Flag for the redneck who does NOT want to live in the city... (Phoenix: for sale, to rent)

[urbex]

I live in north Glendale now, work in north Phoenix, and frankly...HATE the city life. There may be an opportunity within my company to transfer to one of our locations in Flag. So I'd be coming already with an established job, and for the sake of argument, just assume money is not a concern (mainly because I don't want to get bogged down with people complaining about the cost of living up there...I already know it's higher than Phoenix, and my job isn't one that part time college kids will be snapping up at a low wage).

I'm a lot closer to the stereotypical redneck than I am the typical suburbanite, white collar guy. I'm the guy the neighbors complain about, and I understand why My idea of a good time on a Friday night is under the hood of one of my trucks, welder in hand. This does not work well in a tightly packed suburban neighborhood outside of the "ghettos". I also don't have nearly enough room for my toys, and it's a PITA to figure out how and where I'm going to park my truck, two trailers, rock crawler, Jeep, and quads and I can't legally park on half of my driveway space, beacause it's on the wrong freaking side of the house! Or, as I recently found out, I'm not allowed to repair a vehicle more than 3 times in one year...so following a maintenance schedule from the factory would be illegal, lol.

Yep, I screwed up by moving to Glendale..I'll admit that I'm also saying that I'll never be cut out for city life like this, lol.

So all this said, are there places around the Flag area, say within a 30 minute drive for commute purposes, where I'd have a bit of space to spread around, and less likely to come under the scrutiny of the city due to my choice of hobbies? Oh yeah, I'm also the white trash that would be perfectly happy in a trailer on a plot of land, so that may open up some possibilities as well

I'm planning on taking a drive up next week during my vacation time to look at a few different areas. A few people have mentioned the Doney Park area to me, are there some other areas that I should look at?

[azdr0710]

I was going to suggest Doney Park until I read your last paragraph....yep, still recommend Doney Park....highly recommend it....

lots are usually over an acre out there and often 2.5 acres....a mix of trailers up to half-million dollar homes....pretty much white-trash to some, but not in a "bad" way!....lots of room for your toys....

negatives would be a bit of a drive to town (a few miles), some wind concerns, not a lot of trees, possible propane tanks for heat/hot water

there are few/no other parts of town that have the large lots of Doney within a reasonable price range....

the area was a pinto bean growing spot until development started in the 1960s/1970s or so

[urbex]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

lots are usually over an acre out there and often 2.5 acres....a mix of trailers up to half-million dollar homes....pretty much white-trash to some, but not in a "bad" way!....lots of room for your toys....

Heck, the only "bad" white trash to me is the areas like Apache Junction that are known as the meth areas

Propane heat is kind of a downer, but I understand that's the case for large parts of Flag...from what I understand, natural gas distribution isn't all that great up there. Then again, coming from northern Michigan originally, I'm used to having a wood burning stove in the house as the main source of heat, and I generally like it colder than most anyways. Yep, kind of ironic that I ended up in Phoenix, but it was the lack of humidity that drew me there. I still say 115 in June/July in Phoenix is far easier to deal with than 80 in Michigan with high humidty, but I'm still not a fan of the heat either way.

I'm also not 100% stuck on the 30 minute commute, more using that as a general guideline, but once we start looking at say hour long commutes in good weather..I know from experience in Michigan that a decent snow fall or other bad weather can easily triple that. On the plus side, the "rural" 30 minute commute is far easier to deal with than 30 minutes in city traffic too, so I'm not against going a bit farther out too if needed. Having the house/land I'd like is more important to me than a shorter commute.

Lot size - 2+ acres would be certainly be nice, but realistically, even if I could just utilize all the parking I currently have, I would be able to deal. But I do think that an absolute minimum of 1/2 an acre is what I'd be looking at, so that I have room to build a shop big enough for several vehicles and room to work on them (which would also solve the wind issue nicely), but preferably 1+acres.

[azdr0710]

wood-burning stoves are very common, too, if propane isn't used for heating....regular gas heat is common in town

in addition to Doney, check out areas like Cosnino and Winona, which are a little further out, but more accessible to I-40 than Doney....I think all of this is within 30 minutes of East Flag and maybe even downtown....anything both N of I-40 and E of 89 will offer some extra land, usually.....

despite Phx prices coming back up, I've heard Flag prices are still a bit down....

are you buying?....where, appx., is your work going to be?

[urbex]

The plan is to buy, though I may rent for a bit until fully settled in up there, so to speak. I have a buddy down here with enough storage for the extra trucks/trailers/toys if need be, so that wouldn't be an issue if I ended up having to rent some place without sufficient space for a while.

Our office is near the cross of 66 and 180..which I believe is pretty much downtown? Been quite a while since I was up there last. But I'm also a field service guy, so I'd pretty much be all over Flagstaff, and not necessarily going into the office every day. I can also adjust my hours pretty much however I'd want them, so avoiding rush hour traffic would be a breeze if need be.

I just looked at the map of Cosnino and Winona, and those would be easily within distances for me. According to Google Maps, even Winona is only 20 minutes away from downtown, and mostly on the 40.

[magnum0417]

Williams is pretty reasonable cost of living and a 30 minute commute tops cruising at 80 MPH on I 40 to Flag. Go down the hill and set up shop in Ash Fork.

[Canyon Cat]

Originally Posted by magnum0417

Williams is pretty reasonable cost of living and a 30 minute commute tops cruising at 80 MPH on I 40 to Flag. Go down the hill and set up shop in Ash Fork.

Yep! You'd feel right at home in Williams. At least the "county" communities just outside of town along SR64. You'd have buddies within days.

[azdr0710]

yes, the 66/180 intersection is right downtown....you'll have to allow several extra minutes on surface streets to get there from I-40...use the Butler exit off I-40 and then Butler into downtown if coming from the east....

[urbex]

Quickie update - went up to Flag last weekend, and found what I _think_ was the Doney Park area. Followed the maps on my phone, and ended up at the Cinder Lake Landfill, lol. Started exploring the area directly on the other side of the 89 there, and immediately loved the area. Far enough away from the city to get that rural feel, while being 10 minutes away from major shopping and gas stations. Saw many houses with yards that look like mine

Didn't get a chance to really explore up there, and plan on returning again soon to spread out a bit more, but I am liking it quite a bit right now. That said, the few houses for sale we looked up back at home....prices were a bit shocking, on the high side, but not undoable either.

[Stefan_from_Germany]

Just wanted to say: Good luck and that you come across as a pretty likable redneck. I think many of us have a bit of redneck in us and are just stuck with our white collar cookie cutter lifestyle. I'd be happy having you as a neighbor and drinking a couple of cans of beer when done working on cars (or trucks) for the day. Maybe I should say that I am in Germany, so talk about hypothetical ;-)