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Am I Blue? Standing Out in Tucson

By Cara Marcelle Mancuso

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes BR564219000

June 28, 2011 02:13 AM

When I first moved to the Tucson, Marana, and Oro Valley area, I had a bit of trouble remembering how to find friend's houses. It seemed every neighborhood looked "the same".

contemporary frame stucco homes in Tucson

If you've followed my blog posts at all, you can detect a certain similarity amongst many homes built after 1980, in the $75,000 to $400,000 range. They call it Contemporary Frame Stucco. They come in tan, gold, beige, brown, off white, puce, shades of rust - lots of earth tones. When you're new here, you get to thinking all the homes look alike until you have time to discover the flavor of the different neighborhoods in town.

So, imagine my surprise when I drove into THIS neighborhood last week. Here was the first house on the block - something I see daily:

Contemporary Frame Stucco Home in Tucson

And then there was THIS one:

Blue and Red Contemporary Frame Stucco home in Tucson

WHOA! No trouble finding your way to THIS house! It's the only one like it...well, in probably most Contemporary Frame Stucco neighborhoods. I had to dash home and see if it was in an HOA, because normally with an home owner's association, you must get permission to paint outside of the neighborhood color "scheme".

I wonder who they knew on the HOA board...

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Coral Gundlach

Compass - Arlington, VA

Real Lives. Not Just Real Estate.

Wow, was it in an HOA? I wonder if they've been given notice of a violation?

Jun 28, 2011 02:27 AM

Glenn Roberts

Retired - Seattle, WA

I know there are reasons for HOAs and for the most part a homogeneity is established that doesn't offent anyone. But I like a dash of color here and there and everywhere.

Jun 28, 2011 02:31 AM

Rob D. Shepherd

RETIRED - Florence, OR

RETIRED

Maybe if its in an HOA, they were the whole board. We had that happen here a few years ago and it is still an ugly dark pink.

Jun 28, 2011 02:36 AM

Susan Emo

Sotheby's International Realty Canada - Brokerage - Kingston, ON

Kingston and the 1000 Islands Area

When I lived on the seashore in Northern Ireland, we thought our home would suit a very very soft pink. A blush pink if you will. Our stone pillars were in a grey and pink hue called Scrabo stone and our gardens were filled with beautiful white, pink and cherry coloured blossoms. Even our drive was filled with crushed pink marble . . . it was absolutely gorgeous and we even had photographers arrive to document it in the local newspapers and one magazine. Within 2 weeks of the pictures being published, we were ordered by neighbours to repaint it white. I refused.There was HOA and zero grounds to demand this other than their personal taste. As far as I am aware, it is still pink 10 years later. It just popped against the all the other homes that were, yes, white! One of the reasons our Buyers jumped at it.

But that blue on this home - WOW!

Jun 28, 2011 07:05 AM

Laura Sargent

Carolina One Real Estate - Mount Pleasant, SC

Oh boy! I see trouble brewing. I like color but there must of been a close out sale on these.

Jun 28, 2011 10:01 AM

Cara Marcelle Mancuso

Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes - Tucson, AZ

Call a Marana neighbor, I'm THERE!

Coral - yes there's an HOA but the dues are only $5 a month, so maybe it doesn't do much...

Glenn - You just can't make all of the people happy all of the time!

Rob - Round here there's usually a palette of colors from which to choose... and some neighborhoods do have lots of color - they are just usually located more in the historic neighborhoods.

Susan - sounds lovely! I grew up in a little town and we could have whatever colored homes we wanted back then instead of this homogeneous stuff - much more lively, that's for sure. I wonder why color and not condition seems to be the most monitored??

Laura - I'm looking forward to the Fourth of July - think I'll take a drive by...

Jun 28, 2011 10:13 AM

Am I Blue? Standing Out in Tucson

Comments(6)

Cara Marcelle Mancuso

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