These first 5 paragraphs of this long story are kind of like looking at too many pictures from someone else’s Vacation, pretty boring. But the last 5 are pretty exciting stuff (at least for me) so skip ahead to the second half if you like.
Lori, my mom and I just got back from a 7 day vacation, 2 nights each in 3 different hotels in 3 different cities. Got back home Sat. afternoon and as much fun as we had it’s always so comforting returning to your own home, bed, shower and fridge full of your normal food and drink.
We spent Sunday and Monday nights in Las Vegas and got off to a great start by visiting my best friend and his wife. He invited his daughters and their husbands, his sister and her daughter and her two children and then grilled a couple of chickens and tri-tips. Great big family style party enjoyed by all. Mom hasn’t been able to scratch her gambling itch in a while so those first two days were about what ever she wanted to do. We did have one stand out dinner, a BBQ sampler plater, at the House of Blues followed by a Cirque do Soleil show called “One” based on the music of Michael Jackson. Awesome.
Gambling totals weren’t bad, Lori won 300.00, mom ended up about 25.00 ahead and I brought up the rear winning a total of 1.00, at least none of us lost at the tables. Vegas has become so expensive though that I was just glad to get out of there without blowing our entire budget.
We drove out past the Hoover Dam on the way to Prescott AZ taking a little time to walk out on the new bridge and take some pics of the dam itself. Prescott was one of the towns we’ve been considering making our new home but after looking at 5 or 6 properties we got the feeling that the affordable land has been picked over and the town doesn’t have that small town feel anymore. We did stay in a historic old building converted into a small hotel and wandered through the old town shopping, eating and sight seeing for a couple of days.
Cottonwood AZ was our final destination and while it’s only about 40 miles from Prescott. It’s well over an hour drive through the Prescott national forest and over the Mingus mountains at over 7,000 feet and then through the old copper mining town of Jerome at about 5,000 feet on the other side. We ate breakfast at the Flatiron Cafe which has exactly 3 tables. The owners are a very friendly young couple and there was another couple eating. We started chatting after they heard we were from Los Angeles area since they were originally from Orange county (also so cal area) and ended up talking wine. We found out they run the Pillsbury Wine company tasting room in Cottonwood which was walking distance from our hotel. We hadn’t even reached Cottonwood yet but were already starting to feel really good about the city. We arrived at our hotel about 4 hours early for check-in but they went ahead and gave us our room right then. Now the exciting part, driving around and looking at more lots.
Out of 5 lots we had picked in advance three would have been difficult to build on or didn’t have enough room. One would have worked but was in a very suburban tract style development. The final lot was pretty cool, we looked it over, walked around and then headed back to downtown for lunch and to make a decision. It really was an easy choice though, 3/4 acre lot, no close neighbors, nice homes, utilities at curb and beautiful views of the red rocks of Sedona and Mingus Mountains. We headed back to take a second look and while there my wife introduced herself to the neighbor woman across the street. It turns out her husband and I are going to be best friends, he just doesn’t know it yet. Besides their house they also own the 3/4 acre lot next the one I was looking at and won’t build on it or sell it to make sure their view doesn’t get blocked, that protects my view as well. In addition to that he has about 40 cabernet and syrah vines growing on his hillside and makes wine. Our lot easily has room to plant a 50 to 75 vine mini vineyard on the lower part of the property.
To celebrate we headed back to town to visit the Pillsbury wine co. and find a nice restaurant. The couple we met earlier in the day were working, showed us around and introduced us to one of the head guys. We didn’t do a formal tasting but he’d open a bottle of what we were talking about buying and pour 1 small glass that all three of us shared and then he took it up a notch to a bigger wine and we ended up trying 4 or 5 different wines. He finished it off from a bottle of their 2013 Shiraz private reserve that was just fantastic. We bought 3 different wines but before we left he pulled one last unmarked bottle explaining the wine he just poured was going to bottling next (this) week. It had won double gold, one of only 3 out of 1700 to do so at a large San Francisco Competition. It was their 2015 “Guns and Kisses” Shiraz. I may have already found a connection into the local winery group….
We wrapped up Friday with a trip to Sedona, just 19 miles away, a nice dinner, artsy pizzas and salads at Bocce pizzaria with a cheap Malbec that tasted just fine with the pizza. Finally, one last trip up to the lot to see what sunset looked like from spot where the patio will be.
So Friday before leaving Cottonwood we got together with a local agent, made an offer to buy and countered back and forth over a few dollars and who pays for a survey of property lines until just this morning. We signed an agreement a couple of hours ago! Time to start drawings on the house including a new bigger and improved winery!
The last two pictures are actually of the lot we bought.
Mike
Lori, my mom and I just got back from a 7 day vacation, 2 nights each in 3 different hotels in 3 different cities. Got back home Sat. afternoon and as much fun as we had it’s always so comforting returning to your own home, bed, shower and fridge full of your normal food and drink.
We spent Sunday and Monday nights in Las Vegas and got off to a great start by visiting my best friend and his wife. He invited his daughters and their husbands, his sister and her daughter and her two children and then grilled a couple of chickens and tri-tips. Great big family style party enjoyed by all. Mom hasn’t been able to scratch her gambling itch in a while so those first two days were about what ever she wanted to do. We did have one stand out dinner, a BBQ sampler plater, at the House of Blues followed by a Cirque do Soleil show called “One” based on the music of Michael Jackson. Awesome.
Gambling totals weren’t bad, Lori won 300.00, mom ended up about 25.00 ahead and I brought up the rear winning a total of 1.00, at least none of us lost at the tables. Vegas has become so expensive though that I was just glad to get out of there without blowing our entire budget.
We drove out past the Hoover Dam on the way to Prescott AZ taking a little time to walk out on the new bridge and take some pics of the dam itself. Prescott was one of the towns we’ve been considering making our new home but after looking at 5 or 6 properties we got the feeling that the affordable land has been picked over and the town doesn’t have that small town feel anymore. We did stay in a historic old building converted into a small hotel and wandered through the old town shopping, eating and sight seeing for a couple of days.
Cottonwood AZ was our final destination and while it’s only about 40 miles from Prescott. It’s well over an hour drive through the Prescott national forest and over the Mingus mountains at over 7,000 feet and then through the old copper mining town of Jerome at about 5,000 feet on the other side. We ate breakfast at the Flatiron Cafe which has exactly 3 tables. The owners are a very friendly young couple and there was another couple eating. We started chatting after they heard we were from Los Angeles area since they were originally from Orange county (also so cal area) and ended up talking wine. We found out they run the Pillsbury Wine company tasting room in Cottonwood which was walking distance from our hotel. We hadn’t even reached Cottonwood yet but were already starting to feel really good about the city. We arrived at our hotel about 4 hours early for check-in but they went ahead and gave us our room right then. Now the exciting part, driving around and looking at more lots.
Out of 5 lots we had picked in advance three would have been difficult to build on or didn’t have enough room. One would have worked but was in a very suburban tract style development. The final lot was pretty cool, we looked it over, walked around and then headed back to downtown for lunch and to make a decision. It really was an easy choice though, 3/4 acre lot, no close neighbors, nice homes, utilities at curb and beautiful views of the red rocks of Sedona and Mingus Mountains. We headed back to take a second look and while there my wife introduced herself to the neighbor woman across the street. It turns out her husband and I are going to be best friends, he just doesn’t know it yet. Besides their house they also own the 3/4 acre lot next the one I was looking at and won’t build on it or sell it to make sure their view doesn’t get blocked, that protects my view as well. In addition to that he has about 40 cabernet and syrah vines growing on his hillside and makes wine. Our lot easily has room to plant a 50 to 75 vine mini vineyard on the lower part of the property.
To celebrate we headed back to town to visit the Pillsbury wine co. and find a nice restaurant. The couple we met earlier in the day were working, showed us around and introduced us to one of the head guys. We didn’t do a formal tasting but he’d open a bottle of what we were talking about buying and pour 1 small glass that all three of us shared and then he took it up a notch to a bigger wine and we ended up trying 4 or 5 different wines. He finished it off from a bottle of their 2013 Shiraz private reserve that was just fantastic. We bought 3 different wines but before we left he pulled one last unmarked bottle explaining the wine he just poured was going to bottling next (this) week. It had won double gold, one of only 3 out of 1700 to do so at a large San Francisco Competition. It was their 2015 “Guns and Kisses” Shiraz. I may have already found a connection into the local winery group….
We wrapped up Friday with a trip to Sedona, just 19 miles away, a nice dinner, artsy pizzas and salads at Bocce pizzaria with a cheap Malbec that tasted just fine with the pizza. Finally, one last trip up to the lot to see what sunset looked like from spot where the patio will be.
So Friday before leaving Cottonwood we got together with a local agent, made an offer to buy and countered back and forth over a few dollars and who pays for a survey of property lines until just this morning. We signed an agreement a couple of hours ago! Time to start drawings on the house including a new bigger and improved winery!
The last two pictures are actually of the lot we bought.
Mike
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