Thursday, January 12, 2012

Soon after the party, Ron started looking in earnest for some property to buy. He looked and looked and looked and finally found a lot that he wanted me to look at. I was the reluctant one, but, this one lot looked promising, as it was bigger and on a corner.

Our new property
Original site of the gate, notice the low wall on the left
The new raised wall


We got a realtor to show us the inside of the mobile, which came fully furnished, and I liked the way it looked inside. The best thing about it was we could see glimpses of the mountains through the trees in all directions. So began our quest of acquiring this property, which started out for us making a ridiculously low offer. The surprising thing was
Notice there is no gate here now
that they came back with an acceptable offer, so we both agreed and it went into escrow. We wanted it to close in two weeks time, as we were paying cash, but, after a week, we hit a snag, as they hadn't done probate yet.....:(
Our new gate opening
What was surprising, though, was they had apparently decided that they didn't want to deal with this property anymore, so got probate done in record time and on Dec 2nd, the property was ours and looking back on it, it really
Large living room with windows all around
only took a little over two weeks past the original date to close.


Looking into dining room & kitchen, (Ron is changing the locks)
We didn't waste anytime after acquiring the keys, Ron had the side property walls all raised up to the 6 ft levels to provide more privacy for us and our neighbors.
Laying bricks for our patio by the bus
He also wanted the side gates more in line with backing in big rigs. The one side had a gate, but, it was moved over about 8 ft and the other side didn't even have a gate, so we added one. We upgraded the electric pedestal and added one more, for friends to come visit. We also had the plumber come out and upgrade the hot water heater and fix all the leaks we could find.


Trimming the trees with a chainsaw
On Dec 13th, we finally moved the bus onto the property. We have the one gate installed in front of the bus, and the other gate should be installed soon.
All cleaned up
Ron wants to remove all the palm trees and plant mesquite and palo verde trees instead, since it would be nice to have shade trees on the property. But, that takes planning, so for now, we'll keep the palms.
Getting ready to pour the cement and add brick wall to expand the patio

Even with all the waiting and work we've been doing, we haven't been idle. I've been going to Zumba gold classes three times a week and clogging class once a week. We have weekly movies to go to with other Boomers, going to dinner with friends and lots of card games with our various friends. Life has been great here, back in Yuma. We've also been going to our annual doctor visits and so far, we are still healthy. Ron takes walks around the neighborhood, getting to know everyone. All our neighbors are real nice and most of them are here year around, which makes it nice, they can keep an eye on our property for us. We even have a local cop as a neighbor, she's with the Wellton Police, which is the next town east of us past the mountains.




Just to let you know, we have plenty of room for visitors. We have an extra RV hookup for our RV'ing friends and extra beds for our non RV'ing friends. We have an add on to the mobile which for right now is an extra bedroom with bath, but, at some point, Ron may convert it into a workshop, which he'd really like to have. We only use the mobile for day use stuff and when people come over at night to play cards. We still sleep and watch TV in the bus. 

3 comments:

Chuck and Jan Moore said...

Great blog, Sharon! You really have a very nice property. We love what you have been doing with it! Love coming over to play P&J and your Open House Party was terrific. Hugs, J&C

Nancy said...

Hi Sharon and Ron: Just caught up on the blog postings. Great to see you two enjoying your new place and to see photos of what you've done already. You are making it your own, for sure! Have fun.
Nancy and Jerry

George and Diana Ruelens said...

Wow, sticks and bricks and keeping the wheels. All I have to say is what a great combination. Can hardly wait to see you all again. Look out for us in the fall:)