Well, here we are almost a month after our side trip to Albuquerque. Quite a bit has happened. For a while there just didn't seem to be any positive news to relay - the clock has been ticking as our lease runs out and renewal looms.

We decided to really look hard for a place here in Fort Collins - and we found one, about two weeks ago. But - we waited overnight to decided that we would make an offer, and someone else moved faster, and we lost it. That hit us pretty hard. It was a great house in a good location, at a surprisingly low price. I was afraid we wouldn't find anything else for some time that was so great.

We worked with the realtor to ensure that we would see new listings the very first day they were in the system, even before they became public. About five days ago, a place showed up that looked sort of interesting. In some ways, it looked really boring and ordinary, but there were hints that some special things were going on behind the plain facade.

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The deceptively plain front of 2830 Balmoral Drive

When we walked through the house, we were really impressed - while it was a modest place in some ways, it had been cleverly and carefully expanded, and there were lots of signs that someone had really cared about what they were doing there, with nice touches everywhere we looked.

We made an offer that afternoon - and after a long night of anxious uncertainty with hints of other offers and delayed communications with the sellers, we were under contract just before midnight.


The back of the house, showing the addition which added a bathroom, enlarged the master bedroom, and added a fantastic kitchen. Note the windows at the top of the three sections of vertical wall - these bring in wonderful Southern sun all winter (the house faces West).


Another view of the back of the house - note the two big bay windows in the kitchen.

Below are three views of the kitchen. It is a long room with lots of windows, a door on each end to the patio and back yard and gardens, two high South-facing rows of windows, two ceiling fans, and a nice structural brick wall at each end. Truly a great room.






Note the windows at the top of the frame. Even on a gloomy day the whole area is flooded with light. We're already scheming how to bring gas to the range location.

Today we were there while the inspection took place. We saw even more that we liked about the place, and any doubts we had about the wisdom of making this commitment were dispelled. The basement is well suited for a home theater, and Pat is already going over the specs for projection video... The best grocery market in town is a five-minute walk a block away. The house is just about in the geographic center of the city, so everything is easily accessible. The University is about two miles aways, Old Town is three miles, and my gym is a mile and a half - all easy bicycle rides on nice streets with wide bike lanes.

If everything goes smoothly, we will close on May 9th, and have three weeks at least to get moved in before our lease runs out here in the rental.

Wish us luck...


Camden Avenue
Hayward, California
1994


Balmoral Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado
2007