New House

­May 2010 Desert Olson Gazette

New House

As you may or may not know, Randy has taken a new position with the Yuma Regional Medical Center In Yuma, Arizona. An area know for its agriculture, hot summer temperatures, mild winter temperatures, the Yuma Proving Ground, the Yuma Marine Corp Air Station, and the former territorial prison.

This process started in March when Randy interviewed and accepted the position. Georgia came down with Randy in April to see the area and to look at houses. She came down again a few weeks later. Randy had been searching for houses for three weeks. They had put a bid on a foreclosure house, but did not win it.

We finally decided that the house we wanted was not available and that we would need to build. By the time we bought an existing house and made changes it would cost about the same as a new house.

All Randy wanted was “a three car garage with an attached house” while Georgia wanted to have an additional bedroom, a good kitchen, and craft space for her loom, sewing, and quilting. Randy also wanted to have a house within bicycling distance of his work at the Yuma Regional Corporate Center that is located a mile away from the hospital.

We liked our home in Phoenix, Az the best of all the past 5 homes that we have owned. We liked the easy care of the xeriscaped front and back yards. We had native desert plants that did not require much water or care and no grass. One developer required a certain percentage of the yard be grass. That developer was now out.

Another developer used a block wall construction which minimized problems with termites. It proved to have the designs that we both liked, but was too far out and on roads too busy to bicycle to work.

We finally decided on a builder that is located a mile and a half from the apartments where Randy is currently staying by himself until Georgia gets here permanently the first week of June.

It was on Monday that we meet with our patient Real Estate Agent (Beth Goodman) and the builders home office to talk about building in the Livingston Ranch. They would build any model that they currently or had produced in the past at Livingston Ranch. The house that we had put a bid on was in Barkley Ranch, but it had been built out. We quickly agreed on the plan 2287 with some modifications. Bedrooms 2 and 3 would be combined into one bedroom for Georgia's craft projects. This would be done by eliminating the closets between the two rooms.

For Randy, he got his three car garage. However it is what as known as a tandem where one of the bays is two cars deep. He will keep his woodworking tools in the back bay.

Georgia spent the rest of the week choosing colors for paint (interior and exterior), doors, kitchen cabinets (light oak), kitchen faucet, tile, etc. We also met with the landscaping design man and gave him a rough idea of what we wanted in plants and ground cover (desert plants and gravel).

Finally we met again with the builder and signed papers. We then met with the loan company to get things started on the loan. We accomplished these task in only 5 days. Georgia was leaving Saturday so we had an incentive.

Our Oregon house is currently in escrow and will close on June 2. Georgia continues to transition out of her old job in Oregon and is supervising the move of the house hold goods which will happen starting May 27 with packing and then loading. She will then drive down to Yuma.

We had two 10 x 25 storage spaces rented for our house hold goods. They will remain there after being shipped until the house is completed by the end of September. We still need to find a new fridge, washer, and dryer as they did not come with us from Oregon.