See Arizona

All about the Phoenix monsoon

Glossary Posts

This is a reprint of a post from summer 2009. When I was a kid and we moved here in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the knee-jerk reaction answer to “When’s the monsoon?” was “August”. With the heat island effect, it seems like the monsoon arrives earlier and lasts longer each year. In 2008, [...]

4 August 2010 Read the full article →

Don’t leave your house naked

Phoenix By Area

Just me popping in with a little tip for home sellers. We’ve all heard of “curb appeal”. The home above has none of it. The home below, on the other hand. . . . . . .  now that’s curb appeal! These two homes are approximately the same floor plan in the same neighborhood. Neither [...]

15 July 2010 Read the full article →

Greenbelts, Washes, and Drainage

Photoblogging

** Update 1/21/10, 9:00pm.  The pictures below were taken earlier today, before lunchtime.  As of now (and a full day of rain), my backyard is 2 inches under water, but the water is still draining towards the street, drainage pipes, and greenbelts.  I don’t have statistics in front of me, but I don’t remember getting [...]

21 January 2010 Read the full article →

Meteor Crater

Photoblogging

We spent some time in Flagstaff this weekend (58 degrees in pouring rain felt pretty darn good!), and decided to make the short drive east on I-40 to check out the world famous Meteor Crater. One could easily be overwhelmed with the sheer size and historical implications of it all – 4,000 feet across, 3 [...]

8 September 2009 Read the full article →

a visit from Wile E Coyote

Photoblogging

My older son & I saw a coyote yesterday about 50 feet away; pretty neat actually!  Our neighborhood borders the New River, which is a very large desert wash the 359 days of the year it doesn’t rain, and runs from the mountains in north Peoria southwest through Peoria, Glendale, Sun City, Avondale, and Goodyear, [...]

18 August 2009 Read the full article →

Phoenix Photos goes live!

Photoblogging

I’ve been photographing Phoenix for 18 months for my Moving Stills series, and I’ve absolutely enjoyed it.  However, I have 2 frustrations about it: 1. The series limits me to photographs I’ve taken from my car, which means there are dozens hundreds of pictures I want to share, but which don’t meet the guidelines for [...]

12 August 2009 Read the full article →

Showing 117

Op Ed

Yesterday was a personal record; it was the hottest I’ve ever experienced first-hand while showing homes with clients.  117 under bright blue, sunny skies. Standing in backyards while we discuss potential landscaping ideas and pool repair. Standing inside homes without a/c, where the temperature might have only been 97, but the humidity was brutal. And [...]

28 July 2009 Read the full article →

Friday’s dust storm

Photoblogging

We had a pretty good dust storm on Friday evening.  I noticed the dark skies to the southwest when I left my house (in the northwest valley) under sunny skies. These pictures were taken from around the I-10 and Loop 303 area, during the early evening (when there should have been a big bright sun [...]

20 July 2009 Read the full article →

Merry Christmas!

Op Ed

The North Phoenix neighborhood of Moon Valley puts on a holiday light display complete with luminaria.

25 December 2008 Read the full article →

Why Phoenix is Known for Sunsets

Phoenix By Area

Just stepped out on the back patio of a client’s new home and snapped this with my dinky little 4 year old digital camera. It’s December 8 and I was out there in my t-shirt and jeans. Ahhhh. Life is good in Phoenix. Heather Barr is a Realtor and a happy workaholic. She eats more [...]

8 December 2008 Read the full article →

Winter Arrived

Op Ed

People joke that the Phoenix area has only 2 seasons, winter and summer. Summer lasts approximately 5 months of the year, searing us with triple digit temps from late May through late October. It’s a dry heat, but then so is my oven. Winter arrives overnight and lasts for the remaining 7 months of the [...]

14 October 2008 Read the full article →