Desert Home

We arrived back in Winnipeg late last night, a day late from Phoenix due to the fact that we left our passports in Yuma.  We drove the 3 hours to Phoenix on Thursday and when we were close to the airport we realized that we did not have our passports. We drove to the car rental place and said that we needed the vehicle one more night then off to West Jet to change flights.  Much to our surprise West Jet did not charge us a change fee, just another reason why I love the airline.  We had to drive back to Yuma, spent another night and off again to Phoenix to catch our evening flight to Winnipeg.  Needless to say we were exhausted last night and a bit today. 

 

West Jet had us up and out of Phoenix yesterday quickly as Air Force One was at

the airport as President Obama was there.  I guess when Air Force One flies the rest of the

airport will be shut down for hours

One of the coolest things we saw while flying out of Arizona

was the Meteor Crater from the air

A closer view of the crater 

 

Our first full day in Yuma started off at the title office to sign the final paperwork and in two hours we had the keys to the condo. While waiting for the title to be switched, Kimberly our realtor drove us to the condo to show us around the property.  Debbie and Art who we rented their place in October were also in Yuma and came by to see us and it was nice to actually meet them in person. After we received the keys it was off shopping for cleaning supplies as the condo was very dirty, I guess after a couple of years of being vacant the Arizona dust settles in.  From there we headed to get a bed and have it delivered and then back to Sears to purchase the appliances and other necessities like toilet paper.

 

The week in Yuma was spent mostly cleaning, shopping and getting the place in order.  On the Monday the pest control came by to help us with the bee problem.  It turns out that the bees were Africanized honey bees and large ones at that.  The technician returned a couple of days later to do another treatment and we noticed that the bees were basically gone the next day.

 

The following pics are of the condo, some before and after pics.

 

The front garden was weed infested so we pulled them all out

but left the yucca plant and the aloe plant.

This is the result of no more weeds, when we return we will make it

a desert landscape

The view from the front door

Looking towards the entrance of the complex

Looking the other way

Our back yard facing south - we will likely remove two of the

four concert slabs

More of the yard

 

 

We have some visitors at the condo, neighbour's cat, humming birds, and on our last day a road runner and a large lizard

 

 This is the where the bees were, in one of the roof drains. Someone shoved in some newspapers into the drain instead of taking care of the problem.  

Gilbert taking care of the bees for us

 As you can see they were large. The technician said that they were not as aggressive as some of the Africanized honey bees that he has dealt with.

 

The triangle cardboard has the pheromone of the queen bee so that's why there are bees

hanging out on the side of the house. This is when the pest control came back to treat again. 

Our back mat ready for the dogs

 

The blinds were really dirty but a round of TSP took care of it 

After the kitchen was cleaned, the dishwasher and range hood vent still had to be removed

Other side of the kitchen

Exciting day when our appliances arrived!

Yay appliances!

I started painting the full wall in the kitchen a terra cotta colour

and since the wall is textured I thought I would bring it out.

I will do the remaining walls when we returned

The dining room with the Spanish style furnishings. 

I will likely paint the walls the same colour as the kitchen but a

solid colour instead

 

There is a dry bar in the corner but was very tired looking

So I distressed it with a turquoise Mexican colour

Found this great large pot at a thrift store

and this one

Well we have one chair in the living room

 

Our couch

I put a sample colour on the walls to see if I still like it when we return

The view from the front door all the way to the

kitchen and the end of the condo

Into the hallway

Spare bathroom cupboards were also tired looking

Same treatment on the cupboards and new handles

The finished bathroom

With a new light fixture thanks to Craig

 

Our new Canadian friends and now Arizona neighbours Debbie and Art had us over for dinner a couple of nights.  They are great people, easy going and tons of fun.  Debbie, Art and Kimberly have helped us a lot and made our time there enjoyable. It's great to have some connection down there and Debbie's sister Norma from CamBay will be our neighbour there also and we are already looking forward to our next time there.

 

Today we meet up with Craig's sister and her family and Craig's parents for dinner then off to Lac du Bonnet for the weekend.  The dogs are now with us and were very happy to see us as we were with them.  I leave you with a good ole Arizona sunset from two nights ago.

 

 

 

Talk soon!