It's a Small World....After All

Every time I go to the local Safeway in Evergreen, I see someone I know. Today it was Sharon and Marissa Hughes. Sharon hasn't changed a bit in five years; Marissa, however, just graduated high school (early) and is beautiful and still conversant and engaging. They asked about Alex, our German exchange student who spent his and Dana's junior year with us. Sharon also asked if Dana was still a vegetarian....how do people have such great memories?! I was fortunate to even remember Marissa and her brother Marcus's name!

But, back to the task at hand. I promised houseplans, but I am having trouble uploading them. Check back later to see if I was successful. Our architect, Debbie McCarthy, has been working with Bob, our builder, for twenty years, and most recently is working with another builder designing million-plus-dollar homes. Naturally, we've had to rein her in on our project. But she has been great to work with, full of creative energy and ideas. "No, Debbie, I don't think we need a 200 sq.ft. closet in the master, perhaps we can get by with something a tad more cramped" and "I don't think a 9-foot entry door is required, Debbie....our tallest friend is only 6'4" and so on. But, seriously, she has been a great listener, and with the help of Drew, who oversees the engineering part of the design, we have come up with final plans. You will notice that we can do all our "living" on the main (upper) level, which also includes the garage. Drew's subtle name for this design is "aging in place." We appreciate the reminder......
The lower walkout will be our 'friends and family' overflow area.

The other aspect we hope to achieve is a relatively "green" home. We are using high efficiency insulation and windows, selecting more earth-friendly products when possible, and getting bids on geothermal and solar heat/hot water, as well as photovoltaics for power. Adding an EPA-rated wood burner will help with backup during blizzards. I don't know, maybe this environmental concept just makes me feel less guilty about having a second home. At least we can claim to be helping the economy by creating construction jobs, buying materials and appliances, and paying taxes to Jefferson County.

Free Land for Foxes

Today was a great day! Builder Bob and I have made so much progress in just four days, wow! Good fortune has been smiling on us throughout this whole process. My next blog will tell you about our house plans, ideas, and goals. But today I just had to share the good news.

By coincidence at lunch yesterday we stumbled onto the owner of an adjacent lot. Turns out I used to train dogs with his mother, and Aaron knew his son in elementary school. Also turns out he knows our builder, and wants to bid on the framing. From him I learned lots of little info-bytes about the area, the adjacent owners, the adjacent park, and his plans for building on his lots in the future. This prompted me to go to the County later in the afternoon, where I learned all sorts of cool stuff and began a relationship with the assessor--always good to be friendly with the tax man! That meeting led me to the surveyor today, where I learned that we own 25 extra feet on one side of our parcel, 15 feet on another, and will be getting 10 more feet on a third side. How often does one obtain free land??? Great news!!

The next great gift was working with the fire mitigation contractor who walked the lot with us (along with his yellow lab Lily) and sprayed blue dots on trees that need to come down to create "defensible space" as well as encourage a healthier forest. (Parasites, overcrowding and other environmental factors are weakening many of the wooded areas in Colorado, making the forests more susceptible to beetle damage and fire risk, so they get pretty serious about this stuff around here!). While we will need to drop a number of trees, we get to keep alot of nice ones, improve the health and beauty of our parcel, and make it less fire prone. Best of all....the gorgeous, huge, dramatic dead snag that sits above the house can stay; its now been designated a "wildlife tree." The tree obviously provides cavity nesters and bug eaters an abundance of habitat. I will try to get a good photo of it to add here.

As I write this from the cozy oak-panelled "reading room" in the Evergreen Library, a red fox trots along the rock retaining wall outside, and two good-sized kits sun themselves in the grass above. Fox farms were prevalent around Evergreen back in the '30s when fox fur was popular for apparel. When the fox pelt market declined, fox producers just released the animals to the wild, resulting in a very healthy fox population in and around town. Just one of the many percs of mountain living.

Hope everyone has a safe and sunny Memorial Day weekend!

It takes a village.....

So, a year ago I determined that my hapiness was nearly complete, but for an abode in the Rocky Mountains....namely, Colorado.....specifically Evergreen, from where we moved to North Carolina five years (and five miserably stifling, humid summers) ago.

With the support of my spouse and unanimous encouragement from family and friends (a direct result, I am certain, of promises of vacation usage to all concerned), I began to look at Evergreen area listings. Of course nothing we found was quite right. Either the price was great, the house was great, or the setting was great. Every so often, a home showed up that had two out of the three criteria, but typically someone quicker and braver had already snatched it up.

My clever Realtor and long time friend, Josette, recommended a 2 acre parcel, very close to downtown Evergreen, with a view of the 14,264 ft. Mt. Evans, with no close neighbors, no covenants and adjacent to a 1000 acre unimproved "open space" park with limited access. In other words, very private but "close in." Additionally, the seller had already planned a home and had graded the site and driveway, installed a well and a septic system. In my search, I had found a house that I liked that would work well on this site. The concept of "aging in place" in an energy efficient, sustainably constructed retirement/summer home on such a desirable lot, a home that could be shared with friends and family, turned the heretofore unappealing idea of building a home from scratch into a possibility. Another close friend mentioned that she was looking for a place in Evergreen to sporadically rest her head or hold the occasional meeting. The benefit of her occasional presence would help us be comfortable with absentee ownership, and so the idea of a shared space grew. A few more stars aligned just right, and a dream blossomed.

Our former Evergreen neighbor, who posed as Evergreen's Santa Clause at the holidays, is a contractor with a 20 year history of building quality homes in Evergreen. Now partially retired, he and Mrs. Santa spend winters in Florida, but return to the mountains each summer where Bob (yes, Bob the Builder) gets bored between golf games. He was excited to be our general contractor. Bob knows all the right "peeps" and we have assembled a capable, entertaining, honest and ethical team of architect, engineer, subcontractors, and suppliers. With Santa in charge, what can POSSIBLY go wrong, right?

So that's the background. A year has passed since this adventure began. The next installment will bring us up to date with the project. As we go along, your comments, suggestions, warnings and stories will be appreciated!!!