The Quarantine Diaries Danny Brown Style

Last quarter, you got to hear all about what we’ve been up to from my amazing wife, Elissa. This quarter, you get my version and I apologize up front: she’s much more talented and entertaining than I am!

I tried the work from home routine for about two months once Arizona instituted its lock down. My days started with a backyard workout, then I moved to my at-home office for most of the day making calls, answering emails, and filming market updates. I would then move from my office chair to my couch, then back to bed. It was a rotation that I just couldn’t take anymore! I officially started back to work at my midtown Phoenix office the Tuesday after Memorial Day, and have been working there ever since. As many of you know, I am a man of routines, but the routine of just being at home all the time broke me, and broke me fast. I realized I would never make it in prison! For two reasons: 1- I’m too pretty and 2- it would be so boring that I’d go insane. I need to be out and about, and I love seeing people in person. I’m an extrovert at heart, and I enjoy the company of people... which is good in my field of work! Thankfully, after I went back to my office, my team slowly started to follow. During the shutdown, I felt our company culture and team dynamic started to suffer, so I was glad that they started making appearances. As we’ve progressed, they have started coming into the office on a more regular basis, and I hope they continue to do so as long as they feel comfortable.

During this time Elissa and I started thinking, (probably like a lot of you), that our home wasn’t really up to our current standards. Don’t get me wrong- we love our home and our location, but is it the home we really see ourselves staying in for the next 10 to 15 years? We ultimately decided the answer was probably not. So, like a lot of you, we started toying with the idea of selling our current home to buy the next. We started exploring all of Central Phoenix including Arcadia, the Central Corridor, our current area off of Shea and the 51, as well as the area of Scottsdale near Kierland. Unfortunately, due to the state of the market the homes within our budget weren’t substantially better than the home we have now, and to get into them would double our mortgage payment. For me, I really want to make that leap to the next level of home that’s going to be our forever home. We’re just not quite there yet. Ultimately, we decided to go down the path of doing a light remodel to our current home. We’re going to update the kitchen, bathrooms, repaint, some new carpet in the bedrooms, and upgrade the outdoor living space. This is going to really make our home enjoyable for the next 3 to 5 years, and then we can make that leap! My hope, with your help (wink wink), is that my business will continue to grow and we’ll be able to do just that. We’ve been in the contractor interviewing process, and boy is that a barrel of fun! We’ll keep you updated as we progress, I’m sure in our next letter my wife will have some choice words about the progress or lack thereof.

It hasn’t been all work- I did get to enjoy some vacation time this last quarter. I hadn’t taken any real time off during the first half of the year mostly due to the pandemic. One of my favorite traditions is a camping trip that I take with my dad, brother, cousins, and uncle every year. My dad and his friends from college discovered this location and have been going since he was in his 30s. We leave super early in the morning and drive for about 7 hours – 5 hours on highway and 2 hours on back country roads to a specific campsite. It’s incredibly remote, completely off the grid, and one of the best places to recharge your mental batteries because anything that needs a signal literterally doesn’t work. We camp on a ridge... and this is truck-camping, so we’re not exactly roughing it. We also eat like kings thanks to my brother and cousins. Each morning, after a hearty breakfast we hike 30 minutes down the steepest grade I’ve ever hiked. You have to walk down a game trail sideways, so you don’t tumble down the mountain. After the hike, the trail lets you out right at a bend in a river. We then spend the entire day hiking up and down the river fishing for trout and small mouth bass. There was a period of about 4 hours where I stood in the middle of this river by myself with only the sound of the breeze in the trees. While standing there, I saw two deer come down the mountain on one side, cross the river right in front of me, take a drink, then go right up the other side. It was truly surreal.

I also successfully got my wife out of the house! Per her letter last time, she had been quarantining pretty hard. Not much has changed, she’s still very much staying in, but I was able to get her to go to California! We drove of course, since there’s no way she’s getting on a plane anytime soon… so glad I have all those airline points. We made a trip to Southern California where we stayed in an Airbnb on the beach. And yes, she brought her own bedding, and cleaned the place before we could relax. While there, we got to enjoy the beach and ocean, actually see some friends, and even went out to dinner. She was quite reckless for a recluse, and I loved every minute of it. It was nice to feel somewhat normal if even just for a week.

The 3rd quarter of the year was much better for the Brown’s than the 2nd quarter of the year, and I hope the same goes for you and your family. I’m looking forward to what the 4th quarter will bring and hopefully our small remodel gets started and finished. If not, our next letter will probably involve a lot of expletives from my wife!

Cheers,

Danny Brown