IN THE BEGINNING
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on March 29, 2010 – 11:58 am -You can be pretty sure that your life is crappy when you finish talking to your $200 an hour lawyer at 7:30 one evening and he calls you again at 7:30 the next morning on your cell phone while you are driving to work.
I still can’t figure out how someone as smart as I am got themselves in this mess. I was spending thousands of dollars a month to sue my former contractor. If you can figure it out after reading this, drop me a line and set me straight.
Anyway, here’s how it started:
About three years ago I was spending a long weekend in Park City, Utah. I had gotten into the habit of spending weekends in the mountains a few years after my husband died. My kids were both still living with me, the oldest had moved back in with his wife and baby. Lately, however, all of them had been making comments about moving out on their own.
As I was having breakfast at my favorite breakfast spot, The Morning Ray (great vegetarian Eggs Benedict), it occurred to me that soon I would be living alone. The thought was quite a pleasant one. As I sat there, sipping coffee, another pleasant thought came to me, I could live anywhere I wanted. Why, I could live in Park City if I wanted to!!
After breakfast, I wandered down Main St. to a real estate office. I was dressed in my normal weekend attire of jeans, flannels and cowboy boots, so I wasn’t sure if the realtor would take me seriously, but he was kind enough not to laugh at me when I told him I wanted to look at acreage in the Park City area. I explained that I share my life with a dog and usually at least 5 horses, so I needed a lot of room. Real estate is not cheap in Park City and I looked like I could barely afford the Starbucks I had picked up on my way down Main St., much less 10 acres of prime Park City real estate. It must have been a slow day, because the realtor spent a couple of hours going over maps of the area and explaining to me why I probably wanted to look outside of the city in the rural areas where it was still possible to buy a few acres of land.
I am a serious research geek. Give me a good enough reason, and I will spend countless hours researching every single little in and out of a situation to the point of nausea. It’s sick. Anyway, you can imagine the possibilities for research when I was looking for a place to plunk down my dream home!
For the next year and a half, I spent every weekend driving my pickup around looking at land. Not only was it a great excuse to spend weekends in the mountains, I got a chance to research and photograph every single piece of property in Summit County that was for sale or even looked like it might be for sale sometime in the future.
Don’t believe me? Here are some of the finalists:
I spent hours walking around on each parcel to see how much and what kind of scat there was in an effort to figure out what kind of wildlife visitors I could expect. I researched the neighborhoods, availability of water (a big deal if you live in the West and have horses), access, etc., etc., I would leave work during snow storms and drive up there to gauge what areas got plowed more frequently than others. Obsession doesn’t even begin to describe this process.
Near the end of the first year, I found a very patient realtor who drove around with me for hours and helped me narrow down my choices to a half dozen parcels.
To be continued………
Posted in She Builds | 11 Comments »
March 29th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Good to see you are still here, can’t wait to hear “the rest of the story!” I have been in for surgery last week and am just getting on my feet…I love Park City, i think I told you that my grandpa lived there. Come say hi
March 29th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Hi Julie,
Glad you’re back. Hope your recovery is quick!
March 30th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Love reading your post will be back like Julie for more.
I see we have a mutual friend…she is a sweetie.
Thank you for visiting my site and leaving a kind comment…those are always appreciated….lol
Looking forward to visiting yours again
Maggie
March 31st, 2010 at 6:06 am
Thanks for stopping by. I love Julie’s blog, it always makes me feel better when I read it!
March 31st, 2010 at 11:40 am
I want the rest of the story. Oh will have to wait. Patience is not my thing. Have a great week and easter.
kathy – gfdiner
March 31st, 2010 at 11:43 am
It’s a long, ugly story, but it needs to be told….
April 1st, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Key West is my new favorite destination, even from Montana. Thanks for the easy recipe and taking me back. YaThink your Rocky Mtn. ingredient comes to me in Montana?
http://doingthedash.blogspot.com/
Nadeen, aka dEE
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Oh man. I feel for you. What a situation.
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:10 pm
HAPPY EASTER. I put your blog on my list under food and life’s blogs.
kathy and the dogs
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Blimey, when you say ‘research’ you really mean it!!!
March 26th, 2011 at 5:12 am
Here I am back at the beginning…will be reading all the posts leading up to your current building adventure. I see that the date of this was almost one year ago from now. (When our home was being built, it seemed like we were also going to the site alot…it seemed to take forever!, but thankfully, we didnt have a Dick the contractor to deal with!
That is great that you are (as you say) research geek
) Too bad you didn’t have a head’s up or any red lights go off on Dick the contractor, beforehand!
Blessings & Aloha!