Northern Colorado House Hunting
…again
A couple weekends ago, I headed up to Northern Colorado to house hunt again. Several months ago, I had visited Felix in Fort Collins and while he enthusiastically showed off the virtues of Fort Collins, the agent I had been working with remotely showed me some homes for sale in the area.
From a real estate point of view, the visit was a bit frustrating. I saw a lot but none of the houses struck me as “the” house for me.
That frustration is what lead me to my later visit to Bend, OR in search of a house.
Although Bend has the terrain I like and the benefit of close proximity to Northern CA, I realized after my visit that, as much as I liked Bend, the homes there were a bit too pricey for me.
After that I refocused on Northern CO again. This time on Loveland, just south of Fort Collins. The homes seemed cheaper and there seemed to be potentially more that met my many unique criteria. Being close to Fort Collins, I could still enjoy the benefits of the city, including the Felix-factor.
This trip involved a lot of homework and I came prepared for a house hunting blitz of 2.5 days.
Felix again was a gracious host! While I think he enjoys looking at houses, I’m sure it is not at the top of his list of things to do for an entire weekend.
My agent found a bunch of great properties to look at in Loveland as well as in Horsetooth and Fort Collins. When we weren’t with him, Felix and I drove around scoping out potential neighborhoods.
I was disappointed in what I saw of the city of Loveland and decided I would definitely be driving to Fort Collins a lot if I lived there. However I did like several neighborhoods in the north west side of town.
Yes - it Snows in Fort Collins
Regardless of what you read on Felix’s blog - it does indeed snow in Fort Collins. I know because I was there when it happened. It is not all perfect sunshine and roses as he would have all his blog-readers and CA friends believe.
Except for the snow incident it was very pleasant weather. It started with light hail Sunday late afternoon, then progressed to snow that didn’t stop until morning. There was probably about a foot of snow on the ground….ok not really a foot 
maybe 3-4″. Monday the weather was overcast, kind of dreary out but not wet or extremely cold. By the late afternoon it was sunny and warm out again. The snow lingered on the lawns and some roads for the rest of the day. Of course Felix claims that the day after I left it was t-shirt and shorts weather with not a hint of snow on the ground. 
Detours
Felix took me on two really nice detours on this trip. The first one was on the way up from the Denver airport when I first arrived. We stopped in Boulder and had lunch there. I love the downtown and general ‘feel’ of the city!
Then on the way to the airport on Monday, we made a nice detour round trip visit to Estes Park. Cute mountain touristy town… with lots of granite rock! I’m guessing there are some amazing routes there. With awe-inspiring views of the mountains all around and the huge granite cliffs, Estes Park was a great ending to a hectic, sometimes frustrating, but productive weekend.
It was also the end of the mini wildlife tour I was getting this trip. First there was the very cute and bushy fox we saw up close and personal in Horsetooth. Then there was the far off coyote hunting and pouncing I watched from one of the homes we visited. And in Estes Park we first saw a small herd of big horn sheep trotting down the road (head-on near a blind turn), and then a bunch of elk munching on grass in town near some stores and houses.
…house news to follow in a week or two…
Tags: fort collins, goals, Life, wildlifeRelated posts
It was fun having you in Fort Collins every one of those times.
Although I still think it is funny that it barely snowed ALL YEAR and hadn’t rained since October, but when you came, we got a little bit of each two out of three days…
And yes, even funnier it was T-shirt and shorts weather the day after you left. Here is evidence. See, it’s sunny!