Life Transplanet

Yep, somewhere between the abandoned rental, the crazy tenants that we released from the contract, scheduling showings, 2x 40+ hours of work including evenings and  weekends, an on-call shift, a broken car, a sick Schnoodle, a hungry cat eating canned tuna, six growing chickens who won’t sleep in the same coop, three wasps nests (and one super swollen stung ear), an overgrown yard and weed infested garden, a fridge devoid of food and laundry two weeks gone from being cleaned…somewhere in there we had an anniversary! Our 6th anniversary to be exact. But we had way too many other things to think about than how incredible those 6 years -or the 5 before that have been.

On our wedding day 6 years ago

I guess we are people who don’t just stand still. Even on our wedding day we were hauling things around and fixing stuff. I was almost late to my own wedding! So it’s only fitting. Last year we were painting a rental house, and this year we were back there again preparing it for new tenants. Lately it’s been a little overwhelming but we keep reminding ourselves that whatever drama we are experiencing is because we wanted whatever it is that is causing it. Remember that! We bring all that we have -better or worse- into our lives. If it gets too much we can always let it go, but until then…we’ll enjoy the chaos.

Things are already looking up. We think we’ve found new tenants for one of the properties and the other one is just about ready to be posted for rent. It’s also important to put our stress into perspective. Last year I was just about to lose my dad. So losing a few weeks rent, working hard, long hours and looking for new tenants is nothing by comparison. Life is about learning lessons and sharing lots of love. I think we’re getting our fair share of both

We’ve been having some discussion about our Puerto Rico plans and we would definitely like to move there more quickly than not. We’d rather be planning our escape to Rincon in the next 2 years than in the next five years. But in order to do that we would have to change some of our goals. The most obvious that jumps out would be for us to keep the main wooden house and “just” fix it up.

There is a certain quality (dare I say potential) about it that  makes it hard to take down

This would probably save us $120,000 and 2-3 years of time if we didn’t have to tear down/construct anew. We could have a maximum budget of approximately $30,000 and do the following in order of importance:

-New roof -est. $5,000
-New decking -est. $4,000
-Build another bathroom/laundry room that connects to the side deck so that we would have a main floor bathroom -est. $4,000
-Build a master bath in the upstairs bedroom -est $4,000
-Put in mold resistant drywall -est. $2,000 installed
-Remodel the kitchen with new fixtures etc -$4,000
-Install hurricane resistant picture window to provide ocean view from upper/master bedroom – $1500
-Paint exterior/interior -$1500
-Refinish existing wood floors -$1500
-Completely remove the outside bathroom that is located on the oceanside deck -$500

Total: Appx $28,000 =Pretty good! -These numbers have some cushion built in, but that’s always good to have when planning a remodel/constructing anywhere let alone somewhere that we are unfamiliar with.

Then at some point after we were living there we could also enclose or make a living area out of the lower part that is currently being used as parking under the house as well.

View of the house from the road

I think with this budget we could get it to look pretty sharp and feel much more open/inviting. It’s not a huge house so it would be fairly “easy” to do. I suppose all of our rental remodels make it seem somewhat less daunting than it would be for most anyone else.

We would still like to fix up the existing cabana and build 2-3 other cabanas that we could rent out to tourists or locals. And then possibly build a pool or do other projects. I think the pool we would do after we were living there though.

I am really happy that we have bought the property. So many new opportunities start opening up in front of us. It’s a really cool feeling.

Here are a couple of videos of both the houses on the property. It kind of gives you a better feeling for the layout of the land and structures as they currently stand. Enjoy!

One of my jobs at work is to help coordinate a teen health coalition called T.H.A.T. The kids came up with the name because they thought it would be fun to say they are going to THAT meeting or THAT event. THAT stands for Teen Health Alliance of Today. The group does various events related to health in the community and wanted to host the 2nd annual THAT Battle of the Bands.

Me with two of the other adult coordinators of THAT

We usually meet and wanted to hold the event at Zoe’s, a cool funky warehouse style coffee shop that is run in conjunction with an area church. However, on the night they chose (this last Friday) it was already reserved. So they decided to work with another group that hosts at-risk teenagers in an indoor skate park/coffee shop that also has church ties. This organization is called Higher Grounds and they try to help intervene and prevent high risk behaviors in teens. It has a great mission and purpose and a perfect audience for health messages and music!

With some of the group (yah, THAT group -haha)

We didn’t have very many bands sign up to perform -in fact only two! So it wasn’t a big battle by any means. But they chose Britton as one of the judges (Simon Cowell!). One band was a garage band that mostly played reggae and punk reggae like Sublime. The other band was the jazz band from Eaton High School.

Jazz Band

The jazz band ultimately won the prize and will be playing at the Greeley Stampede this year on the free stage. Before and in between the bands they showed health messages on a big screen, had health trivia and handed out prizes.

The whole group afterward

Overall it was a fun night and a fun event. My work has me do some very interesting things like be an MC for a Quinceanera fashion show (in Spanish!!) and help run events like this. Pretty fun for work! I also made some headway with the coordinator of the Higher Grounds group to talk about making it a tobacco free property. Unfortunately even though it is for all underage kids, they still condone smoking in an outdoor cage area. As a health advocate,  I’ve found my work is never done. However, I was pleasantly surprised that my idea to bring “cutie” mandarin oranges and apples as a snack was a hit! No one thought these kids would eat them, but they were all gone by the end of the evening.

Whew! We had one tenant move out today, we did the walk-through with him and had the new tenants show up approximately 20 minutes after he left to sign the new lease! It has been quite the whirlwind. We are pretty happy with the new tenants and hopefully everything goes well with them. We were able to get almost $100 more per month and we have some better terms in the lease that we’ve learned over time as landlords to add.

Saw this as we were driving around Greeley -winner, winner (chicken dinner?) indeed!

So…we’ve managed to stop feeding the alligator, add some much needed cash to help us when we close in PR in three weeks, and killed a huge zombie that was lunging at us.  We still have a few bugs to work out (a few minor repairs/cleaning that needs to be done). But overall, we are tremendously relieved. The timing of this has been so strange and so perfect.

Hooray for the weird, little-known under-workings of the universe!

I had to do some work out in Northeastern Colorado. So after I got done with my work, Britton and I were able to hang out in the Sterling, CO area. Sterling is about 100 miles away from Greeley. It is such a strange place. Going there was almost like traveling in a time machine. Everything seemed outdated and like we were revisiting the 80′s. From the music on the radios to the furnishings and style of the hotel, everything around you made you think you’d stepped back in time.

Northeastern Colorado is more like Kansas and Nebraska than what most people would first think of when they think Colorado. For people who are unfamiliar with Colorado, the first thing they think of is skiing and the mountains, which is half our state. The other half is prairie lands. For hundreds of miles it is nothing but sage brush and tumbleweeds. If you drive from Nebraska into Colorado, you wouldn’t even see the mountains in the distance until you hit Greeley -and some of them are 14,000 feet high!

So going out there was quite the experience. Driving is a breeze, if anything it can be too monotonous and boring as there are few cars and few turns. Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge) of our mini-adventure to Sterling and into Northeastern Colorado to give you a feel for the area:

Lots of Windmills -many were functional to water cattle

A long neglected weathered old barn on the other side of the railroad tracks

The biggest variation in topography were a few softly rolling hills

Huge Grain Silos show what most people do out there

All the chemical fertilizers used in the (conventional) farming have caused some unwanted consequences, such as nitrates in the water. This can cause major health problems, especially for what they call “blue babies”.

A huge feedlot outside of Greeley near Kersey

Raising cattle and bison makes a lot of sense out on this dryland prairie because they will eat the dry grasses that nothing else can. However this easy solution -grazing animals on acres of grassland- is turned into a problem when condensed into feedlot operations where all the waste is concentrated. In the olden days, cowboys were used to round up the cattle on these grasslands. Now they have shifted into this feedlot system instead. This requires extensive feed inputs in the form mainly of (subsidized) corn. Corn, unlike this prairie grassland, is highly water intensive. The close proximity of the animals and the fact that they are standing in their waste also causes them to get sick more often. So, they are given prophylactic antibiotics in their feed, which in turn the general public soon eats.

With all the open space out here in Northeastern Colorado and little rainfall, using this water-intensive and condensed system seems completely counter-intuitive. This un-natural, and ultimately unhealthy system only runs on food (corn) subsidies and (cheap) petroleum. If you ask where all the real cowboys have gone, here’s your answer.

Long ribbons of empty road unfold in front of you

Grain prices -wheat, corn, millet

This bumper sticker is reflective of the thoughts on beef in this region: Eat Beef: The West wasn’t won on salad.

A visual reminder that all of this is currently possible only because of fossil fuels. It will be interesting to see how agricultural areas like Northeastern Colorado adapt -or possibly revert back to the tried and true ways- when fuel prices rise

We went out to eat at a place in Sterling called TJ Bummers. They had lots of old antiques including this old tractor out front. It reminded us of the way it must have been out here in the wild west days.

Overall, it was a nice trip. Going to Northeastern Colorado is not generally thought of as a destination in Colorado, but it is a reminder of what a large part of Colorado is all about. Agriculture is a vital part of our Colorado economy and if you ever want to see that up close and personal, this is the area you should visit.

This feedlot is huge