Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Durango Luxury Home Near Durango Mountain Resort



If you are looking for a luxury home in the Durango, CO real estate market, I would suggest you take a serious look at this property located within 1 mile of the Purgatory Ski Resort. Located on Lake Purgatory and perched on a hill overlooking the Lake, this 4413 ft.² home provides a great home base for enjoying all of the wonderful activities in the Durango area. This property is just minutes from skiing and a short 25 Minute Drive to Durango. Dalton Ranch Golf Course in the Animas Valley is only 15 minutes away, or purchase a membership at Tamarron or the Glacier Club and play on that fabulous mountain golf course which would be only 10 minutes away.




The kitchen always seems to be at the center of the activities in a home like this and this property is no exception. Top-of-the-line appliances (2 Jenn-Air downdraft ranges for instance) along with a large center island make this a great gathering spot after a hard day of skiing or golfing. There is a eat in dining area with windows overlooking the lake and Spud Mountain. You can also go directly out onto the large deck where there is a hot tub and even a sauna. The large great room, with a wall of windows at the end, features a three sided rock fireplace that will bring warmth to people in the kitchen and the great room. The luxurious master suite, with its own office and observatory, is privately located on its own floor of the north end of the house. The master bedroom overlooks the Great Room and has its own Kiva styled fireplace. You may have trouble working in the private office with built-in bookcases and hardwood floor because of user so spectacular out the windows. And if that won't get you enthused, then take a few steps up into the observatory for a full 360° view of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.



Perfectly designed as a family retreat, there is a junior master bedroom with its own private entrance off of the great room. Knowing that you need room for the kids or grandkids, there are two more bedrooms with a bath in between for the younger ones. There is a nice trail from the house down to the Lake where you can kayak and fish. Like to go snowmobiling in the winter? There's an on-site building for storing that sort of equipment. Silverton, which is just 30 minutes north of this home, has miles and miles of groomed trails and is a snowmobiler’s paradise. Situated on 1.27 acres of land, the property is surrounded by Aspen trees and Colorado Blue Spruce. This is a very private setting with only two more lots beyond this home on a dead-end road.

Priced at $2,150,000 this is an especially good buy. Although not included, the furnishings along with a Jeep, snowmobiles and other equipment would be available for an additional cost. If you'd like to see more detailed information on this property here is a link to this home on my BuyDurango.com website.
http://www.buydurango.com/real-estate-listings/mehlisch/index.htm

Monday, October 22, 2007

Log Cabin In The Woods


At this time of year, we often see lots of people coming to town looking for hunting cabins or cabins in the woods. We've just recently listed a very unique pealed log cabin located in Silverton about an hour's drive north of Durango. The 500 ft.² cabin sits on about 9 1/2 acres surrounded by Engelman and Balsam spruce trees at an elevation of just over 11,000 feet. The seller, who has a Scandinavian background, followed all of the old world traditions when gathering all of his logs from his own property. Each log was harvested at night, during the new moon, in the dead of winter when it's not unusual to have snow be 5, 6 or even 10 feet deep at that elevation. The logs were then dragged to the building site for drying out. Each log was hand peeled and then double scribed top and bottom so that chinking would not be necessary. Each of the logs is very heavy, so moving them by himself was an ordeal. High up in the trees he fastened steel cables and attached a hoist to those cables and then lifted each log into its place in the cabin.


This has certainly been a labor of love as there was much hand work that had to be done. The exposed ends of each log have been hand chiseled; each stair tread in the home has been hand chiseled; the handmaid square cut nails add a beauty of their own. Just because it's a cabin doesn't mean you'll be uncomfortable. There is a dual-fuel refrigerator and cooking stove (can be run by either propane or electric) in addition to the $4000 Waterford Stanley wood-burning cooking stove that doubles as a heat source in addition to the Jotul woodstove. The double slipper claw foot tub can add some fun as well. There is still some work that needs to be done to complete the home but most all of the supplies are on site.


At this elevation I'm sure you can imagine the great views that are available. Looking in one direction you see South Mineral Creek and the beautiful red cliffs above that make up the Ice Lake Basin. Looking straight off the back of the house, you see Anvil Mountain which overlooks Silverton. Years ago those very slopes are a had been considered a great spot for a ski area. Some of the lights in Silverton can be seen at night, but if you'd like to make that more visible you could trim away a few more of your own trees and have a very pretty nighttime view. The road to the property is a four-wheel-drive County Road but it is not maintained on a year on a round basis. The snowmobile club grooms the road in the wintertime for snowmobilers. Included in the sales price is a Bombardier Bombi snow cat as well as a Land Tamer 8 x 8 amphibious vehicle and a Polaris snowmobile. Electricity is about 400 feet away, but the seller is including his Honda electric generator.
So whether you are looking for a cabin in the woods in Durango or the Silverton area, I would hope that you might give this property some thought. Here is a link to my website with more detailed information:
http://www.buydurango.com/real-estate-listings/bjorkman/index.htm

Durango real estate and Silverton real estate have certainly been a good investment over the years. I personally own property in Silverton and have for nearly 30 years; that has been a very good investment for me as well as my Durango properties.