Moving Home to Lahaina: One Year Later

If you have followed my story, you would know that my family lost our beloved home in the 2023 Lahaina wildfires. You’d also likely know I was very motivated to rebuild and live in our house with my daughters before they go off to college.

This motivation meant I was first in line for a permit, then first for a permit in the SMA zone, and that I had my contractor lined up to start the day they told us we could start building. Our amazing contractor built our house in under 9 months. And by now you are likely aware that we moved back home to Lahaina. We are about to have our one year anniversary back home. 

It felt like home from the first night. I had shared that I had some last-minute fears that we may have made a very big, expensive mistake moving back. After all, it is not the same place we left on August 8, 2023.  It turns out those fears were completely unfounded.  

It has been hard to admit that it is really nice living in a brand new house. Our house is a nod to our old one, with everything in the same place. We loved our old house, but in all reality it was a fixer upper that was still being fixed. We needed new siding, new floors, air conditioning upstairs, and the list goes on. So now we have built the same house but very improved.  It is very hard to admit all of this because of the way we got here. But I finally came to peace with the fact that I can love having a new home and wishing it never happened at the same time. 

The biggest thing has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our neighbors. Where we are located, we were the only ones for a few lonely months. We had to ask the County of Maui to put on the street lights at night. I don’t know how else to say it but it was weird. It was a moment of time that will be a very unique memory. The cool thing was every day, a new house would pop up. Many people have asked me if it’s annoying living in a construction zone. Absolutely not! I know how hard it was for those people to get back there. They can be as loud and dusty as they want. They have earned it.  

Now we are anxiously awaiting the rebuilding of Front Street. This has been very frustrating. I think I can speak for myself and my neighbors to say this has nothing to do with bringing back tourism. Yes, many people’s businesses and livelihoods rely on this, but for those of us that live in the Historic Lahaina area, it’s about riding our bikes for ice cream. It’s having a place to gather. It’s having a date night somewhere you don’t need a car. My kids’ teenage years won’t experience the Wharf and Cool Cats or the movie theater. For us, this is another piece of home that we need to truly feel like we fully moved back. 

I should note that Front Street is newly repaved and there are benches and street lamps. It is open to traffic. There are people fishing from the shore. The harbor is open to some boat activities. The Banyan Tree is looking healthy. They are baby steps, and all of them are appreciated. There is one food truck. But we are ready for Kimo’s!  

In the past few months, a handful of neighbors have finally moved in. More houses are still popping up. Surfers are parking in front of our house. Every night, more and more neighbors are on the beach for the sunset. My daughter started her Senior Year of high school, and now I am wishing time would slow down. I hope we have been the welcoming committee I wanted to be. There are still so many people fighting to get back home. I am grateful every day we were able to make this happen.