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Go to VRBO and secure a 2-week rental. It would probably be in Waikiki since that's where the vacation rentals are. Use the 2 weeks to get a Hawaii cell phone (808 number) and do some serious househunting. Rationale: First of all, no one will "hold" a unit for you while you are in CONUS. They have too many good tenants right here ready to move in immediately. Places do not stay available for very long. So househunting in advance is futile. Also, 90% of landlords will not return calls if they are not 808 area code (for the same reason as above).
If you want your home all ready to move in when you arrive that means you must pay and sign the lease sight unseen. That's bad juju; you stand a good chance of losing your money to a scam and an even better chance of not liking the place you select. Housing in Hawaii just isn't like mainland housing; you need to see it to understand the local market.
Disclaimer: I underwent all of the above about 3 months ago so this is from personal experience, and reinforced by everything I've seen since then. I did all my househunting on craigslist; viewed about 8 properties in one week of househunting, made my selection and moved in. But there's just me & the wife. With a family of 3, allow a bit longer to ensure you find a place that all of you love without too much pressure.
Final tip: Rents on VRBO are negotiable. You will find them very expensive, but many landlords have to rent them out a few days at a time. Tell them you're military and staying for 2 weeks; you might get as much as 50% off.
join the 24 hour fitness center in Pearl City, leave your place about 5AM, beat the traffic (barely) into Pearl City, grab a workout, then cruise into the base. If you try and make the trip from Ewa or Kapolei during the normal commute time, you will think you're in Southern California or NYC during their worst day. In you can find a decent rental in Aiea or Pearl City, you'll score on the commute but be paying top dollar for the location. Luck.
Good idea.
Better idea: Just use the gym on base at Pearl. It's right inside the gate and they open at 5 AM, maybe earlier. And of course, it's free.
I'm in Aiea, had to be at the Naval shipyard before 6 AM. I could do it in under 20 minutes to my parking spot. If I left a couple of minutes late, it would be 30 minutes & couldn't find parking. So make sure you check out the parking situations wherever you're working to understand what time you'll need to leave the house.
I think we will ship 2 or 3 reasonable sized boxes via USPS then take a couple of suitcases on the flight.
We have a week on the Marine Base booked and are hoping we can find car, home and get my inprocessing done in that time frame. Glad my 2nd day of work is a holiday!
New Years Eve in Hawaii! What an amazing life this is!
Will my little Connecticut area coded Straightalk phone work over there for a bit? I checked availability and it looks like it's going to work. With 3 of us I'm not sure if $50/month unlimited everything per person is a good deal or not....
Plus we will need internet... I could live without TV but not so much the rest of the family. Might depend on the cost.
More good news, Jeff's got some job prospects. yay!
I think we will ship 2 or 3 reasonable sized boxes via USPS then take a couple of suitcases on the flight.
We have a week on the Marine Base booked and are hoping we can find car, home and get my inprocessing done in that time frame. Glad my 2nd day of work is a holiday!
New Years Eve in Hawaii! What an amazing life this is!
Wow, Kaneohe to NAVFAC, Pearl is going to be a little bit of a hike! You couldn't get anything at Navy Lodge, Ford Island?
I guess it's all booked for New Years Eve. There will be something nice and decompressing about being at the Cabanas, I believe. If you ignore the whole active runway thing.
Right now I'm driving 40 miles one way to work at the Groton Sub base. I can go from KBay to JBPHH for a week. I hope and pray we have a place by then. (much closer than Kaneohe!)
The truck sold today!! YAY! Dogs get health certs Friday and ship next Saturday. (to their vacation spot in Southern California)
Last edited by hunterseat; 12-04-2012 at 08:00 PM..
Reason: eta: $65/night @ Cabanas
I guess it's all booked for New Years Eve. There will be something nice and decompressing about being at the Cabanas, I believe. If you ignore the whole active runway thing.
Right now I'm driving 40 miles one way to work at the Groton Sub base. I can go from KBay to JBPHH for a week. I hope and pray we have a place by then. (much closer than Kaneohe!)
The truck sold today!! YAY! Dogs get health certs Friday and ship next Saturday. (to their vacation spot in Southern California)
Well, Yeay for you! Almost there - I envy you being so close to getting to living Aloha!!
It was very scary...we were escaping from an area that was quickly circling the drain and people almost couldn't give away vehicles. It is "almost" good luck that my car was destroyed in an accident when a truck plowed into my Miata...I'm almost recovered from my injuries; the Miata, not so much...but insurance sorta kinda paid for it. While I didn't get book value, since nobody could sell anything where we moved from, I made out OK. We got just enough for the truck to pay off the note, from a friend who felt sorry for us, but we simply did not have a choice...shipping it would have been about $6K and we would have had to rent a vehicle for several weeks while waiting for it to arrive. We're trying to look at the savings of the $6K as "breaking even". BONUS the truck we left behind got half the mileage of our current smaller truck, big savings there.
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