We are mostly moved into our new home in Hawai'i. Our household goods finally arrived on the 14th September, closing the door on our stay at the Hilton Kuhio hotel. I have to admit that 43 days in a hotel gets very, very old - even at a nice hotel like the Hilton. The good news is we have a ton of reward points so our honeymoon should be covered! :)
Our new house has not been without it's ups and downs. We had our DirecTV installed only to have a rather large Hawaiian man fall *through* the top step of our first flight of stairs. Less than optimal experience; the guy said he was okay which we were thankful for. Now, 3 weeks later we still don't have our stairs completely fixed but at least they are safe(r) now.
We have also made some new friends with the local wildlife. We have our fair share of ants, cockroaches and other less desirables, however we also have some happy little geckos to help with the insect population. They are all over the place and super cute - we are happy to give them a home in our yards!
Our first furniture to be moved in was a patio furniture set and a gas grill. The grill was a gift from Justin's grandma and we absolutely love it! Being thrifty shoppers, we were able to get the upgraded model when all the grills went on sale for Labor Day weekend. We invited over a few of my co-workers and their families to christen the new grill on Labor Day - it was fun although with no (other) furniture our options after lunch were a little limited.
Now that we have the furniture, we are trying to fill the 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse. We probably could have brought the contents of both storage sheds and still had space to spare! Our living room is completely done, including Ben's (Justin's dad) artwork on the walls. The office and kitchen are mostly done as well. It is a work in progress and will likely take another couple of weeks before we are totally out of boxes.
Justin is going to give his green thumb a test run. We picked up an orchid for our dining room table as well as another big, tropical plant for our game room. He is working on getting a palm going in our backyard - hopefully we'll be nice and green soon! We are also hoping to plant a "window box" garden to help save some money on food.Overall we are very excited to be in our new home and starting this next chapter of our life. We miss our family and friends on the mainland however we are making new friends here on island. It's a beautiful place to live and we'll be posting more pictures as we explore!
Cheers!
em and justin
