Life has been extremely confusing and busy these past few weeks.
We went to Colorado for a business/pleasure trip. I was only a couple of hours from my family and was very sad that I couldn't slip over and see them but the structure of the trip prevented it. The first few days were all social but a "required" type of social. We were in Telluride and we were there for skiing. My husband and I chose to ski two of the three days sitting out the middle day. We only ski about once a year and there was no need to try to keep up and end up hurting ourselves. Telluride was beautiful as it always is. The town is very unique being a total tourist town. I think most of the residents must go to Montrose to shop because the wares in their shops were not at all of the practical variety or even slightly affordable. Even for me! It is also full of eclectic little coffee shops and art galleries. I was told the coffee was always excellent (I don't drink coffee despite it's absolutely tantalizing and wonderful scent) and the art was very expensive. And sometimes odd.
Main Street View of Telluride
I went and found a park on the outskirts of town where I traipsed around in the snow and enjoyed a bit of solitude.
The bike shop we walked past to get to everything. Telluride is not a drive friendly town due to parking so you walk everywhere, but it's all close so it isn't too hard, even at an altitude we aren't used to. (The town sits at 8700 ft. and the ski area goes up to 12,500 ft.)
Why does every sign end up covered in stickers? It's true of almost every ski town I've been in.
The coffee shop on Main Street. We personally liked the head skewered on the deer's antlers.
Yes! You can delight your senses and impress your art friends with a cardboard box covered in newspaper with a witty saying pasted on it. All for only $20!
I just liked this little bicycle that had been left in the snow. It seemed like it's own art piece.
This is me on the run Seeforever. It is at the top of the mountain above the tree line. You really could see forever. Miles and miles in every direction. Skiing was good. My husband and I were basically left on our own so we just skied together and enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to ski pants I was a happy camper. I can't believe I used to ski in blue jeans, I was crazy.
After the skiing in Telluride we were in Cortez, Colorado for meetings. Well my husband was in meetings. The wives were left to their own devices. We were supposed to be at a bar-b-que on Tuesday afternoon but I begged off and had a fantastic lunch with an old friend. She and I lived in the same town in New Mexico for years and I had not been able to spend any real amount of time with her in years. She has MS and is in a wheelchair and doesn't get out very often but her daughter brought her into town, picked me up and we sat at Tequila's (a Mexican food restaurant naturally) for about three hours laughing and talking and catching up. It was such a good time. I got back to the hotel to hear about half raw chicken and a cold bar-b-que so I think I had the better deal. Wednesday we were in Durango and we went shopping (I went looking) while our husbands finished up with yet another meeting. I would say about half the trip was enjoyable. But that means it was a success.
Since getting home we have been very busy with a few life changes. We are in the process of buying a house. This house will "solve" a few problems with my husband's commute and also be a good rental in the years to come. It is just six minutes from his office and is wedged onto a small lot between an interstate and a bayou.
Yes, that is one tall house that is five feet from it's neighbor. It will be about 2 1/2 feet from the neighbor on the other side. When I say wedged, I mean wedged. The selling realtor kept talking about what a "great big" yard we had.... it's about 10' x 20'. After my acre and a half I found her definition of "big" funny. The main selling point of this house is that it has it's own driveway. In this part of town they are tearing down old houses and putting four or five houses up on the same lot and they all share a driveway. That was not something we wanted to do. We like having our own driveway and found by the sales rate of houses that had private drives that a lot of other people do too.
If you understand anything about Houston you know the bayou is more of a concern than the freeway. It is on White Oak Bayou but they have built it up almost five feet so it is well above the flood plain. And we have an elevation certificate to prove it. 
Needless to say we will be buying flood insurance anyway.
This is what is behind the house. One major ditch. During a heavy rain it will run from bank to bank.
It is in a very hot and "hip" area of Houston and it will take some getting used to living there. The house is nice and will be a good "part time" place. The plan is that my husband will be at the 2nd house Monday night - Thursday night and I will be there from Tuesday to Thursday nights. (I have commitments near home on Monday nights) Then we will both be home over the weekends. We really struggled with this decision, for me it is hard to think of being away from my grandkids and kids even for four days. I know that sounds kind of hokey but I'm just so used to seeing them almost every day. But I keep being told that it will be a good thing for all of us. Don't know if that means I'm a bit over-bearing or what but I trust it is going to be okay. The best part will be my husband will no longer be tied up in traffic for such a large part of his day. Traffic has gotten very bad and they are starting construction on different highways he uses (in hopes of alleviating the traffic woes) and his 40 mile commute is taking up to 90 minutes each way. He was leaving the house every morning before six and getting home around 8:30 or 9:00 at night. And three hours of that was driving. I think he is quite excited at the possibility of spending more time at home, or a 2nd home.
The whole process has been difficult for me. We are having to prove clean title (it was a builder that went bankrupt) and get the house finished, negotiate repairs, and many other "issues". When we have bought other houses it's always been pretty straight forward and I could put a face to the seller. In this case I can't and I'm dealing with a faceless corporation. I don't like that. I like dealing with people.
Hopefully we are not going to regret this but if worse comes to worse rent in this area of town for a house this size is now running about $2800 a month so we can always find renters. (Rental property is currently in great need with only a 2% available for occupancy rate in Houston).
But until it's over and we sign the papers I think I'm going to be a nervous wreck.
