I do dislike moving, but it's really more that I really like my neighborhood. Most everything's walkable or a short bike ride when the weather allows. Colorado weather really nice (at least compared to where I grew up, then was before CO in the midwest).

I keep searching for the spot to snowbird/retire to, but haven't come across anything yet that jumps out at me as, "This is it. Move here!"

Was almost the Keys. I was there the winter before the last hurricane. One day I stopped for lunch in Summerland Key, and afterward walked to the real estate office next door with the intention of saying, "how do I make this happen?" Nobody around ofc. I kinda think the Keys are more of a romantic "live in the islands" notion than it being a place that appealed past that.

San Diego's nice, but expensive. Liked the Bay St. Louis/Pass Christian area of MS Gulf on my recent trip. Maybe a little too small. Need to keep doing research.

hmm. Maybe I married a woman twice my age???

I wish I could take some credit, but it's all my wife. MIL still lives alone on several acres in the house she has been in for nearly 60 years. Madder than hell that she can no longer work in her yard or garden all day. MIL does some yardwork though. Neither of us would be able to tolerate her living with us. MIL probably wouldn't have made it another year at any point in the past 20 years if my wife had moved--even though MIL has another daughter who lives literally next door.

Some people are just better people than others--and better than me. You seem to be one of those. Good luck and good on you for hanging in there. I know (vicariously) how tough it can be.

This is pretty much my situation exactly. Don't really want to live in Texas, or at least in the city here, but I'm not moving unless it's to the beach or mountains. Stuck here for now though, taking care of grandma. Moved in with her maybe 6 years ago never dreaming I'd still be here now, but here I am, getting ready for her to turn 102 this year, lol.

Happy birthday to grandma, mark!

When you guys are ready, there's still (a little) space in the mountains for you.

In and out of my current house for 42 years. Was where I grew up and then when my mom passed I bought it out of the estate. Down to about 18 more nights before we move out. As mentioned previously, off to the mountains near Boulder. Wife was beach or mountains and I'm just mountains, here we go.

Bless you. And grandma.

One of the interesting topics that seem to pop up at HS reunions (though less frequently as the years go by) is the variety of ways that people are caring for (or not caring for) their aging parents. Some have struggled with things that I'm almost sure I couldn't do.

That's good to hear! A guy can still dream, can't he?

Wow! Probably a lot of mixed emotions about leaving that house. I've only been to Boulder once and that was years ago. Seemed like a great place back then. Please give us an update about how you guys like it after you get settled in good.

Hey Tom, don't be so hard on yourself, I never thought of myself as a caregiver, but when it came down to it, I found a way.

And you and your wife have found a way.

Kudos to you giving all the credit to your wife, those brownie points will come in handy.

Weird for sure. Been so busy cleaning it out and fixing all of the crap that needs fixing I'm not sure it's going to hit until later although the anxiety dreams are ****ing awful.

Only place we could afford in the mountains was a place that needs a complete rehab so I'll be busy with that. Perfect subject for a blog or podcast or whatever but if I started that it would last about a month before I stopped doing it. Best case is I post pictures here with progress.

Current place is basically a two story rectangle built into a hill with about a 40% slope. Has a few issues that need addressing:

• Roof on detached garage is wood shaker and looks like it's about to self combust
• Cement slab in lower level has cracked and sunk due to settling
• There's a 4x4 support column in the middle of the bathroom (wat)
• Builders of house loved nature so there are too many trees. In fact, there's one growing through the deck and roof. Yes, I said through the roof.
• Aluminum wiring throughout
• Deck about to fall off house

Good news is the main roof is 8 years old, boiler is 3 years old and the house is structurally sound. I'll be doing the main rehab myself but contracting the bigger things out.

Sounds like you'll be busy for a while. End result should be worth the effort though.

Are you planning on tackling the aluminum wiring or living with it?

An ex of mine and her two sisters were taking care of their elderly mother who rotated living with each of them. One of the sisters told their mom, "You should have gotten older while we were still young enough to take care of you!" LOL

I'll be tackling as much of it as I can. It has 100 A service and I'm hiring an electrician to bump it to 200 A for the inevitable need for a car charger. Since we're going to rip everything out to the studs it won't be a big deal to replace the aluminum with copper. I'm not sure we'll get to every run but we'll do what we can.

Yeah, it is weird to sell the house you grew up in, isn't it?

When you say 'Current', I assume you mean 'current Boulder', and not the place you're trying to fix up to sell.

RE: my bolding. Yes, please! Always interested in that sort of stuff, hoping I can learn something.

Yes, current in this instance is the Boulder house. I guess I'm already mentally moved.

Here's the 4x4 pole in the master bath:



Who knows why they built it this way. There's a wall two feet over that we're going to move it to. We'll have to put a new footer in the lower level and a support column as well to support it from below. There will have to be a little rearranging of walls to hide the new support but not too big of a deal.

Because, why wouldn't you?!?!? I can't imagine any way that seems like a good idea.

Also glad it's not my friend's ex-house up there. I helped him out with some deck repairs a couple summers ago, when you mentioned that, I was thinking, "uh oh..."

Since there's a wall two feet over it seems obvious to design the support in the wall. The structural engineer who looked at it suggested that during construction the owners realized that the room wasn't going to be big enough so they moved the whole wall with the knowledge that the pole would remain.

The engineer (he's a PE too!) is working on those drawings now.

Also, this is 30 feet from the master bedroom. Any guesses what may live in there? We're going to mount a ring camera on all four corners of the house, mostly to capture wildlife so I expect to know in the next few months.

Where was that house? Don't need exact location, just a rough location. Some of the houses up there are a little scary in design and upkeep.

I'm going to guess something like a chipmunk or smallish critter like that. Hopefully not noxious or dangerous for you guys.

My friend that used to live above Boulder captured a mountain lion on camera one time. A bear broke into his daughter's Subie once. It was pretty common to see stuff like wild turkeys and deer when visiting.

He lived up Lee Hill Road, then back in on a side road called Deer Trail or something like that. Nice house, just needed some work. Fortunately, he had lots of that type of skill, so it was quite improved while he lived there--but still a ?? year old mountain house.

I'm no wildlife expert--particularly in that part of the country--but ime smaller critters prefer to live in holes that you wouldn't even think they could squeeze into. Maybe that's a protection from predators. I'm going to guess something larger than a chipmunk, but I don't know what's prevalent around there. Should be an interesting mystery to solve.

In b4 someone else suggests just sticking a hand in there.

My buddy/neighbor has caught foxes, bears and mountain lions in his driveway in the past year on his Ring camera. Deer and turkeys all over the place so it could be anything.

if it's a fox you'll see the cubs poking their heads out periodically when the parents are out as they are curious mofos

Sasquatch probably lives in that hole. Seriously though, there's probably nothing living in there. Why don't you just stick your hand in there and see if you find anything?

You don't have any small children you can send in?

Looks familiar, I'd tread lightly.