The High Life (part duex) Breck Condo

October 17, 2017

The High Life (part duex) Breck Condo - Living Room Refurbish

It's no secret that I love Breckenridge in the summer. For the past ~10-12 years I've rented from various owners. My best rental score was this garage apt off of Boreas Pass Rd. Sadly, the owner sold this property in 2013 and after a few years of renting - I was out of luck.

The last 5 years the rental market has gotten tough! Other people that I have rented from in the past have have re-purposed their places or sold them.

Sneak peak - scroll down for more pics

BEFORE - Living room

AFTER - Living Room

2017 Untenable situation

So for the last 3 years I've been renting a room from a local resident. The rental was my own room with a shared bathroom. The owner has the 2nd story of the house to herself, but the kitchen was also shared.

This year she didn't know if her place would be available in July or August until mid June. So I didn't know if had a place to go. At the last minute she said July/August was available $700 per month ($100 more than I paid last year). I'm usually there Sundays thru Thursday and rarely on the weekends because I want to spend them with Dave.

So I show up for my first weekend and the owner is out of town. But now she has a boyfriend who comes up during the weekends even if she's out of town. He would also bring his kids on the weekends. So there would be potential I would be sharing the house with up to 5 other people. She left her dog (who was very lonely and would try to sneak up on my bed) the neighbors would come walk her. But the dog would run away and while I was working the neighbors would ask me to come retrieve the dog.

There is no key to the place so random people would come in at all hours. One night at 11pm - heard the door open and a man's voice. (neighbor came to walk the dog). Then the next day another neighbor came over to get ice since her ice maker was broken. Then another neighbor walked in to use the washer since his washer was broken. The other roommate would take 30 minute showers.

House rules are take off your shoes, but the house really needed a "deep clean". Last year the shower wouldn't drain and you'd be standing in grody ankle deep water. I would guess it's been a few years since that bathroom had a good cleaning.

After only my first 24 hours of this year's rental - all the above happened - I was like "i'm 55 years old, I'm too old to be living like this. I want to be able to work effectively without interruptions while I'm in Breck. I want to leave my shoes on. I want my place to be clean and uncluttered"

The Hunt

So on a whim I got on zillow and inquired about a $200k studio apt.

After I sent my inquiry, almost immediately I got a call from a local realtor, Cary Piecoup. That afternoon, she took me to look at 5 different places from price range $210k = $350k. The cheaper ones were too small and the more expensive ones were priced more than i would be willing to pay.

So I decided - now was not the time. I hadn't prepared financially and done several thousand dollars work on my Boulder house. And nothing was not quite right - it would be something I would think about in the future. So on Monday night - I decided it was a nice idea to buy something, but now was not the time.

Then Tuesday, Cary sent me an email about a property that was originally listed at $311k, then dropped to $289k and then $260k. I told her that I wasn't interested. But after looking at winter seasonal rental ads on craigslist - I changed my mind and wanted to look.

We took a look and at ~600 sq ft and the $260k price was too good to pass up. So literally on the spur of the moment - I made an offer and on Wednesday it was accepted. wtf!!! the craziest impulse buy ever!!

Possession

I closed on August 25th, but the seller's rented back and I didn't take possession until October 1st.

The place was in decent shape(the kitchen is super nice) , but I wanted to do some updating up to my style.

I decided to re-resurrect my blog to document the changes I'm making and the associated costs. I tried to do before and after so show the differences. I LOVE my space - such a sanctuary.