Welcome to Arizona!

Since tomorrow will mark a week now that we've been in our new place, things have finally gotten settled enough for me to venture back on here.We had family in town until this morning (and Ed's brother and girlfriend will actually be staying overnight with us tonight), but, for now, it's just Ed and me in our home, and it's lovely.

So,  with things settled down, I can finally share a tour of our wonderful new home!

The outside of our home is a very nice brown (much better than the pinks and greys that many other homes in the complex have). Ed has some ideas about the landscaping in the front, but for now it's great. Obviously the 3rd car in the garage isn't ours - that belongs to Ed's brother, Tom!).

So, come on in!

Our huge front door! The movers (especially the refrigerator guy) were very excited about how huge this is.

Our first room you see is also the emptiest right now - the living room/dining room. 

We still need to choose living room furniture, but absolutely love our Cost Plus dining room set. I put all of those chairs together myself (Ed helped with the table), so I'm extra proud of it :).

Next, you reach the family room/kitchen area.

 Our family room will be changing a bit in August, when our custom leather couches arrive, so for now, we're using some furniture that will eventually go in the loft here. Having a family room with so much space and light makes it a very pleasant place to be.

If you can see from the picture, right now we have 2 tvs - one mounted and once on the hearth. Long story short, we bought the seller's mounted tv from her, for convenience's sake, only to discover that it doesn't work after about 20 minutes of being on. So, we're back to our little tv while we wait for her to pick this one up, and then we'll buy a pretty flat screen of our very own. Having a more spacious living space has, unexpectedly, made watching tv feel much less necessary. We're mostly using it for music at this point.

We have had no trouble convincing ourselves to eat at our nook. The shades are closed, due to a very bright outside, but from the table you have a great view of the backyard. We've really enjoyed watching all the birds who seem to call our backyard home. We have two resident mourning doves who love our koi pond and seem to be there every afternoon and evening.

We also have a bulletin board up by the nook.

Can I just say how much I love having a spacious kitchen! It's amazing being able to have multiple people in there without feeling crowded. We have great pull out shelves that easily handled a huge Costco run with room to spare. 

I also really like having an island. From the sink you can also see the backyard, as well as the family room/tv, so it makes doing dishes much better.

Ed and I are also very in love with our new fridge. It's so pretty, and fits perfectly in our kitchen.

Leaving the family room, you reach one of the huge selling features for us, the backyard.

We have a lovely covered patio with our inexpensive patio set. Someday we'll upgrade, but for now, this will work great.

Our beautiful pool!

Our lawn and koi pond (this is an April picture, so imagine it sunnier, bridgeless, and less green :)

Looking across our lawn during a very unusual 4th of July. We got hit with a "monsoon" (i.e. heavy rain) and temperatures were around 78 for the day. A huge change from the 112 the day we moved in.

Ed is super excited about our built in barbeque, though it'll need a good cleaning before we can fire it up.

Lets head back inside towards the dining room and go upstairs.

From the loft, you can look down on our family room/kitchen.

The loft is above the family room and it's too exciting yet.

Someday it will be our library, my office, the music room, and possibly other things besides. Right now it's sort of a catch all.

Ed has somewhat developed the music corner, though.

At the end of the upstairs hallway, we have a great place to store games and display photos.

Ed's office is the middle room off the hallway. It's much more spacious than what he had in our apartment, and will be a great place for him to work.

At the end of the hallway we have our guest room, which is basically our old master bedroom given a new home.

Across from it is our last bedroom, that's staying empty for now. We definitely have plans for it someday, but are happy to leave it as it is for a while :).

Across from the office is the upstairs bath. We're thrilled to have double sinks up here and a separate door for the shower, which makes it a much more functional space.

If we head back downstairs, towards the end of the family room and turn the corner, we'll reach another favorite room, and a novelty for us - the laundry room!

While I have big plans of making this a pretty, peaceful place, for right now I'm okay with the messiness. Having our own washer and dryer that we feel, to use Ed's words, ecstatic about, is wonderful enough. We've already done 5 loads and couldn't be more thrilled to no longer need quarters and to be able to do laundry at our convenience.

Past the laundry room is our powder room (no pictures, sorry!), and then you finally reach the master.

We very much love the Sumatra II bedset we got from Pottery Barn. The room still needs a mirror over the dresser, and badly needs to be painted (not feeling the red and gold color scheme), but is otherwise a gorgeous room. We have 10ish foot ceilings, which make a big difference in the feel of the room.

We also love the fireplace at the front of the room.

And, the quick access to the patio on the right, for a quick jump in the pool :).

Finally, we've reached the master bathroom, the room that arguably feels like the biggest change. It's so different from our cramped one sink, no ventilation bathroom in our last apartment. I love the huge counter space, the sink faucets, and all the cabinets.

The soaking tub is a surprising hit with me. I definitely wasn't super excited about a tub, but it has a very comfy sloped back that makes it really comfortable. Once it gets cooler, maybe I'll actually try it with some water. 

Our first time having full length mirrors! Behind these doors is our big walk in closet, but it's far too messy to share right now :).

Finally, our very cool shower. I wasn't necessarily excited about this either, with the unique design, but it's great.

Plenty of space, great showerhead, and even jets that come out from the middle of the shower to get your midsection area. And a bench if you get tired :)

So, that's it for now! It's slowly becoming home for a very happy couple.