3 YEARS AGO TODAY WE MET WITH A REAL ESTATE SALESMAN ABOUT A HOUSE FOR SALE ON GHOST TOWN ROAD……CONGRESS AZ.

ON FEBRUARY 23RD 2012 WE LOOKED AT THIS HOUSE FOR SALE & SAID ‘NAW, IT DOESN’T HAVE THE ‘WOW’ FACTOR………….OR DOES IT

Rain began Saturday night around 9 & pretty well has stayed with us through most of today on & off.  Those rains coupled with cool temps kept us housebound all day.  Luckily the bulk of this large rain front is west of us moving north.  Monday could be the same as today with sunny days & much warmer temps beginning Tuesday.  Upside will be a further greening of our Sonoran Desert with it’s many blooming wildflowers.  No matter what the weather here it sure is a lot better than the terrible record breaking prolonged freezing cold temperatures & deep snows back home in Bayfield.

A FEW FILE PHOTOS FROM PHEEBS COW SMOOCHING DAYS 3 YEARS AGO ABOUT NOW

 

I THINK THEY’RE WHISPERING SWEET NUTHINS IN PHEEBS EARS

 

ALL THESE COWS JUST LOVED THE PHEEBS

BEING WATCHED & FOLLOWED BY ALL HER ADORING FANS

<<< PHEEBS TOUCHED NOSES WITH ALL 3 OF THESE COWS

Kelly asked the question this morning, ‘where do you think we would be right now if we were still boondocking our way around the southwest like we did a few years ago’?  Didn’t have an answer for that question but did know that usually by March we were definitely turning our eyes homeward.  After living in our RV for 5 to 6 months each winter since late 06 we were always so glad to get home & stretch out in our spacious Bayfield digs.  Big TV, big recliners, big shower, big everything.  By the early Spring of 2012 we both found ourselves tiring a bit of traveling & boondocking around in the same places each winter .  We both felt we needed to somehow change things up a bit & that’s when we found a house in Congress for sale.  We weren’t actually seriously looking but the ‘good deal’ just fell into our laps & we just couldn’t turn it down.  It’s a decision for many reasons we have never regretted.

IT WAS 3 YEARS AGO TODAY WE MET A REAL ESTATE AGENT AT THE HOUSE TO HAVE A LOOK AT IT & ‘TALK THINGS OVER’…WE COULD TELL THIS REALTOR FROM PRESCOTT WAS VERY ANXIOUS TO SELL THIS PROPERTY & JUST GET IT OFF HIS BOOKS

   

THEN & NOW

  

It was at the very beginning of a slow homeward trek 3 years ago that we stopped here in the Congress area near the end of February.  Plan was to boondock a few days south of Congress before deciding on where to head for next.  As was our habit while traveling Kelly happened to check out the real estate listings in the area & saw a couple interesting places for sale with one being at a very exceptionally low price.  We figured it would be quite a wreck at that price but we drove over to look at it anyway.  Not as bad a wreck as we thought but a bit of a wreck nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

WE WERE SURPRISED TO FIND THE INTERIOR BETTER THAN WE HAD EXPECTED….IT HAD ISSUES BUT NOTHING WE COULDN’T LIVE WITH

A lot of folks would not have given this shabby looking house on an acre of weed infested property a second thought & others would have bought & flipped it for a profit when real estate prices headed back up again.  Kelly & I never really saw it either of those 2 ways.  This was a great opportunity for us to have a solid structure home base in the southwest, something we had previously discussed many times but never thought we would ever be able to afford it.  Well it’s true we couldn’t afford it but we could also not afford to pass up this deal.  The old house had everything our Bayfield house had & more. It just needed some major sprucing up & a whole lot TLC. (Tender Love & Care)  Kelly & I were used to that sprucing up stuff of course & didn’t hesitate taking on the challenge in front of us.  I of course saw what the property could look like with a bit of elbow grease & some enjoyable ground work on my part.  Living in a neighborhood certainly was not our first choice for a location but the deal was too good to pass up.  Aside from occasional normal neighbor noises we have been relatively fortunate so far.   

THE HOUSE BUILT IN THE 50’S SURE HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS & WE KNEW RIGHT OFF THE ONLY WAY TO IMPROVE THE EXTERIOR WAS TO COMPLETELY STUCCO IT

We were so anxious to start work on this house & property that unbeknownst to the real estate agent up in Prescott we moved our motorhome onto the property without permission before we had even bought it.  We knew we were taking a big chance & what we were doing was probably illegal but our intentions were good.  Kelly cleverly figured out a way to get into the house & we immediately set to work cleaning things up.  There was a lot of garbage in the back yard & I got onto that right away doing a major clean up & burning much of the junk & litter.  In case the real estate agent showed up or the deal didn’t go through we were prepared to say ‘hey at least we got this place cleaned up for you.’  As I said ‘we had good intentions’.  Luckily our instincts about the real estate agent were right & he never did return.  All further negotiations were done by email, fax, & phone.  To this day he doesn’t know we were practically living in the house well before the final papers were signed in his office in Prescott.  He smilingly gave us the keys for a house we were already in.  We had even managed to get the water turned on & arrangements made for stuccoing the house finalized.  It was a big chance we took but we both felt confident the deal was going to go in our favor & in the end it did.  What a huge sigh of relief that was for us but what an invigorating sense of adventure we had going in those weeks we were busily working on the house worrying every time we heard a car slowing down that it might be the real estate agent or somebody asking who we were & what we were doing there.  Sometimes it just pays to step outside the box & take a few chances. 

THIS WAS OUR FIRST DAY LOOKING AT OUR FUTURE HOUSE ON GHOST TOWN ROAD

I remember how excited we were with the house purchase & how relieved we were knowing we didn’t have to spend the whole winter living in our rig anymore if we didn’t have to.  After 6 winters in our Damon Motorhome we were so happy to have a new challenge & something totally different to do & look forward to.  And I was especially happy because I now had something constructive to occupy my time.  A creative challenge, a change of pace if you will.  An even more comfortable way to spend our winters.  We didn’t realize it at the time until a blog reader said ‘you guys got the best of both worlds’.  We still had our RV & we could still travel whenever we liked & now we had the advantage of a spacious home base to come back to after each short trip & that has worked out well for us.  I’m hoping next winter we can spend more time traveling to some new places like we did to the Mojave National Preserve last month & maybe extend our stays a bit longer.  Well them’s is the plans anyway………….:))

KELLY TOOK PHEEBS FOR A WALK THIS MORNING IN THE RAIN & I DON’T THINK THE PHEEBERS WAS ANY TO HAPPY ABOUT THAT

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.  The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!" The tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.  "Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes." "Why?" asked the nervous pilot. "Because I'm going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures."  After a long pause, the "pilot" replied: "You mean, you're not my instructor?"

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- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.