1 Acre Hobby Farm in Organic Farming Village For Sale

The Community – a place that time has forgotten

Paonia, CO is a magical little town in a beautiful mountain valley far from the beaten path and way off the radar.  The community is a fun and eclectic mix of organic farmers, artists, musicians, ranchers, creatives, and entrepreneurs. It’s tucked away in the mountains of Colorado and surrounded on all sides by wilderness or national Forest. The air and water is pristine.  Surrounding the town are organic orchards, vegetable farms, greenhouses, and pasture raised livestock.    

It is almost like a throwback to life in the 1950's. It's a fantastic place to raise a family or retire.

Throughout the year the community hosts festivals such as the "Cherry Days 4th of July" weekend (the cherries ripen perfectly at this time), "Picking in the Park" music on Thursday evenings, and "The Harvest Festival" in the fall.

The Climate - one of the mildest in Colorado

The Home – built when living off the land was how everyone did it

This home was built in 1900 by Samuel Wade, the towns founder. It was originally built as a birthing center. Hundreds of babies were born there. It sits on an acre of good soil near the river and has mature cherry trees, apples, mulberry, grapes, blackberries, and more. Yet it is a leisurely walk to the center of town with coffee shops, cafes, yoga classes, theater, banks, post office, art galleries, restaurants, parks, schools, dojo, pubs, and farmers markets. 

The home was built in an era when homesteading was the only lifestyle. The home comes with three very reliable sources of water. The 10 shares of the gravity fed ditch system (granted in 1900) are some of the most senior in the region and when others are cutoff, these still run and is plenty of water to irrigate the existing fruit trees and gardens.  

There is also a well with a recently upgraded pump and pressure tank. The well was licensed in the 1960's and has senior rights.

And of course, there is city water.

Rain water collection would be an easy add. 

The Yard – river bottom soil, a food forest, highly productive gardens, and plenty of firewood

The yard is filled with mature, productive fruit trees. There are numerous varieties of cherry and apple trees. A mulberry tree - right near the best spot to put a chicken coop so your flock will have an extra source of food. Grape vines and the best tasting blackberry bushes in the region. Seriously, I have had lot of people ask me for cuttings of the blackberry bushes because they are so big and tasty. And right by the house is a big apricot tree.

The yard also has a lot of the highly productive Chinese Elm trees. The early seed pods of these trees are a delicious green in the spring time, the leaves are a great rabbit food, the bark is good medicine, and the wood is good for fire wood. The Chinese elms if managed properly grow well enough you can be firewood self-sufficient just from this one acre.

The Gardens – so you are new to gardening? Don't worry. This home comes with complete, detailed videos on how to grow all the vegetables you want

Lynn Gilispie the regions local expert gardener. She has been growing food in Paonia for more than 35 years. Lynn and I created a series of videos over the course of a growing season showing how we built the garden from bare ground all the way to huge production in one growing season. That series was filmed in the backyard of this home. You can see the full set of episodes here and use them as your complete guide to growing all the produce you will ever need.

The Paonia community also hosts a variety of homesteading classes and workshops on herbal medicine making, wildcrafting, canning, irrigation, biodynamic growing, permaculture, backyard chickens, felting, greenhouses, foraging, sewing, hide tanning, hunting, building soil, and much much more.

The Home - 2 bedrooms / 1 bath and a lot of extras!

The home is clean and functional but could use some updating in the kitchen and bathroom. You may also want to move a few walls around to suit your own needs. But it is ready for you to move in right now and work on it as you can.

All the foundational structural "bones” of the home have been updated. It’s got a new 50-year metal roof, completely rewired electrical system, a brand new furnace, and hot water heater.

It's ready for you to do the really fun part of interior upgrading and decorating.

Almost everyone comes in from the back of the house via the large covered porch and through the big mudroom. Not many people use their front doors in Paonia.

Off the side of the mudroom is an attached one car garage with lots of storage space. It seems everyone in Colorado has a garage full of outdoor equipment for camping, backpacking, skiing, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, and more. And you will have lots of room for your gear too.

There is a huge pantry downstairs in the basement which stays at a great stable temperature for food storage and preservation.

The kitchen could definitely use some updating, but is comfortable, functional, and clean.

There is a good sized living room with origional wood floors.

There are two bedrooms and one bathroom on the ground floor.

There is a secret area upstairs in the finished attic. It has a spacious home office and a small extra third bedroom (shhh, don't tell anyone).

There is also a big external shop building that definitely needs some TLC but is fully functional for storage and those rougher bigger woodworking projects. You'll have plenty of space to store all your things while you transition.

Perfect for remote workers – fiber high speed internet

The home is already wired with Elevate high speed internet. Seriously, with Elevate’s 100% fiber network you can get internet with speeds up to 1 Gig (1,000 Mbps).

The closest airport is Montrose about a 50 minute drive, so you can do those trips when you have to.

The Price -

For a comfortable home with a pedestrian lifestyle in an amazing community...

The price is lower than you would expect because the house does need some updating.

It's only $495,000. As everyone knows what's coming. A home in this desirable of a community, beautiful surroundings, a walk-everywhere lifestyle, great climate, three sources of reliable water, good river bottom soil, mature fruit trees, gardens, solid home, lots of space, high speed internet, and much more. It will go fast.

Contact Sarah at 720 263 0852 now.