Colorado B.S. Thread

Hey y'all! Been a minute since I've been in here. ...gonna be in Denver as of tomorrow morning for the weekend. Hitting up Cheesecake Factory Friday night if anyone wants to join up. Msg me... would love to see some of y'all.

 

Shit that's quick man, congrats.

 

We will see if it all goes as planned.

Howdy!

 

You need a bigger garage. Three almost isn't even enough for a two-car family these days.

 

I don't even need a garage. My current house does not have one and my pervious house had a 1 car. My condo had a 2 car and I just used it as a gym. My runner won't be in the garage anyway. It will just be the Subaru. I'm not willing to pay 12k for 1 more stall garage.

 

$12k? When we built ours I think it was like $5k. I can tell you that whatever you pay on your garage you will get at least that back in resale. Used to be the kitchen was where you invested your money but the garage is quickly replacing the kitchen in that aspect.

 

$5k? Shit, I'm hearing ~15k to add a port to the garage. And that is during the build, not after the fact.

 

Yup 12k for a 3rd car stall. 6k for an extra 4 feet. So nah I'm good ill take that 6-12k and ill finish my basement.

 

Yeah, it was $5k to tack on a 1-car to our particular model and I won't tell you what it cost to make it 5 car but they actually made a mistake at some point and didn't charge us what they quoted us and I wasn't about to point out that mistake because it meant the savings of tens of thousands of dollars for us and they hosed us on some other 'free upgrades' that mysteriously got charged after the fact and we were supposedly never told they were free. In the end, I'd say it all worked out.

 

Nice that works out. Yeah two car and I'm going to pay cash for floor and cabinet upgrades, and the rounded corners like you said.

 

That's pretty steep. Some builders really get you with upgrades and changes. I know that Aspen Homes builds AMAZING houses and they're green built so ours is like 93% efficient if I recall. When we built this house that was one of the big determining factors because it meant that we could save about $200 per month on our utilities for heating & cooling and such. Our monthly payment was about the same as the previous house we built (keep in mind that that house was only 6mos old so it wasn't as drafty as a 20-30 year old house but we STILL saved about $200 per month, every month) but we were able to get SO much more house for our monthly dollar as we put that extra $200 into a mortgage which affords you a lot more house. So it's better to pay x amount per month on a house versus throwing an extra $200 out the window every month on utilities that you'll never see back. BTW, our neighborhood is incredible. Aside from one crazy lady who is hyper sensitive to everything it's seriously one of the best neighborhoods I've ever seen. I've owned houses in gold course communities that didn't have as good of neighborhoods as ours. That's why I was trying to get you to come take a look at some of the houses that are currently on the market because this is our little secret in the foothills. When foreclosures were skyrocketing and values were plummeting all over the state we had only a couple and values didn't drop anywhere near as much as everywhere else. Houses rarely come up for sale and lately when they have they're under contract within a week or two at listed price. These are all VERY important factors that most people overlook that really should be taken into consideration.

 

Define floor upgrades. That is one of those things that you can easily save money on after the fact. Cabinets not so much so get what you want there (make sure they're the tall ones) and have it done when you move in but flooring is one of those areas where the prices can vary big time. I've got a carpet & tile guy that would come in at 1/4 the estimates of all other estimates I would get on houses. Builders tend to take a cut of upgrades as well so this would apply even more. Our builder would give you 'sweat equity' credits and you could come in and do certain areas yourself.

 

Yeah I looked in your housing area. It's a little out of my budget. Being that the house is only bought in my name I can only use my income. Plus I like my hobbies too much to spend too much on a house. We will be saving a lot of money a month on this house even though my mortgage will be more. Ill have no debt going in other than the house payment and Subaru. Plus a more efficient house for sure! We will be not that far from you though so that will be nice for hanging out and what not. Would have loved to be closer but being off the highway will be nice for driving to work for my wife and I.

 

Yeah I can do tile and hard wood. I have a tile saw and I did the floors in my parents 4000 sq foot house all tile and hardwood. But if I can get the grey washed floors I like front the get go without paying out the ass I will do it. And yes to the cabinets doing them after the fact is costly and sucks. I don't like a lot of carpet because I have two very hyper big dogs.

 

You guys are making me rethink Parker. Seems like it is a ghost town down south. Maybe 3+ acres isn't necessary when you have no one around to enjoy it with.

 

Well, the same builder built some smaller cottages in the neighborhood to the East of us and that might be the only neighborhood better than ours. They all get together for beers and hang out together and do events & stuff regularly. Wild stuff. I was going to suggest something like that for more of a budget approach but you never let me get to that point. Being closer to I25 is about the only thing we wish we had. There are times we wish we were in Fort Collins to be closer to everything but the trade-off is worth it IMO.

 

There are spots to build houses in berthoud and Loveland on plots of land. And to be honest the amount you have to spend will get you a bad ass house in those areas. And look at it this way Jennifer will be very familiar with the market and area when you are ready. My LT is buying land and building a house up in that area as well.

 

I really like our neighborhood man. It's made me rethink my take on wanting to buy land way off the beaten path. We've considered doing just that as well as relocation out-of-state but this neighborhood keeps us here. It really is that good. Our previous neighborhood is good by most normal standards but compared to here it's a totally different story.

 

To be honest it's because my wife really likes the Thompson river ranch housing plan. That's really all the input she cared to give the rest is on me. So I guess I can give her that.

 

That's why we built here. This house would have cost us 2x more anywhere in Fort Collins.