Moving on up... to the mountains

I've lived in AZ for almost 50 years and I'm so happy to hear about your find. AZ mountain property is getting hard to find and when you do, you can sure pay through the nose!

ASU had a major campus expansion planned for Payson but I believe that fell through.

Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Doug
 
Can't wait...

Chik a boom,

Thanks for the kind words and great info and I'm sure I will be picking your brain for more. I assume you were referring to the Jim Jones shooting range and while I have not gotten down there yet it is on my short list of places to check out.

We have been camping for years up on the Mogollon Rim as well as all of the other great spots from Flagstaff to Sedona, Cottonwood, White Mountains etc. no wonder we fell in love with this area. What part of town are you in? Our new place is on Mud Springs Road about half a mile south of 260. The Va Clinic is on 260 due north of us next to Culver's.

I don't ski anymore, did many years ago but that was when I had better {much younger} knees. We were just up to Woods Canyon Lake for 4 days of Forrest Service back road riding on our Rzr about 2 weeks ago. I'll look to you for info on the riding closer in to town as nothing beats local knowledge.

The sellers husband is a contractor and has offered to hook me up with Payson's finest for any projects... and there will be more than a few but I'll probably call on you for referrals as well. Need to add a 30 amp hook up for the motorhome and probably widen my south driveway to better accommodate parking the coach. Might even get crazy and have the driveways paved. Building out my man cave is going to be a lot of work but at the same time a lot of fun. I'll start with a nice workbench and storage and go from there. Might even have room for a decent pool table.

Thanks again, I'll be in touch.
 
Dougaz said:
ASU had a major campus expansion planned for Payson but I believe that fell through.
Doug
Click to expand...
Correct. Talk was that ASU really had no intention of being here; was mostly the former mayor's dream.

Yes, Jim Jones is the local shooting range. Check out Tonto Rim Sports Club on line for their activities.

Am familiar with South Mud Springs Road. Funny enough, to get to our place, it is off of North Mud Springs-pretty much across from the VA. We are behind (north of) the community college on 2 acre horse properties.

Fortunately, have never had a need for a contractor so not too familiar with any-sorry!-am sure your sellers husband will have good info. Sounds like you have a lot of fun projects ahead-congrats!
 
Congratulations Steve! My wife and I looked at Payson for retirement but I found work in carson city, so thats where we'll be. 5000 feet in elevation seems to be the sweet spot. Unless you're in Montana..

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
 
We got er done...

OP here with the latest update:

We closed the 18 day escrow right on time yesterday without a hitch. Drove the 500 miles {+/-} from Angel Fire {but not before the requisite trip up to Red River for the Smoked Brisket breakfast Burrito smothered in Hatch Green Chile sauce at Shotgun Willies on Wednesday morning... but I digress} to Payson on Thursday so as to complete the preclosing walkthrough which went fine. By 1030 yesterday morning I had the call confirming the recording and the deal was done.

My new Liberty Revere series 30 gun safe was delivered and installed yesterday morning. Had them bolt it in using 4, 3/8" X 4" lag bolts in a secure location so now it is time to load it up. Thanks so much for all of your support. While we still face the Herculean task of moving, everything is lining up nicely.

Our current home is on the MLS under "Coming Soon" and I will release it for sale on October first. Homes in our area are selling in just a few days and there is already a lot of interest. My goal of walking away with more money from this sale than we just spent looks very doable at this point. Film at eleven!
 
You've got mail... well almost

I just tried to PM you but your mailbox is full. I'll try again later.

Steve
 
Welcome neighbor. We moved up here from Gilbert in 1998 and love it. The elk are singing now. Had a cow elk and yearling doing the landscape trimming yesterday. They do a good job but sometimes get carried away. The only drawback to living here is the traffice on the weekends in the summer. Get a map and learn the side streets that you can use to stay off of the Beeline and Highway 260. Again, Welcome.
 
Chik a Boom said:
Correct. Talk was that ASU really had no intention of being here; was mostly the former mayor's dream.

Yes, Jim Jones is the local shooting range. Check out Tonto Rim Sports Club on line for their activities.

Am familiar with South Mud Springs Road. Funny enough, to get to our place, it is off of North Mud Springs-pretty much across from the VA. We are behind (north of) the community college on 2 acre horse properties.

Fortunately, have never had a need for a contractor so not too familiar with any-sorry!-am sure your sellers husband will have good info. Sounds like you have a lot of fun projects ahead-congrats!
Click to expand...

For the electrical work, I have had great luck with "Spartys Electrical" and for a general contractor try Poor Boys. Stay away from the local handyman types.
 
Op here with an update...

We are now settled into our new home {more or less}. The movers came on Tuesday morning and those two guys {from Two Guys and Truck Moving} busted their humps, arriving at 9, it took about 2.5 hours to load all of furniture and the 60 boxes in the garage.

The trip up to our new home was a 3+hour ride and then another 3 hours of unloading and reassembling the furniture and setting everything up. I'm sure the 3 hour ride home went quickly as I tipped them both a $100 bill {each} for the extraordinary effort they put into this job... which was much appreciated.

My bride and I have been attacking the boxes in the garage with a vengeance and after two full days are down to about 30 or so left to go through/empty. Just to make things interesting I managed to kick our very large/heavy coffee table while barefoot... yep, broke the #2 toe on my right
foot. After a couple of days it has gone completely purple/nearly black. If you have been there, done that you know there is really not much that can be done.

Got out the first aid kit from the RV and fortunately had a good metal, four prong splint. Wrapped it up supported by the splint and taped it to my big toe to minimize movement. Yes, it hurts like hell but with a lot of Ibuprofen and periodic icing it will heal eventually. About the only other thing I need to do is stay off of it but that is just not an option right now....arrrrg!

All in all one hell of an adventure and we could not be happier with our new home. Lots of work yet to do but considering I pulled this off in 28 days from "Hey honey, let's sell this place and find a nice house up in the mountains" to done deal we live here was a pretty ambitious undertaking. Our old place is now officially on the market with Open Houses running through the weekend.

Paula, aka Chik a Boom, stopped by the other day to welcome us to Payson and we look forward to getting together again soon. Chuck, the guy who delivered/installed my new gun safe told me about the local veterans bike club and last night while enjoying a cocktail on the back patio the pres, "Shaggy" and his lady stopped by to welcome us to town and extended an invitation to check out the club... "Veterans Helping Veterans". I am looking forward to that just as soon as I can complete this move by retrieving my Indian from Tucson {currently stored in my snowbird neighbor's garage}.

Thanks one and all for your support, it has really meant a lot...
 
Last edited:
Cant believe it has been a year... an update

We celebrated our one year anniversary 4 days ago, wow, where did that year go??? After getting all of our stuff up here the real work began and for a couple of old folks {69 and 70} we seriously went to work.

Near the top of the list was trimming and clearing the property, neighbors reported that it had not been fire safed for 10+ years. With my cargo trailer and truck we have made 24 trips to the brush pile at the local land fill. The first 12 trips were nothing but pine needles and oak leaves and weighed in at 6,000# +. Serious tree trimming followed as we got the driveways and the rest of the property opened up.

The prolonged drought had weakened the trees and when we got 2.5' of heavy wet snow at the end of January I lost two Oaks and a Juniper along with extensive damage to another dozen or so {8 - 10" limbs were breaking like kindling which of course generated a bunch more tips to the brush pile.}
I did manage to harvest/salvage a full cord of Oak and Juniper hardwood which has now seasoned nicely and we had our first fire in the wood stove since last March on September 30th.

I got a smoking good deal on having the driveways paved, one is 25 yards the other 55... Eighty yards by 12' wide and 3" thick for $6,000. At age 69 humping my 875# Indian Springfield on the gravel driveway probably was not going to end well.

I added a lot of landscaping and even a garden enclosed with Elk fencing {7.5' high}. I have two cherry trees, a dwarf Jonathan Apple, a Bartlett Pear, 2 Blackberry and 2 Raspberry bushes all of which are thriving. This year we finally had a great Monsoon. Since the middle of July we have had 12" with more coming on Tuesday. Happily the fire danger has vanished like a fart in the wind and even the drought numbers are looking much better.

We put a major remodel on the kitchen with new walnut cabinets and granite countertops and the two bathrooms are next for renovation. The house was the proverbial diamond in the rough but after just a year we have it polished up nicely.

Our old house in Tucson sold quickly and when the financial dust settled I came up $245 short of breaking even. In the 51+ years we have been married we have never been happier and are looking forward to many more great years up here on the mountain.

Life is good!
 
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