Five Years in the New House

 

The Damsel and I moved in to our desert house in early January of 2011, just a few days more than five years ago. Since the move in date, we have made a few improvements over time. I took both photos above, one back then and the other today. Comparing the two, one can see the result of planned improvements to our rustic desert homesite. Click on either image to enlarge.

Almost immediately after we moved in, our contractor began construction on the courtyard wall. That was followed by the landscape contractor who installed irrigation and the shrubs, then finished with the river and red rocks covering the ground all around the house. Somewhere in the middle there, we had the sunscreens and security doors installed.

After experiencing several minor RV drive washouts from monsoons, we decided to have our contractor put in retention walls last February. We also asked them to pave the RV drive with concrete all the way around. Last summer, we had what the Maricopa County Flood Control District referred to as a “millennium” rainfall event, dumping up to five inches on us in less than two hours. The walls did their job of diverting the runoff and the pavement drained properly.

We now consider our home in a maintenance mode. We still have some minor improvements to make to the rock and cactus garden west of the house. We have taken it upon ourselves to spread some of the rock ground cover and to reinforce the runoff creek with large rocks and boulders already available on the property. All in good time, of course.