The Season that Was 2015

The season has ended and there were many exciting events, professionally and personally. Personally, we did something we vowed we were never going to do while living in Hawaii. That was to buy a home. We didn’t buy a single dwelling house but a condominium! It all started when two events occurred simultaneously. The first event was a telephone conversation with my landlord, and the second event was after we filed our 2014 taxes.

The call with the landlord dealt with another issue not related to our decision to buy property. The talk ended up with possible major rent increase and the wife wanted to move to a bigger place despite the fact our family was shrinking. We looked at several free rental booklets picked up at shopping centers and supermarkets. Our eyes got wide at the rental rates! About this time we received a postcard promoting mortgages from the institution where we handle our finances. Interest rates were at historical lows and when making comparison between renting and buying, add a few bills to some of the rental rates, you could own a place! You would have the tax advantages at which we desperately needed and build up equity. You can’t lose owning property in Hawaii, especially in Oahu where just about all of the islands economic activities occur.

This year started off with us being nearly the last ship to complete winter dockside repairs.  So I had extra time I spent at home. This gave us time to arrange for mortgage and house hunt. Vene and I did find a place we wanted to buy. Murphy’s Law would have it that we would enter into escrow just when the dockside repairs were winding down. I left Honolulu towards the end of April for our return to Marianas to complete projects that were delayed from 2014 due to air conditioning problems that forced the ship to return to Hawaii.  

On our way to Guam I wanted to get a photo of our fathometer recording the depths as we crossed the Marianas Trench. We sailed about 100 nm north of Challenger Deep, the deepest point on the planet.  I did get a photo of the deepest point of our crossing. Several days later we docked at the Naval Base in Guam. I got a rental car so I could use one of my retirement benefits of going to the JAG office, or lawyer’s office in civilian term, to get a Power of Attorney notarized so Vene can handle all the real estate transactions herself. She was rightfully apprehensive because of her limited understanding of English legal terminology. Fortunately she had help from the loan officer.

I was at sea and distracted by all the going ons back home. I recall a counterpart who had returned to the mainland have a dreadful experience trying to sell his place.  Or friends who were buying fall out of escrow over a minor detail (not for the escrow company though). Since I had a car, I would go to Izakaya by Jimmy for food and drinks to distract me from events back home and constant e-mails from the escrow officer and the wife concerning the condo. 

Next blog; Dodging Typhoons and Return to Saipan.