ZERO TOPAZ

wayoflife

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From the beginning, the thing that drew Cindy and I together was all the things we have in common. Our love of the same music, our love of photography, our love of the great outdoors and our love of exploring. Fortunately, these were all things that we could and have enjoyed together and over the last 30 years. But, there was one other thing that we've had in common and that was a desire to own land... LOTS of land! Of course, for the better part of our lives, that was more of a dream than anything. Certainly, there was always a reason why it would have been impossible to do or at the very least, impractical and or irresponsible for us to do. But, Cindy never wanted to let go of that dream and so, she remained vigilant and for years, kept an eye out for prospective properties with the hopes of someday, making it a reality.

About a month ago, Cindy showed me a few new listings that she had come across and I should note, this is something she always does and not just with land. In fact, just about every old Jeep we own is all thanks to her. Anyway, on this particular occasion, there was one listing in particular that really caught my eye. Certainly, not because of the photos that were included because they were horrible but because of where it was located. Essentially, it was a 50 acre piece of property located close to town, in a development with mostly 1 acre parcels and with public land surrounding two sides of it. If nothing else, I figured this could be a good investment and maybe something we could develop. Needless to say, it was something we needed to see in person.

As luck would have it, we needed to head down to Boulder City the following morning and the property in question was something we could drive by along the way. And, when we pulled up to the gate, this is what we saw beyond it...
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What you're looking at is an old 50 acres ranch with about half of the property on a gently rolling slope and the rest goes up into the hills that you see here. As mentioned earlier, there are neighbors right up against the south and east side of the property but there's enough trees to block most of them out of view.
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Clearly, the listing photos we saw didn't do this ranch justice and after seeing it in person, we instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately, we had to continue our way down to Boulder City and figured it'd be sold by the time we could contact anyone about it.

As you can guess, we couldn't stop thinking about the ranch and talked about it all the way down to Boulder City. And, as soon as we got there, we were already making plans to head back to Carson City and as soon as we could so that we could give it one more solid look. If we still liked and it were still available, we were definitely going to make an offer on it.

After talking to the realtor and finding that the ranch was still available, we got permission to hop the fence and the following pics are what we saw. This first drone shot pretty much shows the whole ranch. Basically, the big empty land up front and all the way up the reddish gold hill in the middle.
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Just past the gate and hidden in the trees, we found this old single wide that has seen better days.
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Further down the road looking toward our neighbors to the south.
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Shot from the same point looking to our neighbors to the east.
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Here are a few shots of the old corral in the center of the property.
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From what we were told by one of the neighbors, the owner of this place used to have full blown rodeos with hundreds of people out here.
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Shot from just beyond the corral at the base of the hill and looking to the north.
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About half way up the southern end of the hill looking out toward the east.
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Here's a shot of me inspecting breaches in the barbed wire. As you can see, there was a fire that burned the hill back in 2012.
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Walking along the road that's located about half way up the hill.
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The hill was covered with these small wild flowers.
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The desert peach was in bloom too.
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Inspecting the burned up remains of the H-braces at the north gate.
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Surprisingly, there are the remains of old prospects on the hill.
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View from close to the north east corner of the property.
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Unfortunately, the owner of the property was using the south west corner of it to dump construction waste. Most of it was in the form or rocks and concrete but there was an old truck, a small trailer and miscellaneous junk too.
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There were even 16 pallets of slate roofing tiles LOL
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With all that said, Cindy and I were lucky enough to get an offer and ahead of everyone else. Thankfully, the owner accepted and even agree to clean up the property as part of the deal. Unfortunately, I don't think he realized just how big of a job it would be and after getting rid of the mobile home and some of the debris, he asked if we could just take money off the selling price. We agreed and as of 05/12/2022, Cindy and I have officially become the proud owners of Zero Topaz.
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Although this was going to be an investment property, we're thinking that we'll be keeping this ranch for ourselves. Sure, it needs work but in a way, that's what makes it so much fun.

Anyway, just thought we'd share what we've been up to and hope you enjoyed the pics. :cool:
 
With all that said, Cindy and I were lucky enough to get an offer and ahead of everyone else. Thankfully, the owner accepted and even agree to clean up the property as part of the deal. Unfortunately, I don't think he realized just how big of a job it would be and after getting rid of the mobile home and some of the debris, he asked if we could just take money off the selling price. We agreed and as of 05/12/2022, Cindy and I have officially become the proud owners of Zero Topaz.
20220602154249-8f3a1066.jpg


20220602121408-e47829c7.jpg


Although this was going to be an investment property, we're thinking that we'll be keeping this ranch for ourselves. Sure, it needs work but in a way, that's what makes it so much fun.

Anyway, just thought we'd share what we've been up to and hope you enjoyed the pics. :cool:
Congrats man that’s awesome I’m looking at 36 acres with no neighbors LOL
 
Awesome. Can’t wait to see what you do with it and good luck to you both 👍👍
Thank you. Originally, we were thinking about having it re-zoned from forest and ranch to residential so that we could sub-divide it but now, we kinda want the whole thing to ourselves LOL. We're considering building a barndominium out there.
 
But seriously, congrats on the awesome purchase and I hope you two enjoy every second of making it yours.

I already know Ripley will LOVE all the new sniffs.
Thanks. We've already started cleaning things up and it's looking better. I think we'll need a roll off and a skid steer to really get things done.

Ripley is LOVING it out there but we kind of need to keep an eye on her. There are definitely coyotes out there and one of the neighbors we talked to confirmed bears and mountain lions come through as well.
 
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