While house-hunting in the neighborhood where I now live I drove around to see what kinds of homes were nearby and what people were out and walking around. (And yes–people do walk around in Tucson neighborhoods. They bike, too.)
Overall, this neighborhood looked like the Tucson version of an apartment district: “villages” of smallish one-story older rental houses, some new condos and several blocks of single family homes. Gardens were tidy. Homes were nicely painted. No cars on blocks in front yards. But it was away from the areas that had been suggested to me, so I checked the Trulia Crime Map which showed it to be a safe area.
But I still wasn’t sure.
Living in a Tucson castle
Then suddenly, 2 blocks from where I now live, I saw a gray castle with an American flag flying from the central “keep” tower and that cinched it for me. How can any neighborhood be bad if it has a gray concrete block medieval castle in it! Better yet, it had a large Chinese lion statue standing guard of the mailbox in front.
I have since learned that this area has a reputation for being sort of arty. Perfect for me.
I still walk or drive by the gray castle occasionally and have never seen anyone who looks like they are the owner, but clearly someone is living there. (Later: I discovered that a women owns this property, but I don’t know if she built it. And, it turns out this gray castle is a gigantic wall around a white stucco home inside of it!) A few days after I moved in I noticed a small sign outside the castle gate that read: “For Rent One small bedroom.” The sign was gone within a couple of days so, no doubt, someone besides me thought it was a cool place to live.
Stay away with red bricks and cacti
Since then I have come across another home a few miles east of me that also seems to be inspired by old fortresses and castles. And these owners appear to be really serious about maintaining their privacy.
Not only is the home in a fortress style, it is surrounded by prickly pear cactus and, in case a potential uninvited visitor needs further discouragement, a sign on the front gate reads: Dog on Premises.
In both these cases–the Cactus Castle and the Gray Castle–the buildings are surrounded by utterly ordinary single story brick ranch homes that were built back in the 1970s on ordinary size lots all over Tucson. But since then at least two people decided to take steps to prove that a man’s home is his castle.
And then, as I was house-hunting, there was this impressive yellow wall surrounding some casitas that were too small for me. But the wall–wow, did someone ever decide to bar the way to this property with this fortress. It’s as tall as the walls at the Presidio in downtown Tucson.
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