Sumac Ranch and Resort at 40

​It was April 15th, 1985. Cedar was 40 years old. She and her pregnant friend Amina had just moved into their brand-new house in North Boulder. Cedar’s husband, Tom, hadn’t moved in yet. Each had put up one-third of the downpayment, all with money borrowed from their families. The house, one of the few on Sumac Avenue at the time, was surrounded by active farms and ranch country. The area had just become part of the City of Boulder. Not many months prior, it had belonged to unincorporated Boulder County. The house, like its twin to the east, was brand-new and huge, composed of six bedrooms. In time a seventh bedroom would be added.

Then it happened. Cedar’s husband traveled to Germany to visit his birth mother. When he returned, he decided he didn’t want to be married anymore and never moved in. What’s more, he had to repay his adoptive parents and so needed his part of the downpayment back. Working as a massage therapist at the time, Cedar was able to borrow money from friends and family since she didn’t have the necessary savings to do so from her own money. She was certain, however, that the house was meant to be hers. Then things go even worse. A year later, her girlfriend Amina remarried, and she also, along with her new baby daughter, moved out. She too needed her deposit back to repay her parents. Fortunately, Cedar was able borrow sufficient additional funds from friends and family to comply once again. But what to do? The interest rate on her mortgage was over 17 percent. Determined to stay, she took in housemates. Within ten years she had somehow managed to pay her lenders off, well ahead of the official repayment deadline. Then, in December of 2009 she got a reverse mortgage, the bank paid off her mortgage, and she had enough left to invest in some annuities which brought in $1600 a month for the rest of her life.

Some 40 years after moving in, she is still living at 1485 Sumac Avenue. The yard, treeless in 1985, now boasted full-grown cottonwoods and other trees. The house had increased ten times in value, she had a new husband of fourteen-and-a-half years, and there were two housemates living there. The last one, #84, had moving in just a year ago. As the photos on the next page will show, the house was no longer brown but blue. The street no longer had empty lots: all the spots now had houses. The farms and ranches with their livestock were long gone. At a healthy 80 years old, Cedar tended the garden and maintained the house and grounds like a profession. Cedar’s practicality and persistence had won the day.

Her second husband, Reynold, was the longest resident after her, at fifteen years. He is the author of this recounting, whose pride in her has resulted in this little gift to honor her awe-inspiring management over the decades. To this day she charges no downpayment and refuses to treat others who have lived here as mere renters in a rooming house. They are full housemates in a community house. Moreover, that seventh bedroom has become our Airbnb studio apartment with its own bathroom and kitchenette. In typical Cedar fashion, it is among the lowest-priced Airbnbs in expensive Boulder. Moreover, there is a small lowest-level bedroom which we call the Harry Potter Room, available for free to friends and family of those living here.
​
Happy 40th birthday, Sumac Ranch and Resort!

1485 Sumac when Cedar and Amina moved in, 1985

1485 Sumac, 40 years later.