and weeks of work... weekends, after work and with friends pitching in we have finally finished working on the rental (repairs, painting, landscape work and winterizing the sprinkler system). It's been a lot of work but the place looks am...
May I have a Drum Roll Please? The Winning Property Is...
First of all, thank you to the 23 of you that voted in my very scientific poll to help us chose a lot. The poll closed today and the winner by a smidge is... BEACH ROAD! So today I wrote them a check and we start building in February... I lie :-).Tha...
The Lure of the Banyan
Lynn and I have a special affection for the Banyan Tree. I am not even sure I could put my finger on one exact reason... actually I know there are many reasons... we just kind of get gaga over the things. We know that planting one would never yield t...
The escape will come but for now it's business as usual...
We have been spending a great deal of time the past few weeks at this rental getting it ready for a new tenant and also sprucing it up for a sale as this is one of the properties we want to sell in preparation for our escape. Tonight we were there pa...
Big Island home sales rise, prices fall
Big Island home sales increased last month as prices for single-family homes fell by 30 percent.The median price of a single-family home on the Big Island in September was $226,500, down from $322,500 in September 2008, according to statistics from H...
Temporary (or permanent) Housing in Hilo
This building in downtown Hilo is currently being renovated into four 1-Bedroom 1-Bath apartments. Our Realtor Wes Davidson gave us the heads up about these. I am excited to see this type of conversion in Hilo Town. As some of you know we were quite ...
Copulas are cool
The above images are of a home to be built in Hawaiian Paradise Park that a friend sent me. One thing that I really dig about this place is the copula. It is a great look and is very functional for the climate as heat can escape right out of the top....
A Discussion About Building Costs
I posted a while back about a package home from Trojan Lumber that we rather fancied. We like this place for the island styling primarily and the size was approximately what we were looking for. I made some modifications to the plan along the way to ...
Plan H: Grass Shack on Oceanfront Lot
Lynn and I have been talking a lot lately about plans and backup plans as there is so much that is unknown and so much that we cannot control with regards to this escape and the sell of our Salt Lake City properties. As such I have been posting some ...
Two Other Properties We Really Liked
So don't hate me and don't stop voting on O'O Road or Beach Road but there were a few other properties we rather liked (let's call them backup properties for now). If I recall correctly these properties are across the street from each other at Akala ...
Beach Road Pulls Ahead in the Poll
(click to enlarge)O'O Road has had a commanding lead for a few weeks now and yesterday Beach Road pulled ahead. I wonder what happened? It could be the new map I posted or perhaps the owners of Beach Road got wind of the blog and had all of their fri...
Thought on Flooring
Even when we first started planning this escape we were discussing finish materials. We knew we wanted to reduce and have a smaller space and had discussed higher-end finish materials. While this still holds true to a point we have found we may be wi...
A New Lot Map
The Voodoo Deed is Done
We buried the little dude, one at the condo and one at the duplex... Now wish us some luck ;-)...
We liked the color and styling of this house
I think that this place is on Beach Road and south of the pedestrian only area but I cannot be certain. Anyway I recall us being drawn to the styling, it's presence and the color. ...
