Intro to the New House

Hey all!  I shouldn’t promise when I’ll be back on this blog because whenever I say “be back soon”, it never is soon.  So from now on, I think we can all be good with “I’ll see you when I see you.”

We are starting to settle into our new life and new rhythm here in Phoenix and so I was able to get back in the saddle for my “MCM in the Room” posts at Mister Modtomic.  Check out some sweet in situs of Kartell Componibili from earlier this week.

But what I’ve been wanting to share more is our new digs in Phoenix.  We’re situated south of downtown and on the north side of South Mountain.  We’re still in Phoenix proper, not in one of the outlying suburbs which is nice because now JT’s commute is drastically shorter – he doesn’t even have to get on a highway.

We’re sunk into beige stucco land, in a gated-community built in 2004.  It’s strange for everything to be so new and all so tan.   The original owner left a binder of paperwork with the house and I happened across some construction photos and a floor plan (score!).

The plan doesn’t 100% match what actually got built, I even flipped it around and moved a few walls around to get it closer.  But it’s pretty close to what we’re living in.  At 1400 sf feet of above ground, livable space, this house pretty much feels like a mansion to us.

Above, an image of the chaos that is construction.  Below, an image of the chaos that is moving.

I wish I could say the garage has gotten better/cleaner/wiser but . . .

. . .  it has not.  There are a few furniture items we’re still deciding if we want in the house or not along with  a lot of my M-I-L’s furniture as she is also in the process of moving to Phoenix.  The garage does have some built in shelving, a workbench with peg board and even some wiring for  surround sound! (So does the living room and the side patio – the original owner really liked to listen to his tunes.)

One of the first things we did to the back yard was to get our chiminea set up.  We actually had a fire pit that we moved with us from St. Louis but mysteriously only the stand and the cover arrived.  I should say though that overall we were really happy with the movers and the moving company and after helping some of our friends and family move themselves, having hired guns do all the work is A.MA.ZING.  So we bought the chiminea with the replacement funds from the missing fire pit and everything was back to (our new) normal.

We set up an outdoor dining area with our old janky umbrella (already broken pre-move).  This shot illustrates why this is a house you rent, not a house you buy.  The property backs up to an industrial area and on the other side of a small alley/wash there is lovely razor wire.  We’re thinking about setting up some kind of screen/planting/TBD at the end of the patio to hide the razor wire view while dining.  On the plus, and random side, there is also a real and complete horseshoe game in the back yard – two sand pits and three horseshoes for hours of entertainment.

Another random (and very bad) image of the covered patio.  I’m in the market for some sun loungers for this space – not exactly something we brought with us from St. Louis!

So that’s what we got in our neck of the woods.  What’s going on with you guys?  Next up is the interior – we’ve started decorating for Christmas to help get us out of a bah humbug slump.  It’s weird to be putting up Christmas decorations before we’ve really “finished” decorating the house but there are no rules to this thing called moving.  So, I’ll see you when I see you — hopefully it will be soon!  Cheers – CT