Howard and Linda changing to a motorhome is not the only change around here. We just bought a park model in Mesa Arizona, which is a manufactured home that fits on an RV lot. Ours has an "Arizona room", which is a fancy way of saying "addition". Total square feet is about 800, so twice what we have in our motorhome. This will be our winter home and we will continue to live in the motorhome the rest of the year. We won't move in until October, so we will continue to be fulltimers until then. In July we will hit our 15 year fulltiming anniversary.
When we decided to stay more than 3 months in the winter, having more space became very attractive. Diane is very involved with the quilters here at Val Vista Village and really missed them while we wintered in Fort Myers Florida. I like that the place is centrally located and I can walk to a grocery store and so much more is within easy driving distance. The park model is better insulated than our motorhome and has a 3 ton air conditioner with heat (heat pump). Yesterday it was 101 here and the park model was 89 inside, without the air conditioning on.
NWescapee said
03:24 PM Apr 11, 2018
Congrats Bill and Diane!! Both on the new home and 15 years on the road. Enjoy the extra space, one of the few things we miss about not having a house is not having room to leave projects that are a work in process out for very long.
carolinakids said
07:26 AM Apr 13, 2018
Congrats on your new Home.
Hdrider said
08:15 AM Apr 13, 2018
Congrats on your 15 years of fulltime!!! That's a mark we will probably not achieve but we are over 5 now and still going strong. And congrats also on the new winter home, a new chapter.
dianneandsteve said
11:54 AM Apr 13, 2018
Congrats on both guys, you’ll have the best of both worlds! We enjoyed our stay there several years ago.
The Bear II said
12:13 PM Apr 13, 2018
Congratulations...enjoy
RonC said
03:29 PM Apr 13, 2018
We also bought a park model (which they call a cottage) in Florida ... just for the rental income. They make a bit more than bonds and have the appreciation potential (and tax write offs that rental properties enjoy) that makes it an attractive investment. If this one works out, we may buy another ... just have to wait and see ... it would be nice to have greater insulation from the stock market, which seems to have lost it's mind lately. I will say that they (park models) are very nice and at least as comfy as our "mobile" residences.
bjoyce said
11:08 AM Apr 14, 2018
There are definitely expenses to owning a "house" that has to survive the Arizona summer. Yesterday we made arrangements with a company that closes up places for summer, checks on them once a month and then opens them up. We didn't have time to figure this all our ourselves and price was actually quite reasonable. Especially with all the advice and experience, since the company has been doing this for 19 years. We learned that with a newer place like ours, it is best to leave the electricity on and set the thermostat to 90 degrees. This preserves the drywall and wood. The resort was already going to bill us for sewer, water and garbage monthly (yes, that is a money maker for them) and electricity is added to that bill. We also bought some supplies they will use, like buckets they will fill and leave water in, a tarp to cover the outdoor carpet to protect it and bricks to keep the tarp in place. We also learned the dishwashers are the most frequently broken appliances due to not being used over the summer and due to the hard water. Plus there will be storage expenses for the motorhome next winter.
It has taken us 15 years to figure out where we would settle during winter. We have not figured that out the rest of the year. Eventually we will probably end up with a winter and summer home and drive a car between them, but that could be decades away. Our biggest worry is medical, since medical issues have affected our travels multiple years. We might look in good shape, but medical issues are what caused us to retire early. Though at the time we did not know we were truly retiring. We figured 2 to 5 years of fulltiming and here we are at almost 15.
I still tell people to move around and try different areas and places their first few winters. You might not be able to get your first choice of campgrounds, especially in February in the best places (south Florida, Palm Springs, San Diego), but many places have one or two week openings December, January and March, sometimes with discounts (Passport America can be helpful). Even if the campground is not your favorite, a week or two is doable and you can explore the other campgrounds and area. If we had only listened to friends we would have ended up places that did not fit us as well as our friends and might have left the road without realizing our friends choices are not gospel. We spent 1 to 2 weeks at various places in Florida, the Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas, south Texas, low elevation areas of Arizona and southern California. What worked for us (Fort Myers FL and Mesa AZ) others we know did not like, and that is fine. For us there is a big difference between what we like for a short stay and what we want for a stay of many months. We have many places we enjoy a few week stay in summer, that we have little interest in staying for months at a time. Boondocking is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. Being in nature and away from it all is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. For many the campground activities are very important, for others they do not matter. For many years we did not care about most campground activities, now some are important. We don't mind a bit of city traffic when we go out to do things, including shopping. Others will do anything to avoid driving in traffic. For many having a Super Wal-Mart is all they need for shopping, we need more. We are able to sometimes spend more in a month than many, though I admit the this winter camping costs in Fort Myers were a bit much ($1700 a month including electricity). (The Florida Keys are worse). I have met people who got off the road because of a conflict between what they could or would afford and the expenses of camping or doing things where they wanted to visit. If you budget for $400 a month in camping, but want to visit places where it costs $400 a week, you have a problem. Don't let peer pressure force you to go somewhere you don't want or to do things you don't enjoy. Find other peers and only see those people outside of winter.
Sorry about the ramble.
Barbaraok said
03:12 PM Apr 14, 2018
Will be nice to have Bill and Diane just down the street from us next winter.
melody said
07:21 PM Apr 14, 2018
Best wishes to you both. Bill, thanks for that 'ramble', it is extremely helpful to me as I wrap up my first winter full time. I ventured to the southwest and it was very surprising, both full of delights and adventures, and mis-steps and missed opportunities. I have lots of exploring to do. My next mission is to do some recon in Florida before the summer season starts, and to switch to a 4-season unit so I don't have to work so hard to stay south of the frost line for so many months. Because I don't know if this winter was a freaky cold one or will be the new typical. Anyway, thanks for the sage words about finding the right places.
Barbaraok said
07:32 AM Apr 15, 2018
Melody,
I took us about 5 years before we knew we wanted to be in the desert for the winter and another 3 after that before we got a park model for our extended winter stays. We did one winter in Florida (bugs), one in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (chewing dirt) and several in Arizona, Southern California moving around trying to figure out what we really liked and really didn't like.
Having a 4 season rig will improve your enjoyment all year round. Not only does it help to keep you warmer in the winter, but will maintain the 'cool' longer in the summer and lessen the impact of noise when you close the windows. More expensive, but in my mind well worth it. I believe the new normal for weather is going to be more 'unusual' than before - - so start thinking south of I-10 for the winter.
Barb
melody said
09:16 AM Apr 15, 2018
Thanks, Barb. I did stay south of I-10 this winter, but that didn't stop the freezes! Who knew....
Barbaraok said
09:19 AM Apr 15, 2018
Oh, it can still freeze south of I-10; but your chances of getting 'snowed in' are extremely remote. Plus lots more daytime sunshine to help the body keep going.
Terry and Jo said
12:23 PM Apr 15, 2018
C'mon, Folks...
...there's beauty in those "cool" spells. Southern Utah, specifically Kanab, UT and our rig.
Terry
silver bullet said
10:11 PM Apr 20, 2018
We also stay in Mesa for the winter at Val Vista Village and travel north for the summer
bjoyce said
09:09 AM Apr 21, 2018
silver bullet: We will have to get together next winter.
silver bullet said
12:58 PM Apr 21, 2018
Yes we will we will be in site 380 on 7th street again next year. We will be working in the park again I work with Gene & Deb in activity’s and my wife worked in Post Office. I also got to serve beer 🍺 from the beer Bullet it was a great way to meeting people, Have a good summer 😎
Howard and Linda changing to a motorhome is not the only change around here. We just bought a park model in Mesa Arizona, which is a manufactured home that fits on an RV lot. Ours has an "Arizona room", which is a fancy way of saying "addition". Total square feet is about 800, so twice what we have in our motorhome. This will be our winter home and we will continue to live in the motorhome the rest of the year. We won't move in until October, so we will continue to be fulltimers until then. In July we will hit our 15 year fulltiming anniversary.
When we decided to stay more than 3 months in the winter, having more space became very attractive. Diane is very involved with the quilters here at Val Vista Village and really missed them while we wintered in Fort Myers Florida. I like that the place is centrally located and I can walk to a grocery store and so much more is within easy driving distance. The park model is better insulated than our motorhome and has a 3 ton air conditioner with heat (heat pump). Yesterday it was 101 here and the park model was 89 inside, without the air conditioning on.
Congrats on both guys, you’ll have the best of both worlds! We enjoyed our stay there several years ago.
It has taken us 15 years to figure out where we would settle during winter. We have not figured that out the rest of the year. Eventually we will probably end up with a winter and summer home and drive a car between them, but that could be decades away. Our biggest worry is medical, since medical issues have affected our travels multiple years. We might look in good shape, but medical issues are what caused us to retire early. Though at the time we did not know we were truly retiring. We figured 2 to 5 years of fulltiming and here we are at almost 15.
I still tell people to move around and try different areas and places their first few winters. You might not be able to get your first choice of campgrounds, especially in February in the best places (south Florida, Palm Springs, San Diego), but many places have one or two week openings December, January and March, sometimes with discounts (Passport America can be helpful). Even if the campground is not your favorite, a week or two is doable and you can explore the other campgrounds and area. If we had only listened to friends we would have ended up places that did not fit us as well as our friends and might have left the road without realizing our friends choices are not gospel. We spent 1 to 2 weeks at various places in Florida, the Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas, south Texas, low elevation areas of Arizona and southern California. What worked for us (Fort Myers FL and Mesa AZ) others we know did not like, and that is fine. For us there is a big difference between what we like for a short stay and what we want for a stay of many months. We have many places we enjoy a few week stay in summer, that we have little interest in staying for months at a time. Boondocking is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. Being in nature and away from it all is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. For many the campground activities are very important, for others they do not matter. For many years we did not care about most campground activities, now some are important. We don't mind a bit of city traffic when we go out to do things, including shopping. Others will do anything to avoid driving in traffic. For many having a Super Wal-Mart is all they need for shopping, we need more. We are able to sometimes spend more in a month than many, though I admit the this winter camping costs in Fort Myers were a bit much ($1700 a month including electricity). (The Florida Keys are worse). I have met people who got off the road because of a conflict between what they could or would afford and the expenses of camping or doing things where they wanted to visit. If you budget for $400 a month in camping, but want to visit places where it costs $400 a week, you have a problem. Don't let peer pressure force you to go somewhere you don't want or to do things you don't enjoy. Find other peers and only see those people outside of winter.
Sorry about the ramble.
Will be nice to have Bill and Diane just down the street from us next winter.
I took us about 5 years before we knew we wanted to be in the desert for the winter and another 3 after that before we got a park model for our extended winter stays. We did one winter in Florida (bugs), one in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (chewing dirt) and several in Arizona, Southern California moving around trying to figure out what we really liked and really didn't like.
Having a 4 season rig will improve your enjoyment all year round. Not only does it help to keep you warmer in the winter, but will maintain the 'cool' longer in the summer and lessen the impact of noise when you close the windows. More expensive, but in my mind well worth it. I believe the new normal for weather is going to be more 'unusual' than before - - so start thinking south of I-10 for the winter.
Barb
C'mon, Folks...
...there's beauty in those "cool" spells. Southern Utah, specifically Kanab, UT and our rig.
Terry