Weather and Houses

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.