Whats Colorado like?

[Bad Wolf]

Now that my son has moved to Colorado, we are thinking of retiring out there when the time comes. Currently he is in the Denver area but we don't want to be right on top of him so anywhere within two hours is fine. We like green and trees so the plains are not an option, probably something in the foot hills.

Whats the wood situation out there? When I go on Craig's list all I see is pine. Here in the North East I burn hardwood exclusively. I would like to continue to burn wood, but don't know if it will be cost effective. Whats the non wood fuel of choice out there? Gas?

I plan on building one last time and will incorporate all of the lessons I've learned here likes spray foam insulation in the walls, radiant heat in the floors and all of the newer tech. With a somewhat smaller house and better construction I feel I can cut my heating load to less than half of what I currently do. I hear they get a lot of sun so I might add some Solar to the system. I've got six panels here that I will be adding this year for DHW so I will have some experiance with this.

Anybody out in the Denver Fort Collins area?

 

[basswidow]

I've never lived there, but I have traveled to Denver, Colorado Springs, Aspen and Beaver Creek.

There is alot of pine.

If you fish, ski, bike, and love the mountains, I'd point you to Beaver Creek. Aspen and Beaver Creek are ritzy and pricey. An awesome place I'd choose to live there in a heartbeat. The air is so crisp clear and pure, mountains beautiful, fishing is incredible, and the scenery awesome.

Good luck.

Also - Denver is big enough that you could still live there without being right on top of you son...

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I can't tell you much about the firewood situation but I would think that Pine reigns supreme-it'll be very much different than what you have now.

And the football team stinks; I've been a Broncos fan since 1973 and they were left in a huge mess thanks to that idiot coach McDaniels. They were once great and hopefully will be again someday...

Sorry, I just had to rant; I know that it didn't answer your question lol....

 

[ChillyGator]

Maybe look for locations where natural gas is available.....cheap and lots of supply out there. Supplement with the evil pine ;-)

 

[ChillyGator]

Maybe look for locations where natural gas is available.....cheap and lots of supply out there. Supplement with the evil pine ;-)

ps: Tebow will save the Broncos

 

[Wood Duck]

Most of the world's woodburners - I'm thinking Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and most of the west including most of Colorado - burns nothing but 'softwood' and stays warm. Yes, it is worthwhile to burn pine, and that is what you'll get in Colorado. There are not many trees below a certain elevation, but up high you get forests that are mainly pine of various species, mixed at highest elevation with other softwoods like fir and spruce. If I was moving to Colorado I'd move to the mountains or at least near the mountains. Yeah, there is a ton of snow, but the scenery would be great, and I like to ski.

 

[firefighterjake]

HehHeh . . . add this one to the "You know you're a die hard wood burner if . . ."

. . . you make the decision on where to retire based on the availability of wood to burn in your woodstove and not the climate, cost of living, social environment, etc.

 

[pixelmountain]

Now that my son has moved to Colorado, we are thinking of retiring out there when the time comes. Currently he is in the Denver area but we don't want to be right on top of him so anywhere within two hours is fine. We like green and trees so the plains are not an option, probably something in the foot hills.

Whats the wood situation out there? When I go on Craig's list all I see is pine. Here in the North East I burn hardwood exclusively. I would like to continue to burn wood, but don't know if it will be cost effective. Whats the non wood fuel of choice out there? Gas?

I plan on building one last time and will incorporate all of the lessons I've learned here likes pray foam insulation in the walls, radiant heat in the floors and all of the newer tech. With a somewhat smaller house and better construction I feel I can cut my heating load to less than half of what I currently do. I hear they get a lot of sun so I might add some Solar to the system. I've got six panels here that I will be adding this year for DHW so I will have some experiance with this.

Anybody out in the Denver Fort Collins area?

We live in the foothills above Fort Collins. It's a great place to live.

Keep in mind that winters tend to be brown. There's intermittent snow, sometimes a lot but then it melts off quickly because of all of the sun. It's a dry climate. In most areas there aren't a lot of trees, until you get to the much higher elevations. Don't worry, there are trees, just not the lush woods you're used to. These things tend to bother people from the Midwest since it's so different from what they're used to. But if you understand that it's a different climate and different ecosystem, you can see beauty in it. If you really look, it's not so much brown in the fall and winter as gold, with shades of red and lichen greens. I find it beautiful. But it's a subtle beauty.

We don't have gas in our house. We would have had to install propane at our house and never bothered. It's an all-electric house heated primarily with wood. (It's also a tiny house, which probably is a big factor in making that work.)

Solar is a real possibility. Our house wasn't planned for it but actually gets some nice passive solar in the sunny winters, with windows and a storm door on the south side warming the living area much of the time without any other heat source. We're researching adding solar roofing in the next few years. We get well over 300 sunny days a year here. Wind power should be possible here, too, since we get a lot of that. But it doesn't seem as viable; I'm not sure why.

I think it's a great idea to build a well thought out house here. I've always thought a carefully planned house here could be very efficient and pleasant, given the climate.

As far as firewood goes, there is indeed a lot of pine. If you hunt around you can get what they like to call "mixed Colorado hardwoods," meaning it's not all that hard but it's not pine. The best firewood we've bought was from tree doctors who sold wood as a side business. But they don't have large supplies and they come and go. So most of the time we have a mix of pine and something else. As long as it's seasoned it's not a problem at all, and you can shop around for decent prices. There's also free wood to be had from the state and county parks when they're thinning, as long as you do the work yourself. And there are other free or cheap get-it-yourself firewood opportunities. We haven't done this ourselves due to lack of time, equipment, and inclination. But a retired neighbor who moved here a year ago is accumulating quite the stores of free firewood.

Feel free to ask anything that comes to mind.

- Rachel

 

[CarbonNeutral]

I was in Golden 2 weeks ago - seemed very nice, 25 mins from Denver in the foothills.

 

[chrisfallis]

I live about 55 miles south of Denver in Colorado Springs. There are two ways to get more than just pine. One is oak pallets, which I used to use for longer burn times. The other is city trees that were planted a hundred years ago by folks who didn't realize that this area is really a high desert. When they come down the tree guys are happy to dodge the dumping fees and will let you know where to go pick it up. Make friends with them!

Near us you can get cheap permits to gather pine at national parks when they do a thinning project. Nice, moist pine, but it will be dry quickly in the dessicating winds and hot sun here.

 

[wendell]

I loved the time I spent in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park. As others have said, coming from the Midwest it was a little challenging to get used to all of the brown and I never did get used to the wind. But it is a beautiful place to live and if you can afford to get up in the mountains, it is really worth it.

The funny thing about Colorado is most people think there is a lot of snow, but if you are east of the Rockies there isn't much until April when you can get some big dumps. You can get 2 feet of snow and it will be gone 3 days later. When I lived in the Springs, they would only plow the major streets and just let the rest melt.

 

[Como]

It all depends where you are thinking of moving to.

The Front Range, not so many trees and not so many people burning wood.

On average a mile high.

And from there it goes up, which is where the trees are and where many more people (outside of the ski resorts) burn wood.

I think all of my neighbours have wood stoves.

Majority of wood is Pine and Aspen, if you want hardwood it is going to come form out of state so not really an option.

But we do have sun, well not today. I used to live near Boulder, somebody I knew there had a house with no heating system, totally passive, south facing glass, trumbel wall etc etc.

We do need air con in the Mountains, you would in Denver, or a good design.

2 hours from Denver gets you quite a way.

A small house built to current best practice should use no more than a cord anyway. And none of this 2 years seasoning, a few months in the wind and sun will do.

 

[Danno77]

My In-laws are building in the Red Feather Lakes area. It's all pine there. We have cousins in Denver (burbs) and their parents live up in the RFL area as well and drive down to see them all the time. That's gonna be the max distance you'd want to be, though. It's far enough out that you have to plan your trips to the stores.

I can't help you out much other than to say that if you draw a line straight north of Denver you aren't going to see much for firewood except pine to the west and to the east you aren't going to see much for firewood at all unless you find a gem of a piece of land. I'm not as familiar with what lies to the south of denver. Wife's grandpa lives in Pueblo, but there isn't much of a need to burn anything there...

 

[Danno77]

BTW, alternative to burning wood is LP where my In-laws are building. there is NG in lots of places, but LP in the more remote places.

 

[Como]

Unfortunately LP is a lot more expensive, $2 a gallon, has been up to $3.

 

[Jutt77]

Now that my son has moved to Colorado, we are thinking of retiring out there when the time comes. Currently he is in the Denver area but we don't want to be right on top of him so anywhere within two hours is fine. We like green and trees so the plains are not an option, probably something in the foot hills.

Whats the wood situation out there? When I go on Craig's list all I see is pine. Here in the North East I burn hardwood exclusively. I would like to continue to burn wood, but don't know if it will be cost effective. Whats the non wood fuel of choice out there? Gas?

I plan on building one last time and will incorporate all of the lessons I've learned here likes pray foam insulation in the walls, radiant heat in the floors and all of the newer tech. With a somewhat smaller house and better construction I feel I can cut my heating load to less than half of what I currently do. I hear they get a lot of sun so I might add some Solar to the system. I've got six panels here that I will be adding this year for DHW so I will have some experience with this.

Anybody out in the Denver Fort Collins area?

I moved out here from Virginia in 1999 when I was 22 and never looked back. Check out some of the areas like Indian Hills which is off of Hwy 285 about 20 minutes west of Denver or similar areas. You get the feel of mountain living without being too far from town. Coal Creek Canyon and some of the other Foot Hills locations west of Golden are nice too. The Hwy 285 corridor (Indian Hills, Conifer, Bailey, etc.) is nice due to the lack of traffic unlike living west off of I-70 which is a complete cluster due to ski traffic in the winter.

As far as wood goes, a cord of oak will run ya around $400 bucks so pine reigns supreme. I just got about a 1/2 cord of free silver maple off of Craigs and it was like winning a small lottery even though silver maple isnt that special its just better than pine. Rarely, you can find Locust, Elm, Walnut and some other hardwoods for free on Craigs but you have to jump on it. I just saw a Craigslist ad for "city mixed" for $185/cord delivered...which is really good. Non-wood choice would be natural gas. Summers are cooled efficiently with evaporative coolers (aka swamp cooler) which also humidifies the overly dry air. A guy I work with lives a few miles from me (Lakewood) and has solar power and a Lopi Revere. His monthly utility bill (natural gas/electric) is around 10 bucks!

Whats really cool is how quickly wood seasons out here. The air is so dry and we average so many sunny days that it makes prime wood drying weather. My folks bought me out around 10 logs of white oak from Va in October (3 months ago) which is an awesome treat. I split it and stacked it behind my work shop which faces SW and its totally seasoned now. Checks in the end of the wood, hollow sounding, burns well..all in 3 months.

At any rate, I burn pine around 95% of the time. Fortunately, my CW2500 is small and efficient enough to heat my 1300 sq ft house without issue. I just have to feed the stove a bit more and gather and process more wood. Fortunately I enjoy doing that stuff.

Good luck, you wont regret it.