{"id":495,"date":"2014-09-03T06:51:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T13:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b2.rayharwood.com\/?p=495"},"modified":"2014-09-13T16:04:17","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T23:04:17","slug":"all-moved-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rayharwood.com\/?p=495","title":{"rendered":"All Moved In!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re moved in – but as you might imagine, not totally unpacked yet.<\/p>\n

Where We Are and Why We’re Here<\/h1>\n

Over the two weeks prior to Labor Day, we moved from Arizona City to Phoenix.\u00a0 We rented a very<\/em> nice house near Elliot and I-10, nestled up against Phoenix’s South Mountain Park.<\/p>\n

As you might have heard from either of us, Carol was working at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center (CGRMC).\u00a0 Carol is a Histotech, and was the Histotech Lead in the Pathology Department at CGRMC.<\/p>\n

Early in 2014, Banner Health in Phoenix bought CGRMC and renamed it Banner Casa Grande Medical Center (BCGMC).\u00a0 As part of the purchase, some organizational changes were made, as you might expect in such a situation.\u00a0 The major change affecting Carol was the closure of the Pathology Lab, with all histological processing moving to Phoenix, by Sonora Quest Laboratories (a joint venture of Banner Health and Laboratory Sciences of Arizona).<\/p>\n

But as a part of that closure, Carol was able to transfer to Sonora Quest in Tempe, about 6 miles north of our new home. Here’s a small blurb: Banner now owns CGRMC<\/a><\/p>\n

About Our New Home<\/h1>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from the back patio: the pool, and South Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nOur new home has a pool!\u00a0 And the landlord pays for pool service!\u00a0 So far we’ve been swimming every day.\u00a0 It’s relaxing, good exercise, and just plain fun.<\/p>\n

We’ve got a 3 car garage now!\u00a0 I’ve seen houses with 3 car garages and wondered “why”.\u00a0 Now I know!\u00a0 Plenty of storage space, and both cars can be parked inside – out of the heat!\u00a0 There is a gate into the back yard, with a pad for parking the truck, too.<\/p>\n

Carol has a whole room for her craft table and supplies, and I’ve got a whole office space to myself.\u00a0 Quite nice for both of us – once we get it all set up.\u00a0 Unpacking… blech!<\/p>\n

Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms.\u00a0 The master bedroom actually has an attached “sitting room”, which we haven’t quite figured out what we’re going to do with yet.\u00a0 There is also a sliding\u00a0glass door to a balcony over the back porch.\u00a0 The master bedroom itself is larger than the old place, and there is a walk in closet and a regular closet, along with a tub and a separate glassed-in shower.\u00a0 And two sinks.<\/p>\n

Franklin’s bedroom is bigger than the old house too, with two windows and a nice closet.<\/p>\n

The third bedroom will have our exercise equipment – currently only an elliptical walker.\u00a0 But as temperatures go down and daily swimming isn’t possible, we’ll be spending more time here.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Arizona City House<\/h1>\n

Obviously, the new place is bigger, by almost 1,000 square feet.\u00a0 More rooms, and more room in each room.\u00a0 And a pool, and 3 car garage vs. 2 before.<\/p>\n

\"Backyard<\/a>
Backyard view from the west<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe landscaping – well, let’s just say when we moved to Arizona City, it was all brown and lifeless, except for a half dozen saplings that were barely surviving in the heat.\u00a0 Here in Phoenix, Tom (our landlord) has a thing for green!\u00a0 There are two awesome trees in the back yard, plus grass and other greenery.\u00a0 It is\u00a0quite nice.<\/p>\n

The price is more.\u00a0 We had a bargain in Arizona City: a 1600 square foot house for $650 a month.\u00a0 Here in Phoenix, around 2500 square feet for… let’s just say “a lot more a month”.\u00a0 But given that yard maintenance and pool maintenance is included, we’re pleased with what we’ve got.<\/p>\n

Not to mention that in Arizona City, the nearest Safeway store was in Casa Grande – a 13 mile trip (each way), and here in Phoenix, we’re about a half mile from Safeway.\u00a0 And in Arizona City, most everything else was in Casa Grande too: Lowes, Walmart, Walgreens, Target, and any restaurant.\u00a0 (To be fair, there are a couple of restaurants in Arizona City.\u00a0 Our favorite, Chris’s Diner, is only open from October to April.\u00a0 The others are very small mom-and-pop type places, and all seemed to have that “built in the 1980’s” feel to them.)<\/p>\n

Also, we’re back on Cox cable service now, with cable TV, phone, and high speed Internet!\u00a0 No more 5mbps DSL.\u00a0 And we’ve got the Cox security system installed as well; goodbye to Front Point and Alarm.com.<\/p>\n

The College Kid<\/h1>\n

Franklin will continue his college education at Central Arizona College.\u00a0 The Signal Peak campus, where all of his prior semester’s classes were held, is a slightly farther drive away, but it’s mostly I-10, so still not to long time-wise.\u00a0 But this semester he also has a class at the Maricopa Campus, which is a little closer from our Phoenix home.<\/p>\n

Wrap-Up<\/h1>\n

We loved living in Arizona City; it had a small-town atmosphere, with few large-company businesses: a Domino’s Pizza, a Dollar Store, and a locally owned\u00a0Ace Hardware.<\/p>\n

But there are things about the “big city” (when we were in Tucson) that we missed:<\/p>\n