New assignment
I am heading to Deming, NM next weekend! It is a three month assignment, with Aureus, the company I was with for two years before moving to Ponca. There are several good things about this assignment:
A) I have never been to NM, so this is one more state checked off my list. And it is close enough to AZ to get that one checked off while I am there. Sadly, Milwaukee was just too far from Minnesota (and it was too cold) for a day trip to get that one checked off. I still have MN, ND, DE, HI, and AK to go if I get these two checked off. My sister says she has been to Delaware enough for the both of us, though. :-)
B) Sight seeing. Roswell! Carlsbad Caverns! Terlingua! Well, that's in TX, but it's close enough for me. :-)
C) The way Aureus structures their pay, I will make more with them than with Club Staffing, and since I am finally at a point where I can save like crazy (partly because my car is paid off and partly because I am better able to resist the bright shiny things), that will mean more to my savings account.
D) On that same thread, the lab manager said that she tends to extend people, which means I could possibly end up there in the fall and winter, which would mean a steady paycheck for my savings for a good long time (as long as it doesn't end up being somehow horrible, but it doesn't *sound* horrible - I will have to draw some blood*, but they have a phlebotomist until 10:30 and I will be there until either 11:30 or 12:30, and the ER draws their own blood, so I won't have to do a LOT - it's a 25 bed hospital, smaller even than Caldwell, the first hospital I worked at which was 27 beds!**). My goal is to get my emergency savings full by the end of the year and my down payment savings full by next June. Whether that DP savings is used for an RV or a house will depend on... the weather, I guess.*** Maybe I can win the lottery and get both. OH, wait, I don't play the lottery.
House in Midlothian on 4.5 acres
Right now, currently, subject to change at a moments notice and of course as soon as it sells, which I am sure it will THIS WEEK, as rare as this kind of property is, the above property is my choice of what I should be buying as soon as I get that down payment saved up. It is, like, TWENTY MINUTES from my sister. I would post that map, too, as I have posted the map of my potential route to NM (with a stop at Carlsbad Caverns on Monday morning), but I think my sister would be irritated if I pinpointed her house for all of LJ to see. :-) I could maybe redo the map and use a completely different spot in Lake Ridge. Like an intersection on the far side. That would work, and still show that it's NOT that far - just over the highway and down a little.
This is a map of the property. Zoom in and you can see the house. It has a screened back porch (which, really, from the pictures kinda looks like it could use a little tearing down and rebuilding... I'd kinda like someone with more experience to go with me to look at it and tell me what they think), and a "lawn area" surrounded on all sides by pasture. For, you know, the goats and sheep and chickens and peacocks and ducks and geese and alpacas**** and a pond and my orchard and the veggie gardens... the birds will be allowed to roam through all of it - and my veggie beds will be raised - I did sketches of those last summer, raised beds of concrete blocks, using square foot gardening, so I don't have to worry about bending to garden now OR when I am 110, plus I can use the holes in the concrete blocks to put rebar in and make trellises for melons, cucumbers - anything on a vine - and also PVC pipes to hold the white row covers to turn them in to greenhouses so I can use them year round, because even in Texas it does get cold. I was actually disappointed to read that the water park in Deming is seasonal. Sigh. That's pretty far south! But a higher elevation.
Fruit trees by Stacy are a lot cheaper than I expected. From everything I had heard on the lists I'm on, and found on websites, I had expected decent sized fruit trees to be somewhere between $150 to $300, but there was a nursery by her that had apple trees like 6' tall for $25 each!! Some were already bearing fruit. They had peaches and plums and other trees, too. I could get an orchard started pretty fast. That reminds me, I need to find my list of fruit trees for north Texas... I wonder if I will have wifi in Deming...
Hey! That worked! That is the front of the house. It was built in 1950. It looked to me like it hadn't been revamped since then, but it was renovated in 1970. :-)
The kitchen. Not *horrible.* It could be all black. Not quite retro enough to be cute, but at least it is bright. I like white. The floors would have to go. And the wallpaper. Of course, like I have said before, I know already exactly the flooring I want all through my house, and the walls, and the countertops, and pretty much the kitchen sink although that one is a tiny bit in the air... The main thing I don't like is that the sink faces a wall as opposed to the family room or a window. But I could live with that for the acreage.
I think this is supposed to be the dining room. The photo was taken from the kithen. The carpet has to go, and in an ideal world (having seen to many reno shows on HGTV, damn you, Kitchen Cousins), I would extend the kitchen out into the dining area a bit because it doesn't have enough space (uh, not that *I* really need a huge kitchen, but I am thinking in terms of canning and dehydrators and pantry space) and basically have cabinets all along that wall that the frig is on, with serving space there too, and then have my dining table in the open space. And obviously no carpet.
I have to say, having the STOVE looking out on to the front room just HAS to be a fire hazard. There is no backsplash. I like open concept, but I would eventually have to find out how expensive it would be to reroute everything and switch the stove and sink around.
It does have a decent sized living room, though. I am NOT stripping that wallpaper. I will pay someone else to do it. Maybe I could pay Jessica and James to do it. LOL. Can't decide if they have their TX star upside down on accident or if they are trying to act like they are devil worshipers. Hmm. Of course, that's just the most popular, well known meaning. Here (granted, it's a Wiki-answer, but I didn't take the time to search for a better site - I knew the answer already, was just searching for a site that said it) is an explanation of the meaning behind the upside down star. Of course, maybe they are actually anti-Texas and THAT is why they are both moving and have it upside down. HA!!!
Ah, land... I am hoping, since the land has a barn/stable and apparently they had horses, the entire lot is fenced.
The back (east side) of the house. I wonder how much of the sunrise you can see, sitting on that porch in the morning drinking your coffee... and how much of the sunset you can see from the front porch.
I see fence! And partial sidewalk!
Da barn.
closer upper of the barn/stable. I bet the chickens and goats could stay in there at first. Okay, I bet the first thing I get is chickens. See if I can keep them alive, then get two goats. Then an LGD. Then build a pond, then get a couple of ducks, then a peacock... The alpaca?? Who knows. I need to learn to spin first. If I get an alpaca I need a sheep, too. Baaa!
I can't decide if the "lawn" area should be where the garden and fruit trees are and leave the rest pasture, or if I should split it and have the back half for the trees and garden and the front half for the animals - or the other way around so the animals aren't as close to the road.
Of course, all of this will be moot once it sells before I save up the down payment. Unless I look at it, really REALLY like it, and try to work something out with them. HMMM. Like making a good faith payment towards the DP to them each month while I am in NM and saving for it so they know I am serious. IDK. No clue. Argh. THAT would set it in stone.
* Yes, I know. I hate to draw blood. But it's very different to go in to it knowing about it than it is to go into it thinking I won't have to do it and then be informed that pretty much everything they told me about the assignment - especially THAT - was "wrong." Apparently my adaptability only goes so far, since I was okay when, at Grady, they told me about having to work weekends and having to work either second or third shift. The phlebotomy was just the last straw.
** Ironically, Caldwell was a town of about 2000 people (that was 1992, haven't bothered to look at the census now - okay, after typing that I had to do it - in 2011 it was 1052. Poor town! Oh! Actually, apparently it was only 1300-something in 1990. I guess my joke has always been that it had less people than my high school, which was somewhere close to 2000 (I can't remember exactly how many), and after a while my brain just figured their census was somewhere closer to that. I looked around trying to find the hospital site and couldn't find anything - saw on citydata that the closest hospital was in Wellington and thought it had been shut down - finally found out it is being rebuilt right now, so that's actually a good thing. Good for them, investing in their hospital!
*** Because my mood, and which "dwelling" I want, are about as predictable as the weather... Most of the time I just want both. Maybe if I just don't EAT for the next six months, I can save up enough money... naw, my food and gas budget is under $400 a month as it is. Hey! In a town that small, my gas budget will be less! Unless, of course, I go all over NM and AZ sightseeing. Hmm. One trip a month, maybe?
**** I do not know for sure, but I am guessing 4 acres is enough for 1 or 2 alpacas, a couple of goats, maybe ten chickens, 2 ducks, 2 geese, one or two peacocks (unless I go crazy with all the gorgeous colors), two swans (sounds like Noah's Ark... and I'll have to build a pond for half these creatures) (and the place that sells peacocks I saw in TX sells black swans, too) (AND they breed the kind of livestock guardian dogs I want, so that's all handy - the dogs will know how to handle the birds)...
Gotta post this real quick - my brother and his family are on the way to pick me up and take me with them to the river for Father's Day. My parents went down earlier.
View Driving directions to Deming, NM in a larger map
A) I have never been to NM, so this is one more state checked off my list. And it is close enough to AZ to get that one checked off while I am there. Sadly, Milwaukee was just too far from Minnesota (and it was too cold) for a day trip to get that one checked off. I still have MN, ND, DE, HI, and AK to go if I get these two checked off. My sister says she has been to Delaware enough for the both of us, though. :-)
B) Sight seeing. Roswell! Carlsbad Caverns! Terlingua! Well, that's in TX, but it's close enough for me. :-)
C) The way Aureus structures their pay, I will make more with them than with Club Staffing, and since I am finally at a point where I can save like crazy (partly because my car is paid off and partly because I am better able to resist the bright shiny things), that will mean more to my savings account.
D) On that same thread, the lab manager said that she tends to extend people, which means I could possibly end up there in the fall and winter, which would mean a steady paycheck for my savings for a good long time (as long as it doesn't end up being somehow horrible, but it doesn't *sound* horrible - I will have to draw some blood*, but they have a phlebotomist until 10:30 and I will be there until either 11:30 or 12:30, and the ER draws their own blood, so I won't have to do a LOT - it's a 25 bed hospital, smaller even than Caldwell, the first hospital I worked at which was 27 beds!**). My goal is to get my emergency savings full by the end of the year and my down payment savings full by next June. Whether that DP savings is used for an RV or a house will depend on... the weather, I guess.*** Maybe I can win the lottery and get both. OH, wait, I don't play the lottery.
House in Midlothian on 4.5 acres
Right now, currently, subject to change at a moments notice and of course as soon as it sells, which I am sure it will THIS WEEK, as rare as this kind of property is, the above property is my choice of what I should be buying as soon as I get that down payment saved up. It is, like, TWENTY MINUTES from my sister. I would post that map, too, as I have posted the map of my potential route to NM (with a stop at Carlsbad Caverns on Monday morning), but I think my sister would be irritated if I pinpointed her house for all of LJ to see. :-) I could maybe redo the map and use a completely different spot in Lake Ridge. Like an intersection on the far side. That would work, and still show that it's NOT that far - just over the highway and down a little.
This is a map of the property. Zoom in and you can see the house. It has a screened back porch (which, really, from the pictures kinda looks like it could use a little tearing down and rebuilding... I'd kinda like someone with more experience to go with me to look at it and tell me what they think), and a "lawn area" surrounded on all sides by pasture. For, you know, the goats and sheep and chickens and peacocks and ducks and geese and alpacas**** and a pond and my orchard and the veggie gardens... the birds will be allowed to roam through all of it - and my veggie beds will be raised - I did sketches of those last summer, raised beds of concrete blocks, using square foot gardening, so I don't have to worry about bending to garden now OR when I am 110, plus I can use the holes in the concrete blocks to put rebar in and make trellises for melons, cucumbers - anything on a vine - and also PVC pipes to hold the white row covers to turn them in to greenhouses so I can use them year round, because even in Texas it does get cold. I was actually disappointed to read that the water park in Deming is seasonal. Sigh. That's pretty far south! But a higher elevation.
Fruit trees by Stacy are a lot cheaper than I expected. From everything I had heard on the lists I'm on, and found on websites, I had expected decent sized fruit trees to be somewhere between $150 to $300, but there was a nursery by her that had apple trees like 6' tall for $25 each!! Some were already bearing fruit. They had peaches and plums and other trees, too. I could get an orchard started pretty fast. That reminds me, I need to find my list of fruit trees for north Texas... I wonder if I will have wifi in Deming...
Hey! That worked! That is the front of the house. It was built in 1950. It looked to me like it hadn't been revamped since then, but it was renovated in 1970. :-)
The kitchen. Not *horrible.* It could be all black. Not quite retro enough to be cute, but at least it is bright. I like white. The floors would have to go. And the wallpaper. Of course, like I have said before, I know already exactly the flooring I want all through my house, and the walls, and the countertops, and pretty much the kitchen sink although that one is a tiny bit in the air... The main thing I don't like is that the sink faces a wall as opposed to the family room or a window. But I could live with that for the acreage.
I think this is supposed to be the dining room. The photo was taken from the kithen. The carpet has to go, and in an ideal world (having seen to many reno shows on HGTV, damn you, Kitchen Cousins), I would extend the kitchen out into the dining area a bit because it doesn't have enough space (uh, not that *I* really need a huge kitchen, but I am thinking in terms of canning and dehydrators and pantry space) and basically have cabinets all along that wall that the frig is on, with serving space there too, and then have my dining table in the open space. And obviously no carpet.
I have to say, having the STOVE looking out on to the front room just HAS to be a fire hazard. There is no backsplash. I like open concept, but I would eventually have to find out how expensive it would be to reroute everything and switch the stove and sink around.
It does have a decent sized living room, though. I am NOT stripping that wallpaper. I will pay someone else to do it. Maybe I could pay Jessica and James to do it. LOL. Can't decide if they have their TX star upside down on accident or if they are trying to act like they are devil worshipers. Hmm. Of course, that's just the most popular, well known meaning. Here (granted, it's a Wiki-answer, but I didn't take the time to search for a better site - I knew the answer already, was just searching for a site that said it) is an explanation of the meaning behind the upside down star. Of course, maybe they are actually anti-Texas and THAT is why they are both moving and have it upside down. HA!!!
Ah, land... I am hoping, since the land has a barn/stable and apparently they had horses, the entire lot is fenced.
The back (east side) of the house. I wonder how much of the sunrise you can see, sitting on that porch in the morning drinking your coffee... and how much of the sunset you can see from the front porch.
I see fence! And partial sidewalk!
Da barn.
closer upper of the barn/stable. I bet the chickens and goats could stay in there at first. Okay, I bet the first thing I get is chickens. See if I can keep them alive, then get two goats. Then an LGD. Then build a pond, then get a couple of ducks, then a peacock... The alpaca?? Who knows. I need to learn to spin first. If I get an alpaca I need a sheep, too. Baaa!
I can't decide if the "lawn" area should be where the garden and fruit trees are and leave the rest pasture, or if I should split it and have the back half for the trees and garden and the front half for the animals - or the other way around so the animals aren't as close to the road.
Of course, all of this will be moot once it sells before I save up the down payment. Unless I look at it, really REALLY like it, and try to work something out with them. HMMM. Like making a good faith payment towards the DP to them each month while I am in NM and saving for it so they know I am serious. IDK. No clue. Argh. THAT would set it in stone.
* Yes, I know. I hate to draw blood. But it's very different to go in to it knowing about it than it is to go into it thinking I won't have to do it and then be informed that pretty much everything they told me about the assignment - especially THAT - was "wrong." Apparently my adaptability only goes so far, since I was okay when, at Grady, they told me about having to work weekends and having to work either second or third shift. The phlebotomy was just the last straw.
** Ironically, Caldwell was a town of about 2000 people (that was 1992, haven't bothered to look at the census now - okay, after typing that I had to do it - in 2011 it was 1052. Poor town! Oh! Actually, apparently it was only 1300-something in 1990. I guess my joke has always been that it had less people than my high school, which was somewhere close to 2000 (I can't remember exactly how many), and after a while my brain just figured their census was somewhere closer to that. I looked around trying to find the hospital site and couldn't find anything - saw on citydata that the closest hospital was in Wellington and thought it had been shut down - finally found out it is being rebuilt right now, so that's actually a good thing. Good for them, investing in their hospital!
*** Because my mood, and which "dwelling" I want, are about as predictable as the weather... Most of the time I just want both. Maybe if I just don't EAT for the next six months, I can save up enough money... naw, my food and gas budget is under $400 a month as it is. Hey! In a town that small, my gas budget will be less! Unless, of course, I go all over NM and AZ sightseeing. Hmm. One trip a month, maybe?
**** I do not know for sure, but I am guessing 4 acres is enough for 1 or 2 alpacas, a couple of goats, maybe ten chickens, 2 ducks, 2 geese, one or two peacocks (unless I go crazy with all the gorgeous colors), two swans (sounds like Noah's Ark... and I'll have to build a pond for half these creatures) (and the place that sells peacocks I saw in TX sells black swans, too) (AND they breed the kind of livestock guardian dogs I want, so that's all handy - the dogs will know how to handle the birds)...
Gotta post this real quick - my brother and his family are on the way to pick me up and take me with them to the river for Father's Day. My parents went down earlier.
View Driving directions to Deming, NM in a larger map