Yesterday we were back at the house - I think this is going to be a routine we'll be following for the next month or so, at least until we are ready to move locations.

The big news is that the bank has approved the short sale amount/offer and signed the the short sale agreement, which means, the clock has started ticking towards closing.

So yesterday we did a walk through with our friends, Robert and Melissa Ginn.  Robert is a General Contractor (does fabulous work) - both Robert and Melissa have amazing vision when it comes to seeing possibilities AND possibilities within budget constraints.   Not to mention they've taken several houses, put in work and made changes - applied vision and the result has been an amazing home.

Above and beyond all of the house transformation projects, Robert and Melissa are our friends and we do trust their judgment, opinion, observation and vision.  That said, Rob found a few things we'll need to make sure the inspector sees and the Ginn's had some really good ideas.

First in the basement family room where there is a fitting for a gas stand alone wood (but gas) stove - put in a pellet stove.  More energy efficient and easier to manage.

So in this corner (shared wall with the garage) in the basement family room we will eventually have a pellet stove.  Heat proof pedestal is already in place, gas connector is capped (inspector will verify safety and correct capping of pipe) - all we need to do is get the pellet stove and have Robert route it through the wall and garage to the outside.  Gonna be nice and warm!! 

We're also looking to pull the carpet in the basement family room and replace it with flooring that will stand up to some traffic.  The garage connects to this room as does the mud room.

We wanted to make sure washer and dryer would fit in the laundry room - to make everything fit AND be easily accessible we will need to move the mud sink (pictured above) a bit to the right, probably just even with the outlet in the picture.  Shouldn't be too big of a deal, Robert added it to his list of things to do at the house.  YES!!  We have a mud sink in the laundry room.  Yippee!!

 

We also have a full bath on the ground level.

There is a sink just to the left, out of the picture.

 

On to the barn

Stall dividers should be easy to fix - we found the poles that go in the open spot - there are a couple that are bent; however, not bent to the point of being a hazard to the horses.

 

The good news with this wall - hay storage exterior wall - is that while it looks bad, Robert took a look at it, and it seems that while there may be a few boards that need replacing, the majority of the boards simply need new screws to tighten them up and keep the weather (and sunlight) out. 

Easy enough - and something I can do!

This is the stall divider that needs to come down.  Robert's suggestion was to move this about 2-feet to the left which would make a really nice size stall, wouldn't take that much away from hay storage and rather than plywood divider use something horse friendly AND nice to look at.  Currently the only access to this stall is from the outside of the barn so we (Robert) will add a door / gate / access to the stall from this side, the inside of the barn.

This is another area of concern in the barn.  You can see the retaining beam is starting to buckle out.  Robert has added to his "to do" list for the house/barn - remove retaining beam, dig out dirt that has shifted and put in a retaining wall from ground to the retaining beam and replace the buckled beam.  Gonna be sweet!!

We've got an e-mail into the roofer asking about cost for a metal roof.  There is no question the barn roof needs to be replaced, Robert suggested checking out metal roof and then of course we will need to add gutters.

Clear need for a new roof.

 



Gutters will help manage erosion in the corral area off the barn and the horses won't have to worry about getting buckets of water on their head if they want to put their heads out of the doors during rainy weather ..... win:win for everyone!!

 

Yes - no question the barn need repainting or stained.  That is something we will do.  The nice thing about the stalls is that they all open (or will open) into the barn as well as out to the corral area.  AND the doors to the outside are dutch doors in that they can be closed on the bottom and the top half of the door left open so the horses can have line of sight to the outside.

 

The one part of the house I didn't include pictures of in the original post - master bedroom.

Master bath taken from the master bedroom.  Doors to the right (of the sink and kind of in the middle of the picture) are a linen closet - a big linen closet!

 

Master bedroom. 

Ceiling fan (nice!) and french doors that open to the deck. 

French doors from living room also open to same deck. 

 

And that concludes the updates from our walkabout yesterday .....

Pasture

 

Holy cow - I forgot one of the most important pictures .... the pasture!

This picture was taken from the far end of the pasture looking towards the barn (on the right).  The house can just barely be seen behind the big clump of pines on the left.  Pasture will be good for all four horses.  Enough slope and a few trees to make it interesting, flat enough to safely run (on the initial walk about we did not find any critter holes - which is good) and flat enough for Hank. 

 

It will be interesting to see what kind of grass comes up in the spring.  Estimated total pasture space to be about four acres which is totally manageable from an agricultural perspective - controlling erosion, grazing, weed control and growing/maintaining good quality grass.  We won't get the pasture perfect in the first year or so; however, with 4 acres, we can get a good start.

 

 

First Pictures

34766 Morgan Trail
Elizabeth, CO

Offer to purchase has been accepted by the Seller and is now pending review by the bank.  The house is a short sale which means the bank has to approve the offer.

The house is a bi-level (or as we call them in WI, a split level) walkout.  There is a deck along the back on the upper/living level.  The basement/ground level is 95% finished.  There are 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and approximately 2395 square feet.  The backyard is fenced.  There are two pastures and a corral which are all fenced.  The lot size is 5 acres. And there is a 3-stall barn!!

Front Door

 View of kitchen with very nice gas stove

 

Other side of the kitchen. 

Windows face south so there should be some nice light for plants on the windowsill.

Awesome sink!!

And yes, it is deeper than 5-inches ..... woohooo!

View from the kitchen into the living room.

 

Living room

 

Fancy ceiling fan

 

Fireplace

French doors to the deck.

 

One bedroom.

Another bedroom.

Master bath (with skylight).

Hallway bathroom.

 Stairs to ground level

 

Inside of garage - 4 car garage!

 



Furnace and hot water 'closet'

Ground floor family room

Ground floor bedroom

 

Ground floor mud room / hallway

 

 Ground floor office / study

Laundry room

 

Built in bench and storage - ground level mud room area. 

Door from here on the right leads outside.  Study/office area directly opposite (behind me as I take the picture) and laundry room to the left.  Door to the ground level family room and bedroom also to the left.  Ground floor bathroom opposite and between the study/office and laundry room.

Back of the house.

Sliding door is the door that opens from the mudroom area.

Another view.  Two windows are the ground floor bedroom windows.

Barn and corral. 

Yes - barn roof needs replacing and barn needs paint.

Barn - 3 doors are three stalls.

Inside of barn.

Lots of 'junk' to be hauled away.

Tack/feed room

Trees in pasture area. 

Even though they are pines, I think they will be some shade for the horses.

And, good scratching posts!

View of house from pasture.

Another view of the barn main hallway. 

Enough room for horse and farrier.

Hay storage area.

With garage door for easy offloading of hay.

View of back of the house.