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Things move fast when you make a decision sometimes.  Sometimes things fall into place instantly.  It seems pretty freaky... Some people call it serendipity, others call it God, some call it The Secret, the law of attraction... call it whatever you want I suppose.  There's just too much evidence to suggest that it is mere coincidence.  I've had this happen to me a few times in my life, and as a supposedly logical engineer, it freaks me out each time it happens, but nonetheless, I can't deny the reality of the situation.  In some way, it is re-assuring too.  Somehow, you know that the "universe" is on your side.

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, Teresa and I made a decision to travel through the USA.  We sold our house, knowing that we wanted to build an earth friendly house somewhere a bit more rural than Atlanta.  During our travels, we decided that place would be Colorado so we wouldn't be too far from my parents second home (but hopefully far enough!) and the place is beautiful.  Around June of 2006, we decided to take a little tour of Colorado to find our dream spot.  We were appalled at the prices around the state.  Land is certainly no longer cheap in Colorado.  We nearly got laughed out of one realty office in Paonia when we told them what we were looking for.  When we stopped in Salida, we stopped in a realty office.  While not impressed with the realtor, she sent us to lunch in a little place in Salida's hidden downtown (off the highway) called Amicas... great food, great in-house brewed beer!  And a real historic downtown!  A great start. 

Then we headed off toward the mountains and ended up driving up this wash-boarded gravel road trying to find the land that was mentioned in the realtor listings.  Teresa was suggesting demanding we turn back, but before I could, a little green Volkswagen Beetle pulled up behind us and asked if we were lost.  Hmmm... on a dirt road with Georgia plates?  How could they have guessed?  If this had not happened, we could have left the Arkansas River valley without ever thinking about purchasing land there!  These folks became our future neighbors in Spruce Basin.  And this is how we found the lower Arkansas River valley and Cotopaxi.

The next bizarre thing occurred after we settled in the valley after our travels... Our property development was on hold through the winter due to a huge patch of wet clay in our driveway, so we couldn't continue our property development through the winter.  (another coincidence?)  So we got office space in Salida.  Eventually, we got to know some of our office neighbors.  One person, whom we had just barely met, somehow decided we were trustworthy enough to offer us a house/farm sitting opportunity while he traveled in New Zealand for two months.  While house sitting, we had a few amazing evenings on the town enjoying fantastic live music at Bongo Billy's Salida Cafe or the Steamplant.  After some of these evenings, we arrived at the farmhouse and discussed whether or not we really should be living in Salida rather than 40 minutes away.

Eventually, came all of the other realizations outlined here.  Teresa and I started looking for a home soon after we posted that blog entry.  I guess it just feels as if we had been directed this way for a bit time... we just finally decided to listen to our instincts and follow through.

The last bit of "coincidence:"  We find a home on the market, just barely in our price range, on one plus acres, with amazing views, that looks almost exactly like the home we had designed.  And it's only 4 miles or so from town.  From the exterior, it is perhaps a bit boring compared to our design, but the interior is quite nice.  Amazingly, it is South facing, has clerestory windows, a passive solar design (larger eve over the lower windows that shades them in the summer, but allows full sun in the winter), and a huge yard.  It's not 100% what we would have designed... It's all electric (no propane service), needs more thermal mass, an upstairs guest bathroom will need a bit of work, and we'll have to add a wood stove.  We'll have to see how it does on a blower door test.  Check out the photos:

We love our property, we love the town of Salida, and we think we'll love our new home.  If we can swing it financially, we'll be in great shape.  We close at the end of July. Wish us luck!