A year ago, I would never have guessed that we'd be buying a home in the mountains. We are moving up over the Memorial Day weekend!
We started looking at homes up in the Evergreen/Conifer area late last summer. My husband has always wanted to live in the mountains, and he finally got me to feel enthusiastic about it as well. I was born and raised in Denver, and spent many happy hours hiking with my family in places like Rocky Mountain National Park (which has always been one of my favorite places), so I absolutely love the mountains better than anywhere else. I used to think that it would be more challenging, and more inconvenient to live out of the city, but I am now looking forward to life "up the hill".
We started looking at homes up in the Evergreen/Conifer area late last summer. My husband has always wanted to live in the mountains, and he finally got me to feel enthusiastic about it as well. I was born and raised in Denver, and spent many happy hours hiking with my family in places like Rocky Mountain National Park (which has always been one of my favorite places), so I absolutely love the mountains better than anywhere else. I used to think that it would be more challenging, and more inconvenient to live out of the city, but I am now looking forward to life "up the hill".
There are so many ups and downs to house-hunting. You find a house you love, but the neighbor's yard looks like a dump. Then you find a house on a nice amount of acreage, but the home isn't nice (and you think of the years ahead working on it). Many variables exist in finding the right home - the right amount of the right kind of land, the right neighborhood, the size of the house, the layout of the house, etc. But it was pleasant to drive around up in the mountains during the fall, which is my favorite time of year...
On the road near Conifer.
We found a lovely home in November, right before Thanksgiving, which I loved immediately. It just felt like home the moment I walked in the door. I wanted to buy it immediately. My husband, on the other hand, wasn't as excited about it. So we kept looking...
We found another home we really liked and got fairly serious about it right around Christmastime. It was almost the right house (a bit small in some aspects and not the "perfect" layout), the property of 1.5 acres was beautiful with lovely aspen, and the neighborhood was great. The home sold before we could make a decision about making an offer, and I felt sad. It wasn't to be ours, so we kept looking....
We looked and looked, and nothing was right. In March, we went back to that home we'd walked through in November (the one I loved immediately!). I loved it even more the second time through. David, though still not loving it a lot, decided it was worth thinking about more seriously, but wanted to keep looking...
In late March we walked through a home that we had found online and actually liked it quite a bit, but it really only had two bedrooms, and we wanted at least three (the listing said three, but the third was a small room under the roof with a slanted ceiling and no windows). The kitchen was gorgeous, but you can't buy a house based on the kitchen alone. It was also on property that sloped a lot, and had a rather steep driveway. We thought about it, but we just couldn't see how to deal with it's shortcomings. So ~ in April we finally walked through the other house for a third time. This time we took the whole family, and everyone loved it! David admitted that he was hooked on it, too, so we stopped looking and made an offer!
We love it, and it feels like home! It's a 4 bedroom home on 2 acres, has a lovely view, a beautiful deck and a sun room! It's convenient to Conifer, Evergreen, and the metro area. We are set to close on May 27 and start moving in on May 29!
Our view, looking south from the deck.
