Open House This Weekend At Our House-For-Sale

Here's your chance to see where the Bricks have been living...

You can even see our new home, parked just outside the fence! (We'll be the ones peering out the windows, wondering how it's going.)

The open house for 3700 Collins St. in Castle Rock is Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Hot dogs on the grill, cookies in the pantry, and a freshly updated and remodeled home, with plenty of room for your family, guests, with even an office (or two) space thrown in. If you've thought about a two-family home, adding a mother-in-law apartment, or starting an Airbnb, this place is for you.

It's in a non-HOA neighborhood just about Castle Rock borders -- which means lower taxes and fees. (Our neighborhood has its own water and septic system, too.) Our backyard has a 50+ mile view of the Front Range, as far south as Pikes Peak and north as Longs Peak...with Mt. Evans and the Rampart Range thrown in, as well. Yet it's extremely private, on a quiet side street.

Take a look here, and stop by. (Here's another version of the ad, complete with 36 photos.)

We'd love to see you.

Want to See What We See At 3700 Collins?

   Colorado is a beautiful place to start with, but Castle Rock is particularly blessed. We're 6500 ft, a thousand feet higher than the Mile-High City. Several buttes surround us, including the one Castle Rock is perched on.

Then there are the mountains, from Pikes Peak all the way up to Long's Peak. And from our backyard on a clear day, we can see them all.

Whoo boy.

Karine, our real estate agent, just posted a video showing the view from our home, 3700 Collins St., drone-style. Take a look.

Add to this a home with all sorts of moneysaving features, like double-pane windows, warrantied Philip Hardie siding and xeroscaping. Compared to our neighbors, our heat, power and water bills are negligible. And we live in a non-HOA neighborhood in Douglas County proper, even though Castle Rock officially starts on the other side of our back fence. That means we don't pay extra property dues, nor are we forced to pay water bills (higher) or sales/property taxes (much higher) to Castle Rock. (Silver Heights is one of the very few 'suburbs' that has its own well. Three, in fact.)
     In other words, we get many of the benefits of living in Castle Rock, without the penalties.

View is included: no extra charge.

The house should be officially listed on Saturday, June 22!!!!


Progress report:

Floors upstairs are sanded, and first coat of refinishing added. (A second coat will go on before they're done Friday night.)

Flooring is done in living room/kitchen, laundry room and downstairs bathroom. It looks lovely.

Paneling downstairs will be done by Thursday night.

Just a little painting left -- plus carpeting.

Dead trees are down and being cut into lengths.

Garage is put back in order (somewhat), ready for us to load boxes into our new home -- which was in the shop, getting some repairs. We'll pick it up shortly.

Dumpster #4 is almost full, but still has room.  (We will bid it a fond adieu on Saturday.)

Still to go:

Power-wash deck, driveway and front porch.

Put stuff in trailer.

Brush and sticks leftover from tree-cutting will be dumped at the slashyard Saturday morning.

Trot empty freezer, three TVs and an old printer to the recycler.


The house looks beautiful. We, on the other hand, are scruffy, a little smelly and living off fast and restaurant food. (I never thought I'd get tired of pizza -- but I am.) Thankfully, because of friends Tommy and Chris, we have clean clothes on. And a place to sleep, thanks to other kind friends Tim and Elle. But the end is near.



Open House is early next week!

Our Yellow Roses of Texas are just finished blooming;
now it's on to the yellow Persian Roses (even older breed) and the red climbers.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

A relaxing Father's Day -- the Brick and I both needed it. 

Monday morning, slept in a little...after we heard the reno guys starting about 7:15 a.m.

Now, a few hours and several phone calls later:

The floor refinishing guy is booked for certain. He starts Wednesday. (Yay!)

The carpet we'd tried to cancel (because we could get the refinishing guy's services, instead) is already cut and on its way. (Booo....)

Wait a minute -- we can use that carpet DOWNSTAIRS, instead of upstairs. (Yay again...but wait. That means more $$. But it will make comfortable footing in two bedrooms downstairs. Oh well...what's some hundreds of dollars more between friends...)

The flooring guys are nearly finished in the main room. (They're the ones who started at 7:15 a.m.) Drew and Dave have been working regularly here for the past few weeks. They're great.

Laundry room and downstairs bathroom are next. This stuff looks wonderful.

Painting guys are headed back tonight. They'll work UPSTAIRS before finishing DOWNSTAIRS, so the refinishing guy can easily work. (The carpet people need far less lead time, so they can lay carpet once the painters are finished.)

And God willing, all this gets done before Friday, when Karine, our real estate agent takes photos and lists the house on the market. 

Open house would be Saturday and Sunday. 

Can we do it?

No, our house doesn't look like this...but ours is also a work-in-progress.
(From architecturelove.net, via Pinterest)

Monday Stuff on the Way to Other Stuff: Nada...and Everything!

     Back home from Granby, CO and the Peaks n' Pines Guild. Gee, I like these ladies. 

     Now the final run to the finish begins. The house is full of empty, echoing places -- many jobs are partially started, but not completed yet. Sometime this week:

*The house will be completely painted inside (downstairs already is mostly done)

*The floors will be refinished upstairs

*The parquet floors will be varnished downstairs (that's my job)

*Luxury vinyl flooring will be laid in the living room, kitchen, laundry area and downstairs bathroom

     We'll finish scrubbing off the back deck, doing some small painting jobs and hauling off the rest of the sticks from cutting down several dead (fortunately small) trees.

     Whew.




I honestly have not had anytime to collect Stuff -- we've been getting rid of it, instead. But God willing, the house gets listed on the market Friday, featured on an open house Saturday and Sunday... 

And sold by Tuesday or so! 

More later...and Stuff resumes next week. Bear with me.

Monday (Wednesday) Stuff on the Way to Other Stuff: Going Crazy in Granby

Boy, what a week. 
Monday was a talk for History Colorado. Tuesday, Daughters #1 & #2, along with Son #1 and Daughter #1's boyfriend, came to help clear stuff out. Wednesday (today), we rented a chainsaw for Son #1 and the Brick to clear out some of the dead trees on the property. For the past three or so hours, the air has been redolent with the sounds of sawing and tree branches cracking. 
    Finally, the reno guys are back to work on the house, too. Progress is picking up again. 
    What a relief. 

Tomorrow evening, I'll be talking about Crazy quilts at the Peaks & Pines Quilt Guild meeting in Granby, CO. It's a lovely spot, right in middle of a wide valley surrounded by mountains. Come hear -- then stay for the 'how to make a Crazy' class on Friday. Every student will not only get a wide array of embellishments, thanks to my cleaning out my stash -- they'll also get a free copy of my book CRAZY QUILTS!

     Then Saturday, I'll be doing some appraising for the guild, before I head back for home...and more work on the house. 

Go here for more info. This is a enthusiastic guild...and I love teaching for them. 

We're going to have fun. 

Meanwhile, here are some bits and pieces I managed to gather up between dumpster-throwing and door-painting. Apologies that they're late this week. Next should be better. 

Ten beautiful windows in London -- many of them stained-glass.

The cat that lived in the Tower of London.  (From what I've read, she's commemorated in a stained-glass window, as well...but I couldn't find it.)

More historic cat stories here.

The weird tale of a guy's job as a 'popcorn man' in Disneyland.   Really makes you wonder about the Magic Kingdom...

"And there goes my clean driving record:" diary of a speeding ticket by Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Poor girl.

Tons of trash -- more than 24,000 pounds, to be exact -- removed from Everest. Plus four bodies.

A toy car found in a shed in Britain goes for nearly $4500 -- more than four times the pre-sale estimate.

I'm Still Here...

How 'bout that.

We made a flying trip to Michigan last week to drop off storage items at The Mama's farm. Got a little sleep, then headed back. The trailer had two flats along the way -- we got to Virginia Dale, CO barely in time for me to give a talk there on Jack Slade and Baby Doe Tabor. But we got there in time.

Tomorrow, I have a talk to do for History Colorado on my book. Talk starts at 1 p.m. at the History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway in Denver, Monday at 1 p.m.

Then back to the finishing touches on the house...before I leave for a multi-day gig at the Peaks & Pines guild in Granby Thursday. (More on that tomorrow.)

. I would say we're tired -- but we're way beyond that.
    More soon.

\

Oops...

I'd better check and see where the dogs are.

Lesson Learned -- And Moving Updates

Don't try to move, if you love books. 

You'll regret it...





Or maybe not.

MOVING UPDATE:

Down to packing the last three dozen or so bags and boxes. We've got a hefty donation pile growing again on the front porch, for the Vietnam Vets, and  30 or so bags and boxes that need to be hauled out to the garage. Threw my back out yesterday...what a doofus. (Yowch!) So now I caarrreeeffuullyy lean over to pack things. 
    Making things even more interesting, the truck needed both front bearings replaced. At least we found out now -- it would have been horrible to break down on the road somewhere while we were hauling the storage trailer. Hey, what's a thousand or so more dollars spent, at this point...
     We're hoping to have some repairs done on our new home this week, so we have a place to stay. Meanwhile, the painters and floor guys are due to start tomorrow. 

     I've got more bags to pack -- had better get to it. 

For -----: You Know Who You Are

It's probably me.

Monday Stuff (nope, Saturday again) on the Way to Other Stuff: Almost Clear

    Another long week at the Brick house -- with some exciting new developments. 
    We've spent day after day after DAY picking up boxes and bags, then hauling them out -- to the garage, the dumpster and the storage trailer. I am relieved to say that we've got one, maybe two long days left -- then the upstairs is cleared out. (The downstairs has been for a week now, but the concrete guys were working down there.)
     Finally, painting and floors start next week. 

But we won't be totally homeless.
     We bought a trailer! It's an Arctic Fox fifth wheel, a little bigger and a lot newer than our previous one. We exchange the final payment and the title next week. 

And...thanks to an incredible Hollander deal on tickets, we put down a deposit on our dream trip: a world cruise in 2020. (True to form, I managed to register twice for it, worrying that we wouldn't get the sale price. Arghgh. Thankfully, that's fixed now.) 

What a week. What a month. And now it starts all over again. 

Life will be a little hectic this weekend, so I thought I'd get this post up early. Here we go:


A huge auto/bike collection, hidden by its collector for years, is going up for auction. Some real beauties and rarities here...

More shootings: this time in Virginia Beach. And no, this does NOT prove that we don't need to own guns. (Though I do believe that the laws should be more strict.) In fact, it shows the opposite -- if someone would have been 'carrying' that day, they might well have stopped the carnage sooner. Thank God for police officers quickly on the scene.

Financial "rules" that may not be the best for YOU.  (From Budgets Are Sexy)

'Should I feel guilty about accepting hand-me-downs, when other people need them more?' (Musings from I Pick Up Pennies -- the 'other' blog)

Bizarre (and incredibly cool) fossils.  (From Ranker) Also from them:

Weird foods people ate to get through the Great Depression.  Prune whip, anyone? But that led to a very interesting article on:

Desperation pies . (Thanks, Bon Appetit)

A dozen 'cheap luxuries' -- to help keep you from feeling too deprived.

Ten hidden gravesites...found with satellite images.  (From Listverse)

"How I eliminated a sizeable chunk of debt" -- in just one year.  (From Thrifty Mom in Boise)

The King's highway. An interesting parable with a twist.  (From Budgets Are Sexy)

Twenty very funny office notes. Including:

Honus Wagner's baseball card -- one of a dozen in the world -- sells for $1.2 million. That sounds great, until you read it was expected to fetch up to $5 million. (Yes, five million smackeroos, for a piece of paper. And a small one, at that.)

Twenty photos that prove the story.  (From Upbeat)



Have a good week(end).

And it's still morning...