Why Sahuarita?

In case you're not familiar with Sahuarita, Arizona, it's located just 15 miles south of Tucson, and just north of Green Valley.  The San Xavier Indian Reservation separates Tucson from Sahuarita.  Sahuarita was truly a small town, listing only 3,242 residents in the 2000 census.  But the development of the planned community at Rancho Sahuarita, where 24 W. Paseo Celestial is located changed all that.  By 2010 the community had grown to 25,259 people according the U.S. Census, making it a nice small town, where a more comfortable, slower living pace is possible.

By selecting a Rancho Sahuarita home, you get the benefits of a new community, including underground utilities, city water and sewer, etc., while getting to live in a small town setting.

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Energy Efficiency

Actual picture of home during construction

When the home at 24 W. Paseo Celestial was built, it was built to Energy Star standards.  According to the builder, KB Home this made the home up to 45% more energy efficient than other similar homes in the area.  The energy efficiency comes about due to a number of features that KB Home installed to make the home more energy efficient.

While, I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the features, here's a list of the energy saving features that I do remember:

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The Façade of the Home

The façade (exterior) of the home is one of five available for the 1661 sq ft home available from KB Home in the Presidio del Cielo subdivision.  In particular this one is supposed to look like a craftsman style home with two craftsman style columns surrounding the door entry area.  

You can see the original design from the architect in the hand drawing to the right, and the actual picture of the home below.  The finished product looks pretty similar to  the architect's plan.

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The Private Side Yard

The area between the home at 24 W. Paseo Celestial and the home next door (at 28 W. Paseo Celestial), is the private side yard.  It's enclosed by a cinder block fence at both ends of the yard, and there's a wood paneled steel gate to enter the yard from the front yard of the home, and the gate can be locked and secured with a padlock.  From the house, you can enter the side yard using the sliding glass door in the dining area.

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Ceiling Fans

The home at 24 W. Paseo Celestial was purchased new with a specific upgrade of having structural supports and wiring specifically for ceiling fans in the living room and all the bedrooms.  This means that all the junction boxes were specifically mounted to be able to handle the extra weight of a ceiling fan, and that two power sources were run to each of these junction boxes, each with their own switch, one to control the light on the fan, and a separate power source with a switch to control the fan itself.

There are ceiling fans installed in the living room, and every bedroom in the home.  In the bedrooms, you can control the lights separately from the fan using separate switches mounted at the entry to each bedroom.  This allows you to turn the light on in the bedroom without having to turn on the fan, or turn the fan on without having to turn on the light.

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OnQ LeGrand Smart / Structured Wiring

The home at 24 W. Paseo Celestial was built with smart / structured wiring in place at the time of the construction, making easy to add TV / Cable / Satellite / Internet / Phone ports into almost every room in the house. There are already smart jacks located in each of the bedrooms, the loft, and the living area of the home. Connecting a service to any of the smart jacks in the home is as easy as visiting the structured wiring box located in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom.

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KB Home and the 10 year limited warranty

24 W. Paseo Celestial was built in 2009, which means if you buy this home in 2016, you still have 3 years remaining on the original 10 year limited warranty which came with the home.  KB Home makes it easy to file to a warranty claim, and you can find the warranty claim page at:  http://www.kbhome.com/warranty-services

If you're not familiar with KB Home it was established in 1957 as Kaufmann and Broad as a home builder for returning Korean War Veterans, and was the first company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a home builder.  The name change to KB Home happened in 2001.  

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Tiled Bathroom Mirrors

In both the Master Bathroom (the picture with the double sink), and the Hall Bathroom (the picture with the single sink, extended countertop), the full size bathroom mirrors have been upgraded with glass tile borders.

As noted in prior posts, the Master Bathroom also has a comfort height vanity (taller than normal sink vanities), and the Hall Bath, has an extended countertop, which is an upgrade from the base home configuration from KB Home.

The Garage

The garage of the home is attached and is a 2 car garage with a double door, that has an automatic garage door opener, by Chamberlain.  The garage door opener has some of the newer features including sensors for obstruction (safety eye beam), that force the door to automatically reverse when an obstruction is sensed.  The garage door opener also has a more advanced switch that has a lockout capability, the ability to lockout garage door opener remote use when you're away for an extended period.  The home comes with a single garage door opener remote, but easily learns additional ones you can buy from any home improvement center.

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Window Coverings

All the window coverings and window treatments stay with the home when it's sold.

On the first floor, all the windows have white 2 inch faux wood blinds.  This includes all the living room windows, the foyer window and the kitchen window.  In addition the living room windows have drapes which stay with the home.  The foyer window has a valance that matches the living room windows and the sliding door in the dining area has a wood valance that is covered in the same fabric as the living room drapes to tie all the rooms together.  The sliding door has vertical white slat blinds.

Upstairs the loft windows have the same 2 inch faux wood blinds, as does the master bedroom.  All the master bedroom windows also have a decorative valance that stays with the home.

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Kitchen Upgrades

The kitchen has a number of upgrades including the ones discussed earlier, in the original upgrades section, as well as a number of additional upgrades that happened during the initial ownership of the home.  I'll recap all of these upgrades here.  The upgrades in the kitchen include:

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• Kraftmaid Sandlewood Maple Cabinetry  - These are an upgrade from the basic oak cabinets that normally come with the base KB Home (these cabinets have recessed panels that are heavy weight and as thick as the frame of the door - you'll notice the standard cabinets that came with homes that weren't upgraded have a very thin recessed panel).
• Additional cabinet over the refrigerator.  The cabinet over the refrigerator was added only a few years ago.  We went out and found a Kraftmaid cabinet dealer who could sell us a matching cabinet and crown molding and do the installation over the refrigerator, so there's extra cabinet space and a more completed look to the kitchen

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The New Living/Dining Room Floor

Just installed earlier in August, is a new wood laminate floor throughout the living / dining area.  The flooring used is from a brand called "Style Selections" from Lowe's and comes with a 30 year limited warranty as you can see from the label.

The floor is laid over a moisture resistant barrier foam underlayment, also from Lowe's.  The flooring was allowed to acclimate to the home for 3 days before installation, and a nice transition finish using a 4-in-1 t-molding kit was used to transition to the kitchen flooring.

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The Floorplan

Here's the original floorplan supplied by KB Home.  Note, the actual home is built as the mirror image to this floorplan, and the home has some upgrades that this floorplan doesn't show (like the larger patio, double comfort height sink in the master, garden tub in the master, extended sink in the hall bath, and powder room on the first floor).

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The Most Lightly Used Home You Will Find

We purchased this home brand new in 2009 from KB Home to use as a vacation home.  Our daughter also owns a home in Rancho Sahuarita, so we decided to purchase a home so we could be close to her and yet give her and her family some space.  Since this was our vacation home, this home was occupied and used less than 2 months each year since new.  It was used just to visit the daughter's home, and was left empty and secured, while we were away, and checked up on by our daughter.

As such everything in the home is in great shape, and very lightly used, so the home is much younger than the years would show.  Since we purchased the home new we were able to select the many upgrades you see listed in the blog post on the upgrades that came with the home.

Location of 24 W Paseo Celestial

If you're not familiar with Rancho Sahuarita, you may not realize what a great location 24 W. Paseo Celestial has relative to the many amenities of Rancho Sahuarita.

As you can see from the map, the main clubhouse, Club Rancho Sahuarita is a short walk away, The Club includes the main fitness/workout center, the main pool, water park, kids activities, including the kid's train,

There's also a park right next to the home just a house away, called "The Green", and behind "The Green" is the "Bark Park", great if you've got a dog.

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Original Upgrades in the Home

When the house was purchased new in 2009, a number of upgrades were purchased with the home that add some nice touches that other similar homes in the neighborhood may not have.  Some of these upgrades include:

• Single arch 2-paneled doors throughout the home (standard offering was flat slab doors)
• Upgraded kitchen cabinets (and matching bath vanities) with maple wood and single arch doors
• Addition of a bar height counter in the kitchen area (standard home just included a half height wall without the bar counter)
• Upgraded white appliances, including a self-cleaning oven and side-by-side refrigerator with ice-maker and in-the-door filtered water dispenser
• Upgraded kitchen sink to white porcelain enamel (standard offering was stainless steel sink)
• Ceiling fan wiring/structure support throughout the house (this allows a separate switch for the light and second switch for the fan on all ceiling fans in the house)
• Expanded patio covering and patio - this house includes an 10x12 ft patio covering instead of the standard 10x6 ft patio covering and patio that many of the other homes have

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Welcome to 24 W Paseo Celestial, Sahuarita, AZ

The purpose of this blog is to give you some insight into the property located at 24 W. Paseo Celestial, in Sahuarita, AZ.

The property is currently listed for sale on the Tucson, AZ MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

First something about the property:

The house was built in 2009, by KB Home and is located in Rancho Sahuarita in the section known as Presidio del Cielo.  It's a 2 story single family home that is 1661 square feet in size with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a loft area called the "tech center" in the original blue prints.

The ground floor has an open flow combined living, dining and kitchen space.  The kitchen includes a bar counter, white appliances, including a gas stove, dishwasher, and side-by-side refrigerator with ice-maker and in-the-door filtered water dispenser.  The kitchen also has a nice sized pantry.

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