It's Official

We're poor again homeowner's again.

We closed escrow on our house in Virginia on Friday morning. It's a little weird owning a house 5,000 miles away that you've never seen with your own eyes.


Many thanks to our mortgage broker, Dave Jones with Prosperity Mortgage, for the quick turnaround on financing our mortgage after the fiasco with USAA. Also many thanks to the wonderful people at Vanguard who were very understanding and helpful in getting our wire transfer done on time.

Closing on this house was not as smooth as our previous house-buying experiences. In addition to the mortgage fiasco that I've already written about, we had a couple of other minor bumps in the road in the last few days before closing.

When we thought we were using USAA for our mortgage, then the wire transfer from Vanguard was going to be an easy phone call because it would be going to our USAA account that was already set up for wire transfers. Unfortunately, when we switched away from USAA, we didn't anticipate the wire transfer would take longer because it was going to a new payee.

I called Vanguard on Wednesday to wire the money and was alarmed to find out I would have to fill out a wire transfer form and take it to a bank for a signature verification (sort of like a notary, but somehow more trusted and special) and then overnight-it to Vanguard in Pennsylvania.

Doh.

Self, calm down. Take a deep breath. everything's okay. We can do this. We'll still make it on time. No problem. We just need to get moving on this. LW came and picked me up at work and we went to Navy Fed to get the signature verification stamp on the form.

We got that done pretty quick and headed to the FEDEX office at the airport. I figured being ON the runway that they'd put the envelope on the next airplane taking off. ...Nnnnnot so much. The FEDEX guy at the counter informed me that they don't guarantee overnight delivery from Hawaii.

Double-Doh.

Self, everything's not okay anymore. This is seriously bad news. FEDEX only guaranteed it would get to Vanguard by FRIDAY morning at 10:45. We were scheduled to close on Friday morning at 9 a.m.

I called Vanguard and explained the situation to them. I told them I got the signature verification stamp and the form was en route via FEDEX, but it wouldn't get there until Friday morning. The Vanguard representative put me on hold to discuss the matter with a supervisor. When he came back on the line, he agreed to accept a fax of the wire transfer form with the signature verification stamp and a copy of the FEDEX airbill. After they confirmed with FEDEX that it was a valid tracking number, they called me at my home phone number on Thursday and took a voice recording of me saying I authorized the wire transfer, and they processed the transfer that day.

My heroes! All's well that ends well. We look forward to getting to Virginia and getting to actually see our new house for the first time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It seems like most people we talk to are surprised that we would buy a house sight-unseen. I would think in the age of the internet, digital cameras, and GIS websites that it would become more common.

This is actually our second experience buying a house via the internet.

The first time we put an offer on a house sight-unseen was when we were moving from SOAC in Groton to San Diego. Since I grew up in San Diego, I was pretty familiar with the area. I had been browsing the realty listings on the internet and found an awesome house in a good neighborhood. When I emailed the realtor though, she said the house was already under contract. Bummer. Kept looking.

About two weeks later, still in Groton and browsing the realty listings again, I happened upon the same house listing. It seemed odd that the listing hadn't been removed from the internet. I wrote the realtor another email to ask if it was still under contract, and she wrote back, "It just fell out of escrow about an hour ago, would you like to see the house?"

My mom went and looked at the house, talking to us on her cell phone as she walked through the house. She and the realtor emailed us photos and a floor plan. We decided to jump on it and made an offer.

We had a "way out" in that there was the standard house inspection contingency. If there was a broken door latch, we could say, "No thanks," and back out of the deal. We already had a house-hunting trip scheduled over Veteran's Day weekend, so our house-hunting trip turned into a house-inspection trip.

That brings up sort of a funny story though...

WARNING: Tangent Ahead

We weren't the only people to place an offer on that house. There were two competing offers. The sellers were Navy and were transfering to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey where we had just come from. We figured they took our offer because we were Navy.

Fast forward to December. I graduated from SOAC and we were flying out to San Diego. My mom wanted to stock the fridge with some basic essentials like milk and juice so we wouldn't have to race off to the grocery store as soon as we arrived. She got to the house and was surprised to discover... there was NO refrigerator.

We called the realtor and she said the refrigerator wasn't included with the house. I said, "Oh yes it was! Look at the MLS listing!" The realtor admitted that she screwed up. She wrote "refrigerator" in the MLS listing, but the sellers had no intention of selling it and took the refrigerator with them.

In fact, and here's the real kicker, the realtor told us that the sellers chose OUR offer over the competing offer because we didn't ask for the refrigerator.

It all worked out though. The realtor gave us like $600 for a new refrigerator since it was her mistake. We chipped in some of our own money and got a pretty nice new refrigerator at Sears.

End of Tangent

I don't think I would be comfortable making an offer on a house sight-unseen in an unfamiliar area though. When we moved from San Diego to Ashburn, VA, I was going to be out at sea for my last 3 months on board, so while I was still in port, I helped LW with the movers and put her and the boys on a plane to DC to do the house-hunting in person.

That brings up another funny story, but I've already told that story in this post.

We didn't know if we'd be in Hawaii for more than a year, so we just lived in Navy Housing while we were here.

Now we're going back to DC. We're familiar with the Ashburn area. We're using the same realtor as last time. We found a house listed on the internet that we really liked and was listed for less than what we thought it was worth (based on analyzing recent house sales in the area). So we jumped on it.

Our friend Corey walked through the house for us and took videos with her flip video camera (thank you Corey!). It's a great house in a great neighborhood with good schools and close to our old church. It was too good a deal to pass up.

Maybe we're just crazy. Stay tuned for initial impressions of the new house in late September.

Manoa Falls Hike

I have awesome neighbors.

I have an awesome wife, too, but you already knew that.

They go to extraordinary lengths to make me happy. Not only do LW and our neighbor B across the street welcome me home from work on the front porch with wine and cheese or chips and salsa with some sort of fruity tropical drink, but they go on hikes through muddy rainforests with me. There's more to come later why my neighbors and LW are awesome, but first let me give you a run down on our Manoa Falls hike today.

Manoa Falls is on a lot of local tourist guides. It's not far from Waikiki, so it's probably the closest and easiest waterfall hike for people on vacation staying in Waikiki. I've heard about it many times since we arrived on the island, but today was the first time we've gone on this hike.

If there were two things that stuck in my mind from what I've heard over the past year about Manoa Falls, then they were:
1) Popular spot where tourists leave their rental cars in the parking lot = high crime area where locals break into the cars and steal any valuables you leave behind.
2) Muddy trails, don't go when it's raining or has recently rained

First, our minds were quickly set at ease about our car's security in the parking lot when we arrived and found this:


Nowhere in any of the guides I had read did it say anything about paying for parking. However, I was happy to pay the $5 in order to have a feeling of security that there is an attendant there watching over the cars. It was a fairly small parking lot (it'd probably hold about 20 to 25 cars), so the attendant can see all of the cars from his chair at the parking lot entrance.

Manoa Falls Trailhead

Second, I was pleasantly surprised with the trail. These trails were nothing compared to the Waimano Valley hike we did back in January. Waimano Valley was really and truly MUD. The trail leading up to Manoa Falls is well defined, with a good amount of gravel and rocks, with steps and bridges made from metal and concrete.

This shows what the trail and steps were like.

I'm not saying we didn't get muddy...

YB's shoe after we got back to the car.

I thought I had seen and learned the names of most of the flowers on the island. I was wrong.

This sure was beautiful, but I have no idea what it is.
Turns out, this is a BANANA! (See first comment)

There were a good assortment of other tropical flowers that we've seen elsewhere around the island, too. [Aside: You know you've lived in Hawaii when you can name the flowers on your aloha shirts.]

I'm not sure why this picture grabbed my attention. Maybe because we've been watching the Olympics so much lately. How about this for a new Olympic sport: Synchronized Hiking?

ES and his friend M on the Trail

When we got to the end of the trail, this is what we found...



The big DANGER sign warned us about a landslide that had occurred there once before and dumped like 300 tons of rocks on that very spot.

ES checking out the waterfall.

J, ES, M, and YB had a snack at the waterfall

Family Photo at the Waterfall

My standard hike summary is at the bottom of this post.

Okay, so getting back to why I have awesome neighbors. As long as we were over on that side of the island, I was itching to go back to Azteca Mexican Restaurant for lunch (the best Mexican food on the island).

Unforunately, I was the only person who brought an extra pair of clean shoes to change into after we were done with the hike (and the boys luckily had flip-flops in the car they could wear). Everyone's shoes were pretty muddy.

However (comma), they didn't want to disappoint me and miss out on good Mexican food though, so do you know what they did??? We stopped at a gas station mini-mart and they bought some "ABC slippas" (as in flip-flops purchased at an ABC store for a buck).

B's Stylin' New Slippas

[Cue sound effect: Angelic Choir Singing Hallelujah Chorus]

MANOA FALLS HIKE SUMMARY: I know when I'm trying to decide on a new hike location, I search for an overview about the hike that will help me judge if it's doable with two little boys. For anyone else looking to do this hike, here's a quick summary:
Map: The attendant at the parking lot gave us a pamphlet with a trail map and some information about the hike. I scanned the handout and will include it at the bottom of this post.
Mileage: My GPS reception for most of the hike ranged somewhere between horrible and nonexistent (I couldn't get the geocache near the waterfall because my GPS couldn't get a fix to tell me where I was). The handout from the parking attendant says it was "0.8 miles" but I think that's one way. This website says it's 1.5 miles round trip, and I think that's about right.
Elevation Gain: Parking lot was around 500 feet, the top of the trail was about 850 feet, so total elevation gain was approximately 350 feet of elevation gain.
Terrain: Gravel and hard-pack dirt, man made metal steps. Popular gouge is that this trail is not recommended after it's been raining recently. There are a couple of moderate steep drop-offs along the side of the trail, so watch your children carefully.
Time: It took us a little under 2 hours, and we stopped to have snack time at the waterfall.
Facilities: There was a two-seater outhouse just past the gate at the trailhead. It was fairly dirty for (a) typical outhouse reasons, and (b) muddy people tramping in and out at the end of their hike. However, I give them a thumbs-up for having a hand-sanitizer dispenser in the outhouse. Normally, my boys would water a bush or two along the way, but not today because the trail was narrow and there was a good amount of traffic on the trail.

This outhouse is right after you go through the trailhead gate.

Handout Page 1: Information
(Click on image for hi-res version)

Handout Page 2: Trail Map
(Click on image for hi-res version)

What bored little boys do with video cameras

We got one of these cool little Flip Video things. I admit I was a skeptic and wasn't very excited about getting it, but I tell ya - this thing gives new meaning to "plug and play." It is SO easy to use, even our 7 and 4 year old little boys can use it.



So... what DO bored little boys take videos of?

I sat down and watched the dozens of videos they took and noticed three recurring themes:

1. The boys like pretending they're secret agents, sneaking around and taking videos of Daddy with bed-head and Mommy's rear end. Sorry, not posting any of those videos, but they're darn funny to watch, especially with ES's sound effects, theme song humming, and orders to YB - "retreat! retreat!"

2. They have an obsession with the toilet. We have several videos like this:



3. They have an obsession with light switches and flicking them on and off.



In the longer videos of them sneaking around the house and recording LW and me at our groggy weekend morning finest (we're not morning people), you get combinations of all three of the above. ES will be running from recording LW in the kitchen through the hallway, and he'll stop to video the toilet before continuing around the dining room to the family room to record me in my chair with my bed head. Then he'll run upstairs and flick the lights on and off for a while. Pretty exciting, I know.

Anyway, with regard to the Flip Video... besides being extremely easy to take videos and play them on the little screen on the handheld unit, it's extremely easy to plug it into your computer's USB port and upload or edit the videos. There is software built into the handheld, and when you plug it into your USB port, it automatically installs the software. The software allows you to edit the videos and very easily upload them to any one of a number of video websites like YouTube.