Tuesday
Mar. 28
A day of shop
till we drop.
Today
was the day to head to Tucson and visit furniture stores and Costco.
We
mapped it out with mapquest so my analog navagater could follow and direct.
First
stop was Sam's Furniture Outlet better known as (samlevitz.com).
We wondered around a bit and came across a living room group that met our
needs. I told Terry before we went in if we found something we liked
we were not going to fall into that trap of going to store after store
looking for something better. If we find it we buy it. And
we did found it... a sofa, love seat, and easy chair with a ottoman all
leather and for a good price. Another one of our walking in and saying
I like it. We'll take it. Terry almost fell asleep while they were
writing up the sale. You know it is comfy. No pictures but it is to be
delivered this Friday... Next off to CostCo for my Sony home theater sound
system.
To think all fit in one big
cart. We were running late and tired so held back on buying. They did get
us for an Executive Membership. About $450 in that cart. Plus $100 for
the fancy membership. Now that we have storage room we can stock up.
Later at home I called Bedmart
and ordered bedding to be delivered Thursday and later called Home Depot
for a new range.
We had a rough time with
them as the sale associate on Sunday when we were in gave us wrong info
that we could call during the week to order and get it delivered still
on Thursday. Now we were told it would take next week to be delivered.
I had to complain to the on duty manager to get them to honor their commitment
to deliver a range to us on when they had orig. promised. So in the end
they are delivering to us the floor stove to us for free and on Thursday.
I had to speak up a bit but they came through for us. We will be
back to buy more from them as they made things right.
Now we have the Sony
home theater system set up and it fills the house with sounds. I will
have a learning curve with it as it has all the bells and whistles.
Check out the link to see what this sucker can do.
More pictures when we get
the 4 piece leather outfit arranged in the house.
It was a busy day shopping..
This spending money is work... never knew that before But my debit
card came through with flying colors and never failed once...
Monday
Mar. 28
Still waking up
in the 5er. BUT have the house to play in during the day.
Got
the keys to our new property at 10:30 AM on Friday. We had to wait as possession
was scheduled for Thursday but the title didn't get recorded till Friday.
But we now have keys in hand and a little overwhelmed... Going from 400
sq ft to 2200 sq ft will do that to ya.
Now
with the 5er in place so we can live out of it while we furnish the home.
I'm
just too old to sleep on the floor so off to the 5er for sleeping till
we get beds.. I refuse to get bed bug infested used ones. But aren't beds
priced out of sight. What causes that? To me a bed is just a means
to an end. Anyway onward...
Back and forth to Benson
and Sierra Vista for household items. We are getting so we just grab two
carts right away as we are filling them. Like kids in a candy store. Ya
we need that don't we, and in the cart it goes. Look out Costco in Tucson
here we come. A new one opens April 14 on the SE side close to us.
Now we can cook in the kitchen
with a new toaster, coffee maker, microwave, nice KitchenAid pots and pans
on sale from Target. This time I got to pick the dishes and silverware
pattern, to mention just some of the stuff it takes to set up housekeeping.
We have fulltimed in the 5er for 7 or so years, but we need to leave most
stuff in it for when he hit the road again in a couple of months.
I did screw up... in the store I picked up a black coffee maker forgetting
all appliances were white. I like black decaf coffee, no cream added...
So it works out... I wasd gettign tired of the stainless steal appliances
in the 5er. Finger prints always showed big time.
Got a connection to the Internet
at the kitchen desk area today so I could post. Just had to bring in the
desktop and printer. WiFi from the 5er works great. Doesn't our kitchen
table look cool. You would think we are camping out still. Had to get a
floor saver form Staples to protect the ceramic floor. All window coverings
were left so that makes it easer... esp. with colors. I like the
bold green wall color so that will stay. Interior Desginers were are not.
We moved the 32" flat screen
from the RV so we could have our first dinner in the great room Friday
night, still in that camping mode. Have to sit on something. Even brought
in the hammock but didn't use it.
Opps he caught me in the
shot... That's a no no. Family room is off to the left.
Now to get the old TV back
in the 5er as you'll see it has been replaced with a bigger one now for
the house.
The family room above also
needs to be furnished along with the formal dining area below. These
two may wait a bit.
We will be driving a U-Haul
with shop equipment and some stored furniture back down in late summer..
I have a nice bar setup and small old church pew that might fit nice in
this area. A large formal dining room table is not on our priority list.
Terry crawled under and got
coax runs from outside to go up into the home theater room so we could
get them off the floor and running out the door. So now all wired
for action. We still just hook up to the 5er DirecTV dish. I bought a reel
of 250 ft of RJ6 for the porpose. I have my priorities.
Off the dinning room area
is the main entrance. There is so much room in this house we wont know
what to do with it for some time to come. Two more large bedrooms
with walk-in closets and another nice hardly used full bath. I like
this bathroom as it is more my size. I don't need in the master bath two
full huge wall mirrors looking back at me... if you know what I mean.
Onward... back to shopping...
I searched Best Buy
on Saturday night and found a great buy on a huge Sony 55" LED 3D WiFi
internt connectd HDTV. I thought I was looking at the sales that
would start on Sunday but closer inspection showed the sale ended at midnight.
I got in gear and ordered it online for store pickup so got under the wire
on the slae price. So Sunday we headed to Sierra Vista to pick it
up and look for a new stove and beds. First use of the elecctric stove
showed three of the burners didn't get fully hot. Trouble shot it and determined
it needed three infinity burner controls and that would be expensive so
a new stove is in order.
Found bed(s) at BedMart
and can order later and still get dilivered on Thursday. Also found
a Aamana stove at Home Depot and can call to order this week to also get
it delivered on Thursday. Not much for funitures stores in Sierra Vista
so we are heading to Tucson to look through the many furniture stores,
so we shall see what we find on Tuesday and then can make decissions.
This is getting to be hard work. The magnetic strip on my debit card is
about worn out. At times have to wrap it, as in the plastic shopping
bag trick, to make it read. It has to hold up as we have much more... shopping
till we drop... ahead of us.
Check out the size of this
sucker. 55" We knew it wouldn't fit in the entertainment center (we do
have a tape measure don't Ya Know) so we got four black shelf boards, placed
on top of each other and big bricks on the back side to hold the TV that
sticks out in front over the orig. built in shelf. This LED TV is less
than 2 inches thick and only 55 lb.. so not that heavy. I see there are
reb
box video rental locations in Benson, so looking good. I have
a Sony Blu-Ray unit which came with the 32" Sony and was only used a couple
of times... That now may change.
I had Avatar saved on DirecTV
that we never watched, so we did that in our home theater... campground
setting. I have my eye on a Sony 1000W 5.1 ch home theater sound system
to look at when we get to Tucson this week. Sierra Vista Best Buy didn't
have it. Now a cushy sofa etc. and some lazy boys should get this room
in shape. The recliner is on temperary loan from the RV. After all this
work I needed more to releave my sore bod than a camp chair. Terry even
more so, as he does all the hard work. But you already knew that.
I could have gone with a
smaller TV, but it's a Man
Cave sort of thing. Terry got his dream shop, so I get whatever I want...
This is working out swell
for
the both of us... From urbandictionary.com swell:
awesome cool great sweet good amazing nifty super groovy dandy rad neat
excellent nice wonderful terrific fantastic sexy sick keen tight hip dope
...
Notice...Yummy.. is not
in the list?
Wednesday
Mar. 23
Pulled out of
the Quartzsite BLM for the last time on Tuesday.
Sure
we may go back for a short winter visit, but not to spend the whole season
there. We have done that and now have moved on to a new life.
We
had a scheduled close on the property in Benson, AZ for Wednesday afternoon.
We did a final walk thriough and went to the tiltle company to do the close.
And it did happen at 4 PM. Handled over a big check and signed all the
paper and it was a done deal. Now the title company has to register
it with the county and at about 4 on Thursday we will be given the keys.
This is a done deal.
We
have the day on Thursday to go shopping to start to fill this huge house
with stuff. Remembr we are now in an RV. I'll take one of these and one
of those. How much fun will that be. We shall see. Pictures of what we
buy to follow... You can play interior disigner, just remember you don't
get a vote, just get to watch and laugh and say, "Did you see what those
nincompoops bought now?"
Sunday
Mar. 20
We are blown away...
not by wind, but by time.
We
returned from another whirl wind trip to Benson (The Super 8 Motel has
been home for 4 nights in all so far) on Saturday morning after getting
the inspections (structure and termite) done on the property on Friday
afternoon. All looks good... or as good as they can be for
a house only built in 2004. Just some minor fixes that any home owner
can do. So we are on the road to close ASAP. We are again
blown away that we only made an offer on Thursday Mar. 10 and this Thursday
we could be moving in. From offer to move in two weeks. WOW. I found this
place by following closely the MLS listings and this was a new one, so
we rushed over and were the first to view it and so glad we did as we now
found out another one right after us was ready to make an offer.
We need to be able to leave
Quartzsite on Tuesday so we can close on Wednesday in Benson, AZ. So that's
why Terry is now standing in our now empty campsite. We have spent many
happy winters right here boondocking at this same spot. He will get
to make a last day saying good bye to his friends at the rock club on Monday.
He has invested much time and energy teaching and later being on the board
of directors to make the club all it could be. So it's with a heavy heart
that he leaves it to others, as we move on to new adventures. Our
good friend Tad will be taking over from Terry next year as head
of the lost wax casting department. We will be back to visit I'm sure.
And many who we have grown to know here in Q will stop by to visit us in
our new location in Benson.
We have already met some
in the Benson area who are looking to get involved in silversmithing who
might like to have Terry get some classes together for them. (Terry makes
and teaches soldered link and wire knit chains). Now if you understand
that, good luck. I'm still not sure all what he is into. You can go to
the quartzsitegemandmineral
club site to find out more about all this.
We have been having a great
time living (boondocking) on the road for about 8 years now and that is
not about to change as we will still be traveling in the late spring, summer,
and early fall, but now we will have a solid floor under us in the winter
season.
As we were getting ready
to sell our home and go fulltime back in 2002 I started www.hitchitch.com
so I could follow others who had already done their life change to this
lifestyle. We learned so much, and hope you have also been able to learn
from the RV adventures of others we showcase.
We have been asked why now...
are we making a change and buying a seasonal place to land. To be sure
this is a big life change. The only thing I can say is it just feels right...
Isn't that what life is all about.... Following your dreams and smart enough
to know what your dreams are telling you.
So now off we go on a new
adventure (this is where you get to follow along). We are going to
have to furnish
this house from scratch.
Remember we now are in an RV. Now if you know me, you know I've been
looking online at Best Buy for a huge HD TV for the great room. Is 55"
too big? We can always get beds... it's the important things first
don't Ya Know. Can you imagine what I can do with a stereo in the big shop/garage
around a patio pool. I also see Target has some good quality kitchen
items on sale... Will stop and check that out if we must. Go to keep
the cook happy... Do miss a real toster... you boondockers understand.
So stay tuned to see how
we screw up OR how fabulous we furnish this place. Only time will tell.
I used to think a hike in
the woods was an adventure... now me thinks a walk through a department
store looking for items for this house might be even more of an adventure.
All this sticks and bricks
stuff may just make the rest of the time on the road that much better as
we will want to get back into the outback... Remember... we were... A
big rig looking for a tent experience. after all...
Saturday
Mar. 12
Things just happen
don't they... or is it for a reason?
Tuesday
we left Quartzsite to make another run over to the east side of AZ. This
time down to the Benson area. We met up waith a real estate agent and went
for a look at our favorite pick from the listings. It turned out better
than we had expected. So many of these things look great in pictures and
suck in real life.
While
heading to the property following the real estate agent I picked up a rock
chip in my almost new front window... not a good oman. But it turned out
to be the best rock chip ever. We mulled over the house deal overnight
and decided to meet back with the agent and make an offer. So the
next day we stopped by the local glass company to see if the rock chip
was repairable. The the weird thing was when I was talking to the glass
shop owner, I said we were in town to look at properties and we had an
appointment with an agent to sit down and make an offer on one. The
shop owner asked where we were looking so I told him. He smilled big time,
and said he lives right across the road from that place. (Now mind you
this house and property is 8 miles from downtown Benson and out on a gravel
road for 1 1/2 miles far up in the hills.) We hit if off right away and
he shared background info on the house and area. He is even the president
of the HOA out there. Made the dicession to make an offer so much easer.
They later came to the real eatate office and fixed the rock chip on site
without even calling first.
Well
back to real life... We made an offer (SOOO much paper work) and the next
day headed back to Q. About sunset Q time on Thursday we get that call
from the agent (who we also hit it off well with) and he sez they accepted
our offer. We just have to inspect the septic instead of them. Smelly
job but someone has to do it. Us RVers don't mind such tasks. Naw...
we have to hire it done according to state law. Anyway on Friday
we emailed with .pdf attachments all the signed papers back and it was
done. We bought a property. Except for the inspections being completed
of course.
Now
for the fun part you get to see it.. and we get to show it off.
13983 S Old Dusty Place
Benson, AZ
The
MLS listing
From the MLS listing:
Excellent 3 section (2171 sq. ft built 2002) Palm Harbor home loaded with
features such as hardwood cabinets, built-in entertainment area, brick
foundation, great room with additional family room, breakfast nook, large
kitchen island, ceramic tile, glamour master bathroom with soaking tub
and walk-in shower, large walk-thru closet, and plenty of closet space
throughout.
On the other side of the
wall through the open doorway is a huge family room also. Two bedrooms
to the right down a hall with full bath Access to the kitchen is
from this area and also from the family room. Formal entrance way is off
this room.
Both closet doors in the
bathroom go into a walk through closet. You can go in one door and come
out the other. Tub in the center and shower on the right side. Looking
in the mirror see the double doors from the master bed room to the bathroom.
Now we are not done.... the
best is yet to come. 1250 sq. ft shop garage.
Terry has a full compliment
of shop woodworking and metal working tools, after we haul his tools down
from Iowa. Along with all his hobby stuff from the gem and mineral
club, his section will fill up fast. Note the words
his section. AND ya know me....
I'm going to claim half
the shop for an indoor pool, hot tub, and treed mill fitness area.
AND I am going to use it. Can open the back electric roll-up door
(above) and make like an in-door, out-door patio pool spa area. I have
ideas!!!
All this located on well
fenced 4.13 acres.
View to the southeast. Those
are homes out there so will have night lights.
View to the north.
Notice the old west movie
set on the hill left center. It has been featured in over 50 films, television
programs and commercials including The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,
the 1993
version of Tombstone and Buffalo Soldiers.
Like everywhere in you need
water. No city water out here. Lucky the Benson area and southeast AZ has
plenty of it, they tell us. Not like western AZ. So I present our
shared wells. Pay $100 once in a while to keep the fund up. A very good
deal. Also $200 a year HOA fees to keep the roads maintained.
We are 1 1/2 miles off a
paved road.
So there you have it, our
seasonal acreage. You read correctly, this as only a winter vacation
property as we will keep our SD domicile and still travel. We are at about
4 thousand feet here so it doesn't get too hot in the summer and only once
or twice a dusting of snow happens.
Another adventure begins,
again. Like Bob and Linda from www.because-we-can.net
say... Life is not a dress rehearsal.
We understand and
take comfort and are at peace doing this life change.... I know, I think,
I guess, I hope....
HELP... WHAT HAVE DONE!
Sunday
Mar. 6
Our quest to find
our dream continues.
After
thinking about it ... this is not so much about a dream, as that we can
do this... we have the means... others have... and so can we... we
just need to find what we want... and make it happen.
Recap...
We went to Tucson and back up to Apache Junction last week. This is all
getting to be a pain, as the drive from the west coast of Arizona, as they
like to say, (to think the Colorado River is like an ocean, is just nuts)
to Tucson is a long dull drive as you know if you have done it. You
might want to compare it to a drive across Nebraska.
So
now we are going to do it again this week, but we are axpanding our search
now down to below Tucson.
Thinking
about it. There are 35 thousand winter snowbirds in Apache Junction...
and even if just a few want to get out of their RV Resort Parks and look
for the same type of property as we are, makes AJ not buyer friendly.
So
now we are now looking in the Vail, Benson, Green Vally, AZ area.
I'm
subscribed to a couple of real estate web sites that have searchable listings,
even by maps. Techonolgy is wonderful..
Searching
for a property by using the internet is what it is all about these days.
And beyond the real estate sites... you can educate yourself... Just
do a Google search on "How to buy a house" You will find reading
materal that will make you a well informed buyer or seller. Sure
we have bought and sold property in the past but we can refresh what we
knew about how to do it. It's not like we do this every day... Information
is king, and now these days you can be better informed and not just so
much at the mercy of know it all real estate agnets who are not working
for your best interests... but theirs... Don't Ya Know.
So
in alll this, you know I have been doing the background work, to find properties
to visit that are in the range of what we are looking for.
So
just tonight we narrowed down the ones we want to vist later this week.
Now
we are only looking for sites that have RV parking on site, a large shop
or garage for Terry and not in a closed in development.
OK
I'm about to break down and show a couple of sites we are looking at, to
give you an idea of what we are looking for.
Check
out a coulple of the prospects we are wanting to see.
http://fredb.longrealty.com/AZ/Vail/85641/homes-for-sale/13333-E-Hislop-Hill-Drive-56731864/popup
http://fredb.longrealty.com/AZ/Benson/85602/homes-for-sale/163-N-Cherokee-Trail-53144359/popup
http://fredb.longrealty.com/AZ/Sahuarita/85629/homes-for-sale/7750-E-Lady-Fawn-55050016/popup
Now
you are not allowed to bid on these till we get a look... you understand...
I
did
not list the one we really like... till after we get a good look at it...
But
a picture or two...
Notice
the snow that happened last weekend. New Listing. This property
is highter up and would also be cooler in the summer. 3 miles up off from
I-10 around Branson. Now do you think this could work for a
shop..
We seem to like a shop/gargaes
with a house attached. Or like our last one in IA, had three atached and
two detached.
Guess we have not gotten
over that. Sort of like do you like fries with your catchup.
See
where we are at right now. DataStormUsers
map ID 98
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