Three Tucson Houses

A friend of mine, who is looking at houses in Tucson, sent me a link to an adorable – and affordable – little house.

It was undeniably cute, with nice high ceilings.

Clearly some thought and creativity went into the remodel.

And it had a pool!

By the time my friend told me about it, it had been on the market for 4 days and was already under contract.

Soon after, we took the plunge and tried to make an offer on this cute little one, but even though it had only been on the market one day, they were overwhelmed with a huge number of offers and wouldn’t take anymore.

We liked the round fireplace, which they call a “beehive” fireplace in Arizona. We call them “kiva” fireplaces in New Mexico.

A pool and a very handy covered gazebo.

But that one was the house that got away. We are now trying for this one:

It’s in central Tucson near a branch of the bike trail we like. It’s on a corner, with an alley and a large property behind it, so it really only has one close neighbor. It’s old and the kitchen is going to take some work.

At first glance, the kitchen looks ok. Never mind a little bit of broken tile here and there. But wait…where’s the refrigerator? Is it supposed to be there where that open shelving is? That doesn’t even look big enough for a refrigerator! And it turns out, there’s no outlet back there. Oh and yeah, that’s the back of the stove peeking over the counter. Not a good look!

We would just have to put the refrigerator awkwardly on this wall, blocking cabinets, until we got around to doing a remodel. You can also see broken and missing tile in this photo.

It has some mudbrick walls and a few wood ceilings, which we like, although it’s not in style anymore. Most of the ceilings are painted, but still the wood adds character we think. It also has a kiva (beehive) fireplace.

This was probably once an exterior space (we would not be putting a couch across the doorway).

The backyard is sad-and-sorry looking, but it has good potential. Lol, when people find themselves using the word “potential” in reference to buying a house, they should drop everything and run. Backyard potential is much less intimidating to me than kitchen potential.

The shed-like addition with the two identical red-rimmed doors bugs me. But there’s potential there – an entire functioning bathroom lurks behind one of those doors! I just need to figure out how to make the space more practical – and not so shed-like.

Yes, we appear to be considering doing everything I’d advise against – don’t buy in a hot market, don’t buy a house that clearly needs work…apparently we don’t learn!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com