Dean's Desert Dream Garage

[AZ Dean]

This my Desert Dream Garage just by the fact I finally have something larger than the standard two-car garage I've had for the last 25 years, and its in the lovely desert of my home state of Arizona! But it's neither that big or that fancy, not by GJ standards. Hope you'll enjoy reading along as it comes together.

My name is Dean and I'm the guy who has to learn things the hard way.

My life seems like it has just been me screwing one thing after another and then figuring out the hard way how I should have done it the first time. Jobs? Check. Finances? Check! Marriage? Check. Parenthood? Check. My kids once got me a birthday card that said on the front "Dad likes to teach his kids by example..." On the inside was a picture of a guy hanging by one hand from a tall building shouting, "KIDS! DON'T EVER DO THIS!" Yep, that's me.

Having lurked on Garage Journal for some time now, you all seem quite welcoming and encouraging so I decided to share the process of outfitting what I hope will become my dream garage. In the process I'll share all of my ******* mistakes so you can a. laugh/curse with me, and b. maybe learn from me, and c. hopefully take pity on me and help me get it right the first time, the next time.

So first a bit of background. My wife Lisa and I have been married for a bit over 33 years now. Our three daughters are grown up, moved out and have families of their own. So we had a 'big house' on a small lot in Phoenix with a tiny yard. My wife and I both longed to get 'out of town' and have a bit of land with a modest home where we could have a garden, some chickens and room for our doggies to run.

To make a long story short, we found what we were looking for, just east of the Phoenix area outside a little town called Apache Junction.

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Here's the property we purchased. 1.25 acres of relatively untouched desert bliss. In this shot, you can see the excavation has begun for our manufactured home. Our lot is 330' east-west and 165' north-south. There's a rather large 33' easement on the north side for a street we think (hope!) will never be put through.


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Here's a street view from a few years back. The previous owner had a Tough Shed that they wanted to live in placed there, but the county said it was against the law. They got frustrated and put the property up for sale.

You might rightfully ask yourself, 'Why would anyone want to live in the desert with a bunch of rocks, cactus and spiky plants?" Well, my wife and I are Arizona natives, and we grew up here in the desert. We love it and think its quite beautiful.

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Now, we can sit on our back porch and enjoy this view.

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Or views of the Superstition Mountains from the front porch.

A big bonus is that we are in the midst of prime hiking, mtn biking, four wheeling and dirt biking country, all of which, I love to do.

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This is a hiking trail just around the corner from us.

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Great four wheeling a few miles away.

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And dirt biking paradise!

Enough introductions - on to the garage!

 

[AZ Dean]

I've heard many guys say, "All I need is a little home with a big garage next to it." Me too! My wife and I are not big, fancy home folks. We prefer something cozy and because I have (as mentioned before) totally effed up any chance at early retirement, we were looking to stay within a fairly tight budget.

At one time we owned 40 acres of land about 4.5 hours northeast of Phoenix. We considered building there, and had looked into various manufactured home offerings. I was surprised to find that one could purchase a very nice home that looked nothing like a cheap trailer on the inside, and save quite a bit of money doing so. So we talked to Clayton Homes (first mistake?) in Mesa, AZ and began the process.

I was happy to find that Clayton had a relationship with a steel building contractor (second mistake?), and they could roll the cost of my garage into the land/home package. SWEET!

I settled on a 35Lx40Wx12H building with 16x10 and 10x10 roll-up doors, 4' and 3' man doors and a roof vent. Permits, foundation, slab and construction were all included in the turn-key price.

Why those dimensions? Well, it was pretty much what I could afford, and we'd find out later it was all that would fit.

In retrospect, I wish I'd gone a bit taller (more on that later), but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the dimensions. Its enough room for what I plan to do. Could I use more? Of course, but there's no point in rethinking it now.

Once we had decided which property we wanted, picked out a house and configured the garage, we inked the deal with Clayton and sat back to see what would happen. It was January of 2018.


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First thing that happened, was the house arrived! The garage was supposed to get started well before that, but in a foreshadowing of things to come, the garage was delayed. I won't bore you with the trials and tribulations of the house (unless asked) as that could consume a thread of its own.


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Back to the garage! Not terribly long after (in hindsight...at the time it was interminable), the crew was out working on the footings for the garage. The plans called for 4" thick, 3,000 psi (IIRC) concrete. Standard fare, from what I have read. I talked to the concrete contractor and added fiber reinforcement to the slab for a minor extra fee. Can't hurt, right?

I also hope to install a two-post lift at some point, so I had the contractor make the slab 6" thick where I plan to put the lift. Hope I planned that right! That was a lot of reading on GJ figuring that out.


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I really, really tried to be there when the slab was poured so I could observe and verify the work, but surprise! The contractor didn't show when he said he would and then showed without telling me and completed the work.

Something important to note here. At this point, the land, house and garage did not belong to me. They were still owned by Clayton and would be until I closed on the deal, after everything was complete. On the one hand, I was thankful to have the ability to be present and influence the things I could, but I believe the final product would have been better in a lot of ways if I was running the show. Under the circumstances, I was limited in my control of the contractors.

Sooo, I didn't get to verify the slab was built correctly. Argh! Ok well, let's hope for the best.

As expected, the slab sat for a while before construction began. The steel began showing up after a few weeks and then the structure went up pretty quickly.

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Not too long thereafter, they started putting on the skin. I forgot to mention that the building came with R10 insulation, which you can see here, placed between the siding and the frame.

I wish I knew more about the process, and I wish I had thought to check their work, as the building ended up not being as plumb as I would have hoped. In retrospect (the theme of this thread?! ) I should have been more involved.

The garage went up quickly after this. While I couldn't be there all day each day, I did feel like the overall quality of the work was acceptable when I checked in on it.

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One minor annoyance, and tell me if I am off base here. Some of this construction occurred during the Arizona Monsoon, when we get regular storms. Some of the steel beams were coated in dirt/mud and then were put up in my building without cleaning them off. Seems like it would have taken a few minutes to take care of that so I don't have dirt-covered beams 14ft in the air for me to look at. Argh. One day i will get up there and clean them off.

Ok, almost done! I came by one day and it was done, except for the roll-up doors. Had to sneak the truck inside for a pic!

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This panorama makes it look bigger than it is, obviously, but still! What a huge upgrade over the standard two-car garages I had been in for the last 20 years.


After this, literally MONTHS went by waiting for the rollup doors to be installed. Supposedly the doors were on backorder. Anyhow, they finally came in, but after months of sitting open, all kinds of dirt had been blown in, doves were nesting in the rafters and the door installers left a bunch of **** around for weeks afterwards. *sigh*

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Ok, so my 'dream garage' was done, and now we just had to wait (and wait...and wait) for Clayton to finish up the house. I won't bore you with all of those details, but fast forward to August 2018 and we signed and moved in. Yay! Here's some pics of the outside, as it looks today.

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Next up - moving in!

 

[AZ Dean]

Ok, so now the garage is built and we are waiting to close on the house. But Clayton couldn't get their sh!t together and moved back our close date not once...not twice, but three times! We were renting a place nearby and we had already committed to a move out date with our landlord after the second time. So we ended up being basically homeless for 10 days while they wrapped things up. Thankfully, Clayton allowed us to put all of our stuff in the garage for that time.

This made for a very different dynamic during move in. Typically you move most of your stuff in to your house and unpack it there. And you unpack it quickly because its in your way. With everything in the garage, we were able to take our time, only moving stuff to the house as we needed it. What that means for me is that garage was and still continues to be full of stuff that eventually will get organized or disposed of.

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So that out of the way - my first and biggest (thus far) investment in the garage is the floor. With 1,400 sqft to cover, most quality floor coverings were in the $5K range and up. I wanted a quality epoxy, and after a lot of reading I went with a multi-stage polyaspartic coating from IronDrive here in Chandler. They have all 5-star reviews and offer a lifetime warranty on lifting or delamination. A big part of the decision was that IronDrive's solution would be move-in ready after 24 hours. Brian, the owner was very flexible with me to get my floor installed two days before I needed to move everything in.

I am VERY happy with how the floor looks. I love how it shrugs off oils, gas and other stuff and its easy to keep the garage clean and neat. That being said, I have been less than happy with its durability, which I documented in another thread.

Ok, so garage is built, floor is done, all my **** is in there...what's next?

First, let's talk about layout:

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This was the original layout. I had envisioned the side of the garage with the 16ft door would house the truck and car, in front of which would be the workbenches, tool cabinets, etc. The side with the 10ft door would be my moto-shop, and kinda the man-cave where I would hang out and wrench on my bikes.

The problems with this setup soon became clear:
- Even with a 16ft door, the Super Duty and CRV were a tight fit. The truck would always need to be crammed against the wall and the CRV would need to angle in a bit to provide room to get in and out. If I wanted to clean or do much work on one, I would have to move one out and reposition the other
- The CRV is the grocery getter, so my wife would always be walking back and forth through my moto-shop to the man door next to the house.
- The bikes would all be on the other side of the garage from all of my tools. YES, I could buy more tools and more tool boxes dedicated to the bikes, but I wanted to try to avoid that.

So after much thought, I decided to go this route:

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Much better, in my opinion:
- Still plenty of room to work on the bikes
- Bikes and bike lift are closer to the tools
- Wifey has her own little garage right next to the man door
- 'Man cave' can now include workbench and tools area


Ok so now the layout is sorted, its time to start organizing. Traditionally, one might install or build shelving against the walls and pack all the **** in the shelves. I decided against this because I want to eventually finish some of the walls, and I am not entirely decided how and where I want to store everything. For example, I want to do some suspended shelving to take advantage of the high ceiling, but I'm not yet ready to commit to where those are going.

So I went and picked up a set of heavy duty shelves from Home Depot. They typically sell 77H x 77W sets, but I found they also offer a 90H x 90W option that was more expensive but comparable on a cost per square foot basis. I decided to put the shelves in the no-man's land between the grocery-getter garage and the man cave. Bigger is better!

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I cut some MDF into squares so if I decide to move these shelves later they wont tear up my 'glass floor.'

These kits come with five shelves each, but I didn't think I could use more than four in each set. I came up with a way to use the extra shelves and I'm pretty happy with the result.

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Yay, starting to get a bit organized, but still have a ways to go.

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Allow me to point out the obvious - at this point, all I could afford was to bring electricity TO the garage. I had a panel on the wall, but no outlets or lights. So I made do with a long extension cord from the house and nice portable LED light set from Lowe's. This thing rocks, you should check it out.

 

[rattle_snake]

Welcome from Chandler Dean. More details on the 'dream garage'....
I am also into dirk bikes/wheelin', hiking and such.

 

[AZ Dean]

Welcome from Chandler Dean. More details on the 'dream garage'....
I am also into dirk bikes/wheelin', hiking and such.

Awesome, Justin! Thanks for saying hello. I hope to make more local contacts so we can help each other out if/when needed or desired. Looking forward to checking out your posts.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Dean, beautiful setting and location. That one pic looks like the view from the Siphon Draw trail.

 

[drifter_r6]

Another greeting from Chandler! Its coming along nicely. One of these days I will follow suit...

 

[1/2 Cup]

AZ Dean looking great

 

[Sam Lin]

Another AZ member chiming in to say hello, planning a freestanding garage build this year and browsing around for contractor recommendations.

Sam

 

[Azmule71]

Another Az greetings! Looks awsome!

Sent from my SM-N950U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Bears Fan]

Awesome looking pictures and story With a super cold, windy and snowy year here in northern Indiana makes me wish I was in the desert with you

 

[Jon In Tucson]

Hello from Tucson! From your pictures I have an idea of your location. Traveled to the valley many times via the Florence hiway and US 60. Love that drive. Following.
Jon In Tucson

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[AZ Dean]

Dean, beautiful setting and location. That one pic looks like the view from the Siphon Draw trail.

Thank you! The pic with my dirt bike is indeed looking across Apache Trail towards Siphon Draw. Hard to beat that view!

Don't have much to offer in terms of a garage, or anything else really... but I am only a couple miles away from you. February was a great month in terms of weather. Being able to see snow on the mountains and wearing a jacket when I went outside almost made me forget I live in the damn desert.

Hey Joe! Appreciate you stopping by and welcome your comments. Just being part of the conversation is a great thing to offer. How about that Winter/Spring! Haven't seen snow like that in a very long time. We will surely be missing the cool here in a month or so!

Another greeting from Chandler! Its coming along nicely. One of these days I will follow suit...

Hey Drifter - thanks! Yeah, be patient and keep moving towards the goal. You will get there!

AZ Dean looking great

Thanks 1/2 Cup! Got a ways to go, but making progress!

Another AZ member chiming in to say hello, planning a freestanding garage build this year and browsing around for contractor recommendations.

Sam, thanks for chiming in, and welcome to Garage Journal! I am happy to give you my contractor's info. If you're looking for a bargain, I haven't seen anyone beat his prices, but he can be frustratingly unresponsive. So there's some give and take there. I recommend doing all your research up front so you know what you're getting into and are able to keep the work quality up to standard.

 

[AZ Dean]

Another Az greetings! Looks awsome!

Thanks Mule! Sweet bike in your avatar. You still riding that monster? I have a built Bandit 1200 and love the torque of the big motors.

Awesome looking pictures and story With a super cold, windy and snowy year here in northern Indiana makes me wish I was in the desert with you

Hey Bears Fan - Thanks! Yeah, but in a couple months all of us here in AZ will be jealous of you! Although, the heat's really not too bad if you get outside and acclimate to it.

Hello from Tucson! From your pictures I have an idea of your location. Traveled to the valley many times via the Florence hiway and US 60. Love that drive. Following.
Jon In Tucson

Jon - Hello, and thank you! Tucson and the surrounding are very beautiful. Always love it when I ride/drive through there. I need to do the back way up to Mount Lemmon one of these days on my Super Tenere.

 

[AZ Dean]

FYI - I updated the third post above with some more pics and progress. Lots more to come!

 

[rixtrix1]

Welcome again from Chandler, Dean! Despite the tribulations, it looks very nice. Very interested in seeing how this project unfolds!

 

[Jon In Tucson]

Love to take the 83 CJ5 on the back road to Mt. Lemmon. I have hunted the Catalinas for 40 plus years.
Jon In Tucson.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[plain2car]

Dean,
Welcome!! I am another local (Gilbert area) glad to have you aboard!. location looks great!!! i sometimes ride my mtb bike around gold canyon area (not too far off?) but mostly at San tan park. I tend to hang out with slowbuilder & the rest of the "crew". the building process seems to be about normal - the good, the bad & the ugly ! good luck with the finishing effort & maybe might be able to help a few times here & there.... . will follow along for knowledge gathering...

plain2car

 

[Azmule71]

Thanks Mule! Sweet bike in your avatar. You still riding that monster? I have a built Bandit 1200 and love the torque of the big motors.


I Sold That Big Guy, Have A Z1000 That's My Daily Right Now. On The Look Out For A Zx14. Have A Buddy Totally Into The Bandits, They Are A Great Bang For The Buck!

 

[AZ Dean]

Welcome again from Chandler, Dean! Despite the tribulations, it looks very nice. Very interested in seeing how this project unfolds!

Ric, Thank you and thanks for the welcome! Its a big mess right now while I am working on it, but I hope to have it cleaned up and looking somewhat organized before too long.

Love to take the 83 CJ5 on the back road to Mt. Lemmon. I have hunted the Catalinas for 40 plus years.

I grew up in a '66 CJ5! Jeeping is a great way to experience Arizona. I'll have to pick your brain for some other places to explore in the area.

Dean,
Welcome!! I am another local (Gilbert area) glad to have you aboard!. location looks great!!! i sometimes ride my mtb bike around gold canyon area (not too far off?) but mostly at San tan park. I tend to hang out with slowbuilder & the rest of the "crew". the building process seems to be about normal - the good, the bad & the ugly ! good luck with the finishing effort & maybe might be able to help a few times here & there.... . will follow along for knowledge gathering...

Thank you! I see you're helping slowbuilder with his garage. Very cool of you. Yeah, Gold Canvon isn't too far east of me. I'm up against the Goldfield mountains, which kind of form the northern border of the AJ area. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - man maybe I should change my thread name to that. Appreciate the offer, I may just take you up on that some time.

I Sold That Big Guy, Have A Z1000 That's My Daily Right Now. On The Look Out For A Zx14. Have A Buddy Totally Into The Bandits, They Are A Great Bang For The Buck!

Z1000s are COOL. Would love to see a pic or three. Wanted one really bad for a very long time, but the Bandit has kind of filled that role for a big bore standard bike. My buddy had a really nice first-gen Z1000. I could take him off the line, but when the Z came on the cam it was HANG ON!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Greetings from KS. Sounds like you've experienced the same woes a lot of us have putting up your building.

My sister lives in Mesa, and I've got an uncle in Green Valley. Love to visit in the winter!

 

[AZ Dean]

Was away for a few days while I upgraded my Mac Mini's hard drive to an SSD. Man, now I know why Apple takes so long to update their products. The amount of engineering that goes into the packaging in this little guy is pretty amazing. Have a look at the process here: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2014+Hard+Drive+Replacement/32815

I've been riding motorcycles since I was a wee lad, and I have almost always had a few bikes in the garage in various states of repair. I'm down to three right now. Here's a few pics:

This is my 2014 Yamaha Super Tenere. I call it my Dirt Cadillac. It will take you just about anywhere you want to go in comfort and 'style.' Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I think she's pretty in a very purposeful way.

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Then there's my 1998 Suzuki Bandit. I bought it 100% stock maybe 11 years ago, and she's been through a lot of changes. Unfortunately, she sits gathering dust at the moment. She's been to the track, been to the strip and has been a ton of fun for the $2500 I bought her for. Now she's got a bored 1216 motor with Wiseco 10.5:1 pistons, GSXR 750 cams, RS36 flatslide carbs and D&D full exhaust system. Wheelies everywhere? YES!

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Last but certainly not least in my current stable is my 2006 KTM 400 EXC. It had been sitting for the last year, sadly, but once the garage is ready for 'production,' I'll definitely be back in the saddle on this girl.

I'm currently in the process of upgrading my suspension and motor by losing weight.

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What do you ride? Lets see some pics of your bikes!

 

[Jon In Tucson]

I grew up in a '66 CJ5! Jeeping is a great way to experience Arizona. I'll have to pick your brain for some other places to explore in the area.

Dean,
There's tons of trails in the Tucson area as well in Pinal County. Outside of Florence, check out the Kelvin highway. Trails that go to old mining operations and even transverse the Gila river.
Jon In Tucson

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[AZ Dean]

Greetings from KS. Sounds like you've experienced the same worse a lot of us have putting up your building.

My sister lives in Mesa, and I've got an uncle in Green Valley. Love to visit in the winter!

Hey Outlaw! I just checked out your garage thread. Looks like we both love the old Blazers. Great shop! LOVE your '49. So cool! Also, you have a new Instagram follower. Next time you're in town, hit me up and we can grab a beer or something.

Dean,
There's tons of trails in the Tucson area as well in Pinal County. Outside of Florence, check out the Kelvin highway. Trails that go to old mining operations and even transverse the Gila river.

I am sure it would blow my mind. I've been all over the Phoenix area and parts north, but very little down your way. Though I have don the Florence-Kelvin highway a few times. Beautiful area.

 

[Slowbuilder]

Hey Dean, I love your shop; you can't beat the location with those views of the Superstitions. I'm glad you got through the build pain, it looks like it was worth the wait. I'm subscribed!

 

[Azmule71]

z1000s are cool. Would love to see a pic or three. Wanted one really bad for a very long time, but the bandit has kind of filled that role for a big bore standard bike. My buddy had a really nice first-gen z1000. I could take him off the line, but when the z came on the cam it was hang on!

Here Is The Z1000 It Has Ohlins Rear Shock, Race Tech Front Forks. And One Of The ZZR1200, Had Work Done Back In The Day At Jardine Performance. That Thing ripped.

 

[drivesitfar]

AZ Dean: looks good from my chair. I just cruised through and thought I'd subscribe and see what sort of adventures you will take me (us) on.

 

[Falcon67]

Having visited Phoenix two years ago and availed ourselves of the hiking trails, along with my wife missing her Albuquerque Sandia's I say - well done. Great views, nice spot to land in.

 

[zippyslug31]

Been lurking on GJ myself for a while but something about your build resonates. When you signed your contract in Jan '18, I was just wrapping up my project. I can see why you were questioning some of your contractor choices: in the same amount of time (roughly 8 mos), I had a 2300' stick-built house constructed up and a 50x72 pole structure completed! Don't mean to make you feel worse, but yeah, I'd say your contractor was a slacker in some areas.
Regardless, congrats on realizing a dream... also cool bikes!

 

[AZ Dean]

Hey Dean, I love your shop; you can't beat the location with those views of the Superstitions. I'm glad you got through the build pain, it looks like it was worth the wait. I'm subscribed!

Slowbuilder - thank you! I feel very fortunate both for the shop and my location. Really a dream come true for me.

Here Is The Z1000 It Has Ohlins Rear Shock, Race Tech Front Forks. And One Of The ZZR1200, Had Work Done Back In The Day At Jardine Performance. That Thing ripped.

LOVE the early Z1000s. That's a beauty. Nice upgrades, too. So many people skip suspension upgrades and it's probably the best money you can spend.

AZ Dean: looks good from my chair. I just cruised through and thought I'd subscribe and see what sort of adventures you will take me (us) on.

Appreciate the good word, drivesitfar. Hoping I can learn from everyone here as well.

Having visited Phoenix two years ago and availed ourselves of the hiking trails, along with my wife missing her Albuquerque Sandia's I say - well done. Great views, nice spot to land in.

Thank you, Falcon! We are very thankful we found this and were able to acquire it.

Been lurking on GJ myself for a while but something about your build resonates. When you signed your contract in Jan '18, I was just wrapping up my project. I can see why you were questioning some of your contractor choices: in the same amount of time (roughly 8 mos), I had a 2300' stick-built house constructed up and a 50x72 pole structure completed! Don't mean to make you feel worse, but yeah, I'd say your contractor was a slacker in some areas.
Regardless, congrats on realizing a dream... also cool bikes!

Zippy - Clayton homes bills itself as the largest homebuilder in America. If true, I understand that they could be very busy. Busy is OK, but you have to keep your customer informed and if you are not meeting deadlines, you better damn well have contingencies. I often felt like they were oblivious to the impact their mistakes were having on me and my schedule. I could go on and on, but it was a very frustrating experience. Congrats on your property - I hope you'll share some photos and info on it. I'd love to see it!

 

[AZ Dean]

Ok, so back to the build. We're still not quite at present day, but we'll get there soon.

Some projects had to take precedence over the garage. We have two dogs and one cat, and we wanted to fence in our back yard to keep the dogs in and bad things out. Of course we know there's only so much you can do against a hungry coyote, bobcat or mountain lion (all of which are somewhat regulars in this neighborhood), but my thinking is maybe they'll move on to easier pickins, since few yards are fenced out here.

I lucked out and a friend who lives close to the new house offered to help me build my fence for pennies on the dollar.

I decided on a style of fence somewhat common to horse property. Pipe posts and top rail with 6ft no-climb woven fence stretched across it. I chose used oil-field pipe. 2 3/8" thick, in 31ft sticks. Way cheaper than new pipe, very heavy and crucially, flexible enough at length for the job. I wanted to follow the contours of the terrain. Many people move out here and then proceed to grade their land flat as a parking lot. Not me. I tried my best to disturb as little of the natural surroundings as possible, even when it made things a lot harder.

View media item 92164My buddy did all of the digging and welding - I helped with that where I could, and I stood up,stretched and tied off all of the fence fabric. Its been a huge job, and we're still not quite done. I can't overstate how hard it was digging 55 holes in extremely rocky soil. Every hole hand to be jackhammered and dug by hand. Anyways, here's a few pics of the results:

View media item 92009Call me silly, but I moved my fence about 8 inches inside my property line in order to save a mature palo verde tree and a beautiful old ocotillo that were right on the line. However, there was a giant cholla cactus tree on the line that was not so lucky.

View media item 92010If you've never done it by yourself, standing up 100ft of fence fabric is no joke!

I'm pretty proud of the final product and I've had several compliments on it by neighbors and visiting contractors.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Looks nice, glad you saved the ocotillo! They are beautiful when they bloom!

 

[PugetDude]

Howdy, neighbor...
Looks like a great set-up!

 

[Jon In Tucson]

Good looking fence, Dean. I dug 377' of footers for our block wall back in the '70's. All pick and shovel, rock and caliche. My wife wouldn't let me rent a tractor. So I feel your pain.
Jon In Tucson

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[stioc]

Subscribed to live vicariously through your 'out of town' property adventures. Also love the manufactured home idea which I've thought about myself. Do you have any inside pics to share?

I see a lot of folks who moved to AZ to build their retirement property. I still haven't decided where I want to buy/build my retirement property but AZ is an option. It seems the cost, zoning, permits, building etc are far easier than where I'm at...not surprising lol

Lastly, I always liked the idea of building a car-port next to the 'shop' to park the grocery getters. Although one may have to deal with mice/critters damaging wiring etc.

 

[rixtrix1]

Lastly, I always liked the idea of building a car-port next to the 'shop' to park the grocery getters. Although one may have to deal with mice/critters damaging wiring etc.

This is definitely a problem with this area. I worked on lots of vehicles that came in from Apache Junction with the wiring and hoses all chewed up.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed.

 

[AZ Dean]

Looks nice, glad you saved the ocotillo! They are beautiful when they bloom!

Thanks! I am too, and I agree! I am fortunate to have several on the property.

Howdy, neighbor...
Looks like a great set-up!

Thank you, sir. Are you in AJ, or Gold Canyon? If you'd rather not be specific, I understand. If you're interested in meeting up for a beer or showing off your garage, let me know!

Good looking fence, Dean. I dug 377' of footers for our block wall back in the '70's. All pick and shovel, rock and caliche. My wife wouldn't let me rent a tractor. So I feel your pain.

Jon, you're a better man than me! Of course when I was in my 20s, I could do a lot more than in my 50s.

Subscribed to live vicariously through your 'out of town' property adventures. Also love the manufactured home idea which I've thought about myself. Do you have any inside pics to share?

I see a lot of folks who moved to AZ to build their retirement property. I still haven't decided where I want to buy/build my retirement property but AZ is an option. It seems the cost, zoning, permits, building etc are far easier than where I'm at...not surprising lol

Lastly, I always liked the idea of building a car-port next to the 'shop' to park the grocery getters. Although one may have to deal with mice/critters damaging wiring etc.

stioc, if you go to the Clayton homes site (link) you can see a bunch of photos from the model for our house. Ours looks exactly the same inside. Let me know what you think. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they are making them these days.

AZ really is a great place to live, with benefits as you mentioned, and also more of that 'freedom' thing a lot of us love. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you. I am an AZ native.

This is definitely a problem with this area. I worked on lots of vehicles that came in from Apache Junction with the wiring and hoses all chewed up.

So far we have been lucky. Maybe its because we have our dogs and our cat outside a lot around the house.

Subscribed.

Welcome! Hope you'll chime in from time to time.

 

[stioc]

stioc, if you go to the Clayton homes site (link) you can see a bunch of photos from the model for our house. Ours looks exactly the same inside. Let me know what you think. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they are making them these days.

AZ really is a great place to live, with benefits as you mentioned, and also more of that 'freedom' thing a lot of us love. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you. I am an AZ native.

Thanks for the link and wow, that looks really nice and just about the perfect size at 1600sq-ft 3bd, 2ba. Congrats. Now, they say starting at $120k, I'm sure it ends up being about twice that with the slab foundation, a few upgrades etc? Even then it's a great deal though!

Haha, so true about the benefits of AZ compared to this place. A few areas we scoped out away from the towns up in NorCal some of the neighbors were...let's just say were more with taken apart school buses and old cars in their front yards. I think if you listened hard you could almost hear the banjo playing LOL So we definitely want to avoid some of those types of areas.

 

[Jon In Tucson]

Jon, you're a better man than me! Of course when I was in my 20s, I could do a lot more than in my 50s.

I was in my 20's then also. Now I would hire that out.
Jon In Tucson.

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