Beautiful Lot in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

There's this lot in Eureka Springs that I'm head over heels for.  I'd love to buy it and it is a steal at $5,500.  Here's some pictures of it.  If you go to Kind Regards on HubPages, I've written an article that includes a picture of a house and the houseplans I've created for it.  It's listed through K-C Realty.

Enjoy the holidays everyone.  Happy New Year!

Goals and Saint Louis

I have two goals right now.  The first one is buying a car, a very specific car.  And two is buying a house.  My home could either be somewhere in Kansas, in the Ozarks, Kansas City or Saint Louis because I need to be near my Mom.  I'm always looking at other places for retirement, which have included Bulgaria, upstate New York, New Hampshire, Boston, the North Shore, Cape Cod, and even Rhode Island and Maine; that's practically all of New England!  But it may very well likely be the place I choose coming up.

I want to buy a New Beetle in the next year or two.  It'd be nice to have a 2009, but it'll be a few years before they even come down to less than the $13,000 mark, which is still too much for me.   I'm seeing 1999-2000 ones for around $4,000 and 2002-2003 for $5,000 to $7,000, more in my price range.  These cars hold their value.  Just as a bit of trivia, the New Beetle debuted in 1998.  I had a 2003 for awhile, so that's when the love started.

I'm good at saving money.  Luckily, it's a strong natural trait of mine, so depending upon how much I save, when I want to buy and the car that grabs my attention, we'll see what I'll be driving.

After I buy my car, I'll be saving for a house.  And after the house, my nest egg.

I was going to stay on here until my Mom passed on.  I really hate to say that, it sounds so inappropriate, but it's one of those things that comes up when thinking about the future.  She is someone I take into consideration when making plans.

At times staying here has seemed like the right thing to do because she loves my company.  The thing is it will be many, many years from now before she's gone, and truth is, I don't want to live here that long.  There's other things I want to be doing, plus I prefer living alone.  And I'd really like to spend some time with my Saint Bernard.  I'd like her older years to be spent indoors like she's used to.  She's outdoors right now and I just don't like that.

I do some cooking for my Mom and the dishes and the garbage, but my presence isn't necessary.  She misses me when I'm gone and I like spending time with her, but my brother is here to make sure she is OK overall.  There's no medical need for it as she's very healthy, but she doesn't have a car anymore and her grocery trips are lessening, so she does need someone nearby.

Since I'm obsessed with real estate, I'm always looking.  Here's one of the places it has taken me to most recently.

I've discovered Saint Louis through HUD and all the houses there are very nice and very cheap, plus they have brownstones.  I absolutely adore brownstones and to have one of my own is likely why I feel so good about considering Saint Louis.  That and the energy there is really good.  After discovering the wilderness, small towns and the countryside, I don't know if I can permanently commit to a new city, but with prices like this, I may want to live there for a few years.

It's interesting because most cities don't have houses that are as nice in this price range.  Plus, I'd have the Ozarks in my backyard.  Technically, Saint Louis is in the Ozarks on the very northeastern edge.

The one I totally fell in love with which I think is under contract right now is $20,000, and it has $5,500 in repairs, though it doesn't look like it needs any.  Here it is.  I just love it.  It's pink!

There's two more that are architecturally similar and a great deal cheaper.  This one is only $4,000 and it is when I first saw this style of architecture.

Below is another one selling for $10,000.  I like the way it looks.

There's one in which I absolutely adore the interior.  It's got these fireplaces and this vibe that is just the coolest.  It feels like New Orleans and Boston in the '80s and '90s.  I love that!  The outside reminds me of a school, which is a little bizarre, but I like it.  Here it is.  I'd say it's my second favorite.

This last picture is where I noticed that vibe I was talking about.  It's so great.  I really miss that.  After all, that is the generation I am from.  There's quite a few brownstones with two units.  Makes me feel like being a landlord.

The first fireplace is so pretty.  I really like it.  The only thing is this place has four bedrooms, which is too big, although it doesn't list a living room, a dining room or a kitchen like all the other listings do.  So, perhaps I'd turn two of those four rooms into a living room and a kitchen.  That would be perfect because then there'd be one bedroom and one room for an office.  Just what I want.

This house is only $9,600, so it is affordable.  I just hope that there are properties like this listed there in a few years.  It would be terribly disappointing to not find any similar properties in the future.

This is my original plan.  There will be modifications, of course, but nothing terribly drastic.  It's nice to move onto different projects now that I've set up a good income after searching for more than a year for how to make money online by doing good old-fashioned work like you'd do at a regular day job.  There's no way I'm going to scam anyone.

Between Mechanical Turk, Demand Studios and a little from my Mom for helping her out, I am saving between $500 to $1,000 a month.  That is awesome!  And if I was a real animal, I could save over $2,000, but the burnout factor would be too high.  Another one of my goals is savings.  I was hoping for $2,500 a year, but now I've managed to double-triple-quadruple that amount.  Very, very happy for that.  It's nice to always have money in my accounts.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

I wrote an article about my trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  It is such a fun and colorful town.  It is a must visit for everyone.  I've never seen anywhere like it.

Here's some of the streets.

Here's some of the amazing architecture you'll see around town.

Here's how you get to many of the shops, galleries and restaurants.  This one goes to my favorite restaurant, the Oasis.

Here's one of the many springs the historical town is noted for.

There's a pavilion and park right in the heart of downtown where musicians play for free.

There's so many grand and beautiful hotels in Eureka Springs and some are reportedly haunted.

Basin Park Hotel

Flat Iron

Crescent Hotel

Palace Hotel

Tall Pines Inn

This is one of the stills I took of ES&NA, the Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway.  I like how it came out.

Here is an old building mural advertising the magnificent Crescent Hotel and it's ballroom restaurant, the Crystal Dining Room.  It has become the logo for my blog.

The second mural for the Crescent Hotel is pictured in the right-hand column for sending me an email.  But since it is hard to see that small, here it is in a larger size.

I just love the murals in Eureka Springs.

My Land in the Ozarks

I've owned land for several years in the Missouri Ozarks.  It is where I call home.  I absolutely love it.  It is the most beautiful place I've ever seen and home to the nicest people I've ever met.

Here's the road to my property.

I've been in all of the lower 48 states, but nothing that I've taken to as much as the Ozark Mountains.  I own nearly six acres in Douglas County and I'd like to get the other six acres next to mine.

My place is off of Highway 95 between Drury and Gentryville.  Highway 95 runs north and south and comes out of Mountain Grove, one of my favorite towns, about 27 miles to the north.  It is the nearest largest town.

Highway 95 is a lovely quiet winding road, not a highway at all, that connects Highway 60, which is an actual highway, and Highway 14, a scenic route.

The two towns right around me are so small that one consists only of a country store and the other one has two country stores, a mechanic and a church.  Two of these small stores are three miles away and the other one is five miles away.

I am just a couple miles north of Highway 14.  I am in a very quiet part of the woods.  Not many people here and it is completely off the grid.

I have a wonderful life here.  I really like being out in the woods with three very cool small towns about 25-30 miles away:  Ava to the west, Mountain Grove to the north and Gainesville to the south.  And I have West Plains, the only town of any "size" less than 40 miles to the east.  I think of it as being in the middle of all of them!

Here's the view just down the road from my place.

I swim in the nearby creeks and rivers, most particularly Bryant Creek.  It is the cleanest, clearest and most beautiful water I've ever seen.  It is the most fun I've had.  Everyone jumps off the highway bridge and swims.  It is a blast.  I cherish my days and can imagine no other future than the life I have.

UPDATE:  I no longer have this property.  I loved it very much, but I wasn't so fond of having a shared road.  You'll notice many of my newer posts are about my search for a new property and once I've found one, my posts will be about my life in the Ozarks.