The story so far...(Part 1)

We're contemplating building a modern house, probably in some manner prefab or a kit to make it affordable. The thought is kind of terrifying. Having overseen hundreds of building projects, I can probably count the number that have come in on time and on budget on my hands. M is a lot more optimistic, perhaps because he has no experience and maybe because he thinks my experience will cover us. We'll see. There's a lot of information floating around and a lot of decisions we have to make, so in order to corral it into a reasonable format, as well as chronicling our journey, here's our blog.

We are presently thinking of mountain towns. They need to have a good balance of outdoor activities, as well as some good food and cultural opportunities, and a reasonable year-round community. And of course, some career opportunities that don't include offering people "fries with that?" (I am in no way degrading service workers, I've done it, I think it should be required for everyone for a year, there's nothing like putting up with people's thoughtless rudeness to make you treat others with at least a modicum of civility at all times, but that's another blog)

My ideal place would be Durango, but it's so far away. Great scenery, wonderful food, biking, running, hiking, skiing, climbing, a youngish, active community, and possible job opportunities. But a 7-8 hour drive to Denver, so probably not a lot of visitors. And it is getting more expensive by the day.
We both love Estes Park, the scenery is awe inspiring, and there is something so comfortable about the town, plus we got married there, so it has a lot of great memories for us. But in the summer the town is a mess of schlubby tourists and in the winter it's dead, hard to find a restaurant open after 8. And even on a good day the food there is mediocre at best, unfortunately catering to above mentioned tourists. But the climbing is world class. It's also probably a little too close for people to consider coming to stay. I think that we should probably keep it as a place we go to vacation rather than a home base. Having Rocky NP right in the backyard is great, but then again we can't enjoy it with our dogs.
Steamboat is another possibility. A nice historic dowtown, pretty good food, a good bookstore, a couple coffee shops, a movie theater, again stunning scenery, hiking, biking, running, skiing. There's no climbing, not even a gym that I know of (possible business opportunity). The community is a little older than I'd like, just upon casual observation. And it's a little more expensive than I'd like because of the resort affect. There are job possibilities here and it's close enough to Denver to make a day trip if you had to, but far enough and with enough draws to have people come up for the weekend. At the moment it's the top runner, but we need to keep looking.
I'm also drawn to Salida, a great downtown, good hiking, biking, running and skiing close by. It's an artsy community, has a college which can be a plus and a minus, and some decent restaurants, from the brief times I've been there. Plus I think the land around there is still fairly affordable.

As far as land goes I think we want about an acre or more. Enough
space to be able to site the main house optimally and also be able to
add other outbuildings as we go. Guest house, studio, garage, duck
shed, abatoir, that sort of thing. Some trees, a big rock for M to
boulder on, a view, hopefully south facing so we can get some solar
benefits. Needs to have access to electricity. It would be nice to have
public water and sewer, but not a must.