Multi-Generational Homes with the Michuda Family

🏔️ Is Multi-Generational Living Right for Your Family?
In this episode of Mountain Real Estate, Candice chats with the Michuda family about their journey to finding and renovating a multi-generational home in Frisco, CO. Learn how they balanced family needs, finances, and mountain living dreams to create a space that brings everyone together—across generations.  

If you're like me, you'll just realize how lovely the Michuda family is and how you'll want Carol to be your CO mom too!

🎧 Topics Covered:
✔️ Why multi-gen living is growing in Summit County
✔️ How to navigate joint real estate decisions as a family
✔️ Renovation tips and design insights
✔️ The benefits (and joys!) of living close to family in the mountains

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Whether you’re considering a second home, a shared family getaway, or want to invest in Colorado’s mountain lifestyle, this episode is filled with real-life experiences, tips, and heartwarming stories.

🔔 Subscribe for more real estate insights from Denver to Summit County!
📩 Contact Candice De: candice@amynakos.com| 📞 303-870-9300 | 🌐 candicede.com | amynakos.com

#MountainRealEstate #MultiGenerationalLiving #SummitCountyRealEstate #FriscoColorado #FamilyInvestments #RealEstatePodcast #ColoradoHomes

Transcript

Welcome to Mountain Real Estate, where we bring you the latest insights on real estate from Denver to Summit County, Colorado. I'm your host, Candice De, a realtor, investor, engineer, mom, and Colorado native. Today we have a very special treat. Anytime I get to hang out with the Michudas, it's a good day, but we get two Michudas today on this podcast. So thanks for joining, Mike and Carol. 

C: You are welcome. 

M: Anything to take a break from the work day. great. Yeah, it's way more fun than work. 

Today we're going to talk about generational family homes. So why don't you guys tell us about yourselves? Mike, you want to start and then we can have Carol jump in. 

M: I grew up in Minnesota, but I moved to Colorado in 2009. I’ve been in Colorado for a long time and we've always lived in the Denver area. I’m, I work and live around the Denver metro area and I have a wife and two kids and they're pretty young, two and four. But yeah, we like to do, you know, all the classic outdoor mountain stuff, which is why we moved here in the first place and have stayed.  And yeah, we just try to get up to the mountains as much as possible, which we'll get into in a little bit here. yeah. Carol

C: OK, Ill start with when Andy and I got married in 1980  and he was transferred out to the Denver office for the company that was headquartered in Minneapolis. We came out right after we got married and we lived here for almost six years and the girls were actually born.  in Denver. We lived in Littleton, oddly enough, and we proceeded to move to California for about a year and a half and then moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul in 1987, month before Michael was born. So I have a little cute story that he might not remember, but I think he was in either first or second grade. He was that young. And he said, I can't believe I have to have Minnesota on my birth certificate and my sisters have Colorado. That's so much cooler or something. You know, some I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but this is really truthful. And he said, when I grow up, I'm either going to live in Colorado or California because you got to live in two great places before I was born. So look at what happened.  

C: He was born to be in Colorado. knew I know.  I know, isn't it  funny?  That's awesome. 

So you guys have some Colorado roots and Mike felt those when he was born and felt like he should come back. I think he felt like he missed out on something.  

Well, I'm glad you made your way and then you brought your parents along. So and I know Mike from a while ago back in the Denver days because his wife and I went to high school together. We have Long Roots in Colorado. She's also a native.  

All right. So we're going to talk a little bit about real estate. So do you guys want to tell us about the property you have in Colorado and then other properties and kind of what led you to your Frisco place? 

C: So, Mike, do you want me to start? Yeah, you can go ahead. Because I have some memories of this.  So it kind of started the pandemic when COVID hit and we decided to come out here and spend a couple of the winters. And the first winter was when May had just been born. So she had been born in August and we came out in January. My daughter. Yeah. Yes. Oh, yes. Mike's daughter. His oldest. And I think that just kind of spearheaded thoughts that, you know, this would be a good place to be at least part of the year because then we could see Mae and then ultimately now Max who's two and a half. I think that's how it  started. We had some conversations. Andy has always been a ski lover. It kind of made sense. This would be the way we'd get to see our two grown adult children out here. Cause Jennifer couldn't make it today, but she lives out in Denver as well.  and Michael too, and then Megan and the grandkids. I think the discussion sort of started around then that we were really serious. You know, it started in 2020 that we were really serious. And I think another piece to it too was that Megan's mom we knew was passing from cancer. And we just knew we wanted to be a part of everyone's life out here. And I think that's how it started.  I can't forget that Stephanie, our oldest, which I had written down and completely spacing out. Stephanie, our oldest and her husband and family, our two other grandchildren have  a condo in Keystone. 

C: So they come out and we get to all be together at different times outside of being in Minnesota. Yeah. Cause Steph, the oldest of the three kids, one of my older sisters, they really bought that place in Keystone as like a straight investment. Like that was their goal going into it. Cause they have other rental properties as well. And they're like, Hey, bonus it's in Colorado. We'll be able to see Jen and Mike. And this was before, obviously we had this place in Frisco, but they were really doing it as an investment. Like, Hey, we're going to really rent this thing. We'll still spend a couple weeks out of the year. When that connection kind of happened, I think it was easier for my parents to be like, well, there's a good meeting place for all of us, right? To be able to spend time together. And obviously with Jen and I in Denver, we were very motivated, right? Maybe more so than my parents realized to like, try to get something. And so we were, we were already kind of talking about, Hey, what could we get around Summit County? And naturally once my parents were like interested, it just made a lot more sense given how expensive everything is and to really get a place that we really cared and liked about. We felt like it made more sense to go in as a collective, right? To really get a place that excited all of us and really was viewed as, Hey, this isn't like an investment for us. This is more of a lifestyle change for us and like what we want to be doing on the weekends. And so, you know, it's a lot easier when you pull together, you know, multiple generations when it comes to the financial side of things too. 

So, I guess before I ask my next question, I do have to say that I've gotten to work with the Michuda family a couple of times and I've known you guys for a while and you guys are very special family that works very well together. I know my family and I've seen a lot of others that, you know, doing business with family isn't always easy. So how did you guys  come together to make decisions? And I saw a little bit from the outside, but like who made what kind of decisions and I know Jen was like, “I have something to say” every now and then but overall it was impressive.  But, how did you guys throw ideas out? Or did Mike walk into a place and say, yay or nay right away? Like, how did you kind of come together to make that consensus decision? 

C: I think first of all, it was coming to a decision of what area to look and to find the special place because we were looking in Silverthorne too,  and Mike really liked the Highlands area and he talked that area up. So we went to both of those areas and then Jen spoke up and said, I'd really like to be walking distance from Frisco. after, you know, there wasn't a whole lot to look at either. So we sort of could narrow it down. We looked at a place in Silverthorne, decided that was way too sunny of an area, too busy of a street for little ones.  Then we tried to look in the highlands and there really wasn't anything that wowed us. And Mike can speak to this too. And I think it just came down to this Frisco home that we didn't even know existed. 

M: We looked in the reserve and we decided, you know, that was kind of too suburban-y feeling. And this feels like you're really in the mountains. It's unincorporated and it just seemed like a good fit for us. Yeah, think, yeah, and ultimately I think it just came down to like our priorities and our checklist of like, hey, are we all in alignment on what we really care about as far as location, type of place, et cetera? And so  it wasn't like there was one voice taking over that conversation. Luckily we are pretty good about liking the same things and like being on the same page. And I think all of us to be like at first, we just figured the area that we chose was not, we weren't going to find exactly what we wanted from the house perspective. And so we were starting to look outside of Frisco because we weren't having as much success early on in our search. But once we kind of found the right place, it was very obvious to us that it hit all the priority items that we really cared about, which was like, yeah, walking distance to like a town or an area where like, It's easy for the kids to go to the playground and we can like go to a main street and enjoy the restaurants, cetera. But it also had like a more mountain feel where it felt like we had a good like space in the backyard, in the back deck where you could just like sit there and enjoy kind of the mountain views versus feeling more crowded in some of the other areas that are out there. So yeah, I feel like it was just kind of the priority list of like, Hey, we want that mountain feel, but access to town. And that was hard to find. So we were willing to move on that until we like really found the ideal spot that hit all the right points.  There's more renovation that brought up more conflict as far as exact decisions, but even that was all right as well.  

Do you want to talk about the renovation and like, let's go there. Because I think there was some different ideas and yeah, finding the place is one thing, but then like what you want to do with it.  I will say before we jump in that Carol, I don't care what anybody says about the decisions, they should leave them to you because you made great choices on the design. 

C: Well, it wasn't all me because I definitely couldn't have done it by myself, but I think I have certain expertise that was perfect for the renovation. I think Mike and Jen had some great ideas and know the one story I can tell is how we went through probably four months. deciding on the floor. And finally, Mike came up and said, this is the floor we want.  And it was decided. But most of the decisions really didn't take that long.  We had a vision. At first, I think Mike can speak to this too, that his vision was more mountain modern. And once we met with a designer, she used it as more mountain transitional than mountain modern, which was the right way to look at our renovation. We had a lot of fun. And I think Mike and I are the most opinionated.  And Andy and Jen kind of were trying to pull us back a little bit. But in the end, it all ended up perfect. So on to next renovations.  

M: Yeah, one thing I guess I'll note is I think we were trying to really find a place originally that was kind of move in ready. And like, weren't thinking of like kind of big renovations for the most part, when we were looking at places. The place we decided on it hadn't been, it hadn't been touched since it was built in the early nineties. And so we stayed in it for over a year before we touched it. Cause we kind of wanted to get a feel for it and like get comfortable with what exact changes we'd want to make, which creates a little bit of a headache later, right? With having to move stuff, everything, but it wasn't that bad.  I would do it again, just like how we did it, where we kind of got to sense things out before we renovated. But it was one of those things where when we bought the place, it was like, well, we could be here for years probably and be fine with it. And that felt good. Um, but we were just like, so excited. And after we got in it, it's like, okay, we know what we want to do. And so we handled the renovation then, but now it's like, you know, kind of our dream spot, but it's something that we didn't know going into our search, I guess of like, are we going to sign up for a big renovation? It just kind of came up and it was like, Hey, this lot is everything we want. And the house itself is in a good spot, you know, we don't need to make any real big changes. It's all interior design kind of stuff. And I feel like it was easy for us to say, Hey, like it's okay to have a renovation now, right? Because this is the lot that we want and it's the neighborhood we want. And it hit all those right things where the renovation didn't feel like a big deal at the end of the day, because it was all those other things are harder to find versus like the perfect inside, I guess. Like there were things on the interior that of course we wouldn't have wanted if it was like our perfect place, but we knew we could change that. I think that's just an important lens to how we looked at it.  

C: Yeah. I think  the whole real estate term location, location, location, and  it was  all three of those location  and we could just do anything to the interior if you want. You can leave it or make your own changes. And to Mike's point, it hadn't been touched since it was built in the 90s. And it was tired. It needed help. So we gave it that. 

You gave it the love and you made it yours. And sometimes it's easier to kind of do that renovation and makeover when it is older versus like tearing out somebody else's new style. to make it your style. 

C: So, so true because you'd feel bad, like, because you know how expensive it can be to do these renovations. Yeah, we didn't feel like we were investing in like the stuff that they had already done to the interior. We were not attached. That definitely helps. 

Well, awesome. You guys have definitely, definitely found a good spot and made it made it yours. And it's definitely a special place. 

Let’s shift to the softer side of things. How has it changed, Carol, maybe for you, like how you've seen the family?  

C: Oh, well, and of course my number one reason all along with having a place, owning a place here was really to be with the kids and the grandkids.  Andy would say, oh, I love the skiing. This is the great place. Gosh, we love the mountains, the skiing.  This is the perfect place to have a home. Yes, it was a perfect place to have a home. I guess my first priority was it's a perfect place to have a home because we have the family here and everyone comes up for the weekends and Stephanie and Matt come out when they come to Keystone. We've already we've seen Stephanie Matt already once and now they're coming out for a week for their spring break and yes, it was just a total win win for us. So soft side is. I'm happy that we're here because of the family. 

Nice. Mike, how about you? 

M: I'm happy because we get free babysitting on the weekend.  And that seriously is a perk. Like being able to have my parents around on the weekends, like it just opens up my wife and I to be able to do stuff and be able to go ski if we can't ski, right? Like my youngest is too young to ski right now. So we always need someone to like help out if we're going to be able to be together. It is really nice to be able to give my parents with the time with the kids, but also great for me selfishly, right? So we can go out and do stuff and see friends or do whatever it is. So yeah, I think, you know, my parents would still be coming out on trips, right? And we would still see each other in that way, but it's different when it's like, Hey, weekend over weekend, we always know it's something to look forward to be able to come up and be able to see,  to just have like family time altogether. And it just makes it more like relaxing where you're not pressured to like fit in a bunch of stuff. You know, when you're on vacation or if my parents were to come in for a week, you're kind of on the go always, and you're always feeling like you have to do X, Y, Z. But I feel like, because it's over most of the winter, we have a lot more flexibility on just taking our time doing things or going out and doing things maybe we normally wouldn't do because you don't have much pressure, right? So yeah, it's been great from all those aspects. 

Yeah. I can really vouch for the value of grandparent babysitting. That's really...  There's a short phase of life where it's really invaluable, but, and it's good for everybody.  You guys all do a good job while kind of spending time together. 

And then, what would you say  both of you is  kind of like one of your favorite things to do while you're  up here in the mountains or what's something you look forward to besides the family time? 

M: From my perspective, it's always like, you know, going out and doing the mountain activities that we don't get to do in Denver. Right. So for us, it's downhill skiing. We Nordic ski a ton, which the Frisco Nordic center is awesome. And we can just like drive five minutes and be at an awesome Nordic center. And then obviously in the summer, all the hiking and we mountain bike a lot.  Now it's just fun to bring the kids on all those little adventures, right. And bring them out and like go hiking and have a kid in the backpack, et cetera. So that's always what we're looking forward to is just. You know, the outdoor activities and being outside and not feeling like, you know, constrained to our neighborhood or something like back home and being just inside as much so. 

I’ll just add that Mike is constrained because he's already got all the Strava records in his neighborhood. So now he's coming up to the mountains and getting all the Strava records. 

M: Exactly. Yeah, different talent out in the mountains. It's nice to be a competitor to all of them, too. 

C: Yeah. Mike's the only one that can really come up and just overrun everybody. He's such an interesting perspective, doesn't he? 

C: You know, Andy and I have really enjoyed going to the Silverthorne Rec Center. We've been doing that now the last two winters we've been here. So that's fun. That's kind of how we can start our mornings. And then, you know, we're it's we're free and easy because it's like, well, I don't have to do a whole lot of housework and I don't have to answer to anyone else. So we always really enjoy our walks. I love waking up to a lot of sunshine during the, you know, right away in the morning. It just kind of invigorates us and We set our times, okay, what day are we going to ski? And it's so nice to be able to ski on the weekdays. And to Mike's point, it's a win-win because we're completely fine staying here and being with Max or both Max and Mae over the weekends because we get our skiing in during the week. But we also enjoy going into Breckenridge, enjoying dining there, enjoying dining in Frisco. We've gotten to know certain places that we always want to go to. And it's been really delightful for us to have this opportunity. 

M: And she touched on an important point, right? Is like, if you are in a multi-generational kind of living arrangement, like if people have the weekday freedom to be able to go out and do their thing and avoid the crowds, like they're going to do that and then not want to do that on weekends, right? Because it's way busier. And it's really a good trade off because like that's when I can get out because of our work lifestyle in Denver on the weekdays. And it is like the perfect trade off where, you know, I'm going to deal with those crowds, but not even to the extent cause I'm not driving up during traffic, which is a massive perk, right. Of having a place, but we're going to still do those things on the weekends. Cause that's when we're free. But, if my parents are around on the weekdays, like they don't care to do those same things necessarily or okay, not doing it. And that's, that's huge. Yeah. But  you're still part of the weekender crowd. Exactly. 

C: Yes, but they can come up earlier to Mike's point. Yes, they come up sometime, possibly Thursday evening or early Friday morning or  midday. Yes, it gives them a lot of flexibility. Mike, Megan and Jen.  

Mike, what do your kids think about coming up to the mountains? 

M: They love it. The only problem is like come Monday or Tuesday, they're already asking like, when are we going to see Gammy and Pop Pop? Well, it's great because of all the friends that we've made up in the mountains too. Like there's plenty of kids around, right? And it's not like they're leaving their friends and we have so many friends that either have places around some accounting or they're coming up for the day or whatever, that we don't feel like we're missing anything, you know, back home typically, or we'll just, you know, stay home for a day or whatever is needed. But in general, yeah, they absolutely love it because it's a change of scenery. I think that's the biggest thing is like you spend all week in your house, especially during the winter where it's harder to get out maybe, and it's just a good change of pace for the kids to be able to get out to a new environment  and be able to do like different activities from what they normally do. So like we have the traditions of like being able to walk downtown to Main Street in Frisco and they like have their favorite spots that they stop at, right? They got the toy store that my mom always buys them toys from, et cetera. It's like those little things of, hey, they have like good memories of those little activities that they get to do. And so they want to go back and do that again the next weekend. So yeah, they love it. 

That's awesome. And Mae's skiing. 

M: Yeah. I mean, when it comes to kids being in like ski lessons and having like the ability to do that, I don't know if I'd be able to do it if I didn't have a place up here, as far as just dealing with that traffic and the effort to get up super early with them, et cetera. It makes it so easy to just go up to Copper for ski lessons. We take the bus, which she loves kind of right from our place.  And it's just a stress free environment.  So yeah, she's crushing it. It's awesome to be able to get out and like her be able to ski on herself, but like, you know, alone and not have us kind of all around her afraid of like her getting out of control. 

Yeah. That's a big milestone when you feel like they're not going to just run through a fence. Yeah.  

C: Andy and I had the opportunity to ski with Mae last weekend, which was fun. That's a fun thing to do with her. 

That's awesome. Yeah. How many grandparents are skiing with their grandkids? 

C: You know, it is amazing how many couples, how many people we have met  and just run into that are really our age,  older, that are just embracing the Colorado life, the Colorado mountain life. And that's basically what's really been wonderful for us is embracing this life, this lifestyle.  we are so privileged to have because our home in the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, St. Paul is just, you know, completely different than this. So, yeah, it's really very special. And there's beautiful things there that you can enjoy in summer and winter or spring, summer, fall. Yeah. Well, and you know, we, well, you can enjoy Colorado at any time of the year. And last August we came out and basically we had to go home for a wedding, but basically we're here to almost the middle of October. It was beautiful. And then you can really enjoy all the hiking right now. It's sort of messy, but you know, so we find our places where we're just taking our walks and our views in from  different, you know, arenas than, and being up higher in the mountains hiking. It's good.  You make it work. 

You're right. It is a privilege to get to live this lifestyle.  And I'm sure I have no doubt that Andy has made all the friends because I feel like he had like three phone numbers after the first showing. He had friends to talk to right away. I love that you guys just integrated right into the community very easily.  

C: It's very easy to do that too. Yeah. It's a pretty welcoming place.  

So what advice would you guys have for families that are looking for or considering a place like this? 

M: I would say probably the biggest takeaway I had from our search and everything was just have patience to try to get the right spot. Like, I feel like all of a sudden we got pretty excited when my parents were like, Hey, we want to do this, let's do it together. And so we started looking right away and naturally it's like, Oh, this season, I want to try to get something. And we had one offer in on a different place before the place we bought, but there were a lot of other places we were considering. And I feel like it took time for us to really hone in on our top priorities. And I think seeing more places was important to that.  And we didn't rush it. If we weren't totally content with something, I'm glad we didn't, you know, pull the trigger too early. I feel like just patience and not feeling like you have this hard set timeline, because I think you're going to feel a lot more confident in your purchase, obviously, if you took the time and you feel really confident in that purchase. And so, yeah, I just think patience as the number one thing of knowing kind of where you want to be, like which part of some account or wherever you're looking is most important to you. And like trying to stick to that and see, don't just give up on it, I guess, like in the first couple of months. 

That's, a really good point. And we always say to our clients, this is a process, not an event, especially second homes. When it's your primary home, you're like, okay, this is exactly what I want and what I need to have and where I want to be. When it's a second home, there's a lot more variables. 

C: It's like you said, it's definitely worth exploring and finding like what that fit is and being patient for the right place.  And I think you have to prioritize and let everyone talk to what is most important to them because we'll each have something to offer with that. And we each had something that was that we prioritize more than others. So we kind of had to group that all together and say, okay, these are the priorities. And it became a little bit longer list because you're dealing with more ideas from everyone. And that's good too. I think we really realized though in the end, we all kind of were looking for the same thing. It was really a much easier process than you would think and people think necessarily. So just to let people know it works. 

Yeah. Well, that sets high expectations there. 

C: I hope it goes well for everyone. Yeah.  

That is a testament to you and your family and your dynamics and respect for each other. That was very apparent during the process. I'm sure there are others out there that can have that same smooth sailing, but if you need a playbook, talk to the Michudas because you've got this dialed in how to listen to everybody and say what you want. 

All right. So last thing I want to touch on here. I think there's definitely a lifestyle component to this of getting to spend more time with the family, but are you guys looking at this as a financial investment as well or is it strictly just lifestyle focused? 

C: To me, strictly lifestyle focus. 

M: Yeah. Don't call dad into the room. 

C: Well, no, he would absolutely say the same thing. I mean, it is just...  This has just been  such a gift and as I said, just such a privilege. I, yeah, it's definitely lifestyle. I would hope most people would go into it that way because I think then the finance, the family dynamics plays such a key role when you make that decision, you know, and to listen to each of us and what  we want out of the home we're buying. 

M: Yeah, I think for us, it was a lifestyle like investment because the reasons my mom said, but I think all of us just knew, Hey, this is what we want in the longterm  and it's going to be here for a long, long time to come. And so we’re not interested in selling this place anytime in the future. Like in our minds, it's like, no, we hope this like stays within the family for a long time. But that's cause we like, we're lucky enough to be in that position to like buy something that we really wanted to hold onto and not be in the position of needing to rent it, right? Like if, if we were renting it or we were in it for, you know, the goal of trying to make an investment, just like my sister did with her condo, you know, we would be just viewing that purchase differently as far as going into it and like what exactly we choose. But because we went into it, knowing that it's more of a lifestyle investment, like we're going for a single family home and this is like how many bedrooms we care about for our family and all those things. We didn't have like any of the rental lens to any of that from the priority perspective. So yeah, that, think it just changes your criteria, right? And so that was our choice. Obviously a lot of people do it for like rental investment and everything else, but for us, it wasn't, it was definitely the lifestyle… and not sitting in traffic. And I didn't want to deal with that anymore. And I wanted to spend more time in the mountains and like, that's the priority for us. And if you're buying something that you're really passionate about and like, you can feel quite confident that it's a good investment at the same time, right? Like  if we cared about it and we knew that this was a good location, we had a lot of confidence that other people would find that to be the case as well if for whatever reason we had a sale down the road, right? But, that was definitely secondary.  Awesome. 

There was so much good information here, you guys. Thank you very much for sharing. I feel like I've talked to a lot of people in similar situations that are exploring this for their families. It's really good to get your story out there, a very successful story of a family, a great place, and that you guys are making the most of it and getting to enjoy the mountains. So thanks for taking time today to be here. Any  parting  words of wisdom? 

C: You know, one thing I did want to say is that with the different people we've met and talked with, this is becoming more and more of a priority and more common with families. Our generation, who is the baby boomers who  are kind of taken over right now with everyone retiring. They're all trying to figure out what do they want to do? How do they want to prioritize family time and being together and knowing the importance of that? We've found a lot of people wanting to purchase here in Summit County, which is very good, but can be a little bit of a negative too because. There's just this huge influx of people that just really want to stay healthy later in life and this is such a perfect place to do it. 

Yeah, that's a really good perspective.  There's a big generation that has worked very, very hard and is now trying to find ways to live that life that  they want.  

M: Last thing I'll say is just Thank you, Candice, for giving us such an awesome spot. We wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you. Well, like I said, you guys are a very special family and it's very fun to work with people like you. So hopefully there's more people like you out there. 

C: Well, you're very special. We get to hang out and see each other. It's really nice. And you have children almost the same age as Mike and Megan. It's kind of lifetime friendship for you, which is really nice. 

Generational friends too.  Thank you. 

C: Yes, I feel that way with you too, Candice. Yeah.  

All right. Well, thank you guys for being here.  Thanks for joining us today on Mountain Real Estate. I'm Candice De. If the mountains are calling you, reach out to me.  See you next time.