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Sounds like you will be out in the "sticks"???? What do you think the well and septic will run you? Is it hard to locate water on a piece of land in AZ? I would love to be out there too but the wife would never go for it. We looked at some houses that were on 3/4 acre lots (by Pulte I think) somewhere off of Sahuarita Rd. I believe. You had to take this winding little road to get out there. It may have even turned into an unpaved road, by the time you got to the development, and the wife commented "no way you are getting me to live out here?!!!!" I must admit it did seem a little spooky and isolated being "way out" in the desert like that..... Anyone happen to know of this development. It was almost two years ago so I really am not sure where it was.........
Naw it's not in the sticks. It's not in the city - we want OUT from the city - but it's not too far from stuff. It's 4 minutes (all on paved road) from our land to I-10, and from there it's 10 minutes east to Benson (pop 5,000 or so, with a hospital, several stores including a Safeway and Walmart, some restaurants etc). In the other direction (as I said) we're 40 minutes to downtown Tucson and about 15 minutes to Vail. Right now Vail doesn't have much, but that will change. We're not all alone, there plenty of other homes about (across the street, next door etc).
I figure septic and well will run us somewhere under $25,000. Water depth in our area is just over 300 feet down. THAT really varies a lot depending on your location and elevation.
Here's a couple shots of our neighborhood (give them a few seconds to fully load).
Really looks really green there, Ken, particularly that third shot. So how long til you make the big move?
Yeah, it's pretty green. That particular shot is actually looking directly at our lot (the slope with the house behind it (the house is actually across the street from our lot)). Though the lot slopes, it looks a lot steeper in that particular photo than it really is (because of foreshortening).
Of course those photos were taken in late July and early August - at the height of a pretty good monsoon season. Because we sit at more or the less the crest of the long low ridge (not really noticeable as a ridge) that runs between the Rincon Mts to the north and the Whetstones to the south, we do get a bit more precip than Tucson however - hence the presence of grass and some mesquite trees rather than pure desert vegitation. It can be pretty dry there of course - especially in late spring before the onset of the summer monsoons - but in the summer it's NICE and GREEN.
Here's another shot I should have posted to show just how green it can be in the area. This is looking SE towards the Whetstones (same direction as the 1st photo in the previous post)
Do you do only container gardening or do you also plant in the ground? I have another thread asking about gardening in AZ. When we were there a couple of times we checked out a local nursery and they seemed to have a lot of the same flowers that we have around here and of course more of the desert variety. We did not look at Green Valley because we were told that it was mostly a retirement community. We are not quite there yet ha ha ha. My wife is 55 and I am 50 so we are getting there quickly. We were looking at new construction homes by Lennar and Pulte. I like the idea of a new home. Hopefully not too much maintenance for the first few years. I am hoping to get out there in the next couple of years. We really wanted it to be sooner but the economy is holding us back. I work at Raytheon and it seems they are slowing down out there right now. So we are setting our goal to be the next few years. Guess I can put up with a couple more 8 month winters.......
I do both container and ground gardening. My back yard is landscaped with a raised area all along the back of the lot where I have what I would call a rock garden. Only a few lantanas (and lots of rocks) were planted there when I arrived. I added five emu bushes (native to Australia -- Aussie and South African plants work well here) for "architecture." They are now about 3 ft. tall. Green all year, the first thing to bloom in the spring (Feb.) with little red flowers that attract hummingbirds. I interspersed these bush-type plantings with small cacti, rosemary (that grows huge and lasts thru the winter), South African native daisies, California poppies. I added sweet broom for the first time this year.
Closer to the patio (and under the patio roof when it gets to 90+) I have pots of things like geraniums and petunias, more typical East coast flowers for color. I have to mix marigolds with the petunias, or rabbits will jump right up into the pots and chomp the young petunias. I also have herbs already growing in pots. I cut them and dry them when it gets really hot, otherwise, I'd have to water them three times a day.
My rose bushes were planted by the person who built this house in 2000. They bloom beautifully starting this time of year, tapering off in June-Aug 'cause it's too hot, then they come back again in the fall. I had roses on the Thanksgiving table one year. We had cold too early in '09, but then it never got any worse, so things started growing very early this spring.
You, your wife and I have a lot in common. We're close in age. I worked for Westinghouse in Pittsburgh for many years. I now live here in a Pulte home. This is my first suburban contemporary house ever. I was an urban pioneer in my previous life. My oldest house was built in 1897. If you want to ask me any questions about houses here, you can e-mail my screen name at yahoo dot com. Green Valley might be too boring for you (I'm a city person and Tucson is too boring for me!). GV is small and a hike south of Tucson. But my brother commutes to work there from NW, so it's not too far. I've met a lot of people from the "active adult communities" in Green Valley (and Oro Valley to the north) because I sold furniture for two years after I got here. Many of them were from New England and pretty well-educated. But definitely "retired." The not-retired anglos in that area live in Rancho Sahuarita. My boss from the furniture store lives there. He has two young kids and he loves it. They have a gym that he used all the time and he took his kids fishing in the lake.
Good luck with April in Mass., Mr. and Mrs. Brrr. Hope you don't float away. Cheers, Jukesgrrl
Yeah, it's pretty green. That particular shot is actually looking directly at our lot (the slope with the house behind it (the house is actually across the street from our lot)). Though the lot slopes, it looks a lot steeper in that particular photo than it really is (because of foreshortening).
Of course those photos were taken in late July and early August - at the height of a pretty good monsoon season. Because we sit at more or the less the crest of the long low ridge (not really noticeable as a ridge) that runs between the Rincon Mts to the north and the Whetstones to the south, we do get a bit more precip than Tucson however - hence the presence of grass and some mesquite trees rather than pure desert vegitation. It can be pretty dry there of course - especially in late spring before the onset of the summer monsoons - but in the summer it's NICE and GREEN.
Here's another shot I should have posted to show just how green it can be in the area. This is looking SE towards the Whetstones (same direction as the 1st photo in the previous post)
Gotta sell our home up here in Seattle before we can move down there. Hope to do that sometime this summer.
Ken
Ken great photos!! Very nice looking piece of property. How big did you say it was, 1 acre? Where is the electricity? Is it underground? I don't see the utility poles.... Or do you have a hampster in the basement on a wheel... Oh wait I forgot there are no basements in AZ right....This is called the J-6 Ranchettes area? So there are Walmarts and Home Depots not too far away you say in Benson huh? Never went out that far the two times we were in the area. But if it is right off the highway as you say the wife might go for that. Do you have a builder lined up? Did you get any quotes? I would not have any idea how to go about doing that but I would love to learn from your experiences. Thanks for the great photos and info.
I do both container and ground gardening. My back yard is landscaped with a raised area all along the back of the lot where I have what I would call a rock garden. Only a few lantanas (and lots of rocks) were planted there when I arrived. I added five emu bushes (native to Australia -- Aussie and South African plants work well here) for "architecture." They are now about 3 ft. tall. Green all year, the first thing to bloom in the spring (Feb.) with little red flowers that attract hummingbirds. I interspersed these bush-type plantings with small cacti, rosemary (that grows huge and lasts thru the winter), South African native daisies, California poppies. I added sweet broom for the first time this year.
Closer to the patio (and under the patio roof when it gets to 90+) I have pots of things like geraniums and petunias, more typical East coast flowers for color. I have to mix marigolds with the petunias, or rabbits will jump right up into the pots and chomp the young petunias. I also have herbs already growing in pots. I cut them and dry them when it gets really hot, otherwise, I'd have to water them three times a day.
My rose bushes were planted by the person who built this house in 2000. They bloom beautifully starting this time of year, tapering off in June-Aug 'cause it's too hot, then they come back again in the fall. I had roses on the Thanksgiving table one year. We had cold too early in '09, but then it never got any worse, so things started growing very early this spring.
You, your wife and I have a lot in common. We're close in age. I worked for Westinghouse in Pittsburgh for many years. I now live here in a Pulte home. This is my first suburban contemporary house ever. I was an urban pioneer in my previous life. My oldest house was built in 1897. If you want to ask me any questions about houses here, you can e-mail my screen name at yahoo dot com. Green Valley might be too boring for you (I'm a city person and Tucson is too boring for me!). GV is small and a hike south of Tucson. But my brother commutes to work there from NW, so it's not too far. I've met a lot of people from the "active adult communities" in Green Valley (and Oro Valley to the north) because I sold furniture for two years after I got here. Many of them were from New England and pretty well-educated. But definitely "retired." The not-retired anglos in that area live in Rancho Sahuarita. My boss from the furniture store lives there. He has two young kids and he loves it. They have a gym that he used all the time and he took his kids fishing in the lake.
Good luck with April in Mass., Mr. and Mrs. Brrr. Hope you don't float away. Cheers, Jukesgrrl
Hey Jukes, We visited Rancho Sahuarita the last time we were there in '08. It was nice but a very big development. You also have to pay the "association" there if you ever sell your house. I forget what it was...maybe 1% of the selling price of your home. That is to pay for all the amenities such as the large gym (which we visited on the tour) and swimming pools and lakes. We really liked the Sahuarita area as opposed to Tucson. Didn't really get too far into the NW while we were there either. The wife felt that that was kind of a hike from the Raytheon facilities. We did go to Oro Valley but got a little screwed up on the roads so I think we made it into a longer ride than it actually had to be which kind of soured her on the idea. First impressions are everything, right.
Ken great photos!! Very nice looking piece of property. How big did you say it was, 1 acre? Where is the electricity? Is it underground? I don't see the utility poles.... Or do you have a hampster in the basement on a wheel... Oh wait I forgot there are no basements in AZ right....This is called the J-6 Ranchettes area? So there are Walmarts and Home Depots not too far away you say in Benson huh? Never went out that far the two times we were in the area. But if it is right off the highway as you say the wife might go for that. Do you have a builder lined up? Did you get any quotes? I would not have any idea how to go about doing that but I would love to learn from your experiences. Thanks for the great photos and info.
Bob
Hi again Bob,
The lots at J-6 Ranchettes are 1 acre - though some folks have more than one lot. We bought the lot 3 years ago for $30,000. The first picture I posted for example shows the house diagonally across the street from us and is built on 5 lots (the owner has a couple of horses). Some of the homes (such as that one) are really nice, and some are simply single-wide trailers (some pretty old) - so the development is very mixed. We have power and phone to the property. If you look at 3rd photo again you can see the power lines. That power runs right along the north (left side in the photo) of our lot and ends at the foot of our lot. Our lot extends over almost to the cleared (sandy) area near the middle of the photo and down the slope to about the beginning of the mesquite trees (a bit over 300 feet). This results in us having the view shown in the 2nd shot (which looks west towards the Santa Rita Mts (great sunsets!)). We also have veiws to the north of the Rincon and Little Rincon Mts, and (as shown in the 1st photo) to the south of the Whetstone Mts.
As mentioned, Benson as Walmart - but no Home Depot. Home Depot WAS planning on putting in a store but then when the recession hit it dropped those plans. I expect that when things pick up again it will likely reconsider. Likewise one of the big drug store chains (maybe Right Aid - I can't recall now) was also planning to put in a store back then too - and again I suspect that once the economy recovers those plans could be revisited. Same suspension of develpment plans occurred in Vail (15 minutes west on I-10) - where a big mall complex was put on hold when the economy collapsed. There was also plans to put in a major regional medical center there - I THINK those plans are still going forward (though slowed wayyy down). Between us and Vail there is no development at all since it's all state owned land. This resulted in all development out from Tucson pausing at Vail then leapfrogging us to Whetstone (the highway 90 & I-10 interchange) where many new homes were planned. Some were actually built while others have been put on hold until the housing market picks up.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are 2 J-6 developments. Ours is the older (J-6 Ranchettes) and has (as mentioned) 1 acre lots and a mix of nice and not so nice homes. The newer development is J-6 Ranch - also known as Red Hawk - and is nearer Whetstone, much more upscale, with custom-built homes and 4 acre lots. It was just starting out when the recession hit so there are not too many homes there yet.
We haven't lined up a builder. As I said we're planning on putting in a manufactured home of some kind. Will likely take a trip to the area sometime this summer to visit the dealerships and line up a home (once our house here is Seattle looks like it's going to sell).
Note that I sent you a Direct Message with a link to another (private) album showing the property location in more detail - as well as additional photos of the area.
Lantana is biggish ground cover/shrub that's quite pretty and easy to grow here. People joke it'll grow on concrete.
That' what it generally looks like in desert landscaping:
Great pictures! That certainly answered the question.
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. Anyone happen to know of this development. It was almost two years ago so I really am not sure where it was.........
