From the moment we got orders to Hawaii we were set on living on base. We loved living on New River and we knew we wanted to do it again. We didn't even consider living out in town. I wanted to be on the base for the connivence and housing looked awesome online. Close to the beach, commissary, Jason's work. We knew there would be a wait, so we might have to live somewhere temporarily, but we were going to wait. So on our second morning here we went to our scheduled housing meeting on base to get the official word, how long would the wait be and check out the housing in person. At our meeting they told us pretty much what we expected to hear, no housing for 2-4 months and when did offer us a house it would probably be on another base which would mean a long drive for Jason. So we started our hunt for a temporary house. As soon as we got back to our hotel, I started searching Craig's list. I came across this house that looked just too good be true. Nice size, water views, in the town we wanted. Price was on the high side, but doable with our BAH. We knew it wouldn't be cheap to live here, no matter what. I saved it to show to Jason. I knew he would say no. But, he said lets go look at it. So we did. We LOVED it. We wanted to say we would take it right away, but we knew we decided to be responsible and talk about it first. Which was hard, because they say good houses go fast in Hawaii and if you find something you should jump on it right away. We did the opposite and waited all weekend to talk it over.
Every single day we pinch ourselves that we get to live here.
Just hours before we were going to sign a lease for this house the base housing called us and told us they had a house to offer us. Totally unexpected and threw us for a loop. We headed to base to see what house they were going to offer us and on what base. We knew it wouldn't be the base we wanted, so we figured it would make our decision easy. But of course it didn't go that way. They offered us a house on the base we wanted. We went to check it out, it happened to be open so we were able to sneak in and look around. It was a great house, but attached to another house and a very cramped feeling outside. We would have places to ride bikes, but wouldn't have private places to sit outside. We were close to the beach, but not as close to the water as we would be at the rental. We kept all that in mind and went to see the rental again. As soon as we walked in we knew this was home. God had allowed us to see a base house and make an informed decision. We didn't have to wonder about what base housing would have been like, we got to see one and weigh all the pros and cons. You give up something no matter where you live. We decided that living off base was right for us this time. Complete opposite of what we were set on in the beginning. Funny how that works out. We are working on making this house a home and will post lots of pictures soon.
