We waited too long. Over the last few years, we've been trying to figure out where we want to live when we retire. We love Arizona -- it's where we met and fell in love and married. Now, thirty plus years later, our kids are raised and are starting families of their own. Retirement is on the horizon.
Last year, we traveled to Arizona to see some properties near Tucson.
We found this beautiful glass and steel house sitting in a mesquite bosque and we fell in love.
The house sat near a river that was more or less dry, but when we looked a historic satellite images of the property, we were alarmed by the changes that had occurred in recent years, when the river would flood, so we decided against making an offer.
For the last year, we've been talking about the house in the bosque. We even had a hydrologist look over the historic satellite images and give us an opinion about the property. He told us, the river is going to claim that property some day.
Still, we talked about it. The house would need remodeling, but it had great bones. It was solid, having been framed from welded steel.
It had large overhangs, which is great in the Arizona sun.
It had fun spaces to discover, like this kitchen loft.
This would be a fun space for grandchildren to play, or to use as an art studio.
Every structural part of this house was built from welded steel -- even the staircases.
The bathrooms were a little odd.
The man who built the house was a professional welder... and a bachelor.
The funny little building sitting among the mesquite trees is a bathroom. Apparently the builder camped here while building the house in the eighties, and built this bathroom then.
Not a lot of thought was put into things like closets, but that would have been an easy fix.
I loved the covered outdoor space adjacent to the home -- perfect for entertaining.
This outdoor grill and oven were installed when the outdoor bathroom was installed.
A covered food prep area sits next to the outdoor grill.
It was early spring when we toured this property, and the weather was perfect, but we would be grateful for the covered spaces come summertime.
There was even a covered parking area.
This week, the house finally went under contract. We know this because we've been stalking the property for a year. We've been talking about. Our romantic selves tried to talk our practical selves into buying it.
It would have been a big project, but we would have been working with a great house with great bones. This is one of those houses that had a lot of heart. You could tell that it was a labor of love for the builder. You could feel it. We'd just about convinced ourselves to make an offer on it, in spite of the encroaching river... and then it sold.
We're heartbroken, but we're also happy the house is getting a family.
To see a beach house with great bones, that we also fell in love with, and that we actually bought, click here.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on throughout week on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to all your favorite social media sites.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Amanda
Last year, we traveled to Arizona to see some properties near Tucson.
We found this beautiful glass and steel house sitting in a mesquite bosque and we fell in love.
The house sat near a river that was more or less dry, but when we looked a historic satellite images of the property, we were alarmed by the changes that had occurred in recent years, when the river would flood, so we decided against making an offer.
For the last year, we've been talking about the house in the bosque. We even had a hydrologist look over the historic satellite images and give us an opinion about the property. He told us, the river is going to claim that property some day.
Still, we talked about it. The house would need remodeling, but it had great bones. It was solid, having been framed from welded steel.
It had large overhangs, which is great in the Arizona sun.
It had fun spaces to discover, like this kitchen loft.
This would be a fun space for grandchildren to play, or to use as an art studio.
Every structural part of this house was built from welded steel -- even the staircases.
The bathrooms were a little odd.
The man who built the house was a professional welder... and a bachelor.
The funny little building sitting among the mesquite trees is a bathroom. Apparently the builder camped here while building the house in the eighties, and built this bathroom then.
Not a lot of thought was put into things like closets, but that would have been an easy fix.
I loved the covered outdoor space adjacent to the home -- perfect for entertaining.
This outdoor grill and oven were installed when the outdoor bathroom was installed.
A covered food prep area sits next to the outdoor grill.
It was early spring when we toured this property, and the weather was perfect, but we would be grateful for the covered spaces come summertime.
There was even a covered parking area.
This week, the house finally went under contract. We know this because we've been stalking the property for a year. We've been talking about. Our romantic selves tried to talk our practical selves into buying it.
It would have been a big project, but we would have been working with a great house with great bones. This is one of those houses that had a lot of heart. You could tell that it was a labor of love for the builder. You could feel it. We'd just about convinced ourselves to make an offer on it, in spite of the encroaching river... and then it sold.
We're heartbroken, but we're also happy the house is getting a family.
To see a beach house with great bones, that we also fell in love with, and that we actually bought, click here.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on throughout week on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to all your favorite social media sites.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Amanda