Well, we have come to an agreement with a seller to purchase her house.  What does this mean?  Well, if all goes well, we will have the keys to our house on July 28th.  Now for some details....The house is 2588 sq feet above ground and has a 1450 sq ft unfinished basement, for a grand total of 4015 sq ft.  It has 3 bedrooms, plus a study, 3 full baths, and a 3 car garage.  The family room has speakers built-in to the wall, and the entire house is internet ready with rooms pre-wired with ethernet cable.  It has hardwood floors in the entry and through the kitchen.  It was built in 2004.  It has a huge master closet, and the master bath is huge as well.   The other two bedrooms have a jack n jill bath.  The house is in a community in Highlands Ranch called Firelight.  I feel like we got a good deal, but only time will tell.

One big problem, Marisa and I have enough furniture to fill about 1200 sq ft, considering that was what we had previously.  There will be a lot of emptiness in some areas for awhile...Eventually, I would also like to finish the basement, which will be a significant expense, however, it would be nice to add a bedroom, bathroom, media room, playroom, and storage room down there.  That will be a ways down the road...

Well, i will leave you with a couple pics...

The family room....with our agent and Inara's new friend Addison

Master Bath...

Front of house, I dont like the color too much, but will paint later on.

 

How do you know what you want, and what is a good deal?  I have seen probably 50 houses online, and I have officially visited about 10-12 now.  I must say that house hunting is stressful.  Can I please mesh the positive things of all the houses I've seen into my one perfect house?  The first thing I learned is there is going to be some give and take unless you have money to burn (duh!).  Maybe that is the exciting part of house hunting, finding the one that fits into your budget and you have to "give" the least.

Well, there were two houses we have seen that are at the top of the list at this moment.  The one we like has a decent size back yard, a mountain view, 3-car garage, and was built in 2004.   I also really like the speakers built into the wall.  Who likes to run speaker wire to the back of the room?  Not me.  I wish it had a finished basement, granite counter-tops in the kitchen, and a loft on the 2nd floor.  Well, if had all of those things, it would probably be out of our price range.  The good thing is, those are all things that can be done later (with exception of adding a loft).

Well, my brain is going at 100mph right now, if you get a chance, check out my photo gallery as i have added some new pics of Inara, pics of house hunting, and some others!

Well, I flew back to California last weekend for Brian's bachelor party.  We went to Pala casino near Temecula.  The trip was great!  I golfed 3 days out of the 4 days that I was there.  I love golf and I am excited about finding cool courses in Colorado.  I have picked up this nasty slice on drives.  It is awful, I hit the ball hard and far, but it is often ends up on the fairway to the right.  I need to fix it, bad.  I am going to hit the driving range, since it is on my way home from work.  Anyways, back to the California trip.  It was great being back for a couple days.  I enjoyed the wonderful traffic that hasn't dissappeared.  It was also blazing hot, like 101 on Friday.  I realize, I despise hot weather.  Nothing makes me more angry then 100 degrees.  You can't do squat outside, and I love being outside.  We golfed on Friday and I almost became a carcass on the fairway.  Thankfully, colorado summers rarely see 100.  I am glad to be back.  Brian is moving out here in June, and he wants to be my neighbor.  Not sure how I feel about that, but we'll find out soon enough :)

Well, I am rambling, so I will leave you with a photograph of a couple of pals. I have updated our photo gallery, so check them out by clicking photo gallery above.

Now that I am resident in a state where awesome skiing is very close, I decided to buy a season pass.  I bought the colorado pass which gives me unlimited access to Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, and 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek.  I figure I will be skiing and snowboarding a lot next season (especially since winter golf is out).  All of those resorts are less than 2 hours away, making day trips possible.  Plus, I will be able to go whenever, so if we have a huge snow-fall, I can head up the next day for tons of fresh powder.  Another cool factor of the season pass is, that I have the option of gettting up to four $50 tickets for friends.  Since lift tickets are $80 at breckenridge, keystone and arapahoe, and $90 at Vail and Beaver Creek, that is pretty good savings for incoming friends.  I also get 6 ski with a friend discount tickets, the discount varying depending on the season and busyness of the resort.  In a couple years, i will introduce Inara to skiing.  Kids under 5 are free.  That will be a fun day!

On another note, I tuned up my Mountain Bike this weekend and took it out.  I left my house on bike and found some good trails.  I am looking forward to heading up to the mountains to bike down the ski resorts.  We did that at mammoth for my bachelor party and it was a blast.

Being the great husband that I am, I decided to help out Marisa so she could leave the house and take the car out if need be after some snowfall.  Aren't I thoughtful? Now she can see where she is going!

It snowed here pretty good yesterday.  To celebrate the moment, we went sledding!   Check out the pictures and videos in the gallery.  Below is a picture of Baby Inara, ready for some sledding action.  Well, okay, she didn't really go sledding...

So, I invented a new sport over the weekend.  It is called extreme strollering.  Here is the concept, I take Inara with me to crazy places, get her in the stroller, and go out for an adventure.  This last weekend, I took her up to lookout mountain.  She went mountain strollering and skiing in her stroller as well.  Here are some pics.  Videos available in photo gallery. Next up is taking her to the top of Longs Peak (14,000 ft), and summer white water rafting with Baby Inara. ;)

I have now been in Colorado for about 2 weeks now. I guess it is time to do my top ten reasons why my life has improved or how it will improve over the years.

10.  I have laundry machines inside my house.  No laundromat, no walking around to back of the garage to do laundry anymore.
9.  My neighbors aren't 19 year olds who smoke pot all of the time and don't clean up their dog's poo.
8.  My neighborhood is not in the ghetto of the particular city I am living in.
7.  It is a nice change of pace to see snowfall.
6.  Colorado state tax is significantly lower than CA state tax, saving me hundreds a month. 
5.  I no longer take part in the 3rd worst and unhealthiest commute in the nation.  (Long Beach to Santa Ana)
4.  I know I haven't gone yet, but awesome skiing and snowboarding is much closer. And there are 10-15 resorts that are as big or bigger than Mammoth. Variety is wonderful thing. Then, this summer, camping, fishing, hiking, biking will be much closer. 
3. Free rec centers, including gyms, indoor/outdoor pools, tennis and basketball.  Wave pools and lazy rivers. How are these free?  I still don't get it.
2. I drive by a house and think, hey, I can afford that.
1. Traffic here is joke, my commute is 1 mile longer than it was in CA, and it takes 15-20 minutes less time.  I typcially do 70mph on the freeway at 8:00am. I leave at 5pm and I do 60mph home. In CA, 25mph at 8am or 5pm would be considered a really good day. 

Stay tuned for my top ten things I miss about California........if I can come up with that many :)

Well, I finally made it to Colorado.  It took 3 days of driving (or riding in my case), and a winter blizzard to finally get here.  Yesterday blizzard, today sunshine. The area we are living is very nice.  Everything is brand new.  New malls, new stores, new houses, new everything.  Highlands ranch is at 6000 ft above sea level.  We passed kids sledding, someone snowboarding in their backyard.  It is definitely a change of pace, but I think it will be very fun.  We have access to free rec centers that have indoor pools, gyms, indoor/outdoor tennis and basketball.  There won't be a shortage of things to do, which is nice.  Did I mention the view is amazing and the air quality seems amazing after crappy L.A air?

I look forward to picking up Inara and Marisa this Thursday.  Hopefully we have some stuff unloaded from the trucks prior, mainly the Crib.  I already found a place for Inara to go sledding when she gets here :)

Ankle update....It looks like i have baffled the doctors.  I got an MRI and they think i broke my ankle in a previous injury (have no idea when).  It never hurt?  The other news and why my ankle hurt and swelled so much was the fact that i partially tore a few ligaments.  The good news is that no surgery is required, the bad news is that i will be limping for at least 2 more weeks and I still need physical therapy.  I am kinda off the crutches, but i still use them sometimes.  I lag behind a lot right now, as i can only walk slowly.

Internet, cable and phone arrive at the house on Wednesday.  I will post again, and put some pictures up.  Until then, see ya!