Surprise—We’ve Moved

As many of you know we really love this area of Arizona and have developed a special bond with many residents of the Escapees RV subdivision North Ranch.  At the beginning of this winter season we toured many properties with “our” realtor, Linda Stevens.  We even made offers on several vacant lots—just a spot to park the motorhome—but it seemed no one wanted to take our money.  So, we gave up, stopped looking at property and just enjoyed life.

Between the two of us we endlessly discussed the pros and cons of owning a North Ranch vacant lot—we were only considering large lots on which a house could be built when and if we decided to give up RVing.  When our friends Terry and Jill were here visiting us in early March we looked at a house on a large perimeter lot which backs to the desert (BLM land) and has gorgeous views of the mountains.  The cowboy and I had all ready looked at this house once but Terry and Jill wanted to see it with the thought that perhaps they might want to buy it.  Terry is a builder and sees a “vision” when viewing houses with no appeal—that’s what this house had—no appeal but Terry had great ideas as usual.

Well, Terry and Jill decided owning Arizona property was not for them at this time, they went back to Montana, Michael and I got on with life deciding we would not even look at anything else unless it was a perimeter lot.  A large perimeter lot (backs to a potential subdivision instead of BLM land) came on the market.  This lot had a very, very old mobile home which was trashed and would need to be removed.  We made an offer which was turned down. 

OK, let’s get on with life again.  Michael keeps telling me the house we viewed with Jill and Terry was the best value in North Ranch and I would say, “but I don’t want a house.”  He kept telling me—one morning we walked down to the house (it was vacant) walked around the lot, discussed Terry’s ideas and agreed on an offering price—the cowboy finally convinced me it was a good value even if it was a house. 

Back at the motorhome my cell phone rings, it is our realtor telling us the guy will now take our offer on the other perimeter lot with the old trailer if the offer is still on the table.  We told her we now had another idea and asked her to make an offer on the house/lot.  Linda had a great working relationship with the owner and called him.  Within 15 minutes she called us back and said, “you just bought yourself a house.”  The house/lot has been on the market for over a year—I guess they were ready to sell.

So there you have it—we own a home in North Ranch on a beautiful desert/mountain view lot.  The house and lot need work—we are very capable of doing all of it.  We are going to incorporate some of Terry’s ideas as time goes on.  We closed early yesterday morning, the paperwork has to be electronically filed at the clerk and recorder’s office in Prescott which meant we couldn’t move until that filing was complete.  When Linda called to say it was a done deal, it was almost 5pm—Michael and I looked at each other and said, “let’s go.”  By 7pm we were all set up with the motorhome on the new lot. 

We will continue to live in the motorhome parked at the back of the house looking out of the desert while we work on the yard and house.  The photos I have aren’t the greatest and I will take some more as time goes on. 

Why does anyone plant large trees that close to a house?  They will have to be removed as they are causing damage to the house.

Lemon, orange and grapefruit trees.

All the windows in the house are small—that’s one of the first things we will do—larger windows so we can enjoy the view.Garden plot which we removed all ready—look at that view!

Life is good!