The weekend of November 11 – 12 we took an overnight trip to eastern Colorado to look at potential retirement homes. Pam had seen a few candidates and printed out descriptions and maps to aid in locating them.
Some of the town names will be familiar to people who have kept up with this blog over the years; properties near or in Como, Cripple Creek, Lake George, Woodland Park, Florissant, Cascade, and Green Mountain Falls were all on the list. Lets get started.
I took quite a few photos this trip. Here are the houses we drove by and looked at; the most likely one is at the end of the list. It is located in Cripple Creek.
First stop, first day: Como.
Home for sale in Como
This place is overpriced; Como is not much of a town and the surrounding properties are quite run down. A big plus is it would be within a half hour of our lot at Sanderling Court. If the price drops we may revisit this one.
Lake George had this listing:
Lake George house
Located on a narrow lot with neighbors fairly close, the main trouble with this house was access and distance from amenities. Several miles of unimproved road (mix of dirt and gravel) lie between this house and the nearest paved road. We decided to pass.
Florissant had a few listings:
Mesa Drive, Florissant
Listed at a half-acre, the lot is very steep and mostly unusable. Not what we had in mind.
House on Beaver Creek Drive
This place was large but the commute, oh my. Off the side of a side road. Given we will need to work part-time in retirement and commute, this place would not be a prime purchase. We did like the lot and trees.
We arrived at our lodge in Woodland Park around 4:30 and decided to call it a day. With the sun setting at around 5:00 PM we planned to visit the rest of the properties the next day.
The new morning of the second day — after a breakfast of waffles and fruit — we headed out and began looking at more properties.
Woodland Park had this listing:
Potlatch Drive home
Again, no garage and no place to build one. Newer and with nice views, it was in an area with upscale homes around it. A bit of a drive from any services though.
We drove by a few other properties in Cascade, Green Mountain Falls and Florissant (one had a lake view but already had an offer) that I did not photograph as they were not even in contention. Realtor descriptions can get quite imaginative and only a visit can serve to confirm potential as a retirement location. The houses were either on very steep lots or required extensive repairs and updates to bring them up to our standard. Disappointing.
The last town for us to visit in the two-day tour was Cripple Creek, where we made a few stops.
Prospect Avenue home in historic district
With lots of architectural features, this place is appealing to Pam in particular. Unfortunately it is right across the road from a large casino and very close to neighbors on either side. Another drawback is steps all over the place, and with Pam’s bursitis steps are a major drawback. The lot did have a one-car garage accessible from a rough “alley” (more like a cart track) and the current owners appear to be cat friendly.
Garage off alleyway
Cat on victorian house porch
The best house of the day was also the last. Located at 409 South First street, this brick home sits on a somewhat larger lot:
409 S. First (Tulley House)
Tulley house and yard
Smallish but on the edge of town and not in the historic district, this place features trees and a larger (for town) back yard and few neighbors. I have since spoken to the town about building a garage and other aspects of town living. An alley runs behind the lot and could provide access to a garage. An “antique storage building” (realtor comment) is present as well –picture a leaning shed with old barnboard.
Given the house’s smaller size and no storage building or garage, the challenge would be to fit all of our stuff, inside and out. Still, it is in town (Cripple Creek has a few services including a grocery and hardware store) and the bigger community of Woodland Park (big box stores such as Walmart and City Market) plus all services is about 30 – 45 minute away, similar to what we now have in De Beque.This could be a winner, but there would be hoops to go through to make it so.
On the leg home [after our last stop in Cripple Creek] we visited The Lot. Here we distributed some old bread products for the chipmunks and squirrels and let out dog Jo to stretch her legs. The weather both days was great with lots of sun and decent temperatures. There was very little snow on The Lot and the stop made for a nice break. Then it was off for the long ride home.
Trips like this help us define what it is that we are looking for in a retirement home. Our wish list includes at least one bed/bath on the main level, a lot big enough for the dogs and cats to run and still be safe, a garage or storage building (sadly lacking in most properties we’ve looked at) and access to services such as grocery shopping, medical and veterinarian services, and good access to job markets. And last, affordable on a retirement income. We have yet to find a place with all of these features but we will keep up the hunt.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
Trips like this help us define what we can afford in a retirement home. I’ve pretty much given up on a lake, pond, or stream view. Homes with that feature are definitely out of our price range, both in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest.
While driving around the last house in Cripple Creek (South 1st Street) we did hail and talk to the near neighbor of the property. She was so kind as to give me her e-mail address once we struck up a conversation (that included her cat rescue efforts in Cripple Creek). I’ve e-mailed her several times with questions we didn’t think to ask at our initial drive-by. Nice.
Happy Trails.
PS:
Since I wrote this post the house has disappeared from the market listings, reason unknown. Bummer!