On rentals...

We first became landlords when bought our first house and vacated a condo that was owned by my father-in-law.  It was the late 90s, or early 2000s.  We proposed buying the condo from him and paying for it with the rental income.  As the condo was located in a college town it was easy to rent. We wrote up an agreement and made payments to him over the next several years.  Eventually, around 2006 we moved away from the area (selling our primary residence and buying another) and found managing the rental over a distance to be too difficult.  We sold it, paid dad the principal we agreed upon, and used the proceeds towards a down payment on a rental home closer to our residence.  Over the years, whenever we had extra money, we paid down debt/mortgages.  We didn't buy toys or go on vacations.  It's always been our goal to be debt-free.

When my father-in-law passed away ten years ago we inherited his house.  That is how we ended up with a second rental.  

In 2009 we moved again, but we were unable to sell our primary residence for anything near what we paid for it.  We decided to rent it out and use retirement savings as a down payment toward a new primary residence (the McMansion).  That is how we ended up with our third rental.  We have rented out three houses since 2010.  Two of them we managed ourselves and we've used a property management company for the third.  

As I previously mentioned, the day we accepted an offer on our McMansion, we were notified that our tenant of four+ years was moving out of our third rental (former primary residence).  In an effort to simplify our complicated finances we put that house on the market and received an offer within a week.  The negotiations took a while, closing was set for August 31st, but it has been postponed due to repairs required by the buyer's lender.  I think we will close next month, but the deal has been fraught with many twists and turns.  We are selling for much less than what we paid for it, but we have collected rent for many years to make up the difference.

The tenants in the second rental have lived there for seven years.  We decided to offer them the opportunity to buy the house from us through the property management company.  I've been told they are excited to own and a contract has been written up.  I think that house too will close next month.

Soon we will be down to one rental and so much of my mental space will be free!  My taxes may be a bit cumbersome this year after selling three houses, but in future years greatly simplified.  I don't know what our next venture will be, but I am glad to take a break from managing these properties. In all honesty if it weren't for the rental income we would not have been able to afford our McMansion lifestyle.  Looking back it is troubling that we let our savings slip through our fingers.  These days we are much more conscious about our monthly and daily spending.  Our recent decisions to simplify and downsize have helped us buy our time back - for instance I no longer have to clean 4000 square feet, keep up landscaping, or drive two hours round-trip to my favorite grocery store.  When I shop I purchase less because there is not any room for it - I only buy what I can use in a relatively short time.

We've owned four houses for eight years.  During that time we also added two kids to our lives and I went back to school and graduated with my doctorate - debt free (paid for with graduate employment and out of pocket).  Soon we will only own one house, The Land, and the Hideout.  I can feel my blood pressure going down just thinking about it.

Where to Hideout?

As I may have mentioned before, we are planning on living FT in the Hideout at least through summer of 2018, and we may extend that depending on how it goes.  We started FT living in June of 2017 and are quickly approaching the three month mark.  Somehow it seems longer given all the changes we have gone through!  We started out in an RV park in Florence, AZ Rancho Sonora.  It was a lovely, rural, desert park with mature trees and desert vegetation.  Their normal clientele are snowbirds, but they accepted our family.   My main complaint was the lack of facilities - their clubhouse and laundry were closed for the summer - but other than that we very much enjoyed our time there.  At the beginning of August we moved to Apache Palms RV Park in Tempe, AZ.  The pluses include being in the middle of a bustling college town on the light rail line, but there is limited availability in terms of economical spots and their rates go up quite a bit during the winter - which is very normal for AZ. This has left us wondering where will we Hideout in the winter?

A couple of people have recommended checking out family mobile home parks and so we did! Perhaps because of their informative and welcoming website, we started with Kon Tiki Mobile Home Park and then checked out a number of others.  Like with RV parks in  AZ, many are restricted to 55+, which is very disheartening.  Also many mobile home parks have many vacant, abandoned, boarded up, or otherwise disrepaired units.  Some parks seem better managed than others when driving through.  We want a decent, safe, well-kept park that allows long-term RVs.  While there were close runners up, we ended up settling on Kon Tiki for a number of reasons including the availability of a long-term spot, location, cost, background screening for residents, facilities and amenities.  It will be our next home.

I am glad to have found such an economical solution ($420/mo year round).  We wanted something cheap that would allow us to stay through the academic year.  The goals of this lifestyle include living a simple, frugal life and enjoying time with our kids. There are so many things to do with a family in the Phoenix area and most of the year the weather is ideal for being outside and having the windows open.  As long as the parking spot is safe and has full hook-ups we will be perfectly content.  It is a good feeling to have our next move planned out.  It is one less thing to be concerned about.  Now, if we could start experiencing some fall weather, that would be ideal!

Ground control to Major Tom!

Yes, we're still here!  Uh...the work/life/blog balance is out of whack though.

So I started my new job teaching at Arizona State University.  It is amazing.  I love it.  I've been thinking about this for a long time and it is amazing to be living it.

I am commuting from the RV park to the campus via the light rail.  That is fun.  My commute takes about 35 min and it is entertaining from a people-watching perspective.  Today was the Trump rally in downtown Phoenix.  Let me just say this - I talked to some interesting people on the train.  It's not a boring ride and I don't have to drive in rush hour - win win.

The RV park is very nice, the neighbors are excellent.  Case in point: Yesterday morning, prior to the solar eclipse, we heard a helicopter close by and sister wanted to see it.  Brother was still sleeping (I kept him home in the AM from school so that we could view the eclipse together).  So sister and I were outside watching the helicopter when brother woke and came to join us.  The kids were in their PJs and luckily I was not.  When brother closed the door to the trailer it locked itself!  So there we were, locked out, no phone, no purse, no keys.  To our great relief a very friendly neighbor across the street, who had waved to us in the past, was outside of her trailer reading.  We approached her and explained what happened.  Immediately she said, "oh that has happened to me!"  She advised me to put a spare out somewhere, but she let me use her phone so that I could call Husband who was at work one hour away.  He was incredulous when I relayed the story, and I asked him if he wanted to arrange a locksmith or drive home.  He opted for the latter.  In the meantime me and my PJ kids are hanging outside with this sweet neighbor who shared her cherries, made me coffee, got the kids glasses of water, offered us seats and enjoyable company and conversation.  A while later my next door neighbor who has two cute dogs arrived back at his trailer and my kids immediately told him what happened.  He says, "oh that has happened to me! I had to call a locksmith."  In all three of our cases, it is the top lock (the one that secures the handle)!  It is inexplicable how this happened. Something about closing the door makes the lock turn?  Doesn't make sense - especially if you could see it - but no pics...hey, at least I am posting!

Anyhow, life is an adventure and it is a good one when you are living in the moment and enjoying the fruits of your labor and planning.  No, I did not want to be locked out, but it turned out to be a nice morning and when we got back in, we made our cereal box eclipse viewer and waited a bit before we were back outside observing the sky.  Plus we got to see Daddy mid-morning for a quick visit and he got to take a two-hour vacation from his work day.  While observing the sky two other neighbors approached us and asked if we could see anything.  We shared our viewer with them and they were excited to have a glimpse as well.

I'm going to renew my efforts to post new content at least twice a week.  Thanks for checking back in with us!

RVegan Slow Cooker African-Inspired Peanut Stew with Brown Basmati Rice

After dropping off brother at school yesterday sister and I embarked on a new culinary adventure.  I have been craving something with a peanut sauce - but needed to make something in the crock pot.  I found Slow Cooker African-Inspired Peanut Stew on Pinterest (of course).  I made one slight modification using collard greens instead of spinach because another similar recipe Vegetarian West African Peanut Soup did so and I always like to use ingredients I am less familiar with.

The morning was beautiful and I started the crockpot outside on it's 8 hour job without any inkling of the weather adventure I would face later that evening.  Two hours before it was done the sky became dark and cloudy.  An hour before it was done (and at the time I needed to add the last ingredients and make the rice) it was raining steadily and too windy to keep the awning open and the crockpot dry.  I mad the executive decision to bring it indoors and break my rule of cooking inside when it started raining sideways and the whole trailer was shaking in the wind!  I tried to take a quick picture from the door during the worst of it.

I made the brown basmati rice on the stove (much more convenient than the camp burner), and added the final ingredients to the crockpot inside.  It worked out well.  The temperature outside had cooled so much in the rain the air conditioning was not working hard at all to keep us cool even with the heat of the crockpot and stove.  The final product filled the Hideout with an exceptional aroma and I could hardly wait for Husband to get home from work.

Though he had to drive through it, when he arrived here the monsoon had passed and left us with a little flooding!

Dinner was amazing!  Kids ate it, I inhaled two full bowls.  It was excellent.  I am also very much looking forward to the weather cooling and having the option of using the stove and oven indoors.

As a side note, I want to recognize the Tempe Farmers Market for their excellent produce, customer service and stellar vegan breakfast burritos.  I am so excited to live near a farmer's market that is open everyday!  I have tried two varieties of their breakfast burritos and they are both so good. Here are the descriptions of them as posted in the store.  If I had to chose my favorite it would be the AM Burro, if you are not a fan of tofu then you may prefer the Quesorito.  I think I live two miles from this place.  Thankful.

The BIG city!

Folks, life is good!  I miss the scenery of the desert, but I welcome the proximity of services.  

One of our favorite places from way back - during our undergraduate days at ASU - is Haji Baba - please don't judge them by their website - they are a local treasure.  First day list of things to do...#1 - eat at Haji Baba.  They have a great little grocery store as well.  Go there if you are in Tempe, AZ. You will be happy because it is awesome...and don't forget to try the baklava.  

Here is our spot - you will notice the severe lack of shade...

We are close to the pool!  The kids love it and we are happy to have an outdoor activity close at hand.

I did laundry last night, it was poorly lit so no pictures, but the facility was very clean and close!

The logo for the Apache Palms RV Park includes two palm trees...maybe it's those..?  There may be a third or fourth tree among the RVs, but lack of shade is my main criticism.  My second criticism is that they advertise free WiFi, but it is not nearly sufficient to meet our demand.  We have been unable to stream anything for the past three days.  I am using it now, but it is spotty and keeps losing connection.  

On the plus side there is a light rail station immediately in front of the park and we are in the middle of Tempe close to everything.  As an example, we had many choices regarding schools for brother.  We are happy with our choice.  Today was his first day of third grade and he had a very positive experience!  We did try a distance learning program at the end of second grade, but with both of us working we needed to return to the traditional setting.  Also, it's a great way to make friends in a new place.  

Our spot here is only available until mid November so I have been looking for other options to get us through the academic year.  When school is out, our cross-country adventure begins...more on that later!