Final House Pictures

I promise, these are the very last pictures of the house. Although we're not leaving until mid-May (!!!!), I'll only post nature pictures until then. The saguaros are coming into bloom. What a treat! We had never stayed here long enough to see them. Anyway, here are views of the house furnished with items from consignment stores, craigslist, and yard sales, tastefully decorated with treasures from thrift stores, and topped off with some contributions from friends. It's not quite finished, but we're getting there. The rest will wait until next winter because, honestly, I'm broke. Who knew a house was so expensive?

For those of you who missed or forgot the original outside shot, here it is again.


Coming in the front door, this is the view of the living room/dining room and through the opening that formerly held the sliding glass door into the Arizona room. My daughter asked if that was like a Florida room - yes, exactly, except (you guessed it) it's in Arizona. That brought up the question whether all the southern states have them. For instance, is there such a thing as a Louisiana room?


Here's the view looking back the other way. As you can see, Sally and Mary Ellen, I did manage to find some mission tables on craigslist although we almost got into a fist fight with another buyer over them.


I think I already posted this too, but here's the kitchen.


We got the bedroom set from a consignment store - a bit more expensive then craigslist, but there is not a scratch on it. That's the dresser to the left, we each have a nightstand and the chest is out of the picture off to the right.


Here's the second bedroom all ready for guests. Just let us know when you'll be coming.


Another of Ron's amazing feats was moving this monster with the lovely orange counter from the Arizona room. . .


To the garage. He also ran some fancy wiring and added a light.


And to answer those of you who asked what Ron will do when he runs out of projects, that will never happen. For example, look at what we picked up in a thrift store last week. It will replace the green/gray one in the master bathroom. I really like the molded sink. (I don't care if it's in style or not.)

It will patiently wait in the garage until we return next winter.

Update

Yes, we're still here in Mesa. We expected to be long gone by now, but Ron isn't finished with the dentist yet. He's getting an implant and it's a long process. We had a few really hot days and I started to panic, but it's cooled down again now. Even though the house stays pretty cool with the concrete block construction and we have air conditioning, I still don't like the heat. How spoiled we are with being able to follow the weather in the RV.

Meanwhile things are shaping up here. Ron's latest project was taking care of the shed. When we bought the house, the shed had been turned 90 degrees and was off its foundation. The door inconveniently faced the wall. You can see how rusty the roof was.


First Ron hooked a 'come along' (like a hand winch) to it to turn it around.


He hooked it to the wooden platform which I was sure was going to break off, causing the cable to fly back and knock him out. I was wrong about that, but I was right when I told him he would be able to use the extra tow cables that came with the new hitch.


After he got it turned around, he decided to improve the base so we had to move it forward. I didn't get a picture of that since we discovered we could just push it ourselves. Using spare paver blocks that were lying around, he made a heck of a base to discourage critters from moving in. Once again, no picture.

Then he scraped off the surface rust on the roof and bought two cans of Rustoleum as a primer. As usual, we underestimated and he went back for four more. Then he painted the whole thing, even the floor inside. I'm sorry I missed the shot of him actually on top of the roof and he wouldn't climb back up to pose for a picture. Spoilsport!


Now we have the most beautiful shed in the world!!! What a guy.

What is it?

Today we awoke to a weird phenomenon involving some kind of liquid falling out of the sky. At first I thought Diana's favorite childhood story had come true and the sky was falling, but Ron remembered this occurring two months ago and said it was rain. Amazing! Where was our normal blue sky and bright sun? But never fear, I understand all will be back to normal tomorrow.

Our roses liked it though. I take no credit for them since they were already here when we moved in and are on an automatic watering system. But I'm sure they appreciate a nice shower now and then.

Before and After

We are making progress on our little house and it even is starting to feel like home. Ron had to practically force me to move out of the RV, but we've been in the house for a couple of weeks now. Every day we bring in more stuff from the rig. I can't imagine taking it back out when it's time to leave. How do people do it?

We have a couple more rooms finished while others are still in progress. The kitchen is done with the addition of a table and my mother's cross stitch pictures.


The master bathroom is also done. This was a huge job since Ron recessed a 36" mirrored medicine cabinet over the vanity. Here's the original bathroom.


Ron fearlessly cut into the wall and framed it in to add support. He was surprised to find 2x6" studs - he was expecting 2x4s.


Now we have to buy more drugs to fill the huge medicine cabinet!


And remember the fan blades I tried to paint so incompetently that Ron fired me? Ron took over the job and did his usual fine work. This is the original fan. . .


And here is the improved version. He used spray paint, but knew you can't hold the can too close to the object you're painting. BTW, he didn't paint over the gold design, but flipped the blades over and painted the other side.



And a big milestone - since we also bought a dining room table, we were able to have our first dinner guests. Pat and Harold were brave enough to accept our invitation. As my friends know, I am not a cook. I got pot roast since it was on sale (nothing but the best for my friends) and refused to be intimidated by the fact that I don't think I've ever made one. Fortunately the meat came with instructions! It was pretty good, although not exactly fork tender.