Quickly Approaching Crazy

We're quickly approaching crazy after almost three weeks of running around accomplishing very little.  Living room furniture -- check.  Refrigerator -- check.  Electricity, gas, water, trash, and internet/cable -- check.  Just when we were beginning to feel smug, I looked up at the ceiling in the house and realized -- no lights!  Say what?

We bought a spec and the builder doesn't install light fixtures.  That's a new one!  Instead of relaxing at the pool this morning, we're headed to a lighting store to pick out chandeliers and fans and see if we can get them installed in a week!  I had visions of taking my time looking for handcrafted wrought iron chandeliers from Mexico to replace the builder's plain Jane's -- but it's dark in there!

And then there's window coverings . . . .  

Friday, I swear we're going to take a one day break from the madness and drive to Bisbee for lunch and some fun before the moving in starts next week.

I finally charged my camera yesterday and found some forgotten photos from the trip to Tubac last week.

 Would love one of these in my courtyard.

They did a celeb cigar painting and left out  Bill Clinton?!!!

Cute little fountain.  That's still on my list of things to buy.  (Although I hear from the neighbors that water features attract packrats.)

Kansas has the world's largest ball of twine.  Wonder if this is the largest wind chime?

Howdy pardner.

After the week I've been having, I just want to say -- what an ass!  (Especially to the woman at Home Depot who didn't know you need to divide inches by 144 to get square feet.)

We have the walk through on the new house today.  We're a little stressed about a couple of items.  I'd rather be . . . . 

Wish I could click my heels and everything, including me, would be moved into the new house, unpacked, and DONE!

Craig's a different story.  He's anxiously awaiting Monday evening.  He's been told the rule breakers put their trash cans out early the night before pickup on Tuesday morning.  He'll be there with binoculars waiting to see the little piggies ransacking cans.  Monday night equals javelina sightings.   

It's the little things in life!

Wisdom for Life

 

I need this tag for the front of my Bug. 

Desperately Seeking Sofas

Today's search for sofas was once again a bust, but I did find a great colonial style credenza/console I can use for an entertainment center last night.  One errand completed!

In between running around to furniture stores in pursuit of a leather sofa (everything I've seen so far looks like they've blown it up with an air hose) and lunch, I wedged in a trip to Zocalo, a gorgeous Tucson shop that carries artisan goods from Mexico and Guatemala.
 

The prices are fairly horrendous compared to what you'd pay SOB, but I guess if you subtract the airfare, it all comes out in the wash.

It rained off and on all day.  No wonder all the flowers look so beautiful in this area.

A lion and Talavera urn guard the entrance to the shop.

Now I know where to find couch pillows!

This coffee table made from reclaimed wood was interesting.  Hmmmmm.

 Love this hand-painted wooden bowl.

Wonder if there's a special name for this pineapple pottery?

Candles

Masks

I've never seen an ottoman made from Guatemalan embroidered fabric.

Calling all saints!  If I ever need one, I know where to go.  Too bad nice looking leather sofas (that don't look like the Michelin Man) aren't that easy to find in Tucson. 

The Lost Barrio

Well honey, it's no longer lost because I found it!

After spending a few hours taking a long walk through the neighborhood and making a multitude of phone calls to try and keep the new house and back-end of the move on track, we headed out in search of a shopping district I'd seen listed in a Tucson guide.

The Lost Barrio.  Thank God for GPS because otherwise it would have remained lost!

It's a one block warehouse district chock full of interesting imports, art, antiquities, handmade furniture, Mexican handicrafts, etc....  After three hours of browsing, my head was spinning.  In particular, I was looking for some type of credenza I could use as an entertainment center in the new great room. 

Once again I found myself without camera, so I substituted the cellphone to snap some pics of the area.

In order to lure Craig, I promised him lunch at El Charro on the way.  Here he is with his  platter of El Charro tacos.

After our foray into Tucson, we needed some relaxation.  Craig claims he used the weight room and fitness facility in our new community, but I can't verify that because I spent my time at the pool!

So far this move seems to be a win-win!  What's not to love?

Another Wild Goose Chase

Increasingly we find ourselves running all over Tucson looking for needed items to feather our new nest.  So far we're scoring zero and coming up empty-handed.  Either that, or we can't seem to make a decision. Today was another one of those days.

I remembered a store in Tubac with very unique furniture, so we decided to take the short trip to look for a credenza we could use as an entertainment center in our living room.  After arriving in Tubac, we soon realized the town was pretty much shut for summer.  The snowbirds fly home and areas in the desert that rely on that population or tourists for business suffer in the hot months. Shops either close for the season or open on a summer schedule which evidently doesn't include Sunday.  La Cucaracha, the shop we came to see, was cerrado.  Oops!

Not only were the shops shut, my camera's battery died after the first few photos.  I used my trusty cellphone, always with me, to take the rest of the photos.  There's a reason they invented Instagram for editing cellphone pics.  It hides how bad the shots truly are!

Next trip I promise to pack a charged camera.  We head back to the Phoenix area tomorrow.  It's a momentous occasion!  The crown for my dental implant is ready to install.  Hopefully, this will be the final solution for a frustrating and rather expensive journey that started back in November 2011 in Mexico.

On a happy note, I found a cool pair of earrings in Tubac today to replace my misplaced jewelry.  I'm feeling rather discombobulated.  During the move, bags were divided into two categories -- rental and storage.  Somehow in the pandemonium,  the jewelry I'd packed for the next month ended up somewhere else.  I'm hoping it turns up when the pods are unloaded.  Oh well -- it's just stuff!

Hola!

We've moved!  They loaded all our stuff into pods last Saturday and we're now renting a house on the edge of the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson while we wait for our new home to be completed.  We wake up early to gorgeous sunrises and take long morning walks through the hilly neighborhood.  The temps here are 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix during the day, and often 20 degrees cooler in the evening.  What's not to love! 

The early bird gets the worm.  We wake up to gorgeous views of the sun coming up over the mountains.

Sunrise colors reflected in the clouds to the south.

The house comes with a few warnings.  Don't put the trash out the night before because javelinas will ransack the bins.  Don't leave the garage door open because rattlesnakes and scorpions will walk in and the javelina will take off in my VW Bug screaming weeeeee as it speeds down Desert Wind Drive.  I'd love to see the javelinas, but I'll pass on the rattlesnakes.

 Craig's itching to play golf, but we've been spending our days running errands looking at appliances and furniture.  He needs to take a break!

We're also enjoying storm watch duty.

Here comes the monsoon!  At our old house, this cloud would have been brown -- a big haboob.  We weren't there to see it, but on Monday evening after our house closed at noon, a huge wall of dirt rolled into Chandler.  We got the rain squall in the photo above instead.  According to locals, we may have seen our last dirt storm.  My asthma, acquired in Phoenix, is very excited about that. The monsoon is supposed to fire up again late this afternoon. 

I'm so glad I picked this rental off VRBO.  The mountain views from this location are fantastic.  We really needed a big chill pill after the last month.  I can't say much, but the buyer of our house was a bag of tricks and the shenanigans extended past closing.  This sale was the most stressful one we've been through. Hopefully we're done now!

Here's a few more photos from our new location.

 Cactus flower.

Jabba the Hut.  (I didn't touch him to see if he was sleeping or dead.)

My parents would have loved to live at the corner of Eagle and Birdie.  We're renting in an older golf community, so we're constantly amused.  We went to the local grocery store Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. and the place was dead.  I mean D.E.A.D.  The meat counter was shut down and the clerks were all in late night joke mode making prank announcements over the loudspeakers.

This is our new pool and Craig's SO glad he doesn't have to clean it! 

Stay tuned!  We planned to take a little daytrip to Bisbee today, but decided to stay in Tucson since heavy rains are predicted.  I can't wait to start exploring.  We have a few more weeks until the work begins again moving all that stuff into the new house.