Thursday, April 12, 2012

Nope not an RV in Sight!!

As nice as it would be to have the perfect place to put an RV right next to your new home, I have never found any residential properties where this can be done in Arizona......   Frankly the zoning restrictions of any newer neighborhood will strictly prohibit such an "undesirable" practice.

When I explained to our realtor, that the window sticker of our Motorhome exceeded the price of of this new home that we were purchasing, she looked at me in disbelief.  After all we were folks from the "trailer park" as she put it....  I ignored that comment and went on to explain that most diesel motorhomes were higher than a quarter of a million bucks.  And in some cases 4 times as high.  And since you can't finance a motorhome for 30 years, many of them are just paid for outright.

Yep,  there's more millionaires over at "that there trailer park" than you got down here in any of these cheaper suburbs.........

But the lot that we purchased is only 120 feet deep and 65 feet wide.  The setback from the street is only 20 feet, meaning that even my large pickup may be too long to park out in front.  We did purchase the option to have the garage made 2 feet deeper so our cars won't be so scrunched.  That cost 2 K more.

The covenants on the property prohibit parking any vehicles on the property other than in the driveway  or in the garage.  It also prohibits parking your cars in the street as well.  People violate this of course, but the neighbor up the street squawked about a car in the street across from him and I had only met him for 30 minutes.  So how long do you think it would be with the motorhome parked in the street out front, before the police show up?  May as well make the call myself......

I read the covenants before we purchased this property, and it prohibits almost everything you can think of.  Other than going into your house and keeping your head down.  Want that satellite dish?  Better keep it down low where it can't be seen from the street or you are in violation.......  Don't even mention that I am a HAM......  Just imagine that great big tower and antenna in the back, hanging over the neighbors concrete block fence walls.  I could run enough power to make their stereos dance when they were turned off!!!!

Now wouldn't that make me the prize on the block....... LOL.  Ya, they just don't know what might move in next door.....  Out of that trailer park....

But the point is that most people think of us RVers like they think of the movie Christmas Vacation.  You know the famous scene where the antagonist is emptying his Black Tank down the storm sewer...  And the famous comment that the "Sh*tters Full Clark!"  And most of all they don't want them any where near where they are.

So it will remain to be seen how much trouble I get into by parking the coach across the front of the house for a few hours while we unload some of our stuff.

I do know of two places where this RV utopia can be found.....  The nicest would be Retama Village South of McAllen, Texas.  They sell RV lots and then smaller houses in the same sub division.  And then finally they combined the two and you can back your motorhome right into the front of your house.  Or into a large attached garage, depending on how you build it.



Trouble is, my wife doesn't like to go to Texas!  , but wouldn't that be cool on a lot of your choice out near the lake somewhere?  I'm thinking of Speedy in that question....

The other option is in Bracketville, Tx and is the old Fort property where folks build a metal canopy that goes over a large concrete patio and RV parking spot.  Some of the folks there have built homes under the metal roof as well.  The best example of this is Kit and Jerry who have a blog and are building such a home as we speak.  And I mean they are pounding the nails and running the saw.


Here is a picture of their canopy before the beginning of the house build.  She has taken extensive photos of the construction process, and they are posted in their picasa web album which can be linked here or from their blog.  Just click on Kit and Jerry above.  These folks are from Indiana and couldn't be nicer.  They are gate guards at oil well properties, and their blog is Very Interesting, as they describe all of the vehicles that come on the properties, and what they are there to do....

Since this has gotten quite long, I will end it for now, but must report that it is much cooler here last night and tonight.  Almost freezing both nights.  We usually get this cold snap around the first weeks of April every year, but from then on its spring!

Retired Rod


6 comments:

  1. Our discussions have gone back and forth on some of these topics that you've touched on. The one thing I know for sure is, "I don't want to live in an RV", was one of the pronouncements that my wife made a couple weeks back. Then in the next breath she's talking about buying another motorhome and can we park it in our driveway? The one we had previously was kept at a storage facility, for 50 bucks a month. And no, we can't park a motorhome in our driveway long term. I've used it as a spare bedroom for a few days, and had it sitting out there now and again whenever we were heading out, coming home, or it needed a good cleaning, and nobody in the neighbourhood dared utter a peep, but I know the by-laws really don't permit it. Only gets enforced if someone complains.
    We have a double drive, but keeping such a large vehicle there gets to be mostly a big ole pain in the hind end, so it's worth the $50 a month to have it out of the way.
    I think I would get a little agitated if a neighbour did "utter a peep" though since, to quote Bugs Bunny, "he don't know me very well". Then, there's that other one, "This means war"?
    There are too many stray cats and barking dogs in our neighbourhood for any of those pots to be calling this kettle black. But that's neither here nor there.
    I find most neighbourhood "associations" to be an abomination for the most part, and I'm sure thankful that we have no such thing in ours.

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  2. When Donna & I bought the home we are in now, it was on a 2 acre plot and
    zoned agriculture.You could park anything on the acreage.Now you need at least one acre to park an RV. Although we are Grandfathered we will still be legal. I paved a pad area when we paved the driveway and it sure is great to have the fiver home with us. and no storage lot rent. I can see with a small subdivision lot why neighbors don't want a large fiver or mh parked on the driveway. But this is American so you buy where you want to and live with the covenants.Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..

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  3. Rod,

    Fellow HAM here, only at Tech level for now and I sold my expensive radio to pay bills so now I'm a radio-less HAM!! :(

    Anyway, the first time I brought my RV home to load up for our first trip the neighbor called the cops. They claimed a "suspicious vehicle" was parked out front. Now mind you, I told all of my neighbors about the RV so it shouldn't have shocked anybody that it was there and how suspicious could it be when I was going into and out of it for more than a few hours?

    The cops, and I mean ALL of the cops showed up and I walk out of my rig to cops with hands on their guns. The law I broke? I was parked more than 12 inches from the curb! The horror!

    I could fill pages with the rules we are stuck with, NO amateur radio antennas! No working on your car, no washing the car in the driveway... and we live in a single family home neighborhood!

    Anyway, good luck, I've rambled on too long. :)

    Erik

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  4. This is why Tioga George RV's in Mexico. Freedom.

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  5. butterbean carpenterApril 12, 2012 at 4:42 PM

    Howdy Rod,

    I'm surely sorry for your wife, that she has this thing against TEXAS, but do like we did; look around, find a little ranch with NO NEIGHBORS, bring your motorhome HOME and park it in front of the house, blocking the traffic on the hiway view!! No loud radios, TVs or screaming fights; just quiet, peaceful,
    country nights and STARS, OMG!!! Sure glad I ain't no millionaire with all of those restrictions!!!

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  6. Why the heck do you want to live in a place with so many rules? Way out in the desert sounds better to me.

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