Remember the post we wrote about “Shopping for Granite?” Well this is how beautiful it turned out in the master bath. The same pattern is in both bathrooms and the kitchen. I love it. Click on the image to enlarge. Click on this link for a closer look at the grain in the little bathroom and on this link to see the granite in the kitchen.
The final inspection is now complete on our new Arizona home. The contractor poured the concrete for the driveway yesterday and we had the first bed delivered to one of the little bedrooms. Things are moving right along.
The outdoor sconces are all installed and they are so beautiful! I took a picture of one of them on the shady side of the house with the light turned on and Bob doctored the resulting photo to simulate twilight. This is how they should look when the sun goes down. Click on the image to enlarge.
We had to run a couple of errands this morning, so we stopped at our new house while we were out. I climbed the little hill behind the house to have a look around. While I was up there, I took a series of images of the neighborhood, panoramic style to stitch into the panoramic image below. The new house is just to the right of center. Click on the image to view the full-sized panorama.
When we last saw our new house, Damsel climbed up the little hill behind the house and took this image. She took it on November 8th – six weeks ago tomorrow.
Image – construction progress as of 11/8/2010 – click to enlarge.
We fully intended to go back sooner, but we were held up because some custom outdoor lighting fixtures were held up in production. We’re told that they will be here (in California) in a couple of days and when they arrive we will be headed back to our new home to get them installed. The fixtures are just about the finishing touch on the new house. Thereafter, we’re going to start acquiring the furniture items we need to actually be able to occupy the house.
We have to stay over the Christmas Holiday to meet the following week with the utility company to install the gas meter and for any other yet unknown details of getting everything set up. We also plan to arrange for the new 22 long gun fire safe to be delivered and installed.
There are a lot of details that are still emerging which we will address when we understand what needs to be done. We are now hoping to be in the fully furnished house by March.
Since we have had some life events this year, mainly building a new home and refinancing our old one, I thought I better begin the tax estimation process. I also did this last year when I had a retirement life event. I pulled up the TurboTax 2010 Tax estimator to approximate our Federal tax situation.
The process is bringing a little bah humbug to an otherwise jolly time. Some of the initial numbers popping out scare me a little. However, we’re not using actual data at this time, only top-of-the-head estimated numbers and there are still a lot of things we can do that may help the situation.
Hat tip to John Lott who used this estimator in a post he made about tax rates being unfairly distributed..
Damsel and I are expecting some fixtures we ordered to be delivered to our California residence. Since the fixtures need to go to the Arizona residence for installation, we will need a way to transport them when they get here.
I looked into renting a trailer from U-Haul for a one-way trip. We only need a single day rental, but they say all rates are for up to three days of use. U-Haul quoted an on-line rate of $101 for their smallest cargo trailer one-way from the L.A. area to Wickenburg.
Image: 4′ x 8′ Cargo Trailer – courtesy U-Haul®
We’re not yet convinced that renting a trailer is the most inexpensive way to get the packages to the new house. We’re considering alternatives such as hauling the packages on the SUV’s cargo rack under a tarp and secured with bungee cords.
I remember someone blogging about U-Haul being a good indicator for migratory trends. Because of the law of supply and demand, it should be less expensive to rent a one-way trailer (or truck) in the direction that is less popular. Sure enough, when I reversed the route on the website, the rate dropped from $101 to $67 for the three day period to go from Wickenburg to the L.A. area.
I didn’t test the U-Haul migration theorem any further than this one comparison, but the results told me what I expected – people are leaving more than they are arriving. After the recent election results in California, who could blame us?
This is Wickenburg’s historic Little Red School House on North Tegner Street. The Wickenburg Children’s Cultural Organization uses it for musical events and community cultural activities. It is a national historic monument.
This building, originally built at the Vulture Mine, was moved the 25 mile distance to its present location in about 1895 at a cost of $50.00. You can read about Ynagcio Garcia for whom the school house is named and the rest of the history at the Wickenburg Unified School District website.
Click on the image to enlarge.
