Moving on up... to the mountains!

[Desert_Captain]

We have enjoyed living in the high Sonoran desert just north of Tucson fo the last 15 years. The camping in Arizona is nothing short of awesome and we often spend our summers in the mountains beating the heat. This year has set records almost daily for high temps and little to no rainfall {the Monsoon has been a no show... Grrr}. We live in a nice senior community but have to keep our Class C, cargo trailer and Rzr SXS at a nearby commercial storage facility.

I always longed to find some property where I could house my toys on site and enjoy a higher elevation in a smaller community. Yesterday I made that happen:



After researching at least 100 properties and finding virtually all of them already subject to pending offers {the real estate market for mountain property has gone off the chart since the Covid crisis} I found this gem and managed to out bid another offer and still get a smoking great deal and we will close escrow in 3 weeks.

Our new home is in Payson, a small town of 15,000 people located almost exactly at the geographic center of Arizona {76 miles north of Phoenix/Mesa} at 5,000'. The property is .57 of an acre and the smallish {1,407 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bath} house comes with two garages, a two car attached and a free standing 18' X 30" unit in back that is amply screams "Man Cave!"

The Coach and trailer are too tall for interior storage but with two separate driveways I have plenty of room to park them both with the Rzr, my truck and motorcycle residing in the new Man Cave and my brides car in the attached garage. Payson sits at the base of the Mogollon Rim and is about halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff.

The property is nicely treed with huge pines some over 70' as well as, Oak, Juniper, Spruce and Manzanitas. A seasonal stream flows through the front yard and yet we are just a mile or so from what passes for "Downtown" Payson.

Here is a shot of my future Man Cave:



The back right hand corner of the Gazebo will be the new site of our Jacuzzi with the BBQ and bar to follow:



We are both so excited and can't believe our good fortune in being able to make this happen. Lots of work to be done to complete our relocation but looking forward to the challenges given the rewards that are sure to follow. Woo Hoo!

:B

[Desert_Captain]

Thanks Phil,

It has been a whirlwind experience but we are finally getting settled in with most of our upgrades/improvements either complete or at least under way. Our Fire danger is still rated "Extreme" but we have some serious weather coming in starting tonight. We are expecting thunderstorms/heavy rains through next Monday and probable snow as the lows will be in the upper 20's to low 30's. If we get a couple of inches the fire danger should be mitigated somewhat.

Yes I plan to winterize the coach probably this weekend even though we won't see prolonged sub freezing temps for a while. Sadly we have no immediate plans for the coach as we have already canceled what would have been our 9th consecutive Quartzsite trip... talk about a super spreader event just waiting to happen. :S

My southern Arizona method has always been to simply drain all of the fresh water from the coach and then drive around for about 5 miles which chases most of the water in the lines out the drains. Never felt the need to blow out the lines but if I choose to go that route I have my new, 135 psi compressor to get the job done.

I followup with the pink antifreeze in each of the traps {sinks and shower} and the black and gray tanks which will get drained. The Giant gas station half a mile up the road has free dump stations so dumping is easy and very convenient.

I have an electrician coming next week to put in a 30 amp outlet and will keep the coach plugged in so I can use a small electric heater as needed. I can run the tank heaters anytime it is going to get seriously cold and it does here often in winter with temps in the teens not unusual. The last step in my southern AZ winterization is to restock the bar... but I already have that covered. :B

[pnichols]

DC,

What an "adventure" you have been through ... quite the life-change for both of you!

I can identify with some of what you're doing. We live on 3+ acres in a forested area ~1840 feet up in the North-Central CA coastal mountains and have had a huge coastal range fire come close this fall.

We had several large trees that were too close to the house removed in early summer and I have been removing, by hand, a shovelful at a time, a thigh-high layer of leaves around our trees decades in the making. This week I'm continuing with trimming of low hanging tree limbs using an extension pole chainsaw.

You're new driveway is awesome. My 600 feet of driveway really needs a new coat, too.

Sadly, since our last trip to Arizona in January, the RV is only sitting in the backyard and occasionally gettting it's generator exercised. By the way, we were near Payson several years ago in January in the rig and wound up driving a bit in some snow and sleet. It was a beautiful area.

Enjoy your new (more reasonable) air temperatures!

P.S. Are you now going to have to winterize your Class C?

[Desert_Captain]

We have been in the new house for a month now and are getting settled as we continue adding upgrades {curtains, blinds and the kitchen remodel is underway but a month out from completion}. A huge improvement was having both driveways paved. Caught a great deal from a local paving contractor, he wanted to keep his crew busy and had an opening in his schedule. Between the short driveway on the south side long north side we have 78 yards and at 12' wide that was a lot of asphalt:





This will really help keep the dust down and make moving our toys around a lot easier.

:C

[Mayor30]

Desert Captain wrote:

Mayor30 wrote:
My buddy lives in Payson. It is a very nice town. They have a large dog park. We stayed at Houston Mesa in Payson and Canyon Point which is about an hour east of Payson on 260.If you haven't stayed there the sites are nicely spaced,some with electric others with no hookups. You're camping under tall pine trees.

Canyon point is one of our favorite CG's...but getting a reservation can be a challenge. They do hold a lot of non electric sites as first come first served and at 7,700' it is delightful in the warmer months but they are only open mid May through Labor day or the first snowfall. The Mogollon Rim has a number of great CG's as well but again they are subject to the relatively short season as dictated by the weather.

What we love about Payson is that it is large enough to have anything we need {Home Depot, Tractor Supply etc. and a VA clinic} and nothing we don't. I am scrambling to deal with the mountain of paperwork the two real estate sales generate... but having worked in the Title Insurance Industry for nearly 20 years I understand the process and speak the language. :C

In 2018 they were open in April. We were there mid week and snagged a site with electric for $19 a night with the senior pass. The day we arrived it was beautiful. Low 60's and sunny. I woke at 5am to put the dog out and we had 3 inches of snow overnight. I had to crawl on the roof and clean the snow off so we could close the slide out. The next day we were at Houston Mesa. No snow and sunny.And yes, it does seem to have everything.

[RambleOnNW]

Desert Captain wrote:
"Be a good neighbor and FireWise your property. They keep predicting Payson will be the next Paradise......and suffer a catastrophic fire."


Not sure who "They" are but the locals here {proud to now be among them} tend to take fire safety seriously. Our property {.57 ac} is very heavily treed and probably hasn't been trimmed much less cleaned up, in years...

We made curing that glaring fire safety defect a high priority. Having the cargo trailer and a truck along with all of the requisite tools {multiple rakes, pitchfork, gas leaf blower etc.} we have been working on clearing the entire property for the last couple of weeks. So far we have hauled just over 5,000# {in 8 trips} of pine needles and Oak leaves to the local brush pit at the land fill. I think we have it down to two more trailer loads and will hit again the morning.

The front yard is done and we have about 20 percent of the back left to go. In someplaces the
debris was 4 to 6" deep. Here are a couple of pics documenting our progress {keep in mind we are old folks at 68 and 69 and both of of us will be having birthdays in November}:



This is about half of load:



Here is a section we have cleared:





Today I hired a contractor to asphalt both driveways next week and yesterday we hired the crew from Home Depot to redo the kitchen replacing the 37 years old cabinets and Formica counters with Granite and new {refaced} cabinets to be completed in about 6 weeks. Both bathrooms will be next and we will be replacing there sinks/vanities and cabinets. That should just about compete our renovations.

The forecast is calling for rain and snow showers next Sunday - Tuesday so we are looking forward to the weather finally breaking and being able to break in our wood burning stove in the living room.

:B

Good to hear about the fire protection. Saw this on This Old House to make your attic vents fire resistant by intercepting embers and then closing when they get hot. They have retrofit models that may fit our application.

http://www.vulcanvents.com/

[Mayor30]

My friend Wally lives in Payson. He stayed with us here in Pa for 2 weeks and is on his way home now. We were there in 2018 and stayed at Houston Mesa Campground which is run by the Forest Service. On our was to Payson on 260, we stayed at Canyon Point which is another FS campground. That one has some electric hookups and we snagged one. Payson is a nice town and has a little bit of everything. We liked eating at the historic Kohl's Ranch.

[parcany]

The things we liked aabout Payson was the airport diner, great food and on fridays all you can eat fish. The parade in August and the free music in the park. Was great. We stayed at the Payson Campground. They used to have old airplanes come in at the airport I think is August or Sept, don't know if they still do that. In Pine and Strawberry on the holidays they have Crafts shows and they are real nice. When you go into Pine on the right side of the street there is a gas station right across the parking lot on same side of street there is a little shop on the end of the building that sells some of the best Ice Cream we have ever had. Going more into Pine on the left side there is a grocery store that has great tasting pies. Congrats on your new home.

[Desert_Captain]

"Be a good neighbor and FireWise your property. They keep predicting Payson will be the next Paradise......and suffer a catastrophic fire."


Not sure who "They" are but the locals here {proud to now be among them} tend to take fire safety seriously. Our property {.57 ac} is very heavily treed and probably hasn't been trimmed much less cleaned up, in years...

We made curing that glaring fire safety defect a high priority. Having the cargo trailer and a truck along with all of the requisite tools {multiple rakes, pitchfork, gas leaf blower etc.} we have been working on clearing the entire property for the last couple of weeks. So far we have hauled just over 5,000# {in 8 trips} of pine needles and Oak leaves to the local brush pit at the land fill. I think we have it down to two more trailer loads and will hit again the morning.

The front yard is done and we have about 20 percent of the back left to go. In someplaces the
debris was 4 to 6" deep. Here are a couple of pics documenting our progress {keep in mind we are old folks at 68 and 69 and both of of us will be having birthdays in November}:



This is about half of load:



Here is a section we have cleared:





Today I hired a contractor to asphalt both driveways next week and yesterday we hired the crew from Home Depot to redo the kitchen replacing the 37 years old cabinets and Formica counters with Granite and new {refaced} cabinets to be completed in about 6 weeks. Both bathrooms will be next and we will be replacing there sinks/vanities and cabinets. That should just about compete our renovations.

The forecast is calling for rain and snow showers next Sunday - Tuesday so we are looking forward to the weather finally breaking and being able to break in our wood burning stove in the living room.

:B

[Dtank]

spoon059 wrote:
Appreciate the update OP. In my area that would be a million dollar home, easily. We've got a 1300 sq ft rambler on a half acre, nothing special about the location, paid more than that 12 years ago. I'm hopeful that when I retire and we sell this house (for too much money), we'll be able to go someplace beautiful and less expensive!

Better hurry!!

After seeing the photos, and reading the details.....

The *SNOWBIRDS* - and the folks cooking in Phoenix are are on the way!!

🙂

[run100]

Congratulations! Nice looking property! Enjoy. We'll be waiting for an invitation to the housewarming party.

Yup, new record in our desert this year - 144 days over 100-degrees! The heat is getting old.

[Expyinflight]

Glad to see you are happily settled in OP. Enjoy!

[spoon059]

Appreciate the update OP. In my area that would be a million dollar home, easily. We've got a 1300 sq ft rambler on a half acre, nothing special about the location, paid more than that 12 years ago. I'm hopeful that when I retire and we sell this house (for too much money), we'll be able to go someplace beautiful and less expensive!

[dodge_guy]

Looks great. Congrats.

[Desert_Captain]

Happy to share...

We were actually downsizing by 25 percent with the new house {1,400 square feet} but the lot is 110 percent larger {.57 ac}. We paid $362,000 which was a strong, no contingency cash offer with an 18 day escrow.
The market up here in the mountains north of Phoenix is roaring as folks from the Valley of the Sun flee for the cooler temps and gorgeous scenery.

I looked at 100 homes and 95 were "Offer pending" so if you do not jump on an available listing it is gone in about 3 heartbeats. The sellers had received an offer the night before we saw the property which we believe was $350K on a list price of $359,900 - to insure we got the place and generate some goodwill on the inevitable negotiations to come I made the $362K offer which they immediately accepted. Turned out there were about $3,000 in relatively minor repairs that were needed and the sellers agreed to split those costs with us and everyone walked away happy.

Here are few interior shots:









:B

[spoon059]

Beautiful house on a beautiful peace of property in a beautiful corner of the world! Very nice! Just curious if you would mind telling us the purchase price, I'm always curious about how far a dollar gets you in different parts of the country. We live outside of DC and the housing market is very inflated here...