~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[gryeyes]

I did a walk-through with the real estate agent and her partner agent today. They made all their notes for the bank (which owns the property) and we had a lovely time.

Before they arrived, I met my soon-to-be next door neighbor lady of the house and her son. They're down to one chicken; they free ranged without a coop at all!!! Good lord! Well, we talked chickens for a little bit (I believe I'll be edumacating them a tad bit) and I also think I'll be able to down-size my flock in their direction.

After I took the measurements I wanted and the agents got all the stuff they wanted, we went to brunch together. Wow, what a small community - we ate at a Deli/Bakery owned and operated by my agent's partner's daughter-in-law. And the sheriff of El Dorado County is the OTHER son of the partner agent. Both ladies own some spectacular property in the area; the Sheriff's mom & dad own over 400 acres, which includes a small lake, large enough for fishing from small boats.

Both ladies are real hoots, and they think *I* am, too.

I learned some stuff about rural, mountain living: yes, that's a FRUITING apple tree - folks up thataway don't grow trees that just flower, they will work for their living. I will not be able to grow citrus unless I heavily protect any trees during the winters. Wisteria grows like "weeds" there. Cats tend to disappear. You have to get along with your neighbors because everybody helps everybody else. Keep your dogs on your property. A generator would be a real good idea, even if just to power the well pump, fridge, and possibly the TV set. Gee-gaws in the front yard are often landmarks - better than the abandoned old truck painted like an American flag (although that's nice). Buy local - it will be well appreciated. But it's okay to buy big ticket items like washers, dryers and ranges (stoves) from Lowe's or Home Depot "down the hill" - no reason to be an idiot and pay more than necessary.

I will be provided local contacts for fence work, electrical work and "the best handy-man" in the county.

Then I drove over to HHandbasket & Farmer Lew's place to admire their newly-built coop and VERY useful gate into their yard. I followed them to Placerville and we ate a late lunch at Powell's Steamer House & Pub.

I will be going back up again, tomorrow, because <*cough cough*> I forgot my checkbook with all the checks made out to the companies handling the various inspections on Monday!!! I need to deliver those to my agent's house, just down the road from HHandbasket & Farmer Lew's place. I have packaged up three 6-packs of colorful eggs from my flock; one for my agent, one for her partner, and one for the people next door. I figger those will be nice "Howdy!" and "Thank you!" gifts.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I am so excited for you, what a wonderful change in the pace of life!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Sounds like everything is going great!

 

[Kansaseq]

VERY cute house and beautiful property. Congratulations!!!!

 

[HHandbasket]

Can't wait to see you again today, Linda. It's gonna be so awesome when you're living up here. I noticed yesterday that your new house is walking distance to the corner market. How slick is THAT?

We are 3.8 miles from there. There is at least one other BYCer in the community that I know about, and another one is in Murphys (Calaveras County, not that far from here, I think just south of us).

This is the most amazing place to live, and I couldn't see myself moving back to the valley ever in this lifetime. We are here to stay.

 

[schellie69]

I am so happy for you. I wish we could find our little slice of Heaven soon. I didn't know how much living in town really bugs me.

 

[gryeyes]

Today's trip was interesting. I checked BYC on my iPad from the parking lot of the little bitty gas station/market closest to the house I'm buying. The gasoline there is the same price as the CHEAPEST gas Down The Hill. I found that surprising. And inside the store, I can buy all sorts of things one might need, grocery items minus fresh produce (and Jello, oddly enough), all kinds of chips, candy and snacks, a variety of sundries, plus lots of beer, wine and liquor. Oh, and hot coffee. And, of course, Slim Jims.

When I drove up the road, there was a man walking a dog and he was directly in front of "my" house. I stopped to chat with him; turned out he is living with his son and daughter-n-law next door. I told him I'd already met Jessica; he said his name was Carl and so was his son's.

So I had to tell him my dominant rooster's name was Carl. He laughed and said, "So, if we hear you yelling, "Shut UP, Carl," we don't have to worry you're talking about us, huh?"

I gave him the 6-pack of eggs I'd brought for Jessica. He looked at them and said, "Your neighbors are supposed to give YOU gifts, didn't you know that?" Well, I explained, I'm not moving in for a couple of months or so. But Jessica and I had talked about chickens so I thought I'd bring her some eggs from mine.

After saying good-bye to him, I headed off to my real estate agent's house. She invited me inside, introduced me to her husband, and we went over some more paperwork after I handed her the checks I'd written but forgotten to bring the previous day. And I gave her the two 6-packs of eggs, one for her and one for her partner agent. Her two small dogs are named Squirt and Smidgen, and the grand old lady outside, retired guard dog is named Jen.

Had lunch with HHandbasket and Farmer Lew, met her visiting son, daughter-in-law and grandson, and headed back to the soon-to-be-mine house again, to take some more measurements. On the way up the road, I slowed to watch a wild peahen scramble up the side bank out of the roadway. Whoo hoo! Wild fowl! (Boy, there are some amazingly large hawks up there, which I've seen soar across the highway ahead of me, or across other vistas.)

The covered porch - really a veranda - runs the full length of the front of the house. It's 7 feet deep and 35 feet wide. The garage is 17 feet wide and 20 feet deep. (340 square feet of usable space. Mwaahaaahaaaaa! I could keep 85 chickens in there, if I wanted to go by the absolute minimum space requirements.) The house itself is 35 feet by 25 ft 6 inches. I already had the interior measurements, but I wanted to be able to graph it all out on paper to move little furniture pieces around.... to see the best way to fit them. I find that's easier than just putting stuff in the house and then moving it around later - both for the folks helping to move ya and your own peace of mind and sanity on moving day.

On the way I stopped at a small business we had all made notice of on previous trips: Bantam Cellars. There was a wine tasting event in progress; I was given a tot of wine as a matter of course when I entered the building. (Tasty!) I told the proprietor I had stopped ONLY because of the company name, and to ask, "Are there any bantams at Bantam Cellars?"

Why, yes there are - they are around back right now.

And yes, they were. I saw two hens and heard the rooster while I snapped photos of the hens.

Isn't she cute?

And the other hen was doing what comes naturally in the landscaping mulch.

This is the little frizzled bantam Cochin roo which followed me around the building back to the front, because he was suspicious about my intentions with his ladies.

Once I got into town, I stopped at SuperCuts to get my hair cut. I like to keep it short during the warmer months.

Only 23 more days til escrow closes!

 

[gryeyes]

Okay. Deep breath. First dilemma: the well does not produce enough gpm (gallons per minute) to "satisfy" the county. Its about a third of the proper rate too low. One could shower, or do laundry, or water the yard, but not more than one of those things at a time. This can be rectified by adding a storage/holding tank to the system, and not a particularly large one. Storage tanks are not at all unusual; this place just doesn't have one.

But it will cost between three and four grand to get one and have it installed with all the proper bits, and I would be able to do all three water-utilization tasks at once (that is, if I COULD shower whilst watering the yard, I guess...).

I am getting this place for a song. Easily 30K under what anything else around would cost, of the same age and size. Actually, maybe more... But I had planned on spending that much more when I started looking.

So I decided to NOT cancel my offer based on the well production.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I bet you find lots of other goodies as well. And older house in a non city community is bound to have them

And I bet you can find a better deal on that tank with this economy!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Yes, I am anticipating other not-so-surprising news, as a matter of fact. And the quote was an "on the fly" amount, not a written one, yet. My agent just wanted to find out if I wanted to move forward with the purchase or not, because if I didn't, she would cancel the other appointments for the various inspections. At least I've got a solid quote for checking the septic tank AND emptying it - if it needs it. Which I am fairly certain it will need.

For example, I already know I need to make arrangements for the delivery, installation and lease of an LP tank.

None of this can stop me from wanting to get my butt up there to live. However, I'll need to have the property fenced in front and that garage transmorgrified into a massive coop before I can do more than spend an occasional night. (Especially with chicks in the brooders right now!)