Need a Great Workshop or Studio?

This masonry two bedroom 1,245 SF home has a large den off the living room that could be a third bedroom. The floor plan is here.  

High quality 553 SF frame stucco workshop built in 2015 with a building permit has heat and air conditioning and could be a bright studio. 

Or you may be able to convert the workshop to living space or garage. It's attached to the house by a covered patio.

Great room has wood burning stove and tile floor with dining and living areas open to the kitchen. Hand made cabinets built by the owner and stone tile countertops. Laminate flooring in the bedrooms and office/den. No carpet! 

Laundry room off kitchen has washer and dryer, storage space, and door to the large fenced back yard, which has alley access.  Located only two miles to UofA. Lots of shopping and restaurants about four blocks away along Grant Road and Campbell Avenue. Walkscore gives it a 73: "Very Walkable" and a Bike Score of 93: "Biker's Paradise". Offered for $275,000. 

Love Letters to the Seller

In this competitive housing market, some buyers are submitting letters with their purchase offer telling the seller why they love the house so much, and why they think the seller would want them to be the new owners. Sometimes the buyers include a photo of themselves or their family, and may say something like, “Your house is close to the school my disabled son attends” or “Here’s a photo of us taken last Christmas” or “I’m a single mom”.

I was in a class this morning and learned that these “Love Letters” violate the Fair Housing Act if they indicate the buyer’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status or disability, all of which are protected classes under the Fair Housing Act.

Sellers and landlords can not discriminate against members of those protected classes, and most property owners will not. If a buyer has disclosed in their “Love Letter” that they are a member of a protected class, and their offer is not accepted, they may think it was because they disclosed their protected class status. They might think about suing the seller for housing discrimination.

If the buyer is going to write a “Love Letter” to the seller, they should only talk about why they love the house, and not why the seller should personally choose them as new owner.

The class instructor said that as real estate brokers, we should explain to our sellers the liability they may assume if they allow buyers to submit “Love Letters”. We should get a written statement from our sellers that they will not accept “Love Letters” and we should put in our listings that per the sellers’ instructions, offers accompanied by personal letters from the buyer will not be considered.

Sunbeam Has Spring Fever

Yesterday before she'd had her breakfast, Sunbeam appeared at Steve's back door with a ground squirrel in her mouth and wanted to come in. When Steve told me this I said, "Bad girl!" Then he said he told her she wasn't coming in the house with that thing in her mouth. She went to the edge of the porch and released the ground squirrel. It ran away. She returned to the back door and indicated she still wanted to come in. I said, "Good girl!"

Update: a week or so after this charming incident, Sunbeam was lethargic and not eating. We couldn't get her into her usual vet, so I took her to Valley Animal Hospital. We had to wait in the car for two hours before they came out to get her, and after I waited another 90 minutes, I was informed that Sunbeam had a puncture wound on her throat and it had abscessed. I had noticed gunk on her throat, but I thought she was so depressed, she had gotten food on her chin and didn't feel like cleaning it. 

The vet anesthetized her and cleaned her wound and sent me home with narcotics and antibiotics to shoot into her mouth at 12 hour intervals, an ointment to put on her wound, and, worst from Sunbeam's perspective, a "cone of shame" around her neck to prevent her from scratching her wound, which she definitely wanted to do. She didn't want to drink, so twice Steve took her to the vet for subcutaneous electrolyte injections. 

Twelve days later, her wound has healed, the cone is off, and she doesn't seem to be scratching her wound as we feared. She has spent most of her time cleaning herself, which she was unable to do for twelve days. 

We're pretty sure the infected puncture wound occurred when she released the ground squirrel. Now Steve is wondering if it's safe to let her outside by herself. I never thought it was, surrounded as her house is by snakes, bobcats, coyotes, hawks and vicious rodents. Now maybe he'll be convinced, too. 

Curl Up & Dye and Curious Kumquat

I went to Silver City today for the fourth time in four weeks in search of a house to buy. I'm not sure I'm getting closer to mission accomplished, but I'm learning a lot about the different parts of town.

I was delighted to see this beauty salon on College Avenue: Curl Up & Dye. Fans of the Blues Brothers movie will remember that Carrie Fisher played the jilted fiancée of Jake Blues (John Belushi). After being stood up at their wedding, she tried to get revenge by staging spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to kill Jake. In her down time from her job as a manicurist at the Curl Up & Dye salon, she studied the owner's manual for a flame thrower, which she put to good use in demolishing a phone booth containing Jake and his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd). 

Update: the week after I took this photo, the Curl Up and Dye sign was spray painted black. I felt sad for the demise of another business. I have been to Silver City eight times this year, and on a recent trip, I noticed that Curl Up and Dye had moved one door west, to the little house that used to be the fabulous Curious Kumquat restaurant. 

Years ago, Steve and I were VERY lucky to eat at this restaurant, where the owner Rob Connoley did everything from grow the produce, hunt the deer, forage for ingredients in the Gila National Forest, cook incredible food for no more than 20 patrons per night (we were lucky to get in as #21 and #22 due to a mistake by the hostess), and even wash the dishes. He gave us a lesson in bon bon making, and told us he made 200 bon bons a day for a restaurant in Santa Fe. He gave us some bon bons that he said were not quite what he wanted them to be. They tasted delicious to us. Unfortunately, this James Beard award semi-finalist has gone back home to Saint Louis, where he is dazzling his lucky restaurant patrons with Ozark-inspired cuisine at Bulrush.  

Snow in Tucson

OK, it's not much, but it's still thrilling when it snows in the city as it did this morning. A few days ago, we had hail. The last time we had snow here was February 22, 2019.  My cousin was visiting from Chicago, where the frigid wind and sleet off Lake Michigan had caused her to flee to sunny Arizona. I opened my shades and shrieked "It's snowing!" Linda said dryly, "Imagine my excitement." This was the desert behind my house two years ago:

Not a Unicorn

The first time I saw this mule deer in my yard, I thought he was a unicorn. I asked him where his other antler was, and he just glared at me. Then I got a better look at him a few months later when he was at my wildlife bubbler, and I realized that his left horn is growing out of the side of his head. His black forehead is also unusual. 

Usually, the deer come to my bubbler in a small herd of three to eight deer. He is always by himself. I wonder if he prefers it that way, or if the other deer have ostracized him like poor Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 
 

 

I stopped by Green Things when walking along the Rillito with my hiking buddies today. The poinsettias were stunning.