Our search for renting a house near Tempe has finally come to an end.

We've been looking for houses for almost 3 months now, settling for a rather new house in South Tempe. We saw big houses, small houses, old houses, [relatively] new houses.. and in the end we settled for a new house.

The prices we were looking at ranged from $1000 to $1500 for a 3 bedroom house. Considered extremely cheap for California standards, it seemed about median for Arizona. The types of homes in this range also varied. We saw some run-down places in run-down areas that were going for the same amount as nice homes in nice areas. Of course, living near Tempe was easier for my roommates, since it's closer to school. However, living anywhere near ASU meant sacrificing a nice living space for time and money spent on gas. South Tempe meant newer homes and communities that actually have HOA's.

As for the number of floors... we ended up going with 1 because of rumors that 2-story houses get hot upstairs. Well, half rumor.. since the theory is that hot air rises (hotter air upstairs, cool air harder to force upstairs.. causing higher A/C prices).. but I wonder if it is that big of a difference.

Anyways, the house we chose has a 2-car garage as well. This'll be good since I know I'll be spending a lot of time in there, fixing up my bike. My car will also have somewhere to spend the night :)

As for a backyard, this house has a "desert landscape" backyard. That basically means that the backyard has nothing in it except rocks and dirt. Compared to other houses we saw, this choice is somewhere in the middle. Some houses priced at the same range had large, grassy backyards. Others had small patios. I think it'll be interesting if I ever decide to fix up the backyard with any grass or flowers... never been much of a garden man.

The only complaints that I have with this house is that it's in the heart of the town. Therefore, it isn't near any freeways. It won't be very fun commuting to work! My motorcycle will overheat while driving local in the ridiculous heat. Also, the neighbor is the HOA vice-president or something.. which means we'll need to abide by rules, all of the time! I'm not sure what the rules are yet, but I hope they are crazy about everything like they are in Irvine.

I'll post some pictures when I get there!

I have long desired a helicon, as I have previous discussed in my post on Heliconology, Part I. I’ve been considering several instruments, including a beautiful four-valved European (from the little-known maker Ernst David) instrument from circa 1890. However, as I prefer American-made horns, I have finally settled on a Holton from roughly the same […]