Projects at the new house

There are always projects when you move into a new-to-you home...

In our park model (both the new one and the casa), there is a switch to turn on electricity to the water heater. In the casa, it is a light up switch. In the new house, it is not -- the previous owner had a piece of tape over the switch marking it to not turn off. We took a picture to have the information about the number of amps and to remind us that we want to get a light-up switch with a red light. 

When we viewed the house, we knew that we wanted to remove the carpet and replace it with solid flooring. (The existing carpet needs stretching and is soiled due to the dust from the asphalt roads being tracked in.) We have talked to a couple of carpet companies, and have one booked to replace the carpet. In preparing for this, we found that there was a strange join from the park model to the Arizona room (a weird triangle shaped piece at the edge of the doorway. We preferred having a straight across seam, and we had a few pieces of the vinyl tile from the park model (kitchen/dining area) that we could use to fill in the triangle area. Carl volunteered that he could accomplish this task...

... here he is taking up the two tiles that need to be replaced. The iron is being used to heat up the adhesive so it is easier to remove.

I was having difficulty figuring out where to store certain items... two in particular were spices and rolls of wrap products (foil, plastic wrap, and baggies). The previous owner took out a few drawers (we think 3) and put in a small dishwasher. I personally would prefer having the drawers, but we don't want to make that change if we can avoid it. 

I looked at various solutions -- I was looking for a rack for the paper products that I could put on the back of the doors under the kitchen sink, but what I wanted wouldn't fit on our slim sized doors... 

.... so I found an over-the-door rack for our pantry. While Carl was working on removing the floor tiles, I was working on building and populating the over-the-door rack.

We're looking forward to getting settled!

Protecting your car during the off-season

In our community, only about 30% of the residents are "rounders" -- staying here year round. The rest choose to go to cooler climates during the summer -- most to their homes back up north somewhere (Minnesota and Iowas seem to be the most common). Even among the "rounders" many leave for parts of the summer.

Of those who leave, there are quite a few who leave a vehicle here at Venture Out while they are gone. We left our golf cart this past summer (I posted about having it under the awning of our casa and having it covered: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/05/packin-up-and-movin-out.html). 

Here's a car that appears to be very well protected -- the cover seems specifically designed for the car it is covering, and the owner has also placed a board, held in place by a piece of concrete edging, against each of the tires to protect the tires from baking in ultraviolet rays.

This off season, there have been some pretty strong storms that have come through... and some of the sun protections have not held up to the challenges. This owner tried... you may not be able to tell, but the frame is actually up on jacks so the tires are not resting on the ground, and the cover had been tied securely around the car... but... while the ropes survived the summer, the cover did not. We have heard that 3 years is about as long as you can expect a cover to last in the Phoenix/Mesa sun. This year, with the strong winds, the cover just could not hold up. 

We heard of neighbors helping neighbors when the storms went through -- re-securing golf cart covers and shoring up other things that went awry. Our across-the-street neighbor (a "rounder") was parking at our casa during the summer and keeping an eye on the RV lot as well as the casa. He had let us know that some of the skirting around the base of the casa had become loose (both front and back), but thought it was something we could address when we returned. When we got back, we were surprised when we were working around the casa to find the skirting in great shape, and thanked Don for his work on it -- we certainly didn't expect him to work on it. He said that he didn't do it, that one day, there was a guy stopped in front of the casa, and when the guy left, the skirting was fixed, front and back. Don didn't know who the guy was, thought that maybe we had arranged for it... but we hadn't. So, I guess we benefited from the neighbors-helping-neighbors brigade too!

 

I'm guessing the car cover in the second picture was not something that a neighbor could resolve. 

Halloween at Venture Out

Since Halloween was on a Friday, and since we usually have Friday night dances at Venture Out, there was a "street dance" (it is actually on a patio by tennis courts) and folks were encouraged to wear costumes.

There are some very creative folks here!

The Vikings are coming!

Chik-Fil-A Cows?

We didn't wear costumes, but I enjoyed getting back together with line dancing friends!

Some of the winners:

First place in the "couples" category, front...

... and back!

First place in the "Group" category -- a box of crayons!

The crayons reminded me of being in Mrs. Blunt's ballet class (when I was pretty young -- maybe before school age, or just barely in school), and our class made up a box of crayons. I remember that my color was blue (like the lady on the far right of the picture), and I remember Mrs Blunt telling us that we had to hold our heads very still at the beginning of the dance (the curtain opened with the box of crayons on stage and we were supposed to be still until our music started). I have my doubts about whether the points of the crayons were holding still at the beginning of the dance!

I mentioned to Carl that it was a bit unfortunate that our first "community" activity was when people were wearing disguises, so even if we remembered them from last season, we couldn't remember their names because they looked different. Of course, that wasn't an excuse for not remembering those who were *not* wearing costumes! "Oh, you look familiar, but I don't recognize you in costume... oh... you aren't wearing a costume?" Ha!

An Antique Dresser

We stopped at a couple of thrift stores after Carl's dental appointment on Thursday.

In one of them, I saw a piece of furniture that reminded me of a dresser that I think we had when I was growing up...

I don't think ours was quite this light in color, and I don't think it had the boxes on top (I'm not sure that the boxes go with this piece -- they may have come from some other piece of furniture). Although we had some furniture with marble tops, I'm not sure that the dresser that was like this one had a marble top. I believe that it did, however, have a tall top piece with a mirror.

It would have been 50% off on Halloween (the next day after we were there).

I'll have to find out from my brother whether I'm remembering correctly or not!

Some cars seen while driving around Mesa

We had doctor and dentist appointments last Thursday. While Carl was at the dentist, I was doing errands and saw a couple of interesting cars...

First, this one... I thought, "What a pretty color!" Then I looked to see what make of car it was, and it indicates Lamborghini... I don't know a lot about cars, but that does *not* look like what I think a Lamborghini looks like! Since when does Lamborghini have sedans?

A few minutes later, I saw this Corvette (also a pretty color!). I knew it was a Corvette (though I read the name on the back to be sure). This is more what I thought a Lamborghini would look like!

I found on the Lamborghini website, that the "sedan" is actually a "Super" SUV, the Urus (https://www.lamborghini.com/en-en/models/urus#val-ht):

Lamborghini Urus is the first Super Sport Utility Vehicle in the world, merging the soul of a super sports car with the practical functionality of an SUV. Powered by Lamborghini’s 4.0-liter twin turbo V8 engine and, in the case of Urus SE, a powerful electric motor, the Urus embodies a performance mindset that combines Fun-to-Drive with astounding vehicle capabilities. The design, performance, driving dynamics, and unbridled emotion flow effortlessly into this visionary realization of authentic Lamborghini DNA, revolutionizing an entire segment. 

For the folks who are sports car enthusiasts but now have a family? 

Turns out it has been sold in the US since 2018.

What interesting cars have you seen driving around your town? 

Some work at our new house (park model)

While doing work at the casa, we are also doing tasks at the park model that we purchased in the spring. We are planning to move into it for this winter season, the first time that Carl and I will have lived in a house together!

We're going through things in cabinets and closets. The previous owners left a large set of dishes -- they are very pretty, but also very heavy. We think we are going to try to re-home them, but we may wait a bit and see if we enjoy using them. There is another set of Corelle plates that we can use instead.

Carl is organizing the shed area -- we purchased two sets of shelving and put them together -- they fit nicely in the shed (the door of the shed is right there beside where we were assembling the shelving at the back of the house).

Lots to get done!

Fiber project in the park

At the end of last season, the condo board voted to have Airbeam install fiber in Venture Out. We have had Dish cable in the park, but the infrastructure is old and unreliable. Airbeam would do the install for free and will have a service agreement for a number of years with the park. Only those who want to have the fiber service will need to pay for it.

We had heard that the installation started in October... it turned out that the street where our RV lot is located was being done after we arrived...

There were markings on the street indicating what would be installed -- this is the lot next to our casa, and "P" means a pedestal will be installed.

The "ditch witch" prepared to do its thing

The workers hand-dug a hole for the ditch witch to bore from...

Other places on the street were marked for "Flower Pots" -- the ditch witch bored from the pedestal hole to the flower pots.

Ditch witch

Video of the ditch witch doing its thing: https://youtu.be/pG_hkh0JShw

This device allows the workers to see where the borer was going.

The borer going through a flower pot hole

Our front yard has a "flower pot" -- they are ready to cut a plug out of our "grass" to install the flower pot.

The black part will go underground, and the green top will cover...

... there it is completed -- we're not sure why they have kept the dirt -- I guess it will become clear as they complete the job!

Installed "flower pot" in our "grass"

Installed pedestal

I'm sure the workers are wondering why all these old people are taking pictures of them while they are doing their normal work! I'm sure they encounter the same questions on each block -- maybe they are happy when most of the questioners do not speak Spanish so they don't have to answer questions, just "no English" is sufficient!