In late September, after Erik and I deposited our daughter, Z, at the University of Arizona, we fell in love with the neighborhoods around the university. Sam Hughes, an historic district with houses covered in stucco and topped with Spanish tiles and sporting old wooden doors built from wood imported from Mexico, was beyond our price range. But the neighborhood just a little north from campus, Blenmen Elm, had a few houses that fit our budget. We drove by a few houses but didn’t look inside any. When we returned to Flagstaff, my BFF, B, put me in touch with a realtor. He toured a few houses for us using FaceTime. He found one that was in our price range but needed a little work. And, it was purple.

Or, perhaps you would call it lavender. I don’t know what kind of people buy a house via Facetime, but apparently, we are those people. The house had so many highlights: Close to U of A Neighborhood, 3 beds, 2 baths, a big back yard, a patio, an orange tree, a pomegranate tree, and a dragon fruit plant, plus a bunch of cacti. It is possible I wanted the house for its flora, but I also loved the blue and orange tiles on the counter in the kitchen, the wood floors, the fireplace. We put in an offer. I drove down on a Thursday for the inspection scheduled for that Friday. I came back on Saturday to prep for teaching the next Monday but the short trip not only afforded me a chance to see the house in person, but to see Z.

But, the inspection was hard on me. There were problems. The facia and soffit. The gutters. The house, upon looking at it more closely, was grimy. But nothing was really a deal breaker. Our realtor worked with a handyman who could do a lot of the repair work. And there is nothing I like more than cleaning. Or, so my children tease me. The living room needed almost no work, except for a new door, and, eventually, new windows.

The kitchen was another story. I actually liked the orange-lined cabinets and drawers because they echoed the orange in the tiles. But the paint had worn thin and had suffered the scuffs of time. But we wanted to save as much as we could of the original character of the place. Otherwise, why buy an older home? So J, our realtor’s handyman, painted them blue. His wife scrubbed the black handles to reveal they were actually brass. He also painted the walls and ceiling and tiled the floor with satillio, but the functionality of the kitchen was not tied to paint or flooring. The fridge didn’t work and the stove was old. There was no dishwasher or disposal. There were hookups for a washing machine in the carport but the carport didn’t seem like a very clean place to do laundry. Home Depot had a bundle sale going and we bought a washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, disposal, refrigerator, and new range hood.

J installed the appliances for us. There was even a spot for the dishwasher, although it was on the far side of the kitchen away from the sink. Z and her friends, who were living in the dorms, were most immediately excited about the washing machine. One night, Z and her friends went over to do their laundry, then promptly left for Target. When J came the next day, the tiles he had just laid were broken under the washing machine. Z was in trouble for leaving the washing machine alone while she went to Target, but it wasn’t really her fault. Erik called a guy to come look at it. We thought he fixed it and then my in-laws and I went down to work on the house and the washing machine still jumped like beans. With a little research, I found that we had indeed not removed the SHIPPING BOLTS. The instructions for installation shouted these words loud, but having not been there when Home Depot delivered them, perhaps we assumed they had already been removed? Perhaps reading instructions is many people’s strong point.

J retiled and repainted. A few weeks later, my mother-in-law dusted and washed and organized the dishes we brought down into the cabinets. My father-in-law took the tape that held the fridge together and, happily, it didn’t collapse into piles at his feet. Now, the purple house has a kitchen so functional one could actually cook in it. And do dishes.

J also repaired several broken countertop tiles with ones I found on eBay that matched the beige ones. Fortunately, none of the orange and blue tiles were broken. The next biggest project was the kind you can’t see, but matters most. A swamp cooler was the only cooling system the house had–we had an evaporative cooler in Salt Lake, where it worked marginally well, but Salt Lake doesn’t get big monsoon storms like Tucson. Tucson turns humid after rain. An old gas furnace took up a lot of room in the hallway to the back bedroom. So for efficiency and efficacy, we had a heat pump installed, which can heat with far less energy than a gas furnace and that can cool the air so it is actually cold.

Another room that seemed challenging was one of the back rooms. It was painted red. Dark red. All red.

Not everyone hates a red room but if you want to sleep or study or do anything besides foment anger, red doesn’t seem the best color. I admit. I’m boring. J had to paint not only two coats of primer but two coats of regular paint. There was a pink stage that was kind of lovely, in a Pepto Bismol kind of way. Still, I’m boring and now it’s cotton white.

Speaking of Pepto Bismol, the bathroom had exciting colors too.

Pink and green might not be so bad, but the colors distracted from a cadre of sins. The floor was bad. The toilet and bath stained yellow. I spent two full days scrubbing the bathtub and toilet with CLR but in the end, it was extra-strength vinegar that removed the yellow stains around the sink faucet and rust and soap stains on the soap dish.

We did not remove the Grateful Dead tile, however.

Also, I bought Trefoil-flavored body wash. A mistake, I admit. No one wants to smell like butter and vanilla all day.

The second bath was in worse shape than the main. A shower insert. A vanity from the sad aisle of Home Depot. Another stained toilet. This space needed to be gutted, especially because drywall covered a 4 foot by 4 foot space that had just been lost to bad remodeling or pretty good hiding of a marijuana operation.

J took the wall down, jackhammered a new drain, and tiled the shower with these cool tiles Erik chose.

Which you can’t really see here because Z has a lot of hair products. Still, new shower faucet, little shelves! The floor is also covered in cool tile but I forgot to take a picture of it. And, the vanity has ALMOST enough space for the rest of Z’s beauty products.

I’m still working on de-staining the toilet. More vinegar, please!

The back room was one giant cavern. It might have been good for an office or maybe an extra large workout room. Or a place to destem your marijuana plants that you’d grown in the bathroom’s hidden wall before growing your own became legal.

Erik and I waffled too long on the flooring. We should have asked J to lay tile. But now, it’s too late because Z has moved in and heavy furniture sits upon the concrete floor. We did what we could to hide the floor with rugs and cute items. It’s an ongoing battle.

The last thing we did before we drove back to Flagstaff was to ask the neighbor’s landscaping guy if he’d come do our yard. It has never been this organized. I’m happy not to be the messy yard people anymore! Also, J completely lifted up the walkway bricks, flattened the underlayment, and re-bricked in a cool pattern.

We probably spent more money on the house than we intended and I probably inhaled too much concentrated vinegar, comet, CLR (calcium lime rust remover), but the purple house is truly one of my favorite places. It has a good feeling. A good yard. And is pretty clean! I’m excited for Z’s roommates to move in although I’m going to miss sitting in the backyard, watching the hummingbirds flit to the pomegranate flowers. I bet, if I don’t mom it up too much, they will even let me visit.