Coffee on the back deck each morning for the last few months has been spent with Bob going over his seemingly never ending massive “to do” list for the day. This week is the first I have seen a steady calm overtake him. The end is in sight, and all the hard work that he has done has turned this once very dated house into a home we will love living in for the rest of our days.

The flooring came out amazing!!! The decision to take up all the tile in the entire house instead of just the bathrooms was a great choice and money well spent. Removing the carpet, even though it was brand new, was also an easy decision as we have never been big on wall to wall. The hickory hardwood in the main rooms and the plank oak laminate in the kitchen, bedrooms and hall is beautiful, earthy, and exactly what we were hoping it would be. It kicked Bob’s ass for quite a few days, and it was so hard for me to know he was on his own. But he got it done and it is exactly what we had envisioned when we first looked at the house. The painting is done, walls were ripped out, walls were put up, all new doors in every room and hardware, baseboard and trim, bedroom closets built-ins made, new lighting fixtures, the kitchen is finished and we pretty much have a brand new home. And we love it.

We went to a stone quarry a couple of hours away last week and picked out the flagstone and quartzite that will surround the hearth of the fireplace. Bob has a visual in his mind of how he wants the wall and mantle to look. He will dry stack it, the colors flowing from grays to tan, browns, and reds just as we see in the mountains of Sedona off in the distance. The mantle will be made from a large old piece of juniper. I just step back and smile as I watch his creative juices flowing.

Today is three months since we parked the motor-home here and started the process. Three months that have seen our country go through so much. The various cactus’s out front are still putting on their show, the peach tree is loaded with fruit, George the Cat isn’t catching as many snakes, the gardens in the back are going like gangbusters and we even had our first tomatoes fresh off the vine a few nights ago.

Arizona, it is home.