Kaneohe

I looked at 8 properties yesterday, accompanied by Cy, my trusty real estate agent. He's a really nice guy, and a former teacher and curriculum coordinator for public schools, so when he found out I did special ed law, we had lots to talk about other than the real estate, which still gave us plenty. His wife made us these home-baked energy bars that were yummy.

As it always is, looking at properties is weird. For every one, you have to imagine, could I live here? Do the neighbors look nice? Where would guests stay? Do I have room for my pots and pans? Where will I hang my artwork?

Two of the condos (they were almost identical because they are in the same building, pictured below) were just gross. They were in the town of Kaneohe, on the windward side. The prices out here blow my mind -- these places were listed at around $360K, and they're just dumpy. No effing way.

The first building we looked at. Looks like the projects. To the left is a busy road.

Note the olive green counters, linolium floors, carpet, and fake grass on the lanai. There is no air conditioning and nowhere to put ceiling fans. Yes, the trade winds are strong, but it was stuffy in there.

I love the chutzpah the agent for this place has, listing this as a lanai off the bedroom. You couldn't put anything out there. If you were having a "fat" day, closing the door behind your ass might even be a problem.

The next place was much better (I'm having a hard time uploading photos onto Blogger, so here is a link to the listing instead). Also in Kaneohe. I don't love Kaneohe as much as Kailua, but it's not bad. Beautiful mountains, close to hiking, beach, canoeing, good restaurants, and about 20 minutes to Honolulu. This place has a tennis court, but no pool. It's cute, nicely done up, and it had a downstairs area with another bathroom and two guest rooms. Both of which are tiny, but that's the nature of the beast around here. Either one could function very well as a nursery or an office. Jason could put in some nice lighting to pep it up, and we could take out the carpet that's down there and put in Pergo. This is a possibility, especially because the price is right.