Cathedral City

Cathedral city borders Palm Springs and is actually a larger population.  We found a house in the COVE which is a community of about 1100 houses, no HOA, and mostly gay.  People here take great pride in their homes and most have been remodeled over the years.  The house we found was the retirement home built by a marine and his wife who had died.  The grandson was living in the house which had not been remodeled since in was built in the 90's.  We got it for a decent price knowing we would change EVERY surface, inside and out, over the next three years.

The Front of the house needed some serious landscaping clean up and also had rounded-top palladium windows that really dated it. We began with some brutal plant and tree removal and clean up. We also installed panels over the palladium windows to hide them and add some design interest. We installed some of the art pieces we had brought down from Portland and installed low voltage lighting. All the of irrigation system required update and replacement.

We added solar panels which generate about half of the power we use, which is very significant in the summer with two large A/C units running. During the winter we send more power into the grid than we use - thus bringing our electric cost with SoCalEd way down.

The front of the house is shaded in the morning - so we can sit on the front porch with coffee and read the paper - and greet the dog walkers.