Ethel Spends Money Again. Film At Eleven.
(editor's note - a friend said that I should post, as he needed a laugh. Sorry, Bruce - this isn't funny at all. But it's a post)
Well, it's official - the Pucketts are not broke enough.
I know that we must not be broke enough, because Ethel is buying another condo.
Now, wait - don't get confused. Ethel has only actually bought one condo so far.
OFFICIAL ETHEL CONDOLOGY:
1) 2007ish - Ethel made an offer on a condo in Pinetop/Lakeside - a very nice place, got a good price. But while we were going through the deal, something occurred at work which reminded me just how a job can be, and I took that as a Sign that we shouldn't buy it. So we didn't. (worked out better in the long run, too - that condo was 30ish miles from the ski hill, and that ski hill isn't open nearly as long as Purgatory).
2) 2010 Bought the current condo in Cascade Village, near Purgatory Ski Hill (what the marketing types call "Durango Mountain Resort") in January, after spending the first part of the winter at Pinetop.
(This was occasioned in part by having become rather up-fed w/the services at Sunrise. "Is there snowmaking on this lift?" "Idunno". "Is the lodge open at the top?" "Idunno". "Do they have hot dogs in the restaurant?" "I dunno". "Do you know if you know anything?" "Idunno")
We actually decided to go ahead and make the offer as we were driving out of town; it just happened to be my birthday, so we called it my birthday present. <GOLUM_MODE> It came to me on me birthday, precious, and we wants it, we does! </GOLUM_MODE>
3) Aug 2011 Had an accepted offer on a nice place in San Jose del Cabo, as a summer home; found ourselves jumping through so many hoops (buying property in Mexico is not for the faint of heart) that we said "nah"....
.... and then realized that, for the summer season (since we ski in winter) we can do long-term rentals on the beach for about what the owners are paying in HOAs and utlities. Gee - if I bought one of those places, I'd be paying HOA and utilities *all year long*, plus paying for the condo.
This sort of realization is called "The Great Duh".
4) Dec 2011 - found what has been the absolute best deal on a larger unit at Cascade Village since we've been there. Ethel decided that she really liked Cascade Village - we're right at the ski hill, except we're around the big turn so we get better views, and this little hairpin in the mountain gets more snow than the ski hill itself. It's really a lovely place to drive up to and call home.
The village looks like this from the road:
Now, when they talk about villages being nestled into the mountains - well, that's about as "nestled" as nestled gets. It's probably at its loveliest when approached at night.
The new condo is actually directly across the parking lot from our current condo - it's the one in the middle:
So the two balconies and the fireplace in the middle are the backside of the new place. The front of the condo is in the back, and the back door is underneath, in covered parking.
Those two long windows on each side of the chimney provide very striking views of the Needles Mountains and Potato Hill, but for some reason the listing agent didn't include pix from there. Here's the view from out on the deck, looking north:
That peak is Engineer Mountain, which is my favorite.
Ethel, however, prefers the Needles, and that is what you see looking east - this is pretty much what you see through the windows on the lower floor, but I think that this was taken from out on the deck:
Interestingly enough, our current one-bedroom is downstairs, behind the tallest pine - so we can really see each condo from the other. I think I might spend a few days just running back and forth between the condos. (I'm just a poor boy from Flat Red Clay, Alabama - I have no business having one ski condo. I certainly have no business having two of them : ) That big chunk of rock on the left is Potato Hill (lovingly referred to as "Spud" by the locals - hey, that's us!)
We can actually see more of the Needles - for some reason, they split it up into two pix. Here's the one looking further south:
We're not showing the inside because there's really nothing to look at - it needs a little updating, and was furnished during the Eisenhower administration. But it's very livable - we just won't have granite or leather for a little while.
Ethel really wanted us both to have our own permanent working spaces, and she wanted a view of the Needles. I like the views myself, but I'm the sort of schmuck who will sit there and look at the mountains while computing, in my head, how much more per day I'm paying to look at said mountains - I'll wind up with a spreadsheet amortizing the 20 minutes/day mountain-looking , showing how the relative ROI of moutain-gazing is affected by property taxes, increase HOAs, and the relative costs/square foot of the two residences. And I'll have to take into account cloudy days when we can't see the mountains, of course.
But Ethel wants it. So here we go.
Film at eleven.
So does this mean you have a Pucketcondo, and a condo for your friends a visitors? Kewl. How thoughtful of you. Almost tempts me to drive all the way to Durango. If my sponsor didn't have a condo in Sun Valley, and if Park City wasn't on the way, might get down there someday.
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