Blog 15 Packing and Getting Ready for the Move

Matson Container Ship on Way to Big Island

At this point, your reminder lists will stretch to well over two pages, e.g., donate books to library, find somewhere for the old computer, plan going away party, fix back door, hold garage sales, etc., etc., etc.

This is probably about when I started to lose it, right after Thanksgiving.  After all we were moving January 5, and I was thinking, “how will we ever get everything done?”  Luckily, my wife was a stabilizing influence.  Remember that before now all I had known were corporate moves.  She had seen the “real deal” several times -- before we had met.

Last Corporate Move -- 2006

We picked a moving company after getting several estimates, and knew that we wanted help packing.  Hardier souls can obviously do this themselves and save considerable money.  Partially as an economy measure we did box some things ourselves and even shipped certain items that we would need until our furnishings arrived and many of our books.

The US Postal Service has a phenomenal price on shipping books.  So after about ten trips to the post office we probably shipped forty boxes of books for maybe $200.

Container Ship and Tug Entering Hilo Harbor

Part of our concern was that when we had our possessions eyeballed by the moving companies, they agreed it looked like a tight fit for a 45-foot container (their biggest).  And we did not want to have to ship two of them.  So moving the books our self was a big help.  Our container ended up 99.5% full (whew ...)!

Blog 10 Beginning of the Gauntlet

Getting ready for this move to the Big Island was only the second time in my life that I have had to breathe into a paper bag due to stress – and the first time was when I was 25!  I later learned from a Special Forces (“Green Berets”) veteran who completed a five-year tour in Vietnam that he had approached a nervous breakdown while trying to pack up their house while his wife was in Hawaii with the kids.  And finally I met a man who said at the end of their move he was so frazzled that he would pick up the some small, insignificant item from their kitchen counter, walk all around the house, and end up putting it back in the same spot!

Future blogs will address why it can be a challenge.  For now, our story will continue in the next posting.

Blog 8 How We Found Our Home – Part III

I had mentioned earlier how we loved the Hilo “wow house,” but that it was more than we hoped to spend.  However, we were pleased to learn that since our first exposure to the home in May, the owners had dropped the price.  Twice we had bought sandwiches during this second house hunting visit and used the house’s lanai to dine by the ocean.  During our last lunch there, I said, “I wish we could somehow swing a deal for this place.” Pictured below is the lanai where we had lunches and pondered living on the water. 

Kelly said, “Why don’t you make the owners an offer,” and lo-and-behold the owners invited us to dinner that evening.  We got along great, had a fine meal and many laughs.  So the following day, I scribbled down an offer that primarily focused on giving us some time to sell our California house and some time to see a rebound in the equities market.  We learned later that it is what’s called a “Purchase Money Market Agreement of Sale.”  With this approach the seller provides the financing, but the buyer takes title to the property at closing. 

Here is another view from one of our bridges. As you can see, the coconut palms and ocean were calling to us. 

With some negotiating back and forth, we were able to reach a deal acceptable to both parties.  We signed the papers on the last day of our stay and flew back to the mainland to prepare for the move. 

From the Tundra to Paradise

The view from our Chicago House

Blog 1 Chicago to San Francisco to Hilo, Hawaii 

In August 2006 I accepted an executive position responsible for mergers and acquisitions for a company headquartered in the Bay Area of San Francisco.  We were living outside Chicago at the time, and I was Vice President Corporate Development and Investor Relations at the Alberto-Culver Company ($4 billion in sales).  The new position seemed challenging and the package included a corporate relocation so we accepted.  Plus we had always both wanted to live in Northern California.

The Chicago House Packed for the Move

So after some weekend commuting, during Thanksgiving weekend in 2006 we drove across country with our pets, and shortly thereafter our possessions were moved into our newly purchased house overlooking Mount Diablo. 

Less than 18 months later in February 2008, the company hit a bumpy patch and my position was eliminated, luckily with a reasonably generous severance package.

About eight months after that we closed on a house in Hilo on the Big Island, and on January 5, 2009 we arrived for good with our dog, Valentine, and our cat, Kiwi, in tow.  It took 6 more weeks for our goods to arrive and since then we have been settling in. Life is good on the Big Island.