Brand New Cuesta Home and Fun Stuff Going on in Downtown Tucson

Hi James!

Morning!

Good morning, happy Saturday! We're coming to you live today from a beautiful new listing that just was completed. This is at the base of Bay Mountain, it's on Cuesta, and we're really excited to show you this house today. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting, and now it's ready to go.

I know, it's a great house!

Also coming up, I want to tell you, besides showing you this really cool house, We have fun things to do inside for kids with air conditioning. And we have some— I have a quick tip for you on making animated GIFs for all of you who like social media. I found a really cool way just to make a quick animated GIF for Instagram or Facebook or whatever. So let's go check out this cool house. Oh, before we walk in there, so this is a— it's got a very modern clean line. And as you can see, the architect designer took— he just did an amazing job here. You can see he matched up the little square windows, the colors. The stucco is a patina stucco. Stucco, so it has a light color in it, so it doesn't look bright white. It looks like it blends into the neighborhood, similar to the feel of when we were in Barcelona. What was that stuff? Venetian plaster and stuff. Has that soft patina look. This stucco actually has color in it, which I love. He did windows all around the garage space. By the way, this is one of the few houses in the area that actually has a garage. So let's go check this out. It's beautiful. I love this house. Yeah, we're going to try to keep a signal in here. We're hoping the signal stays. Come on in.

So great house, starts off, has a nice large closet here. It has really nice— what's it, 350 square feet of windows?

Yeah, there's about 350 square feet of window space Yeah, it's fantastic.

And these are really super high-end windows. As you can see, instead of using aluminum or vinyl, this is a composite material which will really stand up to the heat in Arizona and not transmit the heat, which makes the house really energy efficient.

Yeah, these are Andersen windows, and they're just top of the roll-up.

Yeah, and they're all over the house. Super fantastic.

So if James can do it without making you dizzy, uh, he even has story windows up here, and then he has the windows under the soffits that actually open up as well, which is really nice if you want to let heat out of the house. You actually just open those windows up and the hot air would just transfer right out by opening and making a cross breeze to both— from both sides, which is really nice.

Yeah, this is a split system.

Yep, this is a European split system, which is really cool. So the energy efficiency on this unit is 25 SEER, and which is huge because most houses are running 14 or 13 or 14 SEER. This is 25. So the unit— there's a similar unit in the back of the house that runs about 20, 21 SEER. So you have about a 22 to 23 SEER in here, which is just unheard of for energy efficiency. Everywhere we go in Europe, they use these split systems, and they're just amazing because I like that you can be in the living room and you can use remote control, cool down this area but not run the back area as much. And then you can actually go back to the back bedroom and turn that one down colder for sleeping. Sleeping room, nice. Yeah, it's really nice. Let's say hi to Randy Jordan. Randy Jordan, how's it going? Wait, Randy, type, are you still in Washington?

Question mark.

Question mark. Are you— type, answer us.

This also has the wax concrete floors. Which you can see are absolutely beautiful. It has a coffee stain on it, which has a dappled effect. It's really, really beautiful.

So the— tell me, Darren, about the wax. You know more about that than I do. So instead of— they do different floor types, but this one has the wax on it, makes it very soft.

Yeah, it gives it a softer finish. It's not really shiny, it's not slippery, but it has a nice patina to it. It's a little bit of a matte finish, makes it really easy to care for and resist dust and staining.

And yeah, this is a Swiffer floor. You just need a Swiffer and then, um, a little, uh, vacuum for crevices eventually if stuff gets in the, in the joints. These are actually designed, um, these are joint seams that are actually designed for one style and look because he did a square pattern throughout the whole house, so he repeated it here in the floor, which is awesome. But it also— these are joints that actually take stress and tension, which is great off of concrete. I love that you did the fun stuff like this. He's got all these really cool retro-modern fixtures. And then here's another great example of a lot of window light coming in here. This is one big open great room, and the kitchen looks out over the living-dining space.

So both of the patio door— the sliders open up to create a large open space onto this open patio area. And then on the other side, you'll see sliders that actually come out from the master, which we'll show you in a few minutes.

And right there is Fourth of July fireworks. So this house, whoever gets this house is the party thrower, and they have to sign a document that they will invite us. Okay, I'm just saying, because all the fireworks shoot off of there. So what a great place. Um, this is a great place for a deck or to put something in this backyard to make a really nice living space. One of the cool things out here is that it's unusual. He spent the extra money to panel the soffits on the house. So usually on most houses that would be exposed and you would see the beams. He actually did a stained sealed paneling underneath the soffits to make them really clean and modern. And then he's got lighting up there as well. Also that overhang cuts the sunshine from coming in those windows and the heat transfer. Really nice. I just also love— he's got these recessed lights also on both sides of the house here, one on the garage and one over the master bedroom entrance, which is really cool. I also like this little special touch too, because he did black trim, which is not usual around Tucson. And here you've got a black fence, a slatted fence, which is great. And then you've got the black trim up here, all the windows are black trim, so it's just a really cool, fun look. And then we're back in the kitchen. Of course, you gotta love the kitchen. Darren, tell us about the kitchen.

The kitchen—

tell us about the kitchen, man.

Lots of storage in a really small space. I did the granite countertops and the raised area here so that you have some privacy from a little bit of clutter preparation from the main living area.

Yeah, like I can't see your dirty dishes if I'm standing right here. I can't see dirty dishes at all.

It's got the nice stainless steel The sink with the gooseneck. We did electrical here, flat-panel cabinets, but these have the nice hardwood plywood inside.

Those are also soft-close.

Did you see that? Yeah, they're all soft-close doors and cabinets, stainless steel throughout, and nice down lighting. Lots of space, lots of light coming in from the kitchen all over, so it's a really fun space to just—

I like the big window next to you too.

Oh yeah, roll bar, you know.

When you're cooking curry, open these windows and get a cross breeze. You want to take them down the hall? This is really fun down there.

Yeah, okay, straight down the end of the hall we have here a nice laundry room, which is well placed right in between the 3 bedrooms.

Yeah, this is great because it's really close for everybody, and the laundry is done and they can go to any of the 3 bedrooms easily.

Now over to here we have the bedroom, which has a small loft space up top. Wow.

Now this is really cool because he's designed it so you have extra light coming in, and there's electricity, and there's a— look, one of these switches it off and on.

Isn't that cool?

And I think you could put a little ladder up there and make a little like reading space.

You can move anything, books on the shelf, whatever. But one of the other features, uh, with which he planned out is the bedroom actually has windows on 3 sides. How often do you get that?

Yes.

Because he's got the loft space up and the corner windows as well. He actually managed to get some cross breeze in all the bedrooms.

Yes, and the heat, you just open them up and the heat would shoot right out that, out there. Hey, you know what else we need to comment on, Darren? All of the wood that you see in this house was hand stained right here. He had all of the wood put in, the trim, the doors, everything., and it was all hand stained. So it turned out beautiful. The color is like a, it's a gorgeous cherry.

And I love these rollout windows because they really, you're able to catch the wind, any breeze, any mild breeze that's coming through.

Yeah.

Works really great.

You're right, it acts like a fin.

Yeah.

'Cause of the way it moves. And so what happens is that the breeze comes, it catches it and shoots it through. And then again, in this bedroom, he did the same thing. He's got the electrical with the lighting. And if you were to open that window up there, we could have a cross breeze and just pull hot air straight out of the house. I don't know, it's what, how, what's the temperature right now? Maybe 95, 90.

At least.

It's a hot day today. We're in here and usually I'm sweating. There's no AC on yet. We haven't even got that connected yet. So we just got electricity. That's why we're excited to be here because electricity just finished and I'm like a kid in a candy store. Like, when's it gonna be done? Um, so let's check this out. There's the master— there's the guest.

This is the guest bath. Again, really cute, really well appointed, very modern, updated. Um, have this all closed cabinets.

And he did a play with a different colored wood on the bathrooms, which I love, because he, um, it may have been too much to use all the cherry wood, so he used a different colored wood in here, which I— it's really fun to play with. Yeah, really nice.— and then this is the master bedroom, which is really nice. It has the entrance we were at from the courtyard. There's an entrance into the courtyard there, so that, again, I think that whole thing, I would just make a beautiful deck out there, or pave the whole thing, because this, this is like spa material right there. You can walk out to a spa. And then you've got two closets, and then a really beautiful master bath. I just love this master bath with the separate shower.

Oh yeah, it's got a lot of great features. It's got the reading glass shower, which is really, really super. All single, um, yeah, this is a panel. Easy, easy, easy to clean, keep up. You've got your windows, your fans, and those light fixtures. Huge bathroom, but it's so— the space is so well used. It is a good room for the double sink, the shower, the extra tub. Storage cabinetry. Look at—

yeah, look at this. Just the little, little touches with just the little cabinet, the little hooks, the beautiful mirrors. I love those round mirrors.

Yeah, the round mirrors and little, uh, little, little space.

Yeah, it's just fun. It's a very light-hearted, fun, retro-modern feel. Yeah, beautiful.

Great space. All right, two closets in the master bath, and again, the slider goes right out to the patio.

Yeah, okay, let's walk this way. Beautiful. Finish this. Great job. Going this way because I think it's fun to see this window. It's beautiful, the living room. So, um, I want to do a shout out really quick. Are we— did we tell— did we— I know we forgot stuff. There's so much about this house that you— if you call us, we'll tell you. Um, the, um, and of course to call us, 520-630- 831-8669, and we're glad to answer any questions. The key to this is we're— the architect designer is putting another one of these houses here. There'll be another one coming off of the street up above, uh, so we have a second one coming. It is a similar— it'll be built the same, but it'll be a two-story, uh, with probably a rooftop deck. Whoa, I know, I'm excited for a balcony.

A little bit of a different elevation, different profile, so it's not matchy-matchy.—

right, won't match this at all. It's good, but we wanted you to see too how he builds and how meticulous he is and the perfection of this house.

Good quality workmanship.

Yeah, and this house is $335K, which is really amazing to get this quality for that price. Really, absolutely.

Lots of extra finishes.

Yeah, so that's what I want to show you. Call me if you want to know anything about the houses coming. There will be more, and of course if you want to visit us at c2sunhomes.com, we also have this house there. That's right. So I want to do a shout out really quick because we have, uh, I want to start doing a shout out for all of our vendors. Yeah, like just name them all. No, not today. I want to name one, and that's Dr. David Watkins. David! David Watkins is our dentist, and he David is— so we've had a lot of conversations around him lately, and people are talking, and it's all really, really good. He's just— he's got state-of-the-art technology, he's got great pricing, and when you're with David and you're— and he's working on you, it just feels like he is there in that moment with you. The customer service with his staff, yeah, everybody is so friendly, sweet, and nice. Where's the mochi?

Yeah, it's a whole different experience than your usual going to the dentist.

Yes, yes, teeth by David Watkins. That's definitely me. So I had an accident many years ago and I did a really nice good face plant on a wall and David has made these all pretty.

Wow, thank you, David.

Thank you, David Watkins. Uh, if you want David Watkins information, of course call us anytime you need any type of vendor in Tucson. We are We are very well connected with some of the greatest people here and people we trust to refer to you. So just call us and we're happy to give you their names, phone numbers, and tell you what we know about them. Yeah, and I think what I'd like to do from now on is like shout out to a vendor that we love every week on the show. But we've got plenty of weeks. Yes, let's say hi to Laura Merritt. Laura Merritt! Yay! Laura Merritt from Seattle.

Hello, Seattle!

And she says she loves the high ceilings.

Okay, excellent.

Yeah, I love these high ceilings too. Thank you for bringing that up because I didn't even mention how incredible these ceilings are. So Laura, you too could live here right now if you just come on down. We'll hook you up with the 2-story back there. That'd be perfect. You'll have that modern feel too. Uh, let's talk about some fun things coming up.

Lots of stuff happening.

I promise some fun things for kids with air conditioning.

Kids with air conditioning, what a great combination.

Um, we talked about this last week. Remember, if you If you go to seattucsonhomes.com and you click on the date we mentioned, we'll mention the date, and you click on the date, you'll get all the rest of the info since we can't tell you all of the info here. I can't remember all of them. Led Zeppelin cover band is May 25th, 8 PM. Casino del Sol, right? This is the stuff we talked about last week, so I'm gonna whiz through that. Jazz concert series, that's at Main Gate Square. That is on Fridays, right?

Silk and Soul is playing at the Tindall Garage. Right. Free parking at the Tindall Garage.

Right. And free parking at Tindall Garage. Yes. Yeah, that's— click on the button on May 26th. Uh, those— that concert series just keeps going on Fridays.

Today. Uh-oh.

Is today the 26th? Yeah.

Time flies.

Time flies.

It's hot.

I mean, June's coming. Not June, our friend June, but hey June out there.

Oh.

Come in from Florida and visit us.

Okay.

Uh, but June the Month is coming. Uh, Tucson Swirls Baseball looks like that's tomorrow. Yep, yep, that's on May 27th, so click on May 27th on our calendar. Um, and downtown on School. Yeah, that's saved by the '90s show.

It's, it's pretty fun. You have to visit the web and look at that a little bit more. It's '90s music and dance and everything. It's been all over the country. It's really, it's a fun show.

It'd be fun to go see outfits. Oh, I know, and take a camera and use it for Black Month.

You can hear things like Cowabunga Man.

Cowabunga Man. Oh, Bart, I forgot about that. That's nice. Uh, kids, here's a kids thing. Sonoran Glass School, go to May 31st on our thing, on our calendar. Um, and it's on May 31st, they're actually doing a glass blowing with kids and families. So we've done this before, molten glass and children, right? Uh, but they do fun stuff out at Sonoran Glass, and it is fun for kids.

It is, it's really, it's really great. And you know, hey, why not be proficient, you know, as a job. Learn a trade, do something.

Wow. Okay.

And also, if you're in law school, they should be on your radar because during the year they all do all kinds of events. You can blow your own glass pumpkin.

Wow.

Yeah, blow your own Christmas ornament, all kinds of fun stuff. So check them out, they've got a great website.

It's fun.

Find them on our website.

Love it. Um, okay, so coming up in the next week By the way, the weather today and tomorrow is like 95, 96. Next week it's like 96, 97. So we're telling you fun things to do in the evening and in air conditioning.

Busy, busy.

I think that's super important. Don't forget that on second Saturday of every month we want to do a shout out to the Train Museum down at, down in the downtown area at Maynard's. And the Train Museum, you get to take the kids in there and they do, uh, they have a movie on second Saturdays, right? And the kids get to watch a free movie. But the cool thing is, is like an hour before the movie they do arts and crafts. And, um, there's a train out there that was in the movie Oklahoma, and you get to crawl aboard that train and ring the bell.

That's the best part, the train.

And then there's that— what's that thing called? That ding ding ding stop thing? The railroad crossing? Yeah, the railroad crossing. You push a button and it makes really loud noises.

Wow.

Yeah, so I mean, it's a kids. It's a fun thing for kids. It's for the kids. So, uh, go to the Train Museum downtown at Maynard's. Uh, take the kids there. You could also have the kids, uh, doing the movie stuff, and you could do a beautiful, uh, lunch or dinner down there at Maynard's Market. And then there's Maynard's Restaurant.

The market's really cool. They have box lunches. You can pick them up and take them for a picnic.

Beautiful place to hang out.

Hang out out back.

Yeah. And then the real train zooms by. The kids could see a real train run by, by the Amtrak.

Because you can't take the kids to the airport and watch the planes take off anymore because they block that.

I tried it and security got really upset. They threw the kid over and ran into the airport. Yeah, they do that. Let's talk about next week, okay? Um, here's, uh, so the reason I was telling you about the train thing is because that's on June 10th, so click on the June 10th calendar, right?

Right? Disney Movies.

Right, 1 hour prior they have arts and crafts. Oh, they also have tractor pull rides and popcorn. Wow, okay, beyond— besides the fact that we have the Morana movie nights going on, remember we talked about camping under the stars last week? Yeah, and you can do Morana movie nights where you go take the family and you do the movie and the popcorn.

If anybody did that event, uh, let us know how it was.

Yeah, we still haven't seen any pictures. So if you do that, that's in Morana. But I just found out too that we Reed Park is doing something similar. So you could go to Reed Park in central Tucson. There's a zoo there, right? The beautiful zoo with the elephants. You can go there. You go to June 2nd on our calendar. June 2nd is the date for the Reed Park. They're playing Zootopia. I think it's a perfect day for the kids. You go and do the zoo, do the zoo, and then go do Zootopia movie I think that movie starts at like 6:30, 7, whenever the sun goes down. So do the zoo at the end of the day and see the animals and go to Zootopia the movie. They actually, by the way, at the park they have, look, jump, jumping capsules and arts and crafts, and they have vendors there. And apparently they do this through September.

When I saw that, I thought, you know, would it be cool? It's like if the city wants to save money, they could just let the giraffes loose and they can trim the trees for them. That's an option.

Why not?

It's always a thing.

Yes, you're always a thinker. Um, the, uh, Reid Park Zootopia movie will be held at Demister— Demister? Demister Outdoor Performance Center. God, I'm tongue-tied today. Um, and the last thing I want you to remember that goes on, uh, click on June 6th and you get to do— see the Twilight Farmers Market is at Maynard's. So, um, it's great time to open the windows.

Yeah, twilight. It's cooler.

Which is what, 6 to 9? It's when I'm not coming home. Click on, just click on Tucson Homes. It'll tell you everything. See TucsonHomes.com, right? Um, anything else you want to talk about coming up that you know of that I don't secretly know of going on in here? Okay, I don't think so. Uh, wow, you're never tongue-tied.

Busy pride.

Busy pride. Uh, all right, let's do this. Canva, if you want to make animated GIFs.

Cool tech stuff.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Geek alert.

Geek alert, right?

You got an emoji for it?

I do. I do have an emoji.

Oh, that is bad. That's great.

So today's topic is— I just found this because what's happening with media, social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, is that people are— 'cause they're seeing a lot of stuff fly by their newsfeed. And so what the social media world is discovering out there is that if it can move or catch their attention, you're more likely to get someone to see your post, right? So animated GIFs have become very popular. Even in the phone world, they actually offer animated GIFs on your phones now to send as text messages. So if you go to canva.com, which we love, we love Canva. It is a great way to make anything you need for anything to do with social media, and it's free. And there is a pro version for a very inexpensive price, which we use the pro version. But you can make all kinds of stuff in Canva, and it's as simple as simple gets. You just lay text, type. But now they've offered a feature to animate. So you can put— I know, it is sweet. Go play with this thing. You go to Canva and you hit the animated feature. You make, uh, you put photograph and type some text and the text will start dancing. Wicked stuff. On our feeds, there is an animated GIF and it's a Polaroid camera that I did in Canva.com and it's a Polaroid camera and there's pictures of houses come in that the Polaroid takes and they go ch-ch-ch and I did that on Canva.com. Yeah, so that's my cool tech tip and—

There is one thing I want to bring up now. Start early, plan early. Okay, we've been working with the Downtown Merchants Association and the—

yes, oh, good job, dude, I totally forgot. Yeah, just with—

and the Downtown Merchants Association. Downtown Tucson this year, come down, Fourth of July.

Yes.

Okay, um, be ready to party, have a good time. There will be things for the kids to do, there will be restaurants open, there will be businesses open. You can watch the fireworks. Will be down downtown.

We'll be there.

Yeah, we'll be down there. Um, but it's like normally everything's kind of closed downtown. That's not the case this year. In fact, uh, if you want to learn a little something on Flag Day about the American flag and other flags, then come on down. There's going to be a retrospective of the flag.

Really? Yeah. So from— for downtown, it's going to be amazing what's going on in that. We'll be down there. There's a lot of restaurants open. I think it'd be great to come down in the late afternoon and go into some air-conditioned restaurants, have some dinner and stuff, and then the fireworks from A Mountain, you'll be able to see from downtown. I believe if you're in downtown, you would walk over to the TCC area because right at the TCC is that open parking lot and people put their, their chairs and stuff there and watch the fireworks. I, for me, it's an old, old, old comfortable memory. Our family used to go there when we were kids and we'd pull pull up the pickup truck and we'd have fried chicken— back when I would eat fried foods— and we'd have fried chicken and we would have sodas or whatever, and you would watch the fireworks from near the TCC, right? And so I think it'd be great for the TCC. No, uh, I think it'll be— that's been here a long time. Oh, longer than I can remember. Oh yeah, so don't make age references. I know where you're going.

I didn't know how long it had been there.

I think the cool thing is, is look, that the fireworks separated out all over the place. You can go to resorts, you can go to other towns and cities, and everybody's segregated and separated, and the fireworks is not the same anymore. And now that downtown is revived and so much is going on, I think it'd be great if all of us came to downtown Tucson, come down and enjoy what the city pays for to put on those fireworks, and all the people, the sponsors that help put all this thing together. Together. Let's all support them and let's go and live and see and breathe downtown again and have fun like the old days. I think it'll be really fun. So my challenge to you is come downtown. If you're gonna come downtown, let us know so we can all hang out together. I think you'll be blessed.

So if you want good food, good company, good plays, camaraderie, you like fireworks, or if you're a pyromaniac, they always set a mountain on fire, so pretty much guarantee a fire. So whatever, come on down.

Yeah, on the downtown. Anything else today? Ah, see Tucsonhomes.com. I have an idea. Yeah, we'll try funny sticker closing. Funny sticker closing.

Let's see if this works.

Hey, James is messing with the phone right now, so if you disappear, we have, uh, so come visit us at seatusonhomes.com. Oh, they're not pulling up. Not working. Uh, well, maybe trying to make a sticker.

Yeah, I'm trying to make things pop over your face and then it's not doing it.

Um, Please like and share this for us. Make comments, tell us what you want to know more about, and we'll find the information for you for next show. Um, we need your comments that we really— let's move a little bit further away from the house. There we go, we're back. Yeah, yeah, we're in, we're good, we're good. Just really quick, we have a couple brand new houses coming up. They're new construction like this. One's near the Mercado for $325,000. This one's coming up, and I know of another really cool one coming near Armory Park. You have to call me. These guys are not on the public MLS, so they're not on anything. You can't find these houses yet, so call me. I'll get you in. That's what I want to tell you. Have a great Saturday, Memorial Weekend. Say goodbye.

Bye guys, have a great weekend!