Once again: The rural Colorado living reality check

[cleatis]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

I meant, which one of those are NOT 'moutnain' towns, not what are all the towns called, sorry. I know there are way too many to name

Well, I grew up in Delta County which is near Grand Junction and Montrose. while mountains were all around and not more than about 30 miles away, it wasn't anything like a mountain town. It was more like high dessert. The western slope has a lot of mountains, but they are very big, and with big mountains come big valleys.

[cleatis]

Originally Posted by borborygmi

How is rural Colorado different from other rural places? Put simply, the difference is in the cost of living. The point here is that because it's Colorado- i.e, there are big, beautiful mountains here- everything here from real estate to essential commodities is extremely pricey. Therefore the cost of living here isn't lower in scale like it is most other rural parts of the country. In NW Iowa, to use your example, as well as in most other rural areas of America, the lack of solid middle class-level paying jobs is offset somewhat by a substantially lower cost of living compared to a big city. You may make less, but your dollar will go farther than it will in a big city. That is not the case in rural Colorado. Read my post above- it's rural pay scale compounded with big-city living costs. That's the crux of the issue.

That is very true! that's why we sold out and moved...

[ryanek9freak]

Originally Posted by Plains10

Here in the Northeast we have colonials, cape cods, log cabins, ranches, and many houses with cedar wood vertical siding. How well does stucco homes tolerate wet climates? I have not seen too many east of the Mississippi River in my travels.

Yeah stucco is really common out here, partly due to the termite problem, and also, the suns rays are so intense here, that other materials fade and wear out quickly. Stucco is pretty much maintanance free. I don't see why it wouldn't fare well back east, but it would look oddly out of place.

[yahtn]

Stucco does just fine in moist climates. I lived in Florida for 21 years, and the last 5 of them saw a stucco explosion down there.