At the beginning of April we bought a 30% ownership in a ski condo in Colorado. We live in the Washington DC area so we closed on it by fax and wired the money. We got a really great deal on it and only paid about a third of it’s estimated value and we paid cash.

In order to pay cash we basically had to empty out all of our accounts, and yes I do mean all! Luckily we still had enough money to pay all the bills and we also have some savings bonds that we didn’t have to cash in. If something happened and we really needed some cash quick we could have cashed these in if needed.

A few weeks ago we made our first trip out to stay in our new condo, meet the property management, and see the area when there wasn’t snow on the ground. We absolutely loved it! We went hiking, biking and walking around everyday and enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner outside a number of times.

While we were there we spoke to the property management about upcoming renovations that were needed to our unit, the biggest thing being a need for new furniture. I can’t tell you how lovely the pink chairs were and how comfortable they were when you sat in them and could feel the frame below what once was a cushion.

First up was the bedroom. A new headboard, king size bed and new linens as well as a matching dresser. Luckily some other owners had bought the dresser and decided against the design before buying the rest of the set so we got the dresser at a discount and just bought the matching bed. It was really quite nice. In time the nightstands will need to be updated as well but for now they could stay.

As for the living area which consisted of a couch, chair and a small dining table and chairs we weren’t really liking the proposed choices in new furniture. As a result we asked them to hold off for a bit until we found something a little more tasteful and so we plan on tackling that this fall.

Since we own 30% of the unit we will be responsible for 30% of the costs. For the bedroom updates I think our portion will be about $1000. Not too bad for what we are getting. I think the shared ownership thing works well in that everyone gets to enjoy the entire place and the new furniture this year but everyone only pays for a smaller portion of it.

We won’t be back there again until Thanksgiving time but we are looking forward to it!

Lodging, airfare, lift tickets and airport transfers: about $1200

Ski rental Him: $61

Ski socks: $75

On mountain daily lockers: $25

Food & Ent: $900

Shoes for Him: $86

Airport Cab both ways: $40

Our goal was to spend less than $850 while there which obviously didn’t happen! We ended up spending just under $1200 bringing our total to $2400.

All in all it was definitely worth it and we just sucked it up out of our regular budget so nothing went on credit!