my temporary home

I may as well begin the tour of the lovely house I am renting with a photo of the lovely wood floors in the master bedroom.

More honestly with a photo of my roommates, Bailey and Bombay, just because they’re so darn cute. As you look at the photos of the house, these two will be showing up in the background of a few. Feel free to play a kitty version of “Where’s Waldo” and see how many times you spot one or the other.

Here is the front view of the house. Some of the fabulous features are the huge pine tree in the front yard that provides great shade from the early and mid-morning sun. And take note of the high pitch above the garage. See those three beams poking out? This was the model home and sales office when the homes in the subdivision were built in the mid-80s. The garage served as the sales office and is finished with beautiful high-pitched wood-paneled ceilings and massive amounts of lighting. More on that later.

The east and west sides of the garage have French doors with concrete paths leading up to them. These office doors are now bolted permanently closed from the inside.

Next up is the backyard. Another large mature tree provides wonderful shade.

The renters before me had a big dog who basically destroyed the sprinkler system and the grass. I’m doing my best to bring it back to life.

This is the back west side of the house. I brought the lighter deck box from the other house. A week after I moved in, I picked up the two dark boxes from Costco and took the better part of an afternoon assembling and filling them with smaller garden items. I’ve given up on trying to revive the grass over here.

The back east side yard is crushed granite, so all my large patio furniture is being stored over here. I spent a Saturday morning covering the stacks of furniture with tarps to protect them from the sun and monsoons. The majority of it had been under covered patios in “Linda Land.”

Even though I’m living in less than half the square footage of the Equestrian Manor (from here out referred to as EQM) house, it’s not the inside space I miss… it’s the outside living space and that amazing backyard we created. My wish is to duplicate that on a smaller scale when I start the house-hunting for my next home.

Here is the cute little patio I’m living with for now.

It’s tight – but cozy.

And it has a really nice built-in grill. Loving that! OK, let’s go back to the front door and go inside.

Here is the entry. On the left is a hall closet and beyond that is a built-in desk. On the right is one piece of my kitchen cookbook shelves, which is now serving as a pantry. From here, you walk straight into the living room and out through the sliding doors onto the back patio.

About 1/3 of my furniture made the cut into the visible parts of this house, the rest is in storage. Not in a rented storage unit – but rather stored right here, mostly out of sight, in the house and garage. More on that in a moment. The little antique desk that was in the sitting room of my former master bedroom is one such piece, it is to the left of the sliding door.

We are now back at the entry. If you turn left, you will find yourself in the breakfast room. This space is being used to store larger pieces of furniture and most are being used a pantry, including the piece of the kitchen cookbook shelving on the right.

The two large light cabinets are serving as the rest of the pantry. The dark cabinet on the right holds crystal and a large variety of glasses from the built-in wet bar that took up a full wall in the family room in the EQM house. On the far left wall is the piano, with a cat on it…

This area is one of their favorite places. I think they really miss the landing at the top of the stairs in the EQM house. This is the highest place they can reach in the rental. Bombay always makes sure he is the king of the hill. Let’s move along. From this room, turn to your right…

… and you’re in the kitchen.

One of the biggest adjustments for me has been the electric stove top. I hate it! I can’t wait to get back to a gas range! As you can see, I am using the pot ledges above the cabinets for as much storage as possible.

I always love having a window over the sink.

Unfortunately, I always leave the blind closed on this window. There are two reasons, first because it faces east and the morning sun is brutal. Secondly, because the view is not good!

There is a side wall only a few feet away and the neighboring house is a two-story and they can see right in through the window from several of their upstairs bedrooms.

Additionally, my tarp-covered patio furniture is the other part of the view. No thanks.

Aside from the electric range and the lack of a pantry, I am enjoying the kitchen.

On the other end of the kitchen is the dining room. The china cabinet, behind the table in the bay window, holds the rest of the barware, and the wine cubbies to the right of that hold bottles of hard liquor.

Walk from the dining room into the living room.

Between the sliding glass door and the fireplace is the other section of the wine cubby cabinets. Appropriately enough, it holds bottles of wine.

I’ve done my best to cut out the unsavory part of the living room from the photos, but it is time for the reveal.

Look up in the top right corner of the photo.

And you’ll see part of my “storage unit” in plain sight. There was no way I could let all the space go to waste. Those are bins and boxes from my EQM garage and attic. They had to go somewhere! I’ve never been so happy to have a house with so many pot ledges. Pot ledges are generally one of my least favorite architectural features, but I am very grateful for them in this house.

While we’re at it, let’s take a look at a couple of other inside storage areas. See those double doors to the left of the dollhouse? That is a large bedroom/office. The doors are never opened!

The room is packed, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, with furniture and boxes. This is as far as the door opens and as far as one can walk in.

Walk down the hallway to the door at the end. This is also a bedroom.

Once again, the door is always closed and only opens enough to peak in. Take one small step in and you’ll run into a wall of boxes that go to the ceiling.

From here, turn around and you’re looking back through the living room, with the built-in desk at the end of the hall.

Turn the corner of the hall and the doorways to the guest bath and master bedroom are in front of you.

I really should just call this the cat bathroom instead of the guest bath, since I tell guests to please use the master bathroom. The only carpeting in the house is in that double-door bedroom/office that I have closed off. I brought a carpet remnant from the EQM house to use in this bathroom to prevent kitty litter from being tracked through the rest of the house. I am so grateful I thought of that. It makes a huge difference! That and the fact that the Roomba runs every night and keeps the hard floors clean.

I showed you the lovely wood floors in the master at the top of the post. There are French doors that lead to the backyard. Most of the windows in the house have plantation shutters, which are one of my favorite window coverings.

One window feature that I don’t like is the stained glass windows, especially this one in the shower. It provides absolutely NO privacy. I can’t believe the current owner, who lived here for several years before leasing it out, or any of the previous owners never did anything about this! I ended up adding a roller shade to the outside.

Otherwise, the master bath is quite adequate.

The view of the master from the other direction shows another storage area that I am thankful to have.

It is the last of the pot ledges. And this wall was the only wall in the entire house that was open and large enough to hang this piece of art. It’s hanging a bit low, but at least it’s up.

We will now leave the master and head through the laundry room …

… and out to the scariest part of the house… the double garage that holds no cars.

The men that loaded up, moved, and packed all my stuff into this house and garage were miracle workers!

There is not one inch of wasted space! All I asked is that I had a narrow path to walk around the inside perimeter of the garage to get access to items on the shelving I brought over from the EQM garage and the Miscellany Shed.

I got lucky when I found this house!

When I signed the lease I didn’t know if all my belongings would fit or not.

And I didn’t look at the garage or realize the great benefit of those extra high ceilings.

Here are the pretty wood ceilings in the garage/sales office.

And even if those French doors weren’t bolted shut from the inside, there is no chance anyone could get in with the shelving and all my Miscellany Shed stuff in front of them!

So there you have it. The tour of my temporary home/storage space. Thank you for coming along.

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