A New Job

I spent most of August and September getting us settled into the new house, Jack settled at school and taking care of all the busy work that establishing residency in a new state requires.

Before I knew it, it was October.  My promise to myself to start the job hunt immediately upon arrival in Fort Collins was already 2 months behind.  There were lots of advantages to working from home, an opportunity that I will forever be grateful for, but with each passing week it was becoming more clear (from both parties) that come March GCSAA and I would be parting ways as planned.  I was down to 5 months and started to panic.

I kept an eye out for any posted openings.  I scoured the Internet every day for leads and of course I polished off my resume, reached out to references, updated my profile on linked in and became active on job search engines.  But that didn't seem like enough.  I also did tons of research and came up with a list of 15-20 local businesses with ties to the event planning industry that I wanted to reach out to in order to start developing a network.  After all, I knew absolutely no one.  That list included event production companies, private event planners, hotels, golf courses, event centers, city offices, and the like.  I prepared a cover letter and planned to start at the top of list and essentially cold call them all and see if it went anywhere.

On Tuesday, October 13 the Fort Collins Coloradoan published an article about a planned 5 million dollar expansion at the Fort Collins Country Club.  It seemed like a perfect opening, so the next morning I sent an email to the General Manager and introduced myself.  Scott called me back within the hour.

As it turned out their Event Coordinator was retiring and they were in the process of searching for a replacement.  In fact, while the position had been advertised, they were so far along in the process the job posting had been taken down.  Having just started my search, I never saw the posting and had no idea they were hiring.  When the GM called me on Wednesday he said they had 3 final interviews scheduled for that Friday.  If I could be there, he wanted to talk.

I figured if nothing else it was going to be a great opportunity to polish off my interview skills and really get into the swing of the job hunt.  I didn't have much time to prepare and was at a bit of a disadvantage because I didn't even know what it was I was "applying" for.  I went to the meeting with as many questions for them as they had for me.  I felt good about our time together, but wasn't convinced it was a perfect fit.  The things that were holding me back were the hours (nights and weekends - particularly during the wedding season - would be a must) and the sales component of the job, which I wasn't sure was a good fit for me personally or my skill set.  After much discussion Drew & I both agreed that despite some of my concerns, it was an excellent opportunity to get my foot in the door in the community, make some contacts, and have the security of a local job.  Not to mention the fact that it is barely a half mile from our house.  By the end of the weekend I was trying to stay relatively cool about the whole thing, but had convinced myself I really wanted the job.

Scott called again Monday morning.  The club is managed by a management company out of Atlanta.  One of their executives was going to be in town Wednesday and he wanted me to come back.  I had a second interview.

This time, I had a much better idea what the club was looking for.  I also knew that the candidate list was shrinking and that I had a real chance at getting this job.  I came to the second interview much more prepared.  Our meeting lasted over 2 hours.

I couldn't wait to tell Drew about the interview so he stopped by the house late that afternoon to check in.  I was in the middle of telling him everything that had happened when my phone rang.  Scott was calling to ask me to check my e-mail as a formal job offer had just been sent.  6 days after cold calling the Country Club.

It's been pretty much a whirl wind since.  I accepted the position the next day (after running some numbers and sleeping on the decision).  Then I submitted my resignation (for the second time in a year) to GCSAA.  I had 2 business trips coming up that I had to see through and did my very best to leave things in the best shape for my replacement in Kansas as I could.  I was also dropping by the club whenever I had a free minute to spend some training time with my predecessor before she left.  Two weeks later I started full time at the club - right in the midst of the holiday season and the single busiest revenue month for banquet sales of the year.  Talk about trial by fire!

The dust has settled now and I'm approaching 2 months since I joined the Fort Collins Country Club as Event Sales Director.  The verdict:  I love it.  There are growing pains and there are challenges of course, but after operating on autopilot for so long, it's been a really welcomed change for me to have to operate outside my comfort zone a bit.  We are a small staff and each of us has a lot of freedom to get the job done, but also a lot of accountability.  I've been doing a ton of networking (both with our club members and within the community) and am more and more comfortable every day.  Most importantly, the people I work with are fabulous.  Of course, there are also some perks to working at the Country Club, especially when you are a family of avid golfers (like the chef prepared free lunch every day and full access to the golf course, to name a few!)

I don't know if this experience was simply a stroke of luck, all about the timing, or if some sort of higher power was guiding me through.  In any case, I think we'll keep riding this wave as long as it will hold us!

House Tour, Part II

Here is Part II of our house tour - the upstairs.

I have to mention, there is a LOT of work to do upstairs.  The walls are essentially bare.  While blinds have been ordered, the windows are currently covered in temporary paper shades and in desperate need of some fabric and color.  All of the bathrooms need accessorizing and new towels.  So, things will (hopefully) change quite a bit over the coming weeks and months, but at least this will give you the lay of the land.

Special shout out to my "tech girl" friend who clued me in on how to get videos to play on the iPad.  Thanks Laura!

House Tour, Part I

As promised, I finally got around to taking a quick video of the house, or half of it anyway.  My apologies for the shaky camera.  Hopefully you won't get motion sickness trying to keep up with me.

And without further adieu...welcome to our home!

{Another} First Day of School

Last Wednesday, August 7, Jackson started school at Primrose Fort Collins.  His third school in 6 months.

I have to admit, while the consistency of transferring from one Primrose to another made it a little less scary, I was worried about him.  While it's hard to believe for those that know Jack, he's actually a pretty shy and timid kid at first.  It takes him a while to find his comfort zone when he doesn't have Drew or I to rely on.  I was bracing myself for tears (his and mine).

Just before we headed out the door I decided I needed to find him some sort of good luck charm.  Just a little token from home that he could keep in his pocket for the moments that he was feeling lonely or scared.  Of course, with no advanced planning and most of our belongings scattered about in boxes my options were slim to none.  That's when I happened to spot 2 yellow Livestrong bracelets at the bottom of my jewelry box.  I gave one to Jack and wore one myself. I explained to him that we had special matching bracelets on so that if either of us ever started missing one another we could just look down at our bracelet and know that we were thinking of each other.  He loved it.

When we got to school he was clinging to me pretty tight.  We went through the motions of finding his hook, hanging up his backpack and meeting his teachers and then it was time to go play.  He clung tighter.  I reminded him about his bracelet and then asked his teacher if we could draw pictures together for a few minutes before I left.  I was sketching a picture of Mickey Mouse (I can draw absolutely nothing...but I do a mean Mickey Mouse!) when another little boy came to sit by us.  I asked him his name and he replied, "Jackson".  Of course, my Jack's face just lit up and it totally broke the ice.  After drawing each Jackson a Mickey Mouse I asked them if they could try to draw one for me and I would pick them up after school when I returned.  They were all for it.  My Jack gave me a high five and a wave and off I went without even a whimper.

He had a great first day and told me that evening he only had to look at his bracelet one or two times.  He wanted to wear it again the next morning, but by day 3 the bracelet was old news and no longer necessary.

The other factor that turned out to be a huge stroke of lucky timing is that this Primrose is still in summer school mode, otherwise known as Camp Primrose.  All summer long the Pre-K and school aged kids have field trips every single day.  Most are educational and some are just purely fun.  Camp Primrose ends on August 16 so Jack's first week and a half included the last batch of field trips as they wrap up their summer fun.  In addition to getting to ride the bus (which he thinks is totally cool), he has gone rollerskating, to a ballet, splash park, inflatables gym, gymnastics center, miniature golfing and several picnics at a different park each day (if there's one thing that's plentiful here in the front range, it's parks)  Needless to say, getting him out the door in the morning is not hard with such fun activities on the agenda!

Monday morning they're back to the regular school year.  With a week and a half under his belt, I'm sure that transition will be totally painless.  Jack is thrilled because that means they get to wear uniforms again.

And so we've conquered yet another first day of school.  The next one will be Kindergarten.  But I'm not ready for that yet.

Closing Day

Eek...I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post.  Time flies when you're moving into a new house!

In the last batch of pictures I shared we had walls and a few bathroom fixtures inside, but not much more.  We were two weeks from closing and I didn't go back to the house until our final walk through on August 1.  It was hard to stay away, but I was so busy getting everything ready for the move the time flew.  Logistically there was a lot to work through: packing, moving trucks to reserve (and village covenants that limited their access to the neighborhood), hired help to schedule, loading and unloading, walk through with the builder and closing.  To add a layer of planning, Jackson's school was closed for teacher in-service on our closing day (yay Aunt Nikki for planning a fun-filled day with Jack at the water park, bowling alley and movie theater while Drew & I were occupied).  And, of course, being 90 miles away every trip required 1.5 - 2 hours of drive time each way.  The entire process needed to be a well-oiled machine and I had it choreographed down to the minute.

Our walk through on August 1 was fabulous.  The house looked great and we were so excited to finally be homeowners again the next day.

Unfortunately, even the best laid plans often go awry.

The first snag came Thursday afternoon.  We were expecting to get the final closing statement from the lender so that we could pick up a cashiers check for the proper amount and have that item checked off the list before closing day (we're still banking at our Kansas bank and there are only 2 branches in the Denver metro area - not exactly a quick trip).  Those numbers never came.  Not a huge deal, but Friday's to do list got a bit longer.

The first item of business Friday morning was picking up the Penske at 8 am.  We had exactly 4 hours to pick up the truck and fill it with load #1 before needing to head to the bank and then the title company for closing.  Except it wasn't ready.  An hour delay turned into two hours by which point our blood was boiling and my perfectly planned schedule was history.  Several angry phone calls later we had a truck (and a significant discount).  Somehow, Mom, Dad, Drew & I managed to load all of our furniture on the truck in about an hour.  I dashed off to the bank (the numbers had come through first thing that morning) while Drew finished loading and we met at the title company 2 hours later.  Where we learned that the Certificate of Occupancy had not yet been issued.  Turned out they were waiting on a city engineer to approve the sidewalks in front of the house.  After signing all of the loan documents and going over the warranties with the builder we sat in the conference room of the title company with our Realtor for an hour waiting for the Certificate of Occupancy to come through. Thank goodness it did.  Just as we were getting ready to head to the house...our house...we remembered that the title company was to reimburse us our $1,000 escrow deposit.  Except they had no record of that.  Several more minutes of scrambling...and waiting...resolved the issue and finally we were headed out the door, check and house keys in hand!

We went straight to the house but had no plans of moving anything Friday evening.  We had hired help on Saturday morning and planned on bringing 2 truck loads from Castle Rock to Fort Collins while Jackson spent the day and overnight with Nana & Papa, giving us a chance to get things somewhat put together before throwing Jack into the mix.  

Walking through that door was such a relief.  We were exhausted from all of the emotions of the day - the packing, the loading, the excitement and the waiting, waiting, waiting through one snafu after another.  I knew it was going to happen (I even told Cortney so earlier that day) but I couldn't hold back the tears.  We had finally reached the moment that was put into motion nearly 9 months ago when Drew dusted off his resume.  I could hardly believe it.  Once the tears slowed, we cracked open a beer and toasted to new beginnings.

The straw that broke the camel's back happened on the way back to Castle Rock.  We had picked up a pizza off the interstate and were 5-10 minutes from Mom & Dad's house when we got caught up in some mysterious police barricade.  Once again...we waited.  Eventually we were forced to travel about 20 miles out of our way and finally got back to the house 40 minutes late with cold pizza.

Thinking back now, the series of events that day almost sound comical.  Except it wasn't.

Although, despite being frustrated and exhausted, we went to bed happy.  The next morning we were headed home!

Here are the "before" pictures that I snapped on Friday afternoon just after we took possession.

Home Sweet Home

Kitchen

I've been dreaming about this pantry!

Gas stove.  My other favorite part about the kitchen.

Living/Dining area.

Entry

View of the main floor

TV Room

Upstairs hallway to laundry and all bedrooms.

Laundry room.  So excited for a room instead of a closet and love that it's on the same floor as the bedrooms.

Master. 

Master Bath.  Walk-in closet to the left, toilet nook straight ahead, soaker tub and walk-in shower to the right. 

3 car tandem garage.  Drew's favorite part of the house!

Despite planning to do all of the moving on Saturday without Jack, we decided to bring him along for one of the trips.  He was so excited to see the house and really wanted to be part of the process. I'm so glad we did.  Here's the little guy headed back to his room for the first time.  He insisted on bringing his Jayhawk pillow - his first item in the new house.

 

Here we are just over a week later and things look quite a bit different.  In fact, dare I say, it feels like home. I'll be sure to share the progress as we get each room closer and closer to done.  In the meantime, we're enjoying a more normal schedule as Jack gets settled into his school routine, I'm back at work and Drew gets 3 hours of his life back each day instead of spending them stuck on I-25!

If you would have told me last Fall that this is where we would be I'm not sure I would have believed you.  But we did it.  And we couldn't be happier!

House Update

Since starting my reduced work schedule in June, I am off on Fridays.  Over the past month we've taken full advantage of these three-day weekends by traveling to Fort Collins every Thursday evening for an overnight stay.  We've had a great time getting to know our new hometown on these weekly visits.  As a result, we're practically experts on the Fort Collins hotel scene - and Jack has become quite the efficient little traveler.

Most importantly though, our weekly visits mean more house updates!

The first big change was getting the last of the concrete work done.  The driveway, front steps and backyard patio were all poured just after our last visit.

With the outside nearly complete, from this point on the updates are all interior so I wasn't really sure what to expect when we walked in the house last Thursday evening.  I figured all of the dry wall would be hung, but completely textured and painted walls was such an awesome surprise.  It's finally starting to look like a house we can live in!

Main floor taking shape.

Kitchen.  The huge closet on the right is a pantry.  My first big pantry - I've been dreaming about that baby!

Family room.  This was exciting as the fireplace was an option we added but never saw in any of the models we toured.

Standing in the dining area looking at the entry/sitting room.

Soaking tub.  Another first for us that we can't wait to enjoy!

Of course, the boys were most impressed with the garage and all of the happenings in the basement.

Guy time in the 3rd car garage.

Seems impossible that one house needs all these doors.

Checking out the utilities.

We are told the carpet is scheduled for install this Wednesday so I image cabinetry and counter tops are happening as we speak.  That just leaves all the finish work (doors, fixtures, appliances, outlets, etc.) followed by our final walk through on July 31.  We have one more weekly visit planned on Thursday so hopefully we can get inside for a final in-progress look prior to completion next week.  

The latest update came yesterday when Drew sent me an exterior picture that he snapped while in town doing some work Sunday afternoon.  It's been painted!

You can scroll up to the top of this post for a before/after comparison.  I can't wait to see it in person for a true assessment of the colors, but based on the picture I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Whew!  I was sweating that one a little.

Fingers crossed for just one more construction update and then...moving day!!

Construction Progress

Two weeks.  

An important milestone because it's been just over two weeks since our last update on construction progress.

But that's not the most exciting news.  Two weeks from today - just fourteen days and counting - is our builder's scheduled completion date.  Did you hear that?  I could have sworn I just heard the Hallelujah Chorus being sung from the heavens!

We're working on nailing down the final walk through, inspection, appraisal and then closing - hopefully all taking place within a couple of days of completion.  Which means we will be moving somewhere on or near the first of August.  If I stop to think about all of the things that need to happen in the next two weeks (reserve a moving truck, schedule movers, set up utilities, pack/load/unload, put together an entire house) and beyond (establish residency in Colorado and transfer everything from mail to banks to doctors and ohmygosh that list seems endless) I start to have heart palpitations.  But most of all I'm just excited.  Absolutely, positively, over-the-moon, excited!

But enough about that.  For now, let's just focus on the construction progress over the last two weeks.  This is where we left off on June 30.

The framing continued for the next 2 days and on July 2 we finally had what looked like a house.

A week passed before we were able to snap any more pictures, but the progress continued.  On July 9, the roof was finished, siding hung and windows installed.

The very next day the stone was added.

While Drew is able to check-in daily and is great about keeping me updated via pictures; Jackson and I finally made a visit to the job site on July 11 to see the progress for ourselves.

Look - we have a garage door!

It was well into the evening hours so the pictures are far from perfect, but it was so exciting to be able to walk (well, climb actually) through the front door and see the interior taking shape.  As of the 11th, the HVAC, electrical, gas, plumbing and insulation was done.  The fireplace, tubs and showers were in place.  Sheetrock was delivered and ready for install.

Kitchen

Standing in the living/dining room.  You can see the kitchen on the left, family room in the center (2 steps down into the room with the sliding doors) and stairs leading up to the laundry room and all bedrooms.

Master bath soaking tub. 

Jackson/Guest Bath.

Family room fireplace.

This is the view out the master bedroom window.  Swimming pool just 1 house away.  Across the street (to the right) of the pool is the yet to be built neighborhood park.  The 2 tall rectangle buildings you see in the skyline are from the Budweiser brewery just a mile away.  Yes, Drew is in heaven.

Since our visit last week we know the driveway, front steps and back patio have been poured and I'm sure the interior progress has been extensive.  I'm also eager for the exterior painting to begin, which should be any day.  We chose the colors from small sample boards and I'm crossing my fingers that I still love it in the life-sized version.

We'll be back again in two days for another walk through.

So there you have it.  What a difference two weeks makes!

Taste of Fort Collins

As often as possible, we have been spending weekends in Fort Collins.  It gives us a chance to check on the house progress and get acquainted with our new hometown, gives Mom & Dad a break from our family of 3 plus the Labradiva living in their basement and, most importantly, gives Drew a break from making the dreadful commute back to Castle Rock every day.  Plus it's a super cool town and we always have a blast.  So when we heard that the annual Taste of Fort Collins was June 7-9 we marked the calendar, booked a hotel and headed up north.

Taste of Fort Collins is one of the biggest events of the summer in FoCo.  A 3-day festival featuring local food and beer, national bands and lots of other activities from a kid zone to eating contests to a craft fair.

We started the day by meeting some friends in nearby Windsor, CO where the fire station was having an open house.  One of our friends is a chief at that station and we knew the kids would love to see the equipment and hang out with the firemen.  From the kid-friendly obstacle course, to the firetrucks, ambulances and police cars to the free hot dog lunch to the jaws of life demonstration to the burning up of an old beater car it was a huge success.

A pause from the fire excitement to give Slapshot, the mascot for the Colorado Eagles hockey team, a five.

After all of the morning's excitement, we headed downtown to the festival where Jack and his buddy Brody (ironically wearing matching fedoras) worked up quite a sweat playing on all of the inflatable slides, bounce houses and obstacle courses.

Of course, we indulged on lots of delicious food (The Waffle Lab is quite possibly the most dangerous food truck we've ever encountered) and drank our fair share of local brews.  Even Jack recognized the logo for his Dad's new favorite by New Belgium.

Clearly, Fort Collins is well versed in the execution of an outdoor festival.  Despite crowds of over 30,000 people, the lines were extremely efficient, the bathrooms plentiful and even fairly clean and the trash/recycling readily available and never overflowing.  The meeting planner in me was more than impressed.

After pausing to listen to some live music for a bit, we decided to call it a day.  On our way back to the car, we walked through the kid zone again and despite being a bit timid earlier, Jackson asked to give the giant trampoline a try.  We were skeptical, but let him give it a shot.

He started slow, but got the hang of it pretty quickly and before we knew it he was quite the daredevil.

Cheers Fort Collins!  We can't wait to call you home.