When I started full timing in Tucson, I had a rental house in
Bellevue, WA. When the property
taxes went over $9,000 a year I decided it was time to get rid of it.
Off and on for probably the last five years I’ve been
looking at houses in Tucson. I
stayed with the same real estate agent and wish that I had kept track of how
many houses we looked at before I found the right one. I know it was a lot. I kept telling her to hang in there with
me because I’d know it when I saw it and that’s exactly how it happened, only I
found it online and I had to call her in order to see it.
I was pretty sure when I first looked at it that it was “the
one” but I needed to think and look at it more than once. I decided that it was indeed “the one”
and made an offer which was accepted.
I still had my Alfa when I bought the house. In fact, after I received the house
keys on my birthday, July 1st, I went back to my Alfa and stayed there
for a few more days.
I started shopping for furniture right away because I didn’t
have any. I had gotten rid of most
of my stuff when I left Washington for Tucson. When I down-sized I kept what I felt was most important to
me and that had been in storage in Tucson. Now I was sort of starting all over again and I just kept
getting more and more stuff.
The house I bought has turned out to not be the one. I’ve struggled with it from the time I
moved in. Too big, too far away
from the places I hang out at, too lonely, etc., etc.
The most disturbing element has been the pool. Yes, a pool. My house is on an acre and has a pool. What disturbs me about the pool is the
water. When I lived in WA, in the
summer I would refuse to water the grass because I considered it a waste of
water and eventually it would rain and all would be well.
With pools, the water evaporates and it needs to be
replaced. I did not think about that because I'd never had a pool or known anyone with one. It’s way worse in the
summer…evaporation. The part of me
that refused to water the grass in Washington is going crazy. When it’s time to fill it the water runs for 1 to 1.5 hours
at a time. Yikes.
I have a really nice pool guy and he doesn’t come
cheap. But, I have no worries
about the pool because I have a pool guy.
Probably the biggest reason I bought on an acre was so that
I could park Olivia, my Winnebago View, at home and not at a storage
facility. That worked until I
learned about pack rats.
Specifically, they like to get in engines and chew the wires. AARGH.
Fortunately, they didn’t do too much damage to Olivia. Before leaving for this trip I took her
in for service and the damage wasn’t too extensive. I had purchased strobe light thingies especially for
deterring pack rats. Apparently,
pack rats like dark places. So I
raised the hood about 7”, put in the pack rat strobe lights and added a string of lights. I saw no evidence of pack rats after I
did that. What a pain.
Another thing about being a home owner again…STUFF. My accumulation of stuff has increased
dramatically and I’m realizing I’m not happy about it. I liked the simpler life in an RV. Built in furniture, limited storage for
stuff, etc., etc.
I think I’m at a crossroads.
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