Family troubles AND GREAT RAINBOWS!

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

In case you have any interest, this is what we have been dealing with in the midst of building this new home… but, on a much brighter note,

take a look at this great double rainbow shot we took outside our Walsenburg rental!

I have found whenever I am just about to make some important change for the better in my life, fantastic rainbows always turn up!

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Into the home stretch we go!

July 17, 2015July 19, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 5 Comments

You are probably wondering what’s happening up at our new custom home in the foothills west of here…

Right now the electrician is almost finished, and the pine trim is going in around all of the rooms and windows. Mike is busy installing the small stuff like the closet systems, phone and network boxes, etc.

The counters in the kitchen and bath should be done on Monday, with the final plumbing visit on Tuesday and Wednesday. We still need our sinks, faucets, toilets and water heater to start working, and then it’s time to finish up all of the county inspections and MOVE IN!

Words cannot adequately describe what a long and difficult process this has been for both of us. Really only one word describes the step-by-step process of collecting just the right workers at just the right time to complete such a large and complex project. STRESS! Then you add in the phenomenal price of bringing all those experts to this rural area! YIKES!

Another major problem with taking on such a difficult project is we have had all the stress with no real reward for over a year now. We are still left sitting in our dumpy 100-year-old rental in Walsenburg no matter how nice our new home becomes.

Now, the rewards are within reach.

When the county inspector says: “YOU MAY MOVE IN NOW!”

Hang on, it all changes!

The NEW look of our new home in the foothills!

July 14, 2015July 15, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

I was up there bright and early today to see the new (and final!) stucco color on our house. What do you think? I LOVE IT!

We plan to paint the white door and maybe even the garage door red. We also will add a red awning over the front door.

Here’s the view from the south-facing side of the house as you walk around it.

And the view from below the house.

These photos don’t portray the adobe color of our home exactly how it looks, but trust me, it looks great sitting up on that hill… and only two weeks to move-in day, yikes!

This is a shot I’ve been trying to get for at least 6 months here in Walsenburg. We have coal trains coming through here 20+ times a day, and we have to drive over the tracks constantly here in town. This shows the Spanish Peaks behind the train as it enters downtown.

The noisy trains are something I will NOT miss about living here in town!

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Best of Boomer Blogs, Monsoon Edition

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

“Some are weather-wise, most are otherwise…” — Benjamin Franklin

A fun fact that few of you may know, July is monsoon season in Colorado. Last July we got almost seven inches of rain here in southern Colorado, an all-time record!

Yes, spring is moist here, but July can be even more rainy. I am so aware of this because I’ve been working as a volunteer for CoCoRahs for the past sixteen years, measuring precipitation everywhere I’ve lived since then. Come to think of it, that’s six different locations!

Oh well, on to the Best of Boomer Blogs for this week:

Are you ready for a little game of who is this person? Tom Sightings wants to know if you can place the white-haired woman from the 1980s, who for better or worse, brought a matter-of-fact style and cutting wit to the national scene. Go check out Remember Her? to see if you can identify her before Sightings gives you the answer.

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting spent a relaxing weekend at home over the Fourth of July weekend, although her usually quiet island paradise was invaded by hordes of holiday revelers. A reunion of old friends highlighted her holiday weekend. Check out her post Two Decades and Counting.

On The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, writes about the fact that millennials, born between 1982 and 2000, now outnumber baby boomers, 83.1 million to 75.4 million. Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. The U.S. Census Bureau also said millennials are a more diverse group than boomers and Gen X, with 44.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group.

Marriage and Home Building!

July 5, 2015October 8, 2017 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

Mike and I have experienced the lowest lows and the highest highs together, especially in the past few years as we changed lifestyles. We moved from a “safe” suburban neighborhood in Fort Collins, and built a rural foothills solar home in southern Colorado.

Learn more about the total building experience from my memoir:

A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado.

What’s been happening up at our new home?

July 3, 2015August 20, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 6 Comments

Big improvements! First we got the first layer of stucco applied and then all the lights and ceiling fans went in! Do you know how stucco is made?

Well, I didn’t until I saw the men applying a special mix of concrete, sand, and who knows what else to the outside of our house.

Then they slap this mixture onto every surface of the house. This is only the first layer. After this dries and cures they’ll come back to add the second coat with the color in it. We have chosen a terra cotta color for the outside of our house. Can’t wait to see it! And speaking of color…

the wildflowers are at their best up there right now! I cannot get over how much of a difference six inches of rain can make!

We have millions of these yellow flowers plus native Lupines, and Indian Paintbrush!

And this mystery flower is a lovely purple, my favorite! Thanks to my botanist friend Jan we now know this is the Showy Four O’Clock, (Mirabilis multiflora). It only blooms in the late afternoon and then all night. I’ll try to get a better photo of the flowers in bloom soon.

In the meantime, here is a great photo of it! Isn’t it amazingly PURPLE?

In the disturbed land around our new home we already have hundreds of volunteers. Lots of sunflowers that will bloom a bit later, etc.

Inside we have most of the tiling done…

Then it’s time to finish the kitchen and baths, and we FINALLY have a move-in date!

The end of July we are out of our rental and into a whole new world up in the foothills. I’m already fantasizing where everything will go in each room.

Now comes the FUN part!

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