This past Wednesday, after both of us finished dental appointments in Grand Junction, we drove to Montrose and met our realtor, Linda, to view the inside of 4 houses we had identified as being “potential” retirement properties. The results were a mixed bag; I’ll start with the worst and work up to the best.

The worst was the 1930’s era fixer-upper bungalow in Cedaredge. (820 West Main.) The place is in pretty bad shape and there were no architectural details worth saving. We left quickly.

Holes in the roof at 820 W. Main

The next property was the peach and cherry orchard on Weaver Road outside of Austin. While the house had some nice features, like the kitchen and entry, the place was very “chopped up” with a very strange floor plan (due to making the main house into two rental units). Excellent views of the San Juan and West Elk Mountains though, but no garage or outbuildings.  With some reluctance we decided the orchard could be eliminated from consideration.

Entry and kitchen of orchard house

Overlooking Austin with West Elk Mountains in background.

Next on the list was the Marshall’s Road property. We had high hopes for this one but ran into a couple of major issues. We knew, from the listing photos, that the walk-through galley kitchen was not what Pam wanted and would require a major renovation to modernize it.

Marshall’s Road kitchen

The kitchen space could be expanded into a bedroom that shares the right-hand wall. This would leave two small bedrooms and one bath on the main floor, but the cost of a kitchen renovation is generally quite high. Plus, in a house built in 1909, what would be behind wall #1? Touching the electrical during such a renovation would likely require bringing the entire house up to code, which would mean losing the antique ceiling fixtures in the living and dining rooms.  Bummer, there goes the charm.

Then we descended down a steep and dark stairwell with minimal hand rails into the cellar, where we fund a truly antique furnace. Coal-fired with an automatic stoker, this thing is a monster.

Coal-fired furnace with stoker

I estimate it would be about a $5,000.00 job to replace this unit with a modern gas furnace. Again, by itself not a deal breaker, but over-all the cost (and labor required) to bring this place up to our standards would be quite high. And not just in major projects…the windows are the old style sliders that use a weight-and-pulley system; some of the windows had broken cords and the windows did not work properly. While not difficult to repair, it does mean every window would need attention.    The costs would add up since we would not have the time (and knowledge, in some cases) to do the work ourselves and would have to hire contractors.

And not just inside work…the 3+ acre lot also needs attention. For example, this old cement block building would have to go. So would the tree house behind it.

Old building would have to go

Still, the yard and views are very attractive – the front lawn is almost like a park.

West Elk view from driveway

And many rooms in the house were appealing, such as the dining area.

Dining room features antique light fixture

While not eliminated from consideration, this place would not be at the top of our ‘pick list’ unless the price dropped significantly. There are many high-priced renovation projects involved in moving forward.

The last property, on Tulip Circle in Montrose, was nicer inside than the listing photos indicated. Because of the price and the way the property is marketed (it’s a foreclosure, over $300,000 asking price, being sold at auction through a 3rd party) we did not initially consider it a real possibility. I didn’t take photos so will use a couple of the listing photos.

First, the way this property is being sold is… ah….unique to us. The listing company, Hubzu.com, takes on-line bids and submits them to the property owner, in this case I am guessing a bank. The bank can accept or reject all bids. If all bids are rejected, the bid process is re-opened for another round of bids. (So far this property has been through 3 bid cycles.) The kicker is that Hubzu collects an additional 4.5% of the winning bid price as a closing cost (essentially, this covers the Seller’s usual Broker/Realtor fee payment plus some profit for Hubzu). The percentage adds many thousands of dollars to the price of the property — $11,250.00 on a winning bid of $250,000.00 for example. Closing costs might, or might not, be financed as part of a loan on the property. If not, this means the Buyer has to have a lot more cash up front, a problem for us as it would be in addition to the 20% down payment. We are going to get more information on this process and see if it is a viable avenue for us to pursue, either for this house or some future one.

The house itself is about ten years old and quite contemporary, with upgrades to bathrooms and kitchen. It does feature two bedrooms on the main floor, each with an attached bath, along with a laundry area and a main floor bonus room (probably office). Upstairs are a couple more bedrooms with a shared bath.

Kitchen in Tulip Circle home

Master bath on main level

On the other hand, the living room is quite small and there is no defined dining room. The dining room table would end up in the kitchen area, potentially disrupting the traffic flow to the rear deck.

Living room

There are also HOA (Home Owner’s Association) fees and regulations, most of which deal which appearance of the property. Since there is no outside storage at present (there is an attached 2-car garage) it remains to be seen if an additional detached outside storage structure to house my toys would be permitted. We are checking (through the realtor) about this.

So, while we initially thought the Tulip property was beyond us (originally sold for $420,000 a decade ago), we were impressed enough to look further into the auction system and how we might be able to move forward. The odds are against us; we believe the minimum the bank would accept is more than we have to offer, but the longer the place stays on the market the better our chances become. Watch this space!

Around our current house on the high desert, lilacs are just staring to bud and, for the first time ever, the white lilac bush looks like it will flower. A Mother’s Day gift to Pam a few years back, the lilac has grown well every year but has never flowered. A few white buds are beginning to open and maybe (assuming no more freezing nights) there will be quite a show of flowers in the coming weeks. White lilacs would be excellent, but the plant’s main landscape attribute is an amazing growth pattern that now provides screening for neighbors’ ugly properties.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Two of the retirement houses in contention above represent a tug of war between the heart and the head.  The heart says 1909 historic Grandma house, absolutely.  The Seller has a photo of the original building standing treeless on the property in 1909; it has remained in their family for over 100 years. Truly a property worth updating (kitchen, furnace, electrical).  So says the heart.

On the other hand, a newer home like the Tulip house perhaps makes more sense for the older folks we are becoming; it has an updated charm, and is on a large lot in an upscale subdivision.  The auction process is unconventional and may or may not be something we can pursue due to cash on hand.  But a newer home would likely result in fewer large and costly renovation projects and (potentially) fewer maintenance issues over the next few decades.  So says the head.

And the winner is? Maybe neither one.  I think I could use a time out.

Happy Trails.

In addition to weather (more in a moment), there are just a few comments to make in this post.

Weather:
Denver and the high country received national attention due to a storm that continues today. Here in the western part of the state we received some rain and wind; we can see the snow line up higher but the storm had little effect on us. Denver is a couple hundred miles away and on the other side of the mountains so the weather is often quite different than what we experience here in De Beque. It has been a cold and wet couple of days, though, which curbed some of our normal weekend activities. Our furnace, after not being used for a couple weeks, has been running occasionally overnight. A warm-up is forecast for later next week so conditions will improve.

The improvement will come at a good time for us as we plan another “home visit” trip this coming Wednesday. Pam and I have identified 4 homes that we would like to have our realtor show us. (Links will take you to the Realtor listing.) The first is a small house with a garage and pond (biggest attraction is the pond). Address is 15977 6100 Road in Montrose. The second is an orchard property near Austin, 21761-59 Weaver Road. With 600 fruit trees (a full working orchard), we are hoping the property has views and a roomy house — the fruit trees, not so much (but trees are trees, plus the acreage is totally deer fenced). The third possibility is the Marshall’s Road property I have mentioned in an earlier post. This one has a variety of trees, nice yard, and a few storage buildings plus a view of the West Elk Mountains. Street address is 8903 Marshall’s Road. The final house is also a property I have mentioned before, a newer house in foreclosure on Tulip Circle in Montrose. With a large lot and closer to town, this property has some attractive features, including an attached garage and an underground sprinkler system. Buying a $420,000 property for closer to $250,000 could be a prudent investment, but we’d need to wait for the bank to keep lowering the price. The address is 20391 Tulip Circle.

We also plan a drive-by to take a look at a total “fixer-upper” property in Cedaredge. In town but with a large lot and independent well to supplement city utilities, this 1930s-era bungalow features a dilapidated but salvageable shop, trees, and a low price point. Again, we would consider buying low and fixing up over a couple of years before we retire. The street address on this place is 820 W. Main Street, Cedaredge, CO.

Look for many photos of these places as well as our reactions in my next post!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The Winter’s retirement home search is winding down.  Viewing the interiors of two of the homes we have been watching, plus two more, may be [close to] the conclusion of this round of house hunting.  Sellers/realtors are anticipating more Buyer activity as the weather improves, and may be less likely to lower their prices and “deal.” Unless we find a property we cannot refuse, it may be the end of Summer/Fall before we start up the active search again. Our Summers are always busy with high country trips to Sanderling and De Beque yard maintenance anyway.

Happy Trails.

We have tulips blooming in our yard. I guess this means spring has arrived! I will be mowing the lawn later today, weather permitting, as there is a 40 percent chance of rain in the forecast. Could use the rain – already.

There are a few topics today including some tech news, house hunt, and a bit longer comment by Pam.

Pam is trying out a new style of computer mouse, generically known as a “vertical mouse.” Evoluent is a leader in this style of mouse which is supposed to reduce strain in your mouse hand and arm. Initial impressions are good; we will see how it works once the novelty wears off. The unit pictured is a “small” mouse which fits ladies’ smaller hands. The company also offers a “Large” version, a wireless version, and a Macintosh version of it’s mouse. (My hand in the photos, not Pam’s.)

Vertical Mouse – side view

Vertical Mouse – top view

I installed additional memory in the Mac, upgrading from 8gb to 16gb and the computer seems to be responding a little snappier than in the past.

House Hunt.

Not a lot new as we don’t plan a trip this weekend to drive-by potential properties. I do, however, have a few more photos from a couple properties we have driven by in past trips.

This first is on Knight Road and features a newer, ranch-style home. Drawbacks are few trees and no views, but it does have a large garage. We do not really care for the “zero-scaping” (no lawn) approach to landscaping; we really prefer grass and trees!

Knight Road home

Knight Road garage

Pam says we are not buying a property based on the garage, but along with three bedrooms and two baths, a substantial garage would be very nice to have.

Another “fixer-upper” we looked at is an older four-square farmhouse in Eckert (on the way to the Grand Mesa) that has been added onto. Advantages are large trees in the front yard, a couple of outbuildings, and an irrigation ditch that runs through the front yard. Can you say “pond potential?” But the place would require a lot of work, emphasis on a lot of work.

Old farmhouse on 5 acres

Out buildings on farmhouse lot

Yes, that is an old tractor tire that needs to go away, as well as the old mobile home sitting behind the shed. As I said, a lot of work…but it represents the “buy and fix up” approach we have been considering. I am at least a couple years from retirement so buying a not-ready-for-prime-time property is something we have considered. We could use the time to fix up a place and spread the costs out, but I’m not sure that we want to take on such a project. Still, we may request to see the inside of this place, although we know it probably has steep stairs in the original structure which would not be a plus for us. But…5 acres, trees, irrigation water…could be worse.

Pam’s Two Cents Worth (or maybe Ten Cents):

Why are we looking at larger homes (1,500 square feet +) you may ask?  (Well, I guess you did ask.) No, we are definitely not hoping the children will return.  Besides a place to store stuff (some of it is said children’s stuff), a requirement which will hopefully decrease as the years roll on, I would like space to foster animals.  It’s amazing to me how much room crates and carriers take up.  Also, when fostering a mom cat and litter, privacy is necessary so the mom cat doesn’t freak out with activity coming and going – each is very protective of her litter.  Hence, a dedicated room. I see myself getting back into fostering (likely on a more limited basis than in the past) when I have more time to do so, and I’d like to have room for all the fostering accoutrements.

Add to that a space for cat boxes, cat feeding station, and dog beds for the current pets.  Pets take up a lot of room.  I look at the houses we consider with more attention to how the pets will fit into the floor plan than I ever did.  (Fields, of course, looks at the garage and/or outbuildings with attention to how all his machines will fit into those spaces. Unlike animals that eventually “age out,” Fields’ machines are always with us.)

Finally, I am responsible for a small colony of feral cats, currently living in the garage.  Several are the moms of past litters I rescued from the streets of De Beque, one is a stray that attached himself to us in our previous residence. These animals are aging, and live in the half-world between tame and wild; it would not be fair to leave them behind when we move and expect them to survive in their declining years. They need to relocate with us.

Bees – am I still allergic? Don’t know.  I have grown flowers for years, but I stay clear of the bees.  Just last year I purchased an Epi-pen to have up at Sanderling, in case I should get stung up there.  (Medical response is more than three minutes away in the mountains.) So, regarding the house in the orchard, bees are just one of the (many) considerations.  Fields didn’t like the orchard location because there was no mountain view – he is hung up on having another “view.” Sanderling, apparently, is not enough?

First floor bedroom/bathroom/laundry room for our geriatric years, space for animals (indoor and outdoor), enough outbuildings, a pond, a view, some character, all at a price we can afford…  Can you see why it’s taking us so long to find a retirement location, with all these considerations in the mix?

Happy Trails.

Even though it’s not high spring yet, weekends are getting busier with the improving weather. Yesterday (Saturday) I did a number of routine taks, including:
Digging out dandelions
Changed oil and filter in the RAV4
Washed the RAV4
Changed oil and filter in the Honda
Moved the RV from the neighbor’s yard to ours
Mowed a bit of lawn
Weed-wacked around the storage shed and house
Walked the recycles over to the town’s recycle station
Walked over to the Post Office to get the mail
Took my morning 1 3/4 mile “health walk”
And did all this before lunch!

However, I also took a bit of time to start a fire in the fire pit and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea. Here is the fire in the fire pit:

Morning fire

And here is my cup of tea:

Morning tea

After lunch it was time for a shower while Pam drew up a shopping list, them off to the grocery store (64 mile round trip) to get our stuff.

The evening was a bit quieter; Pam made tacos for dinner then it was time to watch a bit of TV and keep an eye on the sunset.

Not quite a typical day but not that far off, either. I always have some projects or work to do around the place that keep me busy pretty much every weekend.

House Hunt:

Last week we drove by a few properties in the Delta/Austin area. Our realtor had sent us a few listings and Pam found others on-line. Having not been in this area before we were curious as to what we would find. To our surprise, the area offers more than we had thought it would, including some views of the West Elk Mountains and the San Juan Mountains plus some trees and irrigation water.

While we eliminated many of the drive-by properties, one has “potential.” Since it is on Marshall’s Road, we have taken to calling it the Marshall’s property.

The big draws at Marshall’s are the trees (a variety, some very old) and larger yard (about 3.2 acres) this property features. There are outbuildings that would work for garage(s) and storage, as well as limited views of the West Elk range. Drawback, from what we can see in the realtor photos, is a very small and somewhat cramped galley walk-through kitchen. However, a bedroom+ bathroom +laundry appear to be on the main floor. We would like to tour the inside and will contact our realtor to see what can be arranged. (The realtor is on vacation so the visit won’t happen for a couple weeks.)

Here are some photos I took at Marshall’s:

Marshall’s property front yard

Closer view of the house

House from road

Storage structures behind house

West Elk view from end of driveway

The Zillow real estate listing for this house is 8903 Marshall’s Road Austin CO

Nearer to our target price range, Marshall’s also has irrigation water and fenced in areas where the dogs could run. There appear to be enough living spaces on the main level that steps would not be an issue (most of the bedrooms and one bathroom are upstairs, however). While yard maintenance would be high -at least for the first year or two – the number, ages, and varieties of trees already on the lot is a real draw for us and would outweigh the labor that cleaning up and managing the lot would require.

We continue to drive by other properties and another possibility is a ranch style home on Coogans Bluff Road. This property has a unique entrance…you drive through a line of orchard trees to get to the house!  The orchard could be a problem…Pam was allergic to bee stings in her youth  and she still has an Epi-pen available in case she is stung. Living with dozens of fruit trees around may not be a good idea, but the ranch house is on a large lot with a garage. Listing is 9467 Coogans Bluff Road Austin CO

More to come as we continue our house hunt and get ready for spring.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

So I contacted my credit union in Boulder (been a continuous member since the 1980s) to find out about mortgages.  Closing fees/insurance/pro-rated taxes for a home purchase have gone up from our previous high of $2,000 (closing on Sanderling, so land only) and are now in the $3,000-$4,000 range. Paying these exorbitant fees always makes my blood boil.  Of course, it means we must save an additional $4,000 on top of the down payment.  Ugh.

And, the Universe laughs. The actual remnant of the old town of Austin, CO (which we drove through today) is, if anything, more junky and run-down than De Beque (already a very low bar).  Which is why a purchase in town is o-u-t; only properties in the rural area will be considered.

Happy Trails.

I apologize for the break in the action (no recent post) which was due, in part, to a self-induced computer failure.

I ran a disk clean-up utility twice; the first time everything went OK but the second time I did not let the utility finish and, as a result, my Mac would not boot. I was able to start up in Utility mode and restore the disk from a back up system but the last full backup was from late January. I lost a few photos and documents that had been created since then, including updates to my blog pages. No great loss but it could have been prevented had my impatience not gotten the best of me. I downloaded my complete web site from the hosting service and now have all those files on my Mac. I plan to run another full backup tonight!

Picking up the thread of conversation from my last post…we finally viewed the insides of a few houses on our retirement house search. Alas, my favorite, the Trading Post, received an offer the day we looked at the house. Before we were done with our day the current owners had accepted the offer. That rules us out and, considering the price, it would have been a long shot anyway. Here are just a couple photos I during the viewing:

Trading Post kitchen – Professional AGA stove

Approach to Trading Post

Moving on, we visited a few other places (all in Montrose) Pam had identified as in-town “potentials.” One was tenant-occupied and represented a low-priced option that would need renovation, a path we have considered. Nope – not impressed with this one.

Renovation House – Not a Keeper

A third place we were scheduled to look at, one of the nicer places in town, canceled due to family members coming down with the flu.

Our final visit was a place still undergoing renovation. While very cute, it was also very small and had steep steps to get to the upstairs bedrooms. (But, we met the renovation team, good people to know if future renovations present themselves.) We then drove by a couple of properties; one was a center-of-the lot small house that we eliminated right away (no outdoor parking/storage), and the other was not available for visiting that day until after 5:00 pm (as the family was still moving out). We opted not to stay in town that long.

We are finally working with a realtor — she really seems to know her stuff. Since our visit she has sent us a few other listings (including bank-owned and for sale by owner). Tomorrow we plan a drive-by trip to view an area suggested by this realtor, still close to town and with slightly larger lots.

While house hunting has been a positive occupation recently, there have been other developments that are downright depressing. My high school best friend died of a heart attack last week. Just a year older than me, Ed and I spent a lot of time together in our high school days. Later he joined the military and I went off to college and we didn’t keep up very well after that. Still, the news was not welcome.

Pam’s life-long best friend from grade school/high school [now living in Florida] received some bad news…cancer was detected on a vein going from the stomach to the pancreas. There will be an attempt to shrink the tumor by means of chemo and radiation, then surgery to remove the remaining bits. We fervently hope this approach is successful.

Pam’s mother developed cancer when Mom was 63 (she died 16 months later) so this development hits Pam pretty hard. It reminds us, once again, that while we get caught up in things being important, people and relationships are more important over the long haul. And, also, don’t put off everything for the future, none of us can predict how many days each of us has to live life to the fullest.

Finally, tomorrow is Easter so I will close with this Easter electronic card:

Easter 2016

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Apologies in advance to Tabitha for the dark turn in our thoughts (again).  Fields and I are of an age where death seems to have started “lurking.”  Cancer, in particular, propels the person with the diagnosis, and those who care deeply for that person, into a nightmare world of doctor speak and percentages. (But heck, just look at the news feed, even the “rockers” from the 60s and 70s are dropping like flies.)

Regarding the ongoing retirement search, I feel we are starting to qualify specific areas for house viewings. The down payment monies increase monthly. A realtor is on board. The “home stretch” may be in sight.

Happy Trails.

Spring yard work has commenced. Friday Pam removed the mulch from our back-yard flower bed; yesterday we did the three front-yard beds and raked the lawn. The old mulch and leaves were hauled down to the “organic material” drop off area supplied by the city. I have a large plastic bin that I strap down to the front rack on the ATV and use that set up to haul the old mulch; this gives the job a combination of work and play. The yard does look better, neater at least, and opens the beds to the upcoming rain that is in the forecast. Iris plants, as well as tulips, are up and the white lilac is budding out. I may have to mow some lawn within the next two weeks. I guess spring has arrived!

At Pam’s request I dug out the chain saw and removed a dying low-hanging branch from our cottonwood tree. Cottonwood trees are not long-lived and this one is showing signs of age. A few branches here and there should be removed but it would take a man-lift or cherry picker to get to them; we haven’t elected to spend the money to get this work done. Most of the tree is still green and we’re betting on no major branches deciding to fall off in any upcoming storms.

I added a couple more shelves to the garage stereo cabinet and tried mounting the larger 10.5 inch tape reels to see if they would fit. (The smaller 7 inch reels were no problem.) The larger tapes fit with just a bit of room to spare.

10.5 inch reels just fit in cabinet

It is nice to have tunes while working in the garage and I do enjoy renovating this “old-school” stuff.

We’re looking forward to our road trip (Wednesday) to look at the insides of a few houses we have identified as potential retirement homes. The houses range from small fixer-uppers to move-in ready places. It will be some months before we’re ready to choose a house (still putting together a down payment), but it’s important to look at a variety of places so we can help define just what we are looking for. There are always intangibles such as the “flow” of a house, neighborhood, updates needed, maintenance requirements, and yard condition. Photos from a listing will only take you so far. My next post will have more details of these visits and, I hope, several photos along with our reactions to the various properties.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

How boring is it to have to house hunt while factoring in main floor bedroom/bath/laundry to accommodate aging? Very boring, but, an excess of steps could make a person captive in one’s own home.  Lately I’ve also been following the line of thought, if Fields pre-deceases me, can I physically maintain a big and complicated yard? Or even afford a more sizable house payment on a reduced one-person retirement income? Not to mention looking at proximity to services (grocery and medical mainly). Felicity agrees she would be happy not to think of me having to haul an inert Fields on a tarp down to somewhere I could access a vehicle and haul him to hospital. (I think she’s probably thinking about the Sanderling set-up.) These are the insidious ways aging creeps into one’s lifestyle.  Hate it. Have to pay attention to it.

Happy Trails.

Today’s post will be about “stuff” that has gone on over the last week. Some of it is interesting, some less so, but here is what has occupied our non-working hours this past week.

Weather: It is getting warmer. Much of our yard ice (but not all) has melted and tulips are up. So are a couple of dandelions. Unless these events are harbingers of an early spring, the good weather will be interrupted with more snow and storms. All last week the daytime temps were well above average, sometimes by as much as 17 degrees. While appreciating the improved conditions, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop; March is notorious for bad storms in this part of Colorado.

Garage: I spent several hours revamping my garage storage to make room for an equipment rack to house my garage stereo components. This project entailed moving a lot of stuff around – I had pretty well gotten used to the  existing  layout. However, I wanted to add some protection from dust and dirt for the stereo system.

Here is the cabinet installed but with the door closed:

Equipment rack – door closed

Open the door and – voila! – my stereo system.

Stereo components in cabinet

The rack was a surplus item that received no bids when my business  tried to auction it off – it’s not a standard rack for network gear. It had originally housed a video recording system. I offered to take it home and was given permission to do so. Putting in the shelves involved some alterations to the shelves, time consuming but eventually successful. I can now close the door to help keep dust, dirt, and cat hair off the components.

House Hunt: We took a drive to Montrose and viewed a few more houses. One in particular looked like a possibility; no trees but a 3-car garage, 4 bedrooms, a basement, brick exterior, and a view over a valley and down to the San Juan mountains.

Shavano Valley home

Not quite what we expected; cactus around the place and access through what appeared to be the neighbor’s yard. Literally. The yard had a hog pen (with hogs in it) and equipment on one side of the drive and the house and more junk on the other. The drive was not in real good shape either, with mud and potholes a-plenty. While the house might have been OK, the “unusual” access put this one off our list.

We drove by a couple other houses during this trip, including an in-town four square from 1904 that still has all the original woodwork. Nice place on a corner lot with trees and a 2-car garage behind, but we’re not sure we want to be that close to the neighbors and traffic. Being a block away from the local hospital would have some advantages, but also result in a lot of noise. If we could just find one of these historic homes on acreage with trees!

In about 10 days we will be taking some time off during the week to meet a realtor and arrange to see the inside of a couple of Montrose houses including the Trading Post and the Tulip Circle homes I mentioned in a previous post.  And…an offshoot… there is an old potato warehouse for sale that we may investigate. A warehouse could provide storage and a work area for all my toys if we can’t find anything that has a detached garage or a place to put one. It would be kind of funky (and possibly too expensive) but I’m considering whatever options may present themselves.

So…weekends are busy for us between looking at homes and working at projects. Not terribly exciting, though. But of course there is always the presidential race to provide a range of emotional reactions. While I try to stay away from most political talk in this blog, it it clear that there will be two radically different people up for election this fall regardless of who the parties choose as their candidate.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Does anybody else have a problem with driving through a low-life ramshackle neighbor’s yard to access a $300,000 house? Why would we pay taxes on acreage covered with cacti when we intend to have dogs and cats roaming the property? And these important items are not mentioned in the listing – marketing, ha!

Sometimes house hunting is a drag.

Happy Trails.

Leap Day – well, not until Monday, but I needed a lead-in title. Hope everyone enjoys the “once in 4, one day more”  event.

This weekend has been quiet for us; no house-hunting trips or other interesting news. Later today we tackle tax return preparation so I am doing the post now as I will be grumpy later on.

The weather has warmed up the ground enough that we decided to take Soot the cat out of his styrofoam coffin in the snowbank, where he has remained frozen since he died in late December, and bury him near the garage. Burying a pet is always a sad event but Soot is now in his native sod.

Saturday was grocery shopping day and I cashed in our “fuel reward points” that totaled $.90 cents per gallon discount. (The maximum is $1.00 but resets to zero every 1st of the month.) This means I bought gas for $.73 cents per gallon for the maximum-allowed 35 gallons.

Gasoline at $.73 cents per gallon

After hitting very low levels (around $1.50) the price of fuel has begun to rise, going up $.12 per gallon this past week. I was hoping fuel prices would stay low over the summer when we do most of our driving, including our 400 mile round trips to The Lot (often with the F-150). Since our daily commute is about 110 miles we buy a lot of gasoline and discounts like this are big for us. Last year the store ran “double fuel points” if you bought groceries on specific days during the summer and I hope they have a similar promotion this year. It certainly helps the budget!

In other auto-related news, Glenwood Canyon (east of Glenwood Springs where Pam and I both work) had a rockfall of huge boulders falling off the upper rim that closed I-70 for almost a full week. The “alternate route” was about 140 miles around the closure. (There are few alternate routes through the Rockies in this part of the state.) Now open for one lane of traffic both east-and-west-bound at reduced speeds (25 mph), the extended closure didn’t have much immediate effect on us. It did, however, impact co-workers who had to commute west to get into town and east to get home. There will be periodic closures of the Canyon to allow for the movement of heavy equipment and construction gear and this will continue for many months until all the damage has been repaired and future instability mitigated. As this is also our most direct route to Sanderling, periodic closures going forward may impact our Spring/early Summer trips into the high country.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

(Pam says she had no $.02 this time.)

Two topics this time…weather and house hunt.

We have been enjoying a streak of warmer-than-normal temperatures with daytimes getting up into the low 50 degree range. (Nights are still below freezing.) As a result, a lot of snow has melted except for places perennially in the shade. Even there the level has fallen quite a bit. Our columbine plants, and some of the hollyhocks, are looking a little green around their bases. Can spring be far away? However, there is a chance of snow forecast for this Tuesday and March is often a heavy snow month for western Colorado. As much as we would wish for spring to arrive, it is still many weeks away.

The dogs are enjoying the warmer weather. Pam puts the doggie hammocks on the south side of the garage so the dogs can sit in the sun and not be on the still-cold ground. Here is a photo of Blondie and Jo taking advantage of the sun (Bru prefers the sofa indoors!):

Jo and Blondie enjoy a warm February day

I took advantage of a sunny day by taking my ATV on a run in the Wild Horse Mesa area. The warmth has produced a lot of melt but some of the back roads are still snow-covered. I appreciate the warming weather and hope it continues for a while.

President’s Day ride, Wild Horse Mesa

The other project that’s taking up some of our energy is our continuing retirement house hunt. Yesterday we took yet-another trip to the Montrose area to look at a number of properties Pam had reviewed on-line. Two of the 13 properties appealed to us — but — are above our target price range. The first is a newer house on a large level lot (1+ acres) in a subdivision near town. This place would need some outside work, primarily repainting + replacement of some window trim + extensive yard cleaning and fencing, but it was nice enough that we will likely contact a realtor and schedule a visit to see the inside. Not many places get that far! An elderly neighbor (79 years old) saw us looking the place over and came by to talk about the house and the area in general. He mentioned the foreclosed house had a full underground sprinkler system and the yard, when maintained, was gorgeous. (The place has been empty for more than a year and is bank owned, with the price slowly going down.) We appreciated him sharing his perspective; always enlightening to talk to the neighbors.

Here is Pam on the front porch of the foreclosure house:

20391 Tulip Circle house

Both this house, and the second one that caught our eye, are in upscale neighborhoods where houses look well maintained and there is no junk around them. (Junky neighbors was a big issue in the Pea Green Corner house hunt last weekend.)

The second place is more historic in nature, built in 1887 or so. It is known as the Montrose Trading Post. Located on 1.16 acres (63562 Lake Shore Drive), the yard has enormous cottonwood trees and an irrigation pond with water flowing to-and-through it. Gorgeous in the summer and attractive all year round. Drawbacks are a lot of steps and a 300+K price tag. However, the property really appealed to us for both the appearance and history.

Trading Post has a pond and trees

A later addition includes a two-car garage with a room above for storage or living space.

Garage addition

The kitchen is lacking continuous counter space but has charm.

Trading Post kitchen (Realtor photo)

For all the realtor photos go to this listing.

The property needs  some work, particularly the driveway, fence lines, and tree maintenance. It appears by the listing that internal systems (electrical, heating, etc.) have been addressed in recent renovations. With the pond, flowing water, and history of the place, and being only 10 minutes from downtown Montrose, this location really appeals to us. Again, there’s a high possibility we will schedule an appointment to view the inside and see how many steps there are; it looks like the bedrooms are all upstairs and there is a small finished basement, both requiring going up and down steps frequently, maybe not the best layout for a retirement home. Still, this place has captured our imaginations and we will follow up in the weeks ahead.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

It has become clear to me that our current target price range in this retirement house hunt will basically buy us a double wide on property with few trees.  Been there, done that. If we bump our target price up $50,000-$75,000 we start seeing the types of homes we have in mind.  This is the reality of house hunting in Colorado, a very expensive housing market. In most cases, my dream of enjoying a property with a pond is just that – a dream. (Hence my fascination with the Lake Shore Drive/Trading Post property.)

Lest y’all be concerned we are getting in over our heads, retirement for us will actually be semi-retirement for many years after leaving full time work.  It will be necessary for us to bring in, between us, enough money with part time work to pay the mortgage payment + taxes, essentially taking that item out of the monthly budget for practical purposes.  This we realize.  So, any mortgage payment we assume must fit into those parameters.

More “interesting” is the timing dynamic and monetary outflow after we find and purchase the retirement home and while we are trying to unload the current place in De Beque.  Our goal is to get out of here without having to pay the bank anything at closing – in other words, take a significant loss for the 10 years we’ve lived here, zero out, and walk away.  That’s what the housing market has done in this location, unlike most of the rest of the state.

Should be exciting.  Stay tuned.

Happy Trails.

Well.

The Broncos, underdogs in the pre-game talk shows, pulled it out with a defense the Panthers could not stop. The Denver defense scored the first touchdown on a fumble recovered in Carolina’s end zone, sacked Cam Newton 6 times, and set up the final Bronco touchdown by forcing and recovering another fumble near the Carolina goal line late in the 4th quarter. The Denver offense, under Peyton Manning, managed a meager 194 total yards, a couple field goals, and one 4-yard touchdown.

Broncos celebrate Super Bowl 50 win (Denver Post photo)

It remains to be seen if Manning will retire after this season. For now, football is over and we will move on to other things. It was a good season and I’m glad the Broncos were able to take home the Lombardi Trophy.

Last Saturday Pam put together a list of 10 properties to look at, and of-f-f-f we went. A couple listings turned out to be off-pavement (boo!) so we dropped those from consideration. We stopped and walked around only two of the remaining listings.  One place was newer and, as a ranch-style house, had fewer steps to navigate which is a factor we are considering in a retirement house. It was on acreage, but there were no trees around the place to provide shade and the house would have been sun-bleached in the hot high country summers. Both of us would rather have a place with some shady, mature trees around.

House on G61 road – no trees (Realtor photo)

The second house had trees and a shed (no garage), but was a tri-level with steps everywhere, including into a sunken living room and laundry room. While attractive in some ways, the number of steps, which would have to see daily use, would be too much for a couple of old people. We are not ruling out homes with steps or stairs, but the main living locations — including kitchen, laundry + at least one bedroom — will need to be on a single level. Basements and 2nd stories, which would see occasional use, would be fine, even desirable. The search continues.

House on 5500 road – lots of steps (Realtor photo)

We did find another of those history quirks that abound out here. We went by a place called The Pea Green Store. Researching (later, at home), we found there used to be a small crossroads town named Pea Green in this location, back in the 1880s. The name came from the color the community painted the original local school. Current maps show the place as Pea Green Corner. The school still stands and is now a private residence. From the historical account it sounds like the town was little more than a watering hole for local ranchers and cattlemen, and a fairly raucus one at that.

We enjoyed getting out; the day was sunny and temps were above freezing for the first time in many days. While we didn’t find “the one,” we had an interesting time looking at places and driving through areas we have not previously visited. The hunt will continue, and may expand to building lots as well as houses. While we really don’t want to build a retirement residence, a few lots have come on the market that have trees and one listing claims to include a pond, something Pam would really like. We may include a few lots in our drive by next weekend.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

My game plan for the next field trip will be criss-crossing the area around Pea Green Corner, casing the local roads and getting a feel for house prices in that location. Many of you would not be surprised to know this area has a definite Midwest farm country feel.  Even to the point of old car collections out in the open – Fields didn’t mention there is a quite extensive old car “junk yard” in that area I’m sure he has his eye on.

Happy trails.