Welcome to our Honolulu home!

We first dabbled with apartments abroad while in Buenos Aires, where we were lucky find this colorful one bedroom in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo Soho. We were hoping for similar luck in Honolulu, especially because, unlike BsAs, where we stayed for seven weeks, we planned to live in Honolulu for at least a few months.

And to our good fortune, we were lucky again. But there’s a back story to all of this. So, let me back it up, back it up.

While in Cartagena, Colombia the last week of January, I realized, “Crap! We need to start looking for an apartment in Honolulu if we really want to move in mid-February!” So the Craiglist search began.

And it wasn’t promising. Rent was too high. Apartments weren’t furnished. Landlords/agents wouldn’t accept short-term leases. We were even willing to share with random roommate(s), thinking it’d be a fun way to meet new people, but many didn’t want couples and others only wanted females. Also, I just can’t get on board with being 420 friendly. Sorry.

We extended our search to Airbnb, which is how we found our BsAs apartment and VRBO, but the prices were ludicrously high.

Just a day before we left Honolulu, it was looking pretty grim. Sure, we had accommodations for the first few days in Hawaii, thanks to the wedding and the accompanying hotel my parents booked for us. But what about after that? Would we have to say goodbye to the islands and head to Asia sooner than expected?

Well, we ended up getting one positive response, and it was for a “HUGE” studio apartment in Kaimuki. My cousin Pratt and her new husband, Craig, who live in Honolulu and had been giving some of our Craigslist picks a once over, had given us a list of neighborhoods to live in, and fortunately Kaimuki was one of them. We set up an appointment for the day after getting to Honolulu and prayed that it wouldn’t get scooped up before we arrived.

So in between wedding festivities, we saw it. And loved it. It was perfect, not only because it was a beautiful furnished apartment, but because the tenant was going to the mainland for 3-4 months and just needed someone to occupy it short term. We knew immediately that we wanted it, so after going back to our hotel, we reiterated to the tenant via email how much we wanted it.

He asked us to come back the next day to meet the landlord. You see, the apartment is kind of, sort of the basement — a baller one at that — for the main house that sits above it. (This is apparently a common apartment set-up in Hawaii.) The owners of the home are a lovely retired professor, his wife and their son. We met with the couple — the wife even made us some fresh guava juice — but it was more like a “here’s what you need to know about the apartment” than “let me check if you guys are mentally insane.” They told us about how the mail works, what the neighborhood was like and whatever else we’d need to know about the apartment. So I guess we got it?

YES WE DID. We were thrilled — mainly because it was the only response we got from Craigslist so we didn’t really have any other options.

Check it out:

We live up a mountain in a quiet, very residential neighborhood. And yeah, the walk up that driveway at the end of the day isn’t fun.

One side of the apartment. (Note: We get HBO!)

The other.

A desk!

Eaman’s stuff on top (minus the pink purse and pink tee) and mine on the bottom. Not sure how he has more clothes than me.Bed + extra couch + Bowflex.

Eaman decorated this side table with — left to right — my fedora my parents brought from home, his new “Live Simply hat” (surfboard on a bicycle), his fedora from Panama and seashells we found in San Blas:

We have fish!

The fruits of our labor from a trip to Sam’s Club. It felt like we were grocery shopping once a week in BsAs so we stocked up to avoid that madness.

A full and happy fridge.

An even happier pantry.

WASHER AND DRYER! I never thought the day would come.

We don’t have a balcony, but we do have sliding screen doors we keep open for fresh air and this view.

Our landlord brought us homemade scones and fresh guava from their tree the day we moved in. Guava has got to be the most aromatic fruit. Our place smelled lovely for days.

I couldn’t stop saying, “Oh my god. Oh my god,” when we moved in. If you’ve lived in New York City or any other huge metropolitan area where nice apartments are hard to find, then you’d understand. I’ve never lived in such a nice, homey place. (Did you see the carpet?!) And as someone who likes to cook, bake and hang out at home, this is my zen palace — and a big one by studio sizes. There’s even potential to stay longer and take over the lease, as the tenant may be staying on the mainland more long-term.

There are some cons, like ants everywhere, geckos that sometimes make their way inside and a solar-powered shower that doesn’t always guarantee scalding hot water the way I like it, but that’s a small price we pay to live in the mountains in this paradise. (I also didn’t love paying three months’ rent up front and buying all that Sam’s Club stuff. I now feel broke.)

But the apartment also came with a tons of fun stuff the guy we’re subletting from left behind, like a body board, beach and yoga mats, towels galore and a really well-stocked kitchen. I know the idea is to be outside all the time, but I have to say, on those days we feel like just hanging out, we have an amazing place to do so.

There was a small big problem though. Our lease didn’t start until March 1, so we had to find a place to stay for more than a week. The bigger problem? All the hostels were booked. My cousin and her husband had left for their honeymoon. Nobody responded to our CouchSurfing requests. We were even willing to shell out some money for a hotel, but they were booked solid, too. It was crushing, not to mentioned exhausting, to walk from hostel to hostel to hotel, and get rejected.

But then, on the last night of the wedding, when us youngins’ had gone to a Waikiki bar, one of my cousin’s friends heard our predicament and so, so generously offered us the spare vacant room in his apartment. We didn’t want to impose, but we didn’t have any other options either. We wanted to stay for as few days as possible, but the lack of vacancies anywhere made that tough. We ended up staying for a week and couldn’t be more grateful to him for his kindness. Thank you, Brett!

That generosity is just one example of how amazingly sweet everyone — both local Hawaiians and my cousin’s incredible group of friends — has been to us. They’ve taken us under their wings, offering their cars, surfboards and more to us. I’ll talk more about this Hawaiian kindness in another post, but here in an open forum, I just want to say: Thanks, guys, for making us feel so welcome.

Hawaii-living for three (or more?) months. Let’s do it!