Palm Springs, CA - Room to Grow

What do you look for in a new home? Everyone has their own list: big dining room, close to schools, large master bedroom. Many of the things that we are looking for are the same things that everyone else looks for: location, enough room for your family, a home within a budget, etc. Those are some of our goals but Gary and I have decided on these things too: front kitchen, Arizona room, facing S or SW, fully furnished.

1. I want a kitchen in the front of the house so I can get lots of light and look out of the window and see something besides the next door neighbor’s kitchen window. I want a view. I’m nosy. I want to see what’s going on. Most park models have a kitchen in the middle on the side and some park models are so close together that you can look out your kitchen window and watch the next door neighbor’s TV. Not me. A front kitchen for me.

Here’s a picture of the floor plan of the park model I like the best. It has a a side-front kitchen with enough room for a table and chairs on the side and also a cool arch (where the sliding glass door is in this plan) into the Arizona room that we want to have. Nice wrap-around bathroom and lots of storage in the bedroom for all our clothes - we’re such clothes horses. Yeah, right.

2. We want an Arizona room so we have more space than we have in the RV. If the our new home has as much space as the little tin box we’ve liven in for several years, why not keep living the little tin box? Why even buy a house? Besides the Arizona room will give us more room to entertain and more room for our desks. And, - maybe we could actually be in different rooms. Think of that - right now in our RV, Gary and I are in the same room almost 24 - 7. Could you do that? Hmmm, I’ll have to admit that sometimes even we wish for more room.

Now, would I be insulting your intelligence if I told you what an Arizona room is? I’ve even heard them called Florida rooms or California rooms and our Alberta friends call it an Alberta room. But, we’re buying in AZ and it’s very definitely called an Arizona room. It used to be a covered patio but today, it’s more than that. It is an actual room attached to a park model, sometimes as big as the park model itself - thereby doubling the space. The park model has the kitchen, the dining room, the bathroom and the bedroom. The AZ room is the living room and we’d like a 2nd bath and a laundry in it.

3. We want to face south. In AZ? Huh? Whatcha thinkin’ of, Nancy? Well, we had a home in Des Moines that faced north. In the summer, at high noon, if I wanted to read anything inside, I had to turn lights on. Never again. I want light. Our next home, a 2-story townhouse, faced south with windows all along each floor. Much better. I realize that in Arizona, facing south can get really hot. But, that can be stopped: put window tinting on south-facing windows, put covers over them, put roll-down shades on the front of the deck, put in blinds and turn then upwards. We’re thinking window tinting for the heat and blinds for the rays.

4. Fully furnished. This cuts both ways: good and bad. Good: we don’t have to buy a new home and then run to the furniture stores to furnish it. Bad: we have to live with someone else’s taste. And, we’ve see some ‘interesting’ furniture. Fuchsia chairs to go with the fuchsia painted wall. Kitchen cabinets so dark they absorb the light. Lamp shades with fringes on them. ooh - la - la.
Are there other things we’re looking for? Oh, probably, but these are the most important.

And, that’s our plan.