Family Moving to Telluride- Need Advice (living, pollution, office)

[5stones]

I love Telluride, it is simply beautiful. BUT I would never want to raise my kids there.
I am not going to repeat what the sages here have said, but keep it mind.

From what you describe (the lifestyle and community you wish for) I too think Montrose would be a good option or even Ft Collins. Boulder might be an option as well.

[Idunn]

Unfortunately nothing specific on housing, other than it is all obviously expensive. As mentioned, there might be options in something subsidized by the town of Telluride.

I'm writing primarily to suggest you probably do not wish to commute any great distance into Telluride. Best to stay quite local. By that, no further west than Placerville, and only a few miles south on CO 145. Certainly not as far as Rico, CO, and not many options there anyway. Even a town as seemingly close as Ridgeway, CO is a long drive, over a mountain pass. To do something like that you'd have to seriously consider just how much you like long daily commutes, winter driving, and paying for petrol.

Which, unfortunately leaves you in a small, expensive market. You might find some house or cabin in the woods nearby, but be sure and consider year round access (how long the driveway and condition, etc.). So probably figure you'll end up being relatively close in to town, and possible IN town your best bet.

Other than that Telluride should be great, if you adjust to it. Certainly lovely, and a bit apart.

[zaphod07]

My suggestion would be to rent a place either "down valley", or in Ophir or Rico at any price for at least a year. Owning a restaurant everybody and their brother will be offering you advice on "where to live". Listen carefully to the advice you get in a years time and you will be able to make an intelligent decision. Plus, give yourself some time to learn the area. for what you have budgetted, you should be able to get a nice place... My Daughter lived in Placerville and worked in T'ride for a year, getting her Colo. residency so she could go to CU. She loved living there!

Don't take anyone's advice given solely on this forum, however!...even mine! However, if you try to buy a place, anywhere within 60 miles, you could be making a big mistake! You will not regret waiting at least a year to buy...

[sunsprit]

[QUOTE.

(cliche' warning) We also long to leave the "rat race" and find a place we can settle into and be part of a community. While that community may have a great deal of transients and "elitist" consumers, I would hope to find myself part of a group like-minded business owners who are civic-minded and care not only about the businesses we run, but for the town itself. I hope that's not being naive.

/QUOTE]

Anybody who thinks moving to a mountain resort town "paradise" with a local storefront service business ... highly dependent, such as a restaurant, upon a limited local labor pool ... is either delusional or about to be parted from a lot of money and their energy.

You're heading into a bigger "rat race" than anything you can possibly imagine, with seasonal tourist traffic cash flows to meet your year-around overhead.

Grand vistas, gorgeous views, spectacular rainbows, pretty snowfalls, local access to a wonderful ski mountain resort (which you may well be entirely too busy to see much time on the slopes in season), old mining town "character", like "civic minded" businesses ... not one of these features/benefits will make one payment at the bank for you.

Just about everybody I've known with restaurants in Vail, Aspen, and Telluride has worked the better part of 100 hour weeks just trying to stay solvent. The very high costs of doing business in these towns are only generally just met by the prices you can charge. In short, nobody is surviving (let alone getting "rich") without doing a lot of hard work and paying the upfront hard cash cost for the price of admission. Most of them "made" their money from the restaurant business when they sold the place and retired to something else.

The cash flow along the way looked great, but it was matched by the very high cost of capital investment and the ongoing costs of living in the area.

[jordonstr]

Hi
You have done a good question, it’s really interesting. If you get any good reply, so please let me know. So I’ll also get some good idea.
Thanks for your future help.





Foreclosure

[natty-s]

Originally Posted by 5stones

I love Telluride, it is simply beautiful. BUT I would never want to raise my kids there.
I am not going to repeat what the sages here have said, but keep it mind.

From what you describe (the lifestyle and community you wish for) I too think Montrose would be a good option or even Ft Collins. Boulder might be an option as well.

why not? what's wrong with raising kids here? maybe they will get too good at skiing or maybe they will become talented artists, maybe they will be famous musicians, or maybe they will be professional mountain bikers. that is some pretty bad stuff isnt it? haha the ignorance on this sight can annoy me.

[zman0457]

It's the old right-left/decent regular folk vs elitist-artsy thing again. It's amazing how personal politics creep into everything.

The OP wanted practical information it seems, not values judgements.

[mtnbikr32]

Can I ask what type of restaurant are you opening?

[borborygmi]

Originally Posted by natty-s

why not? what's wrong with raising kids here? maybe they will get too good at skiing or maybe they will become talented artists, maybe they will be famous musicians, or maybe they will be professional mountain bikers. that is some pretty bad stuff isnt it? haha the ignorance on this sight can annoy me.

Yeah, those are reasonable career ambitions for a young person. Jesus. Thanks for proving the point, Einstein.

Or maybe they will become drugged-out, spoiled lazy ski bums without an ounce of understanding of what the real world outside their mountain paradise cocoon is like, or without any semblance of skills to deal with life in that world should they have to leave one day in the attempt to get an education and a real job- which, given the lack of higher educational institutions in the vicinity and utter lack of any existing local job market beyond the seasonal service/tourism industry, is pretty likely. Then again, as long as mommy and daddy are willing to subsidize your existence forever, it probably doesn't matter. I live near Telluride, I visit somewhat frequently, and I have to say, the local kids are pretty obnoxious and unimpressive. But they sure do think they're hot stuff.

The ignorance of pseudo-elitist hypocrite lefty smart-asses who don't have any clue what the real world is like certainly is annoying to me. And there are plenty of those in Telluride (see exhibit A above).

[CosmicWizard]

First, let me state that I'm not a ski bum nor do I have a desire to be one at this time in my life. However, my perspective on the ski-bum is quite different than yours. I see the ski-bum as a lucky SOB, someone who had the smarts NOT to get caught up in the so-called real world and suffer 40 yrs holding down a so-called real job. Although I live in the so-called real world and work a so-called real job, it's not an experience that I would highly recommend to anyone having a spirit of adventure in their heart. IMO, anyone having the smarts to be a ski-bum without stepping on anyone elses toes, is truly blessed! Chances are they are neither a right-wing wacko nor a left wing nutcase. They're out on the slopes ENJOYING life while the right-wing wackos and the left wing nutcases battle it out in in the so-called real world. Since no one ever wins this epic battle, everyone on both sides gets to have the experience of being losers many times over.