Catching up after a long absence

I've been so busy working on the property on the lake that I've been remiss in posting to my blog.

As you know, I took a year off work in order to travel the US in my RV exploring intentional communities.  Together with my brother, we decided to form our own intentional community near Durango, CO on an old, defunct property with a lodge and 7 cabins.  The goal was to escape the Houston heat in an attempt to create a different life for ourselves in the mountains.

While the house/lodge is winter worthy, the cabins are not so our goal is to fix up and rent the cabins out from Memorial Day to Labor Day and then hunker down in the winter--probably looking for other work to augment our meager bank accounts.

After much discussion, we decided to call the property the Views of Vallecito.  My partners, Kent and Lydia sold their house in Houston and together with their daughter Hannah and her boyfriend Isaac, joined me in mid February to begin some major remodeling.

While I was able to tackle a few minor projects before they arrived, we've gotten a tremendous amount done with everyone pitching in but especially with Kent's contractor capabilities.

Together we own a two story house with a basement.  It has 3 bedrooms and 1 full bath.  The basement offers a very rustic potty.  In addition to the house which we call the lodge, we also own 7 cabins--4 on a lower ridge and 3 on an upper ridge---all on about 1 acre of property overlooking one of the largest lakes in Colorado--Lake Vallecito.

We agreed that Kent and Lydia would own the cabins on the lower ridge and I would own the cabins on the upper ridge and we'd share the house.  That way, they can do what they want with their 4 cabins and I can do what I want with my 3.

One of my cabins is an old log home.  The first time I saw it, I thought I would be doing everyone a favor by tearing it down.  And of course with my interest in tiny houses, it could be easily replaced.  Unfortunately the regulations created by the Planning department in LaPlata County didn't coincide with my wishes so I've decided to give it a facelift.

I've hired a local father/son construction company to help with the endeavor and I've been pleased with the result.  I've uploaded photos of the remodel to date on FB at ViewsofVallecito for those who would like to see them.  It's taking longer than I'd like but they're doing good work and I'm realizing time is viewed a bit differently here in the mountains as well as access to consistent mobile service and internet.  We didn't realize this was the price we were going to have to pay in exchange for this lovely place to live but we're finding ways around the challenges.

We've found most of the neighbors in this small community to be gracious, kind and helpful.  Many are lodge owners like us and they've mentored and helped us along in our first year endeavor.

View of sun setting over the lake from the lodge.