Una Casa Nueva!

One of the perks of Chris coming back to W.L. Gore and Associates was the great relocation package they offered us, and it included the services of a fantastic realtor, Melissa Howe at Berkshire Hathaway.  Melissa showed us tons of great properties and was a true pleasure to work with during our house search.  Eventually, after looking at around 30 different houses, mostly in the historic areas in Mid to Uptown Phoenix (Willo, Encanto, F.Q. Story), we put an offer in on one we saw at an open house our very first weekend in town (when Chris had recovered enough from almost being murdered by the fish). 

On 3/14 (Pi Day!  We won't forget that anytime soon), we signed the 8,000 pieces of paper necessary for the transaction, and around noon, the house was ours!

How about a tour of the new house?  As a note, these are all pictures from Zillow (hence the fish-eye lens in all of them); once we finish all of our "moving in/setting up" chores and give the place a thorough cleaning, I'll take another set of shots, so everyone can see how the house actually looks with us living in it.

Front yard/blue sky glamour shot!

We're now part of the North Encanto Historic Neighborhood,

although the remodel of our house takes it out

of the running for a historic designation.

That's a path of astroturf on the left side of the shot,

which we plan to rip up and replace with a tree,

once the summer passes, and it's cool enough to grow things again.

The shade we're getting here is from our neighbor's tree - 

it's pretty sunny in our front yard, most of the day

(it's a west-facing exposure, for those who are interested).

The majority of the front yard is small to medium brown desert rock,

with gray pavers laid for the car pad and walking paths.

When you walk in the front door, you're in the large, open great room which leads into the kitchen and the area we're using as the dining room.  The bedroom we're using as the office is off to your right, and the other two spare bedrooms (and spare bath) are in a cubby to the left.

Here, you've walked in the front door and closed it behind you
(all of these furnishings are from the staging firm, by the way -

they're not ours).

The office is off to your right,

through the french doors,

and that's the "living room" seating you can see

in the middle of the shot.

If you turned around and looked back at the front door,

this is what you'd see.

We're replacing that glass front door for a few different reasons

(security and privacy), but it's currently still in,

and the bottom half of it is now opaque from

dog nose prints.

Moving a little further back into the house - 

the office entry is on the left,

and the entry to the spare bedroom alcove

is on the right.

Into the office!

Ta da!

We picked this room to be an office,

since it doesn't have carpet,

and we know we'll be spending a fair amount of time in here

(since I still work from home two days a week).

It being right off the main house area

also would make it noisier for guests

trying to sleep, so that was another deciding factor.

I can also keep an eye on the street from the office,

and on the Amazon guy as he brings us our daily offerings.

Spare bedrooms!

This house has a little alcove/cubby area

with the two spare bedrooms and a spare bath.

We chose the room above to be the guest room,

and we have a queen-sized bed in there now.

Looking from the back corner of the guest room

out toward the alcove and beyond, to the front door.

Lotsa closets in this house.  I loves it!

Here's the other spare bedroom.

Since we don't really need two true guest bedrooms,

we have this one set up as a media room,

which houses our bookshelves, comfy chairs,

the spare tv, and Chris' video game setup.

That way, he can shoot aliens and whatnot,

and there's a whole room between where he's doing that

and where I've already gone to sleep.

Another shot of the media room - 

we've taken to calling this room "the bunker,"

as all of the exterior walls are made of brick.

It's solid.

Chris has even used the coffee grinder in here a few times,

and I haven't even noticed.

Spare bathroom!

I have grand, wallpaper-focused plans for this room.

If you come out of the spare bedroom suite and continue your journey toward the kitchen and back yard, you'll hit the laundry room on the right side of the house.

And you'll see our gate, behind which our recycle bin lives.

In this neighborhood, each house backs up to a shared alleyway,

and each alley has 4-5 giant black trash cans.

We all share those for normal trash,

and each Friday, the big ole trash truck rumbles by and dumps them.

This is completely new to me, and I'm still a little

weirded out by taking my kitchen trash out my back door,

through the back yard, into the alley, and throwing it away

in a bin behind my neighbor's wall.

When you head out of the laundry room, immediately to your right is the area we've made into our family room/tv watching location, and the stagers had the same thought.  It's right next to the kitchen, and the solid french doors behind it are the opening to the master bedroom.

Here, you're standing with your back against

the master bedroom doors.

That's the laundry room door to the right of the couches,

and the pantry door to the left.

Standing next to the pantry door,

looking at the master bedroom.

Into where we do all our sleeping!

Right now, we're standing where my nightstand is.

That's the entrance (with a barn door, about which everyone

except for me seems to be excited)

to our bathroom and closet on the left,

and the french doors to the living room on the right.

Moving around the headboard wall to where Chris' nightstand is

(and where the french doors are), that's our window in this room.

We have dual vanities in our master bath,

which we super love, but instead of being on one long counter,

each of us has our own little cubby.

It's cool!

This one belongs to Chris,

and you see the opening to the closet to its left

(that's the opening to the bedroom on the right).

A shot of the closet, toilet, and shower.

The shower has dual heads (one is a rainfall one),

which is pretty cool, and the closet is nice and big.

Coming back out of our master bedroom, you're facing the family room, but if you turn just a wee bit to your left, you look into the kitchen and dining room.  The kitchen in this house is seriously awesome, which is fantastic given the amount we cook.  It has a massive island, tons of storage, and a full, walk-in pantry.  It's obviously my favorite spot in the house.

Looking at the kitchen from our master bedroom.

That's the space for the fridge on the left.

This kitchen has so much storage that the other day,

Chris found three whole drawers with nothing in them.

How does that happen?

Moving toward the back door, then looking back

through the long part of the house to the front.

The pantry's open in this shot - see the shelves?

Standing with your back to the pantry,

looking across the island toward the dining room.

We put our dining room table here, too,

and we have more great, wallpaper-bedecked plans for that wall.

Time to head outside!  Our back yard is decent sized, but not as large as we've had in our previous houses, which is fine.  It's kind of bare right now, although it is completely finished, so we can take our time putting things in.  As you might imagine, we have grand plans for the back yard, since we spend tons of time outside, but any that involve planting will have to wait until fall - it's just too hot here during the summer to grow new plants.

We don't have any shots from directly outside the back door,

but this one is the closest.

That pad of pavers is where the back door opens.

That's a decent-sized storage shed,

and the garage door leads to the alleway.

We currently park the wee car back here,

since it needs an accessible outlet for charging,

and it works pretty well.

We do have money saved up to build a proper garage;

we're envisioning a two car sized space,

where one bay is home for the wee car

(with a fast charger built in),

and the other bay is a workshop for Chris' hobbies.

Moving to the other back corner of the house.

That's another astroturf pad, of which Zoe has been making good use,

as well as more of the brown rock from up front.

That's a eucalyptus tree, and the fencing along the alley is new.

We've essentially flipped our perspective here;

we're standing under the carport,

looking toward the back of the house.

You see the gate on the side that you first saw

from the laundry room window.

And here's the final shot, looking at the back of the house,

with the white wall on the left being the side of the shed.

So, that's it!  We've met a lot of our neighbors so far, and they all seem like lovely folks; we actually knew a few people already when we moved in - our good friends Sara Murphy and her wife Meg live almost directly across the street, and Rachel and Christina, Risa's daughter and her wife, live just a few streets away!

More shots to come once our decorating is done!

Later!

Amy

PS - This house technically came to us as a Fix and Flip, albeit one that was very well done (our inspector said it was the best one he's ever seen, and we did the happy dance).  The original house was only about half this size; everything from the kitchen/master bedroom back was a new addition.  In case you wanted to see more cool pics, Mom found the sale listing from a few years back, showing the pre-Flip shots.  It's kinda fun!  Click here to check it out!