Well, we've been in Phoenix for about a week and a half now, and I'm glad to say that we have found a house to rent near the base and are almost completely unpacked. House hunting was a much more time consuming and stressful process than we anticipated, and so it was a huge relief to find a place that suits our needs and was available to move in immediately.
Of course, there were some benefits to our week of homelessness... While we were driving around exploring neighborhoods, we really got to know the area around the base. Since we didn't have the ability to cook for ourselves, we sampled several different restaurants - some of our favorite chains that we missed while living in Del Rio, as well as a few local places that we can hopefully take friends and family to when they visit. We also got to see some of the sites here in the "West Valley", namely the University of Phoenix Stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play. Turns out there is a big shopping center out there next to the stadium, complete with fountains, shops, and a big movie theater so we spent an afternoon out there enjoying the not-yet-too-hot Arizona sunshine.
It was a huge blessing to find a house so quickly, but in rushing the process we created/encountered a lot of unforeseen problems that have made the last three or four days pretty difficult. Because we visited the house while it was vacant, the living room wasn't very well lit and we didn't notice that two of the walls in there are not the nice, neutral tan of the rest of the house, but a distasteful shade of mint green that doesn't match our furniture at all. We really weren't planning on painting while we were here so that's kind of a pain. Another thing we were really excited about was finally having our own garage. However, upon pulling in for the first time, we got a nasty shock because the garage door closed on the back of the truck and scratched up the bumper. Turns out the garage is inches shy of being too shallow!! The truck fits, but we have to pull so far forward that we can just barely get in and out of the house. We also discovered, to our extreme annoyance, that we get almost no cell phone service in our neighborhood. Thus, in addition to paying for cable and internet, we had to add a home phone line to our cable bill. Around the time that we were dealing with that, we realized that our air conditioner is broken. We called our land lady and hopefully that will get fixed tomorrow afternoon. Thankfully it's been a relatively cool week in Phoenix (only in the 90's) so we've survived with ceiling fans and open windows...but it's been hardly comfortable and unpacking has been very sweaty business.
I really think that moving here and renting this house has been a rite of passage for us. We learned a lot of valuable lessons the hard way, and while the stress and frustration has not been fun, I think it has been good for us to work through a little adversity. Short of some minor health problems, our marriage has been smooth sailing so far (something that always kind of disgusted our more confrontational friends). Thus we got to learn a lot about each other and the way we handle tension and disappointment this week.
Of course, there are a lot of great things about the house too, and I'll be posting more pictures later this week once we get more organized. It's only 3 minutes from base so James no longer has to make long commutes in to work and back every day. Even though we're so close, we're ideally located so that we're spared most of the jet noise (A big plus because they only fly fighters at Luke and they are LOUD!!) We have nice landscaping with flowering bushes in the front yard, and a moderate sized lawn with a patio out back. The kitchen is spacious and came with all of the appliances we need. The living room is almost too large for what we have so we are looking into getting some more seating. (We're hoping to do a lot more entertaining here than we did in our apartment since we have finally the space.) All of the bedrooms and bathrooms are a good size. We now have the master bedroom (with an impressive walk-in closet), an office, and a third bedroom for guests. Oh - and the washer and dryer are separated in their own little room by the garage so we no longer have to shout over the noise every time we need to do laundry!
Of course, there are a lot of great things about the house too, and I'll be posting more pictures later this week once we get more organized. It's only 3 minutes from base so James no longer has to make long commutes in to work and back every day. Even though we're so close, we're ideally located so that we're spared most of the jet noise (A big plus because they only fly fighters at Luke and they are LOUD!!) We have nice landscaping with flowering bushes in the front yard, and a moderate sized lawn with a patio out back. The kitchen is spacious and came with all of the appliances we need. The living room is almost too large for what we have so we are looking into getting some more seating. (We're hoping to do a lot more entertaining here than we did in our apartment since we have finally the space.) All of the bedrooms and bathrooms are a good size. We now have the master bedroom (with an impressive walk-in closet), an office, and a third bedroom for guests. Oh - and the washer and dryer are separated in their own little room by the garage so we no longer have to shout over the noise every time we need to do laundry!I think that, after we get settled in and learn to deal with some of the slightly problematic quirks, this house will make for a very nice little home. We're very close to a lot of shops, parks and restaurants too so I don't think I'll be complaining about being bored anymore. We've moved on to the next chapter in our life and look forward to seeing what else God has to teach us while we're here!
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