Bisbee,AZ
I don't know how many people are still reading or following this blog. I know it was not many to begin with, but if you are still reading/following this blog, here's an update for you.
Mrs. Pitt and I have moved and settled in Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee is an old mining community only a couple of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, but you would never know how close we are to the border given the demographics of the town.
One could break up the population of Bisbee into 1 of 3 distinct groups. The first is the retiree. Some of whom used to work in the mine and have hung around here since the mine closed. The others are people that "discovered" Bisbee in retirement and figured it a quiet place to live, or are "snowbirds" who spend the winters here in their RV. The second is the hippie or the "crunchy". These folks prefer to work ~20hrs per week in one of the coffee shops or restaurants or do odd handyman work for irregular pay on irregular hours and get around the town by either bicycle, walking, or the bus system. The third is the professional, of which I count myself. We have salaried jobs, insurance, and contribute to the local economy.
Bisbee is located in Cochise County and is 1 of the 3 primary communities in the county; the others being Sierra Vista to the west and Douglas to the east. Each of these communities is very distinct in their population and demographics. Sierra Vista has become the center of commerce for the county. They have the mall and more chain restaurants you can shake a stick at. This is due to the fact that they neighbor Ft. Huachuca, an Army base that specializes in intelligence training for enlisted service men and women. Many of these service men and women retire to Sierra Vista too and because of this, many people complain about how Sierra Vista is where you'll find the rednecks of Cochise County.
Douglas on the other hand is a border town and when you drive around Douglas, which doesn't take very long btw, you immediately feel as though you're driving around a Mexican town, which it essentially is. There are many beautiful old homes in Douglas and some have been kept up, but you can tell that others have not been as lucky. Douglas was probably the hardest hit when the mines closed and Phelps Dodge pulled out. You can get great Mexican food in Douglas. There's a Super Walmart, a JC Penney, & some fast food stores. I even found a notary!
The primary employer in Bisbee was the Lavender Pit Mine, which closed in 1976 was operated by a company called Phelps Dodge. The area of Bisbee in which we live, known as Warren, was home to the elites of Bisbee and was the first planned community in Arizona; preceding even Sun City, which was developed after WWII. Now, Warren is a quiet little community and the higher property values are in Old Bisbee, which is where the miners lived, so one could argue that the roles have flipped.
The house we bought was built in 1933, so it's older than my 80 year old aunt. It's 1400 square feet and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, with an upstairs loft kind of area that will eventually become the TV/media area once we complete some updates and renovations to the area that Mrs. Pitt wants done. One of the bathrooms only has a shower & the other bathroom only has a tub. It's been added on to several times over the years and was in the same family for I'm guessing ~50 years. We purchased it as a flip. Someone had purchased it last year for $30,000, did some renovations to it, and sold it to us for an amount I'm not going to disclose. But it's our first home and I'm happy with it, though Mrs. Pitt was rather critical of it when she first walked through it. I purchased it while she was still in Japan this summer, so she didn't have a chance to see in person, only online pictures, until we were about 2 weeks from closing escrow on it. So we're making some additional changes over time.
Mrs. Pitt and I have moved and settled in Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee is an old mining community only a couple of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, but you would never know how close we are to the border given the demographics of the town.
One could break up the population of Bisbee into 1 of 3 distinct groups. The first is the retiree. Some of whom used to work in the mine and have hung around here since the mine closed. The others are people that "discovered" Bisbee in retirement and figured it a quiet place to live, or are "snowbirds" who spend the winters here in their RV. The second is the hippie or the "crunchy". These folks prefer to work ~20hrs per week in one of the coffee shops or restaurants or do odd handyman work for irregular pay on irregular hours and get around the town by either bicycle, walking, or the bus system. The third is the professional, of which I count myself. We have salaried jobs, insurance, and contribute to the local economy.
Bisbee is located in Cochise County and is 1 of the 3 primary communities in the county; the others being Sierra Vista to the west and Douglas to the east. Each of these communities is very distinct in their population and demographics. Sierra Vista has become the center of commerce for the county. They have the mall and more chain restaurants you can shake a stick at. This is due to the fact that they neighbor Ft. Huachuca, an Army base that specializes in intelligence training for enlisted service men and women. Many of these service men and women retire to Sierra Vista too and because of this, many people complain about how Sierra Vista is where you'll find the rednecks of Cochise County.
Douglas on the other hand is a border town and when you drive around Douglas, which doesn't take very long btw, you immediately feel as though you're driving around a Mexican town, which it essentially is. There are many beautiful old homes in Douglas and some have been kept up, but you can tell that others have not been as lucky. Douglas was probably the hardest hit when the mines closed and Phelps Dodge pulled out. You can get great Mexican food in Douglas. There's a Super Walmart, a JC Penney, & some fast food stores. I even found a notary!
The primary employer in Bisbee was the Lavender Pit Mine, which closed in 1976 was operated by a company called Phelps Dodge. The area of Bisbee in which we live, known as Warren, was home to the elites of Bisbee and was the first planned community in Arizona; preceding even Sun City, which was developed after WWII. Now, Warren is a quiet little community and the higher property values are in Old Bisbee, which is where the miners lived, so one could argue that the roles have flipped.
The house we bought was built in 1933, so it's older than my 80 year old aunt. It's 1400 square feet and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, with an upstairs loft kind of area that will eventually become the TV/media area once we complete some updates and renovations to the area that Mrs. Pitt wants done. One of the bathrooms only has a shower & the other bathroom only has a tub. It's been added on to several times over the years and was in the same family for I'm guessing ~50 years. We purchased it as a flip. Someone had purchased it last year for $30,000, did some renovations to it, and sold it to us for an amount I'm not going to disclose. But it's our first home and I'm happy with it, though Mrs. Pitt was rather critical of it when she first walked through it. I purchased it while she was still in Japan this summer, so she didn't have a chance to see in person, only online pictures, until we were about 2 weeks from closing escrow on it. So we're making some additional changes over time.
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