HGTV Million Dollar Spaces

Tired of the cooking channel after surfing the TV we agreed on the HGTV million dollar pools.  OMG these backyards look like giant hotels and Disneyland.  We just talked to Dad and he is oiling the teak outdoor furniture that we sent down because we were not using. The backyard is finished and it’s 77 outside in Estrella Mountain.  We had purchased a weather system for Dad for his birthday and he installed it and advises us of the weather daily. We are here in Oregon and it’s 35 outside and we are incredible jealous. Dad however has a new beginning on life and seems so happy out of the rain in Oregon.  He was asking about what kind of Mexican beer that he should purchase for visitors. The dogs love it and spend most of time in the backyard with Dad. We’ve been cleaning his home in Oregon out and plan to have an estate sale soon and put the house up for sale.  Dad however has forgotten about his home here in Oregon and is focused on his new life.  I can’t believe the stuff that we’ve cleaned out.  We have trashed about a million used bows and at least recycled a million empty boxes.  I guess they did not have Costco back then. The upstairs is completely empty and walking through the home that was originally purchased by the grandparents from the builder is a little sad to give up. The home which was built in 1941 has a lot of character and the grandparents purchased it in we think 1945 however the location has changed over the years.  Being in SE Portland with prostitutes walking down the main streets and lot’s of Police sirens not to mention now in the flight path of the Portland airport it’s not my ideal living location. I can only imagine how sweet it was in 1945 with the grandparents involved with the church and being a big part of the orchid society with hundreds of photos.  The green house is another project for us to dismantle.  It has electrical and glass coming apart everywhere we need to wait until summer when the rain stops.  After spending over 40+ hours in the house getting rid of stuff it’s a bit sad.  We found business cards from when grandfather was the VP of US Bank.  It’s strange that someone with such a huge responsibility is now gone. I think we all live everyday thinking it is forever. Now the other project is preserving the slides.  We plan to go through all of them and have DVD’s made for the family which I wish was closer.  Somehow I like to think living in the 1940’s was more about family instead of stuff.  After growing up in Arkansas and having a single parent with very little income stuff is a little overwhelming.  I’ve always worked incredibly hard and Oregon is a little different.  I feel and see self entitlement issues with the younger people.  No work ethic or self respect and now with social media it’s all about requiring a support system.  Anyway let’s not talk about occupying downtown Portland. My husband and I have worked very hard to have a nice life.  We are so happy to have had the opportunity to move Dad to such a nicer environment.  All of the vitamin D with the wonderful sunshine helps with the mental wellbeing in everyone.  After our visits this year I must say when the sun is shining in your face it’s time to get up and get going.  Here in Oregon with the rain, dark sky, and low temperature you want to snuggle up and stay in bed.  I don’t want to make Oregon look bad because when it’s nice it is paradise and you do not want to be anywhere else on earth which is about 6 weeks out of the year but not this year.  One thing that sold me on Estrella was when we visited at night I would wake up because it was so silent.  Not a sound, I could not hear anything, it was the quietest place on earth.  We are in a daily busy routine and the silence was what I was missing. The daily weather was something that I have never had before either.  You can make plans and you never really need to consider the weather being an issue.  We look forward to our visit.

Rondo Pools

Rondo Pools

This was another short lived relationship.  I received an email from Bryan on 06/25/11 saying that he would be helping me.  On 7/3/11 I sent him an email asking about the status of conceptual drawing. On 7/19/11 I received an email back from him saying that he’s sorry he’s been in and out of town lately. He tried to contact me by phone and wanted to talk but it was really just too late for me.   I live in Oregon and trying to micromanage a major project was not going to work for me.  I never received a conceptual drawing so no pictures.  

Paddock Pools and Spas

Paddock Pools and Spas

On 6/16/11 I received an email back from Tammy apologizing for not responding sooner something with the phone system. On 6/20/11 I received an email from Russ saying that he received my email and will be answering my questions.  We sent emails back and forth.  I received Russ’s conceptual drawings. 

Several issues:

1. No putting green
2. I did not want a fire place I wanted a fire pit because of the golf course view.
3. We wanted decking all the way up to the patio and on the patio
4. We did not want any trees it obstructs the view.

I requested that Russ make all of these changes which were on my original email with a drawing that my husband did. Russ was accommodating and got back to me immediately however we have several revisions.  Then I noticed that he left out the BBQ. 

My thoughts about Paddock:

Very nice people and they respond immediately my main issue was that they were not getting what we wanted.  I thought that we communicated our needs in the original email so I could not understand why they were putting a spin on the plan.  The last thing I wanted was a fire place to obstruct the view.  The plan was just different and did not match our taste.  I know that they are one of the larger companies in AZ but I really wanted to work with a company that understood what we wanted. 

 

Presidential Pools

Presidential Pools

We received a reference from our realtor Rachele Funk who understands how picky that we are and again high maintenance.  Rachele said that Mike installed her pool when he was with Paddock Pools and she said he’s the best but now working with Presidential Pools.  I emailed Mike the same day which was 6/15/11.  Mike emailed me back immediately and said that he would have Sean the pool/landscape designer contact me directly.  While waiting for Sean I emailed Mike back and forth with several questions that I had and he always responded immediately.  My husband and I found a great design that we liked and apparently Mike had installed that pool in Las Vegas.  We are still waiting for Sean to contact us but nothing.  On 6/22/11 I emailed Mike and ask him for a status.  I received an email on 6/22/11 from Sean and I guess he had the wrong email.  I’m unsure why he did not go to Mike and figure out the discrepancy because I had been going back and forth with Mike.  I received email on 6/22/11 from Sean letting me know that they will review my notes and get back to me.  On 6/28/11 Sean sent me an email letting me know that he would have the pricing and conceptual drawing this week. On 06/29/11 I received an email from Stephen who said that he is Sean’s partner however I’m a little confused because his logo and company name is not Presidential Pools it’s Flo Concepts.  He advised me that they will be getting back to me in the next few days.  I emailed Mike on 7/6/11 to give me a status because I had not heard anything back from Sean or the new guy Stephen.  Mike again emailed me immediately letting me know that he was going to get the VP of sales involved right away. On 7/7/11 I received an email from Stephen with the Flow Concept logo letting me know that he was assembling costing.  Finally on 7/8/11 I received from Sean the costing, conceptual HAND DRAWING.  Sean continued to follow up after sending the bid and conceptual drawing but by this time I had decided that they were not the right pool company for us.

My thoughts, experience, and finally concerns:

1. Mike is awesome and from his communication skills, customer service, and responsiveness he was great.
2. The responsiveness of the rest of the company was lack of.
3. The team was not communicating internally.
4. The other construction company getting involved told me that they have some internal things to work out. One company needs to be in control of all subcontractors. 
5. The hand drawing was concerning. 

Would I recommend this company no, not with someone who lives out of state and requires communication.  I know nothing about the craftsmanship of this company.  They may be a great small company however I’m not in Arizona I need communication on a regular basis.  I will again say that Mike was great and I’m sorry that I could not trust spending $100K dollars with the experience that I had.  I will say they were better than my experience with a large company such as Shasta which is still baffling.  If I had to select between Presidential or Shasta it would be Presidential because, of Mike. Again let me reiterate that this may be one of the best companies however when you are on your honeymoon everything is absolutely perfect it’s not disoriented.  Once you are married the crap can start. So was I about to enter into a long term contractual agreement involving $100K with this company no.  

Purchasing a Home in Estrella Mountain Goodyear, AZ

I’m using my new blog to help people who are looking to purchase a home in Arizona and put in a backyard. What to say about the world of foreclosures, banks, and finally realtors?  We started looking for a foreclosure in November of 2010 and finally after making an offer on at least 20 to 30 homes we closed in June 2011.  The first recommendation I have to an out of state home buyer is to find a good realtor.  We started out with a guy which I’m not going to mention his name in the blog that was just too slow.  He was very nice however did not match the demands of my personality.  We flew down to learn about the area and where we wanted a home.  We had a very detailed list of requirements down to the way the home faced the evening sun.  Basically we are very high maintenance and living in Oregon trying to find a home in Arizona was our worst nightmare.  I regretfully had to fire the first realtor because he had absolutely no urgency.  We finally found someone that was amazing.  We outlined all of our requirements and she plugged it into her realtor software which my husband spent most of his time watching and bothering her.  My husband looked at homes day and night emailing her bugging her to go take pictures.  Literally my husband was her full time job and I’m surprised that she did not fire us.  Her name is Rachele Funk   If you live out of state like we do you need someone who is diligent, creative, and owns a camera.  Rachele advised us and made us feel very comfortable about purchasing a $350K home without seeing the inside.  Rachele took tons of photo’s of homes that we wanted to look at.  She moved quickly in preparing offers and talking to the agents or banks.  Given the funny business with the banks and backup offers it was a nightmare.  I could not understand how we would go in at a higher price and then lose the home to someone else at a lower offer.  Then the games with the banks waiting until the last minute and then taking the homes to auction.  I’m not sure but I think the reason for auction is so the government will make up the difference in the loss from the original price to help the banks out.  The problems that we noticed are the homes sit vacant for months at a time and then the pigeons move in.  I will say that the housing market in Arizona is just a mess with the foreclosure and shady things going on.  The banks are just a mess as well.  I contribute my husband’s due diligence on the computer all day everyday and Rachele’s quick response to us finally getting a home.  We wanted a TW Lewis home and even my husband started becoming creative by finding the rental homes and having Rachele approach the builders.  I guess TW Lewis has several rentals because they did not want to take a loss on the homes so they rented them.  That did not work because they still wanted more money than we were willing to give. Apparently they did not get the memo about the foreclosure mess.  We visited once and had decided that we wanted to be in Estrella Mountain on the golf course.  After months and tons of offers we pretty much gave up on the golf course and started finding ourselves desperate to just find a home in Estrella Mountain.  Finally my husband noticed early morning a home that just came back into the portal he called Rachele and she jumped on it with a full offer.  She called Bank of American directly and told them we were prequalified and our first mortgage in Oregon is currently with Bank of American.  She submitted our offer that morning with everything completed.  We were in first place with a full offer package.  We found out that they accepted our offer and had multiple back up offers. The other piece of good information I can give you is to have your financials organized and ready to go.  We had everything in one file in an email format.  Remember they need three years of taxes and your last three employment stubs.  I hope this helps.