Another "Retire in CO" thread... (Denver, Pueblo: home, purchase)

[EricBabula]

Originally Posted by Dogmama50

I live outside of Vail so I will not suggest my ridiculously over priced area even though we have a great life here. I will comment on the Log Cabin thing, we live in a log-strocity for 5 years when we first moved back here and it cured me of that forever. Give me a nicely framed house with insulation and drywall and I'm happy.

The western slope is a great area and places like Grand Junction do have lots of accessibility to creature comforts and recreation. Ridgway is a beautiful area and really deserves a hard look. The airport component can be an issue but GJ has some solid options and Eagle-Vail in Gypsum (about 1.25 hours from GJ) is a great regional option and my choice over Denver, Montrose is pretty solid too. You may have to take a smaller plane to Denver or Dallas but TSA generally takes less than 3 minutes so there is a nice trade off.

Thanks for the input. Seems the more I read about the trials and tribulations of owning a log home, I'm starting to think I won't be able to convince the wifey that we need one for a permanent home. Oh well, "you can't always get what you want..."

Yeah, Vail is out of our price range for sure. Plus, we're not big on downhill skiing.......yet. I don't know that we ever would be, actually. Funny thing, though, is that the previous owners of our current home moved to Vail - that was their dream. They moved there in 1992, probably before the prices got super jacked up. Not sure if they still live there, tho.

If we ended up in Ridgway or the area, seems that the Montrose airport should be able to get us to a number of the major cities in the US and transfer from there. While a little inconvenient to have to transfer, we can make it work. After all, we won't typically be in any hurry - we'll be retired!!!

Salida is also high-ish on the list. I'm guessing Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport would get us to Denver, and then to anywhere. Or, we could drive 2 hours to COS. Or, we could just drive the 3 hours to Denver.

Estes Park area - I guess we go to Denver.

Seems like there are airport options. Not completely convenient, but doable.

[StealthRabbit]

Having a separate guest entrance and qtrs, and freedom to come a go at will, and stay short or long (as in a future caregiver) is of benefit to all., Especially as you age. (Frequent guest myself (300+ days some years)) several stays in WI last yr

Keep an open floor plan and you will have plenty of space to entertain. Often our hosts have music gigs or community potlucks. We have accommodated over 40 neighbors for indoor events (not during Covid). We had a huge snow one Christmas, so all the neighbors and families came over (since only snow cats and dozers could get through the drifts,) our front entry-way had to be tunneled.

ICF, I prefer Rastra or Apex (concrete impregnated polystyrene). But most my friends use conventional white foam ICF. Cheaper and lighter. One friend has built 3 ICF beach homes (hurricane proof). All our interior is finished in natural stone or wood (plenty of very pretty beetle kill wood in Colorado and Wyoming.). There are some mills near Walden and Encampment, but you should find private mills near your site.

Apex Block Top Rated Insulated Concrete Form ICF ICF's Green Building Block How To Leed - Ecobuild.club

https://rastrausa.com/. (You can make very nice gentle slopes and curves with Rastra.)

I prefer a lot of dimensional variation, and no hallways / straight boring walls or visible sheetrock. I use vaulted ceilings, built in alcoves, custom wood doors... The stuff you have to build yourself as contractors won't take the time to do it. If you find a craftsman, they will,... for a price (but not when 300 customers are beating on their door.). You are planning to be retired! You'll have plenty of free time.

Passive solar is essentially free (designed into your home). Don't tell contractors that your design features are for passive solar. . They will see $$$$! For several years we would visit the passive solar village at CSU Ft Collins. The shells remained the same and each year teams of students would change the interiors / passive features. Very interesting and informative (in the 1970's...). Surely gone by now, but school of mines & NREL in Golden, CO should be able to refer you to many resources.

Good luck, have fun

Retired early, retire often (too much fun to only do once, and you may not get it right the first time.)

[EricBabula]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Having a separate guest entrance and qtrs, and freedom to come a go at will, and stay short or long (as in a future caregiver) is of benefit to all., Especially as you age. (Frequent guest myself (300+ days some years)) several stays in WI last yr

Keep an open floor plan and you will have plenty of space to entertain. Often our hosts have music gigs or community potlucks. We have accommodated over 40 neighbors for indoor events (not during Covid). We had a huge snow one Christmas, so all the neighbors and families came over (since only snow cats and dozers could get through the drifts,) our front entry-way had to be tunneled.

ICF, I prefer Rastra or Apex (concrete impregnated polystyrene). But most my friends use conventional white foam ICF. Cheaper and lighter. One friend has built 3 ICF beach homes (hurricane proof). All our interior is finished in natural stone or wood (plenty of very pretty beetle kill wood in Colorado and Wyoming.). There are some mills near Walden and Encampment, but you should find private mills near your site.

Apex Block Top Rated Insulated Concrete Form ICF ICF's Green Building Block How To Leed - Ecobuild.club

https://rastrausa.com/. (You can make very nice gentle slopes and curves with Rastra.)

I prefer a lot of dimensional variation, and no hallways / straight boring walls or visible sheetrock. I use vaulted ceilings, built in alcoves, custom wood doors... The stuff you have to build yourself as contractors won't take the time to do it. If you find a craftsman, they will,... for a price (but not when 300 customers are beating on their door.). You are planning to be retired! You'll have plenty of free time.

Passive solar is essentially free (designed into your home). Don't tell contractors that your design features are for passive solar. . They will see $$$$! For several years we would visit the passive solar village at CSU Ft Collins. The shells remained the same and each year teams of students would change the interiors / passive features. Very interesting and informative (in the 1970's...). Surely gone by now, but school of mines & NREL in Golden, CO should be able to refer you to many resources.

Good luck, have fun

Retired early, retire often (too much fun to only do once, and you may not get it right the first time.)

Thanks for the info! Will definitely look into it. Not sure I'm up for building my own home, but will do the research and talk to my wife to see if any of it makes sense for us.

Retire early - that's what we're trying to do! We're 53/56 and hoping to be free next year. Retire often? Nah, gonna do it once and never look back!!!

[COcheesehead]

One important thing to make sure of is internet service.

Rural areas are not guaranteed to have service. Dish sucks, line of sight service require, well line of sight to a tower and cable providers do not have lines everywhere. Make sure you have high speed internet or be stuck with the slow, cell tower type services.

Some cell companies are coming out with super hot spot options, but those are not available everywhere as well.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

One important thing to make sure of is internet service.
...

Good point and advice.

Starlink should be rolling out south to CO by Summer 2021. (They have commmitted to covering West Texas for school kids) https://www.starlink.com/

Currently they are only serving south to WY / MT, added Northern Europe last week https://satellitemap.space/indexA.html

My WA neighbors are in a really tough spot (canyon), and are on Starlink beta getting 100+ mbps (<20 latency), previously at 0.5mbps (100+ latency) with a complex cell booster, antenna and repeater. The gear is quite expensive (far over $500 value), so probably better join ASAP, as long as Elon upgrades your gear for free, as may be required to get out of Beta testing.


Starlink is kinda spendy ($99/mo + $500 gear), but it is the best hope for rural internet in USA that is not being done by Co-op fiber through REA's. "Last Mile" USDA 'rural economic development projects'. But... our "Last Mile" only allows libraries and schools to use the fiber, neither of those are open in WA. Fiber is 300' from my home, can't use it, so stuck on Pay-per-byte dial-up (And only 16 miles to a 1m population urban area)

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

One important thing to make sure of is internet service.

Rural areas are not guaranteed to have service. Dish sucks, line of sight service require, well line of sight to a tower and cable providers do not have lines everywhere. Make sure you have high speed internet or be stuck with the slow, cell tower type services.

Some cell companies are coming out with super hot spot options, but those are not available everywhere as well.

Consider finding out how much people work from home in the area. Hard to do with poor or no service.

[LHS79]

Starlink hopefully will be bringing internet prices down in a few years- if you are rural HughesNet (that gets terrible reviews) may be your only option.

My folks who lived on a few acres in Boulder County (no DSL or cable was available) used https://www.risebroadband.com/ and were pretty happy with it. It used microwave technology- 20mb for about $70/month (their cheapest plan). Free install and equipment that goes on the south side of the house.

It worked very well for what my folks needed it for.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by LHS79

risebroadband

You should read https://www.yelp.com/biz/rise-broadband-englewood-3

[EricBabula]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

One important thing to make sure of is internet service.

Rural areas are not guaranteed to have service. Dish sucks, line of sight service require, well line of sight to a tower and cable providers do not have lines everywhere. Make sure you have high speed internet or be stuck with the slow, cell tower type services.

Some cell companies are coming out with super hot spot options, but those are not available everywhere as well.

Yes, that will definitely be on my list of questions to be answered. NEED decent internet service!

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by LHS79

Starlink hopefully will be bringing internet prices down in a few years- if you are rural HughesNet (that gets terrible reviews) may be your only option.

My folks who lived on a few acres in Boulder County (no DSL or cable was available) used https://www.risebroadband.com/ and were pretty happy with it. It used microwave technology- 20mb for about $70/month (their cheapest plan). Free install and equipment that goes on the south side of the house.

It worked very well for what my folks needed it for.

Rise is line of sight. Can’t see the tower, can’t get it.