Fall                                                                                      Falling Leaves Moon

Oh, boy. The scout has found a house. And we’re going to put in an offer tomorrow. Proposed closing Nov. 1. Wow. Don’t know yet when we’d move, too new and we’ve got the  current owners feedback on our offer to get yet. Here’s the address: 9358 Black Mountain Dr, Conifer, CO 80433. This is well south of the Idaho Springs area where we had focused our search, but it’s still at 8,800 feet which was a key feature we wanted.

There are, of course, issues. The primary one for me is finding an insurer who will rebuild our house if it burns down. I’ll fly out tentatively on Friday, see the property on Saturday with Jon and return on Sunday.

Kate’s very excited and I think she’s right. This house has no yard to maintain, existing beds for a small garden and good sized work spaces for both of us.

Conifer is west and south of Denver, instead of straight west, so it will not serve as a way station for the skiing. It’s about an hour from this place to Jon and Jen’s. Jen’s worried that we’re going to be too far away since we’re moving out there to see them. She doesn’t understand extended family. I grew up in one and know that having the in-laws around all the time isn’t something either the in-laws or she would really want. We’ll see them all on holidays, birthdays, school events. The kids will come out and stay with us. We’ll go over and stay with the kids from time-to-time just as we’ve done from here. (that’s the house)

The important piece for us that this is our new life and we need to be able to make it independent of them, even though having their help as we age remains something we hope will be possible, yet still a good ways off.

It’s exciting to see Kate’s trip prove fruitful. We’ll see how the dance goes on from here.

Fall                                                                                 Falling Leaves Moon

Another house, another surge of energy and questions. Like:

1. Does household use only for a well mean no watering of a garden?

2. How do they anchor fences in rock? Does that make building a fence much more expensive in the mountains?

3. What does 6.5 gallons per minute recovery on the well mean?

1. how do we get info about the septic system?

2. how do we get more info about the well: depth, water quality, water quantity?

Has the cedar siding on black mtn been treated with fire retardant chemicals?

Easy to sit back home and let the questions come, then 1 e-mail, then a second, then a third. I don’t want to be too cautious, but I also don’t want to buy something with flaws obvious to someone who knows the local scene. Water quality, availability and flow rate are all important in water poor Colorado. Fire is a big issue with mountain homes in Colorado’s fire red zone, a zone which happens to include all the areas we’ve investigated so far.

These questions are in addition to square footage, usability of the space, attractiveness of the house and lot, privacy, kitchen, all the ordinary factors. We can assess those using our own subjective yard sticks and make firm, confident decisions, but in matters we know less well, like water and fire, hesitancy seems prudent.

All of these questions swirl around because we have the means to make this move and the will. So they’re happy problems, or questions, but they are questions.