She looks so nice all tucked into #639 here at the San Pedro Resort, doesn't she? It feels like the closer we get to pointing her north for the last time, the more she wants to rebel. Does that mean she loves us or hates us? Are these some kinds of signs? No, nothing as mystical as all that, but it can sure feel that way.
Essie's first act of rebellion since last I posted was that her fridge stopped working. Doubly fortunate were we that TBG noticed it very soon after it went kaput, and we're in a place at which I was able to haul everything over to the (far) clubhouse refrigerator so we didn't lose anything. While I was doing that, TBG was making about a million calls to find someone/somewhere to repair it. After I got everything moved, I headed off to Walmart for a couple Styrofoam coolers and ice so that we could keep a few things in the rig rather than have to go all the way to the (far) clubhouse to retrieve it. Just before close of business and while we were contemplating a trip into Tucson to buy a small fridge, the mobile repair expert in the area called back and was quickly scheduled to come out the following day. While we waited for that, one of the coolers leaked onto the carpet and got thrown violently by me out the front door once I'd moved everything into the second one. That one had the grace to wait until a bit later to start leaking, and I was too defeated to treat it with as much ferocity as the first. The repairman arrived, diagnosed it as one of the circuit boards, ordered one, and was set to return on Monday. Because, you see, it was Friday by now. So, we spent much of the weekend walking back and forth to the (far) clubhouse to retrieve and return stuff.
On Monday morning, we were up far too early and walked in the dark to the (far) clubhouse only to find it locked, our cold items hostage. We turned on our heels and walked all the way back and then kept going over to the Texaco, braving the side of the highway still in the dark, where I bought several types of caffeinated items. Just when we thought the repairman wasn't going to make it that day, he did, and promptly installed the new circuit board only to find it wasn't the circuit board. It was a sensor wire, which he was able to repair -- and could have repaired four days prior. Isn't that just so funny? Anyhow, the fridge was back in business, but it needed to cool, so what was left of our stuff spent one more night away from home at the (far) clubhouse. The cherry on top of this Crap Sundae was that I had to miss a Sequim Master Gardener Zoom class I was really looking forward to.
Since the bum fridge wasn't something that had to be watched over, we did manage to get out on both weekend days, which were two of the nicest weather-wise since our arrival in the area.
We went back down to St. David to walk the monastery grounds again.
There were the usual birds about, and we discovered that it was possible to walk much further than we'd thought with a new trail being blazed all the way out to the river. The most exciting find, though, was when TBG's eagle eye spotted a bunch of buffalo gourds in the fields behind the monastery! You may recall that I like to paint on them, adapting the old NPS poster designs of the parks we've visited.
You may also recall that we found a bunch on our last trip through Kansas, but they were still green, and the drying process succumbed to the humidity while we were in the southeast. That only left me with the four finished ones and three others still in process, far short of what I needed. There were plenty of dry or mostly-dry gourds near the monastery, and we planned to bring an extra backpack on our next visit.
On our way home, we stopped at one of the local roadside pecan stands, Allred's. They had a couple pitbulls running about, and I thought they'd missed the obvious business name, Pitbulls & Pecans. While one napped, the other stood on my foot and leaned on my leg until I paid the courteous lad running the cash box and also gave the javelina-scarred pup the requisite scritches. Local places are always so interesting!
The next day we made another repeat trip but to a different area of the San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area (SPRNCA), the San Pedro House. This is a location known for birding, especially the Green Kingfisher Pond, where I hoped to find the namesake bird.
The old restored house is also the Visitor Center, which was closed, but maps were available, and all the feeders had been tended, attracting lots of customers. We didn't spend too much time there as it was already heating up, and we wanted to get to the pond area.
The brown and branchy trail led us along the river, and after bypassing the pond unintentionally, we backtracked a little to find it.
Chances are good you won't believe me, but I swear to you, I saw one! First, I saw a kingfisher fly over the pond, and while I knew for sure it was a kingfisher, I couldn't say for certain that it was a green one. In the above photo, I am looking at it all the way across the pond in one of the smaller trees in front of that big cottonwood. Just as I was further focusing my lens on it, a pair of loudpants hikers rounded the trail on that side and scared it. We didn't see it or any others afterwards. But! Upon downloading the pics to the laptop and really zooming in, I discovered I had captured it after all!
The above picture only proves my sighting to me since I know what I was seeing through my binoculars but I really saw one! The Green Kingfisher is only present in some of Texas and this very southeastern corner of Arizona, so it's a particularly fun sighting and unless we go back to the SPRNCA, it's not one we're likely to see again any time soon. We have one month to go here, though, and Spring is pushing her way in, so birding is going to pick up exponentially in the coming weeks.
On days we don't feel like driving, we either go over for a swim or take advantage of the desert wash trails on the west side of the RV park.
It is just over four miles roundtrip from the park gate to the fence line that marks private range property if you travel in a mostly straight line, more if you take some of the looping side trails.
We did manage to get back out to the monastery grounds to fill a backpack with gourds, and I have enough now for all the national parks we've visited, but I want to get more to make a buffer for possible breakage as well as future parks. On the way back from that trip, we stopped at another roadside pecan stand.
This fella was quite amusing, and he encouraged us to try all the flavored pistachios (we chose the mesquite hickory and roasted garlic.) He generously gave us a couple small bottles of local honey for free, and had us sample Chiltepin (CHILL-teh-peen) pepper for the first time. Chiltepin peppers, or Chile Tepin as you may see them labeled in the stores, is the only wild native chili pepper in the United States. It measures around 100,000 on the Scoville Scale (for comparison, jalapeno is around 5,000.) Though they are quite hot, their heat dissipates rapidly, so you get a shock of spicy flavor, but you're not left with a burning mouth. We bought a small jar of ground Chiltepins to try out. I'm thinking of concocting my own peppery hot chocolate and plotting how to grow some in Sequim.
On days when we don't mind a long drive to get to a hike, we have a few different mountain ranges to choose from. This time we chose the Chiricahuas (cheer-ih-COW-uz) by way of the Chiricahua National Monument. The drive was a rather ho-hum 1.25 hours, but as we approached the monument, the landscape began to show us why the area was designated as such.
We selected the Natural Bridge Trail, and we loved it.
It had a great mix of sun and shade, piney groves and boulders, climbs and level sections.
As the name says, the trail culminates on a rocky outcropping from which you can view the natural bridge across the canyon.
The bridge is not terribly obvious, and if not for the trail info and the sign, it would be easy to miss. It's hiding in the shadows almost dead-center in the picture below. Can you pick it out?
Here is a zoom shot to help you.
We met up with a couple Army guys at the trail's end, who scrambled over closer to the bridge, but that, unsurprisingly, wasn't in our plans for the day. There are more trails in the monument to explore, and we will surely be back to do so.
The most recent act of RV rebellion occurred a few days ago when we returned from a swim and tossed our towels in the dryer. When TBG went to retrieve mine, the dryer handle broke off in his hand. All I could think was, "For crying out sakes, all this tin can has to do is last a couple more months to get us to Washington. Jeez already!" In a joint effort, with one of us pushing on the part of the handle that releases the door and the other pulling the door open (talk about applying nearly equal but opposite forces!) we managed to get my towel out so that it wouldn't rot in there before TBG could take care of the fix. Fortunately, again, we're somewhere with laundry facilities, and thanks to my Brotherman and Poppy, we're flush with quarters.
I should have prefaced the next section in my last post with this explanatory paragraph, but I'll do it now. I have had countless requests to share all the details of our house build, and I'm all for giving the people what they want. I do know, though, that such topics are not everyone's cup of tea, so I will keep that info tidily organized at the end of my regular posts making it a breeze for you, Faithful Readers, to quickly scroll through for the pictures or just stop reading when you get to this section.
On the House
My folks have always been avid crossword puzzle fans, and when I was a kid, I would occasionally make off with one of their puzzle books and create floorplans like this:
All that early practice paid off when I pulled out the graph paper to start planning a real house.
Oh, sure, there are lots of nifty online programs to help you make professional-looking plans, but that's not as much fun as putting pencil to paper. In order for us to decide how big we'd like certain spaces to be, TBG wanted to physically plot them out. That involved me buying some sidewalk chalk and the two of us pacing off and sketching out parts of our floorplan on the asphalt while we were at White Tank Regional Park in November. Our first chalk session happened at the park's dump station, but, as you can imagine, we kept getting interrupted by campers needing to use the facility. So we took our project out to the farthest parking lot, combining it with hiking. It was still hot then, and we would wait until the sun was low to begin our trek. We barely made it home before full dark a few times, but we got a nice feel for how big we needed to make our spaces.
Obviously, my graph paper sketch was quite rudimentary, but it was enough for the builder to use as the template for what we actually ended up with, and shows the overall layout pretty much how it's going to be. Speaking of builders, TBG again spent countless hours on the phone with several area builders in order for us to make the selection in who would have the honors of constructing our house. As you may be aware, builders are very busy these days, and trying to find one who was not only available but that we liked and who would also allow us to do some of the work ourselves made the process even more difficult. Long story short, we chose Hines Homes, not just because they could fit the build into our schedule, but we really liked their portfolio, and they were very amenable to us doing some parts of the build we wanted to do ourselves. Once our builder was secured, paperwork was drawn up, and each week we spend a few hours -- at least -- on the phone going over plans as they get decided, budgeted, and altered accordingly. We are much further along than I'll get to in this post, but for now, I'll stick to the size and shape of things and how we arrived at those numbers.
The total square footage comes in at 1500, which is a magic number for several reasons. Firstly, we don't want a big house, not only for financial constraints, but because we don't want to be bothered to care for unused space, especially as we age. Secondly, in Washington, 1500sf is important because of the "energy credits" required on new builds. What are energy credits, you ask? I'll try to explain without making you sorry you asked.
Energy credits mostly have to do with the heating/cooling efficiency in new houses, and those 1500sf or less need three, larger homes or those with more fenestration (windows and doors) need six. Mercifully, the builder handles most of this, but we have to keep in mind how it affects what we want vs. what we can actually do, as well as the added cost to comply with the requirements. Washington state would like residents to move away from fossil fuels, which is fine especially since natural gas isn't available where we're building anyhow. A mini-split heating system is much more efficient than a traditional ducted system, but a mini-split requires big, ugly-looking swamp cooler-type contraptions situated high up on the walls.
Mini-splits are also much less expensive than a ducted system, and we originally thought we would go with that. We searched the web for any and every idea in how to camouflage the units which cannot be placed wherever you want them, but need to be strategically located for efficiency, and those locations are the absolute most intrusive areas you can imagine. The above photo is not far off -- right above your beautiful French doors? Sure! Over your lovely kitchen window? You bet! Long story less long, we were able to re-work our budget and go with a heat pump ducted system. The difference between the one we had in our old house and this one is that all ducting is now required to be in the ceilings rather than the floors. We don't really mind that, although my dearest wish is that such things as ducting and pipes and whatnot should never have to be gazed upon ever. I know, I know, keep wishing.
Two ancillary considerations to choosing a heat pump system did play into the internal sizing and spacing of the house. One was where on the outside of the house would we place the [ugly and often noisy] unit? Two was the requirement that the furnace unit had to be inside the actual house i.e. it couldn't be in the garage where it wouldn't be gobbling up precious interior space. Natch! For the first, we decided the exterior heating unit would be placed on the north side of the house outside the wall of the garage, where its noise and unsightliness would have minimum impact. For the second, we just had to suck it up and plan for the furnace to be in the laundry room. That's no great tragedy, but it's one of those things that if you think building your own house means you'll get it just the way you want it is going to disappoint or frustrate you. Every little change creates a butterfly effect.
The heat pump option brought us closer to the requisite three credits, but in order to attain it completely, we also chose an electric heat pump hot water tank. While the initial cost is higher than a traditional electric hot water tank, that cost is recouped within a few years due to the incredible efficiency inherent to heat pump technology -- even more than on-demand systems.
For the specific sizes of the rooms, each had to be considered on its own and for what purpose it served. One of the rules of thumb you may have heard is to plan for more storage/cupboard/closet space than you think you'll need. To this rule of thumb, I thumb my nose. I say that if you make space, you'll fill it with crap, and being a minimalist even before we moved into an RV, I have no patience for that. Another "rule" I eschew is building with the next owner in mind i.e. resale value. I'm not willing to spend all this time and money to end up with something I don't like or want simply because it may increase the future resale value of the house/property. As I take you through our process in subsequent posts, those exact decisions will be explained in more detail, which I think I'll do next time.
One question I'll get out of the way now since so many of our friends and family keep asking it, and that is the question of how soon will we get pets/animals once we're in Washington. My friend Laura occasionally sends me pics like this
of their dog, Thor, hoping to convince me that we need pets sooner rather than later. Here's the answer: I don't see us ever having a dog again. We adored the dogs we had. We love visiting with friends' dogs. However, if you're one of those friends, you know how much work a dog is. Creating more work is counter-intuitive to planning your retirement years, and I simply do not want to deal with picking dog poop out of my new yard, having to walk a dog, planning on what to do with a dog when we're away from home or when we're traveling. And just to get it all out of the way, likewise chickens or any other sort of farm animal. A kitty, though? There is hope yet.
**********COMMENTS**********
You saw a Green Kingfisher! Yay!!! That remains one of my all-time favorite birds that we’ve seen. It’s such a gorgeous little bird, and we had to work hard to see and photograph it. I’m looking forward to what else comes your way as spring arrives.
So sorry to hear that Essie has been misbehaving. But I’m glad you’re not out in the middle of nowhere and can get things fixed. Love your story of sketching house plans on old crossword puzzles. I’m with you in not needing an excess of storage space. I live in fear that someone in this house is going to do his best to fill the ridiculous number of closets and cabinets. We STILL have crap we’re getting rid of from my folks’ epic collection.
Yes, you need a kitty. Magnolia would like a cousin. And as you know, once you get beyond the kitten terrorist stage, they’re pretty darned easy.
I really did, I really did! I’m hoping to go back and see if I can’t get a better confirmation picture. Things are on the warm-up here this week, so birds are going to be doing their thing. I’ve seen a kingfisher at the monastery, too, but that one I still can’t tell if it’s green or belted.
Essie is just sad, I think, and these last two rebellions have, at least, been non-critical — well, it would suck to live w/o a fridge — but neither were traveling inhibitors. Still pains in the patoot!
Don’t let the hoarder fill your closets!!
It is amazing how very quickly stuff piles up. I think we will someday have a kitty again. They are so self-sufficient and will allow us to go help with other critters in the area. Magnolia’s cousin! I 
it!
Congrats on adding a new bird to the life list! That’s always very satisfying, especially after an arduous search. Now on to the important things: RV woes and construction process. So sorry to hear that Essie has not taken well to the news that she will be finishing her journeys with you guys. Or maybe she’s just endorsing your decision to put down roots. It’s hard to understand nonverbal communication sometimes.
I wholeheartedly support all your construction opinions and approaches. It’s critical to find a builder who understands and appreciates your goals, and will work with you on things like self-managing certain parts of the build. Great that you were able to find someone local who has those characteristics. We also measured things out on the floor, but we did it in the rig (summer in Florida, ugh), leading to interesting philosophical discussions about whether it is physically possibly for a kitchen island to be larger than our living space in the RV. (Answer: it is. And it is great.) I also agree that there’s no point in adding closets and cabinets just for sake of “more storage.” After initially living in 1,000 sf, then moving to a suburban McMansion with more closets than anyone could possibly need, followed by several challenging downsizes, I am firmly on Team Less Crap. More closets just means more stuff gets stored instead of discarded or not purchased in the first place. Finally, I could not agree more strongly that you guys should build the house YOU want and not worry about resale. Especially since you envision this as a forever home, your next 20-30 years enjoying the space are far more important than resale. And who knows what people will even want in several decades anyway? Keep up the great work!
I do so wish I’d gotten a better pic of it, but there’s still time for us to get back out there or even see one elsewhere. Maybe Essie just needs a bath? You’re right, nonverbal comm is frustrating!
I think of you guys a lot when I’m relating our house progress. Not only because you so recently finished yours, but also because I know we are doing some similar things. You’ll really like what we have planned for the countertops! And you totally get me with the No More Closets! scheme. The next owners can add on if they want, right?
I swear, it’s like these RVs KNOW something’s up. We just keep hoping to get through the next couple months with no major issues, but it’s scary to think we might be saddled with some huge bill just before we sell it… Speaking of which, I’m glad they were able to fix your fridge – that’s huge. A lot of these appliances are considered throw-aways these days, and with the supply line issues, that could have been a long wait for a new (expensive) one.
All of your decision making on the house makes a lot of sense. It’s interesting to hear about the credits and how those affect your choices, and it’s certainly true that every decision you make will have ripple effects that you’ll have to work through. I’m sure you’ll eventually be tired of making decisions, but for right now, it’s fun. (At least for me!)
Finally, I totally hear you on the dog thing. They are a lot of work and they really impact your life, and if you’re not willing to put in the time and energy, it’s just not fair to the dog. So I completely respect your thought process. Too many people don’t think this stuff through before making the decision and then the poor dog gets stuck dealing with the consequences.
I will send good thoughts for Barney to behave! We’re also glad the fridge was an easy fix as we were prepared to have to get a whole new one. Well, two, since we would’ve had to get a portable one while we waited for a new in-rig one.
Some days I’m already tired of making decisions or making ones that I have to change because it’s too expensive or doesn’t fit or decisions about stuff that is really hard or worse, boring!
I do feel a little sad when I think of never having a dog again. I should never say never, of course. Our old-home was such a perfect dogtopia, with acres to run on, no roads on which to get hit, no reason to collect poo from the field, all the best stuff for them. I miss them every day. Our new place won’t be quite so pup-a-rific. You know we’ll find a way to work with animals in some capacity, though.
I hope this doesn’t mean you’ll stop sending me Thor pics. He cracks me up with his unique and funny outlook outlook on life!
Kitty sounds perfect! Aren’t you glad we’ve all given our opinions, now you don’t have to even think about it anymore! The house plans look very workable. Big is definitely not better at this point. Most of us lived in +/- 300 sq. feet for quite awhile and are still married so what more do we need? (Well, TWO bathrooms are nice, as is a bigger shower and oven, but who’s counting?) Thanks for sharing the plans, it’s fun going through the process and not actually going through the process!
Kitties ARE perfect (in my opinion, anyway.) I do so love the pups, too, and we’ll accept all woofy-floofy visitors.
That’s a good point about all still being married after years of so.much.togetherness. Let’s see how this house build goes, though
Yessss, more bathrooms, big shower, WALL oven!! Trying to keep my eyes on the prize(s).
Darn RVs. Always know when you are about to consider their future without you. At least she was kind enough to misbehave while you had repair options nearby.
Totally agree on the build what YOU want. We were told hundreds of times that we couldn’t build a 2/2 as no one wants a house that size. People also told us how other decisions would impact resale. Our response was “this is what we want and there will be others who will want it too”, and there were plenty. We are so excited for you and know with all the research and effort you put into things, you will be really happy with what you build.
Cats are a perfect choice. You will always find dogs to pet and hopefully a neighbor has chosen to have chickens so you can get your bird fix and eggs. You are always welcome to visit our critters (baby goats the end of May!) and get your fix.
Too true, at least these recent breakages didn’t require a tow! I shouldn’t type that out loud…
Yes! You have to listen to only yourselves and build the place you want to live in. Otherwise, what’s the darn point? I’m very certain that if we ever have to re-sell it, there will be plenty of people like us who will like it, too. I think we’re going to be very happy with it, though sometimes there are too many choices making it hard to decided things i.e. analysis paralysis
We’ll have to be dog-sitters for neighbors and friends, and we already know our neighbors across the street have chickens and fresh eggs for sale. Oh, how I wish we could come see you guys and the goatlings this spring. How fun!! Scritches and hugs to all
So sorry to hear about your RV problems. Guess it is helping make your separation easier:) The new house sounds perfect. I can’t imagine making all those decisions. Love your field of daisies!!! Beautiful. Dogs are such fun, as long as they belong to someone else…haha! But now a kitty sounds about right. So much easier to leave home alone. Hiking the Chiricahua’s is sooo much fun! We did the Big Loop Hike at 9.5 miles. The next day we did the Heart of Rocks Loop. What a fantastic place. Enjoy it!
No, not really since we have to live in it for the better part of 2022 still! LOL! But, yes, it is definitely easier to suffer through appliance breakdowns in a S&B than it is on the road.
It is a lot of decision-making, that’s for sure. Even the “fun” stuff like color, etc. can be overwhelming. We’re hoping those daisies are the good ones and not the invasive kind. Otherwise we have a whole field to plow under
I’m with you — other peoples’ dogs are the BEST!
We’ll be back to the Chiricahua N.M. for sure to finish all the trails there. It’s so pretty! TBG is making me do Miller Peak first, though
I forgot to mention how absolutely beautiful your NP gourds are. You are a very talented artist. Love them!! Glad you were able to resupply. Looking forward to seeing more of them:)