After five years of traveling full-time in our RV, Tim and I hung up the keys in 2019. Although I would have been happy to continue the full-time lifestyle, Tim was ready to settle down. Since he had indulged me for five years, I thought it only fair to go along with his wish this time. He had adjusted to RVing, so I figured that I would adjust to staying put in one place.
We had traveled to 49 states while RVing and had kept our eyes open for possible locations where we might eventually settle down. No place jumped out at us, so we decided to return to our “roots” and look for a place in the Front Range of Colorado. We both agreed that Colorado was where we wanted to be.
We also knew that we were only interested in a condo, not a house, and we even quickly eliminated townhouses because it would have been too difficult for our Kitty to negotiate the stairs. Not only was she getting older, but we realized that we might want a home where we could age-in-place. Therefore, no stairs for us either!
Size was another matter. Although we could have qualified for a large, expensive home, we had decided early-on that we would rather spend our money on travel, not mortgage payments. A two-bedroom, two-bath unit would suit us just fine. Remember, we were used to living in an RV about the size of a walk-in closet!
Although we had hoped to find a place in Fort Collins, Colorado, we soon realized that the prices were more than we wanted to spend, so we narrowed our search to the Loveland area, just a few miles south of Fort Collins.
We returned to Loveland in the RV on April 23, 2019, and began our search for a home. Although we had been looking at online listings for some time, it wasn’t until now that we began our search in earnest. With our wonderful real estate agent, we looked at a few possibilities and narrowed our choice to several units in two new condo complexes by the same developer. We weighed the pros and cons of each and decided on a unit at The Flats of Centerra. We signed the contract on April 29.
 |
| Our New Home |
One feature that drove us to The Flats at Centerra was its location within walking distance of restaurants and shops. In addition, this was a secure building (easier to lock up and travel) and had an elevator (remember the age-in-place idea), an enclosed garage with interior access to the building (it snows in Colorado), as well as finishes that appealed to us (design was still an important consideration).
The features that we especially liked about the unit we selected were its top floor location, the placement of its two bedrooms and baths, the separate shower, the large kitchen and laundry room, the coat closet at the front entrance, and the south-facing exposure. The complex had a more suburban feel than I would have liked (it is definitely not a new urbanist design), but the plusses outweighed the minuses.
 |
| This Floor Plan Had All that We Needed, and Wanted |
We closed on our new home on May 23, 2019, exactly five years and two weeks since we had sold our house in Estes Park and embarked on our full-time RV adventure.
 |
| Closing On Our New Home |
