Coeur d'Alene Snow Pictures (Hayden, Sandpoint: to rent, house, to buy)

[Blondie621]

Originally Posted by IdahoEagle

At the link below you can see a few pictures I have taken of the snow around my house.

I have lived here since 1995 and I haven't ever seen this much snow at one time in Coeur d'Alene.
The pictures were taken on Dalton Avenue between Mt. Carroll and 15th Street.

Dalton Avenue Snow Pictures

Beautiful!

[IdahoEagle]

If you live in a neighborhood, the neighbor usually take care of each other. If you live outside of town of five of acres you need to have a plan to get the snow plowed out.

There are a lot of ads in the paper for people who will shovel snow off of roofs etc.

I took some more pictures today because the sun was out and it is suposed to snow another 8 inches of wet heavy snow this weekend and I think it might be fun to compare them with the last few days and the days ahead.

12/26/2008 CDA Snow Pictures

A few of the pictures in the link above were otaken of the snow pile at the Silver Lake Mall and on Highway 95.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by wanttoretire

Do people help retired people in snow storms like that? Are there people that you can contact for help in moving the snow off of the roofs? Also, what do people usually charge for this service, if you know?
I've been wondering about these types of questions but haven't asked them yet. Perhaps you or someone else can shed some light on this.
Thanks in advance for any answers you may be able to assist with.

There are lots of people advertising roof snow removal services, check either the local advertising weekly (Nickel's Worth) or Craigslist. I seem to recall hearing around $200-300 for rooftop removal on a good sized house. Not cheap, but far better than the alternative, and probably cheaper than your deductable. Considering how much work is involved, I don't think thats out of line. If you build new, have your roof system upgraded to handle the snowload, and maybe consider a metal roof, they shed snow well.

Plenty of people offering driveway snow removal services as well, though if you are in reasonable shape it might be better to do your own. Are you looking for a rural place with a long driveway, or something more suburban? A snowblower isn't that expensive and will keep up with the typical suburban driveway fine. In the country, either hire it out, or get a truck with plow, atv with plow (if moderate sized road) or you have a great excuse to get a Kubota (which I finally did this year)!

[mistyriverranch]

Right now, even the metal roofs aren't shedding well. There's a nasty little layer of ice under all of our snow that has effectively "glued" the snow to our 8:12 pitched roofs. Luckily the roofs were all built by my husband and designed to carry a lot of weight.

[Trace_Rinaldi]

Looks like things on the south end of Lake CDA arent "too" bad.
I saw snow sliding off the roof of this building yesterday.. Taken at Harrison ridge webcam NYE 3:45 34 deg's.... How does this compare to the north end?

I was kinda worried about my shop roof, but as the crow flies this place is about 8-10 miles away, and a couple hundred feet higher in elev. so it should be fine I think.

The sky up there sure looks pretty today.

[Truly Heartless]

Drove through several times in the past headed for Bellingham, Washington. Great area! Bellingham has been getting it, too.

[wanttoretire]

Thank you Toyman for the information. I actually didn't think it would be that expensive. I understand that with all things considered it is probably a reasonable price but the bottom line is still high. We are just checking out everything, haven't retired yet but I always look to see what things cost and the affordability of it all so that it can go into my equations and I am not caught off guard on prices. Information such as this with the amount of snow in the CDA area must be taken into consideration as an annual expense. We are also considering the Boise area for retirement. Haven't quite made up our minds yet and in 2009 we are spending time in Boise. We spent a lot of time up North from CDA to Sandpoint, even St. Maries, Harrison, etc. so we are quite familiar with that area and all around there. We aboslutely love your area, every bit of it. We know one thing for sure though, we definitely are retiring to Idaho. I don't think we met one person in all of our travels through Idaho that we didn't like and for about 3 years I have been reading your local papers several times a week to become even more familiar with the people and areas and events. There is nothing we don't like about Idaho. You guys are very lucky to already be living there, we really envy you.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by wanttoretire

Thank you Toyman for the information. I actually didn't think it would be that expensive. I understand that with all things considered it is probably a reasonable price but the bottom line is still high. We are just checking out everything, haven't retired yet but I always look to see what things cost and the affordability of it all so that it can go into my equations and I am not caught off guard on prices. Information such as this with the amount of snow in the CDA area must be taken into consideration as an annual expense. We are also considering the Boise area for retirement. Haven't quite made up our minds yet and in 2009 we are spending time in Boise. We spent a lot of time up North from CDA to Sandpoint, even St. Maries, Harrison, etc. so we are quite familiar with that area and all around there. We aboslutely love your area, every bit of it. We know one thing for sure though, we definitely are retiring to Idaho. I don't think we met one person in all of our travels through Idaho that we didn't like and for about 3 years I have been reading your local papers several times a week to become even more familiar with the people and areas and events. There is nothing we don't like about Idaho. You guys are very lucky to already be living there, we really envy you.

A couple items on the snow-this isn't our typical winter! Most years clearing roofs isn't an issue, there isn't that much snow and a melt typically occurs between major snowfalls. The last 2 years have been diffferent, lots of snow in a short time. I might be off on roof clearing prices too. I upgraded our roof trusses to 70 lbs/sf when I built, it didn't add a lot to the cost and I really don't like shoveling, didn't have a problem last year. On the news they were saying our current snow load was around 30lbs/sf.

Before these last 2 years, the last time I recall snow loads being and issue was '95-96.

As to Boise, I don't know it well, but did spend a weekend there a year or so ago. I personally didn't like the area nearly as well as North Idaho. Too flat, too many people, lots of "sprawl". Not bad mind you, but I've been spoiled up here.

Are you planning on moving into a town, or out in the country? If you are retired and don't need to live near a decent sized area for work there are lots of great rural areas and small towns.

[wanttoretire]

When we move we will be retired. We love Northern Idaho, from first coming into Wallace (we adore Wallace) going all the way up to Sandpoint. Our next trip to Northern Idaho is to go beyond Sandpoint right to the border to see the beauty of that area. In all likelihood I am sure we will find Northern Idaho far more majestic and beautiful then Boise. We are just contemplating Boise because we want to be sure all shopping and medical and banking is nearby and as we continue to age that the weather not be too much of an issue as well as the cost of maintainence due to the weather.
We would also probably stay fairly close to a town as well. While my husband reminisces about large properties with big gardens as we had in the past I tend to be more realistic as to how much we can handle especially each year that we continue to age.
Fishing will be the main criteria in our retirement and as you know Northern Idaho is "The Place" for fishing with an abundance of lakes to choose from.
It's a big decision, we aren't ready yet. We were going to plan on moving this year actually but with the economy and housing prices going down so much in our area our retirement date had been extended, hopefully not more then another year but that is still to be determined as the time approaches.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by wanttoretire

When we move we will be retired. We love Northern Idaho, from first coming into Wallace (we adore Wallace) going all the way up to Sandpoint. Our next trip to Northern Idaho is to go beyond Sandpoint right to the border to see the beauty of that area. In all likelihood I am sure we will find Northern Idaho far more majestic and beautiful then Boise. We are just contemplating Boise because we want to be sure all shopping and medical and banking is nearby and as we continue to age that the weather not be too much of an issue as well as the cost of maintainence due to the weather.
We would also probably stay fairly close to a town as well. While my husband reminisces about large properties with big gardens as we had in the past I tend to be more realistic as to how much we can handle especially each year that we continue to age.
Fishing will be the main criteria in our retirement and as you know Northern Idaho is "The Place" for fishing with an abundance of lakes to choose from.
It's a big decision, we aren't ready yet. We were going to plan on moving this year actually but with the economy and housing prices going down so much in our area our retirement date had been extended, hopefully not more then another year but that is still to be determined as the time approaches.

Being retired opens up a lot of opportunites for you, in that you don't need deal with a commute for work every day. I'd prefer to be close to or live in a small town rather than a city, there is perhaps more of a chance to get to know the neighbors and have more of the small town feel. As long as the drive to a larger town isn't too unreasonable to do once a week for shopping or medical it sounds do-able. The Spirt Lake-Blanchard area is kind of nice, the towns are small but the road through is a fairly main one by N Idaho standards and is well plowed, and you are within an hour of CDA and Spokane. I personally like the Clark Fork area, it's maybe 1/2 hour East of Sandpoint. The more remote areas usually have more reasonable property values. I really like Wallace as well, we ATV out of there in the summer. They do tend to get a lot more snow than some other parts of N Idaho. You might also want to check out the St. Maries area, it's at the mouth of the St. Joe river, lots of good fishing on the Joe as well as Lake CDA. The Bonners Ferry area is nice as well, I just don't know it as well. Priest Lake is beautiful, however it's more remote and isolated. Priest River is worth a look as well.

If you can swing it, it might pay to buy soon, it sounds as if property values in the area are down somewhat, though not as much as some of the country. If you swing payments you could hold on to both places (perhaps rent out one) until your area recovers.

What kind of fishing do you prefer? There are lots of areas for stream fishing as well as via boat in the lakes, it could effect your decision.