Arcadia Walk and House Dreams

Marti took me on a Saturday April 25 walk around Arcadia (between Scottsdale and Phoenix) area where many beautiful houses have been redone or rebuilt.  Marti has gotten to do some design work in the area so she knows lots of nice streets.  I'll feature a few of my favorites.  It was already starting to get warm but I loved looking at the architecture.  If I ever train for another race, I'll definitely do a Saturday run here so I can look at them real slow while I run by!

I love this craftsman style, love the brick and landscaping!

This garage door reminded me of my garage door but I like the wood option. I also love pavers or brick driveways.

This reminded me of New England.  I would love a complete metal roof!  Metal accents are the thing right now at least.  Too bad they're so pricey.

This one was very French, this drive-thru to the garage reminded me of Buckingham Palace in the Crown.

We bought our first "starter" home in 2007 right before the AZ housing market tanked.  So we've lived here 13 years this May because it never made financial sense to sell when we bought so high.   Luckily Matt's jobs haven't been too far away and allowed us to continue to remodel and pay extra even when the house was worth half of what we paid at the bottom of the market.  We got burned and after 4 kids and 13 years we're pretty attached to the people, schools, neighborhood, ward etc.  Basically, we won't ever move unless the house prices drop again and we can find (or build!) exactly what we want.  We've remodeled so much, and we chose pretty well the first time it would be hard to move.  After 13 years I've had a lot of time to think about it what I would want if we ever moved. 

Current House: Built 1987 

Things I love-

• Red brick and siding
• Farmhouse style
• 3 roof levels
• New kitchen we got to design
• Love our vinyl flooring
• Big soaking tub
• 2 bedrooms good sized 10x20 and probably 15X15
• Vaulted ceilings but not Super tall
• Front and back porch
• Medium sized yard- with grass- bermuda- but grass
• Awesome Neighbors (mostly- the one across the street is a foster care home for teen boys and they're rough)
• Could pay off soon 

Things I don't like:

• The boys room is tiny 10x10 and very tall
• Dining area/Living room area is too small- especially when we have a group or party, no corners, no options for rearranging, the unused fireplace is a big space sucker but a nice focal point.
• No office space for Matt or guest room- we had both when we moved in, but now the kids need the rooms.
• Nowhere for kids to hang-out or play separate 
• Textured walls, not many nice details or built-ins (we added a window seat and a built-in desk in the kitchen) I'd love to add wood beams to the ceiling and update the weird skylight in the kitchen. Some cool trim in the living room and master.
• Laundry in the garage- so hot and annoying to walk around clothes baskets to get in your car, hard to have a good laundry system.
• Matt has to park in the driveway- truck won't fit in garage- again so hot.  I like parking in the garage.  He's so nice to let me have the garage.
• Not good landscaping, small yard, I don't want to put in a pool and have no yard.
• We're in a different neighborhood than most of their school mates, not much they can bike to, ward constantly has people moving out when they outgrow their home, it's been really hard to have so many friends move.

 Here's my list if we ever build or buy again:

• Close to the same area/schools
• Not huge (I used to think I wanted a huge house, then I realized I don't want to pay for it, clean it, air-condition it) 2,500 to 3,500 at most
• $300,000 price range- hahaha, if only.  Everything nice here seems to be in the 500,000 range
• Cute, Charming, Cottage, Craftsman- interior and exterior- I will not buy an ugly house unless we can buy super cheap and it's not so bad it can't be remodeled- there are quite a few past saving in AZ. I love the details and craftmanship in old houses but worry about termites, mold, design issues... Check out this old Mesa bungalow/craftman style https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/724-W-Main-St-Mesa-AZ-85201/7611574_zpid/
• Details- window, door trim, nice wall, and ceiling details
• Built-ins- window seats, bookcases, desks- I LOVE THEM
• One level- or very little on a second level- preferably a basement with a media/game room for kids/teenagers to hang out
• Big yard/property
• Beautiful landscaping- nice grass, shade and fruit trees, trike track, big enough for parties, maybe a pool or hot tub if done well/gated, otherwise not
• 3 car garage that can actually fit both our cars, bikes, & storage
• Regular sized master bedroom, bath, & closet (so many new builds go way over the top and waste a ton of space on these in my opinion, I don't want it tiny, but they shouldn't look like you could fit a queen bed in the middle of the bathroom or closet.  I like the space used efficiently.  
• 2.5 or 3 bathrooms ( I don't want to clean more than that)
• 4 bedrooms plus an office space
• A real laundry room with a desk for my sewing machine
• Nice kitchen & pantry- I love mine now, even ones that are technically "updated" I have a hard time with because I always find something I would have done differently.

I'm pretty sure my dream home doesn't exist.  I don't have much faith in new-builds based on what I see. I'd have to be really picky on my architect and builder.  But it's still fun to dream and I'll keep planning my runs to see the pretty houses I can find.