A secluded rv get away on 10 acres

An unexpected windfall with the need for a creative solution

In the spring of last year, the phone rang with an unusual proposition. Would we be willing to pay the back taxes on a 10 acre lot and take it off the hands of the woman’s father? The only catch was the requirement of buying her husband and father a nice steak lunch (and paying 3K in taxes). From a numbers standpoint, this was a no-brainer, and we trembled with that familiar feeling of greed…. Who would practically give away a lot to a stranger? After our steak lunch, these folks had a lesson to teach us. They simply loved their life of travelling the world to scuba dive in exotic places and cared next to nothing about the development hassles of a piece of raw land on the Key Peninsula, owned by her dad since the 1980’s.

A 30 year old “driveway” still existed, well overgrown.

The existing well equipment house - a derelict shack left to rot in the woods. This was removed, as well as a (2) car pole garage structure which had fallen over.

Burning of cleared Alder trees & also decades of fallen timber which were choking the groundcover & creating a substantial fire hazard come August.

The new driveway, regraded with gravel.

The original power pole from the 80’s. We found the underground power cable connection to the roadside transformer box to be in excellent condition.

View of finished electrical panel, water connection & septic hook up. Much of the cleared areas for trenching will be left as is to let the native ferns and salal heal the land.

An early project walk through video

The final product….ready to find the appropriate RV tenant

not a bad alternative to many urban & suburban living arrangements.

The cash invested to repair the well, septic, electric system & access road was far less than a typical foreclosure renovation budget. Perhaps there will come a day when we bring in a double wide manufactured home and create a more permanent solution. But for the time being, the property can be enjoyed and the forest & groundcover can be left alone, gradually healing from both the recent trenching and the clearcutting done decades ago. The cedars and Douglas firs will continue to mature, replacing the first growth alders with a climax forest, many years from now….