It became all about the Kihei lot. With our deed grasped tightly and house plans swirling around in our heads, we dug in our heels. With pencils and rulers in hand, we were tasked with house plans. The coffee cups cooled on the desk before we reached out for a single sip resulting in frequent microwave warmups. Excitedly, we were singular in mind. In reality, we should have been cooking on all four burners.
Four Hot Burners:
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- Our new lot needs truckloads of fill to bring it to grade and then plant palm trees ASAP so they can flourish.
- Design the house which will be properly positioned and built on the newly treed lot.
- Continue our mainland house/development sale progress, packing/moving, shipping, transport coordination.
- The dreaded construction business decision. Do we close the construction business?
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Sam and I watched the TV real estate show called Hawaii Life so often we hummed along to the Intro together. It all looked easy to make that move, and the series jokingly became our “training films.” It went like this, “We’ve seen that one!”
“Yeah, a couple of times. Isn’t it the one where the couple has a business in Florida and retire?”
“I think so. Let’s watch it again. Hm, hm, hm… hm, hm, hmmm”
We anxiously anticipated our next trip to Maui for major brainstorming and lot site work. In the meantime, three other burners were heating the entire house with red-hot pans. Time to crack open the can of SPAM and get to frying!
With Maui house plans swirling about in our heads and scratched on random papers, the construction business was calling, no, savagely barking out for attention. We set aside the ultimate Construction Business Decision frypan and turned that burner to a low simmer, and for good reason. We were not even close to the home stretch on that decision but plodding through a custom home design for clients. Then comes the City’s approval and construction of that home. Oops! We just committed to another custom home client that enticed our approval. It was looking like a couple of years before we could earnestly move toward closing the construction business. The simmer just got twisted to the “off” position and the Kihei lot cruelly mocked us.
Now, the three-year prep of our mainland house/short plat project was in focus as we completed the city requirements for dividing off the surrounding lots and installing infrastructure, new street, and detention pond. We were finally ready to list the 3 lots which surrounded our home. They sold quickly… almost too quickly. We scrambled to obtain the newly assigned physical addresses for each lot for the final paperwork.
But the SPAM in the hot pan had not yet properly fried. We still had our house to sell next and the garage is full to the ceiling… construction stuff, household stuff, car, and boat gear were completely crammed to the ceiling.
Our unforgotten Kihei Honuea home drawings receive more revisions and lay across the unused dining table with rolls of plans, Maui County building code, graph paper, eraser crumbs, ruler assortment, laptop, and the HOA construction rules paperwork. Atop the strewn paperwork sat our Hawaiian Airlines tickets. Time for a short vacation to Maui!
