Western Colorado

[firefox]

First off, I would like to say that this is one of my favorite places to learn.
I am currently living in California, but when I retire I will no longer be able to afford to
live where I am now. I believe that I have the necessary skills and stubborness to be able to
build something nice for my wife Robbie, three cats and myself, a former Leatherneck.

I am looking to find some land where I can build without having to be concerned with
building inspectors and time lines. This is not to imply that I want to build something shabby.
It is just that I usually do things way different than anyone else, but it is usually over engineered rather than under engineered. For example, I built a large storage shed out of some equipment racks that originally came from the Bolder Dam. Really heavy duty stuff. I welded the channel
frame that was used as the base, together to make the top sill for the roof, and then made a concrete block
foundation with imbedded jbars  and bolted the frames down and attached the top channel.
Put on a 2 foot grid of 4x4s with some 1 inch plywood screwed on to that. Some of the side pieces were made from large electric boxes that were torn out of a building where I work.
The boxes were heavy steel aprox 3' x 6 ' by 14' deep. All of this stuff was scrounged.
except the 4x4's, concrete blocks, and concrete. The 1" plywood came from an experiment for lasers where they had to
build an air bed to rest a large piece of granite on. Almost was able to scrounge the granite, but someone
else had first dibs on it. 4' x 8' x 10" polished flat surface .   Anyway you get the general idea.

Sorry if this is long.

The structure made it through the Loma Pretta earthquake perfectly without the slightest damage, whereas a nearby house and our chimney didn't.

Someone suggested that I look in Western Colorado along highway 50 or 24 for some land.
Do any of you have any knowledge of that area. What it is like, what things to watch out for.
Scarce resources or building conditions, people, etc.  Any tips are really appreciated.

Bruce & Robbie

[peg_688]

Welcome to the forum   Sea goin bellhops are always welcome.

Semper Fi Marine , from a former squid  

Stay out of Washington state , at least the western side, it's loaded with building rules ,  regs ,  depts. , insp. etc.  

Good luck with your selected area  

[glenn-k]

Main purpose of the code and inspections is to get you on the tax roles then safety is considered.

Example - The Mariposa DMV carport type inspection area - roof only structure appx 20'x30' area - was just damaged by about 5 inches of snowfall and had to be removed.  The roof was caving in.  This is a state facility obviously that was engineered, built and inspected to code standards and paid for at prevailing wage rates.  Up here on the hill we got 9" of snow and I had no failures.

That said, Colorado can get pretty cold but has some nice hot springs in that area - that's about all I know about it.  We went to Glenwood Springs - nice area where Doc Holiday went to spend his last days.

[firefox]

Thank you for the great welcome Peg! I am a great admirer of your work and contributions to this site! My wife, Robbie, is the Naval side of us. Her grandfather was an officer in both the American Navy, and then in the British Navy during WWII.

I have already had experience with Washington, and appreciate the warning.

If you hear about places that might be good, please let us know. Preferably not too
cold.

Bruce & Robbie

[glenn-k]

BTW, Firefox.  Glad to hear that this is your school of choice.  Lots of good people here share lots of good information, and besides them, I'm here too.

[firefox]

Thanks Glenn, I am very safety oriented, especially since I have had an injury that
messed up my back and in turn messed up my balance. My back recovered, but my balance
is still a problem.  My concern with inspectors is more along the lines of needing to be able to
set up temporary quarters on the site and then building on my own timetable and building what
I want as opposed to what is seen in "House and Garden" .  

Thanks for the tip on the hot springs. I would love to find some land close enough so that I
could get a really efficient geothermal floor system going.

How do I put a small picture in the place where it has an icon for who you are?

Thanks,
Bruce & Robbie

[firefox]

And yes, Glenn, I do admire your many and excellent contributions to this forum, as
well as all the other wonderful people, And kitties,
although it probably wasn't necessary for me to say this, since it appears that your self esteem
is in excellent repair.....:-) As it should be!

Bruce

[glenn-k]

Glenwood Springs is the worlds largest they claim - 2 block long pool - Hot spring spa across the street.  It's rated as one of the better less known resort areas.

For the pic,   Go to your Profile button above  - click profile/modify/options/personalized picture - choose an image or next line is I have my own pic. - put the file in if you use that . Save then Home.