We met up with Raj's friends - Aaron and his wife (Irish name I can't spell). The house they were maintaining is owned by a couple that have their own management consulting company. The house was built 3 years ago in a feng shui, minimalist style. One of the main decorations are orchids. There's a special room to grow the orchids with the correct temperature, light and humidity control. There were at least 10 orchids in the main living area, and they were all different. It inspired me to try and paint an orchid next time instead of roses.It had snowed quite a bit on Friday and Saturday and the view was absolutely amazing.
The house is the last one on the road near the edge of a mountain. From the garage, you can take an elevator down from the third floor to the first. If you don't take the elevator you can enter the studio apartment or walk around the side, down stairs next to a terraced waterfall that was built using rocks that have heaters underneath to melt the snow and keep the path clear. Once you are in the main house there are a couple of steps as you go from room to room since you are continuing to descend down the mountain. They have 2 guest rooms on the first floor and a home theatre. 
We enjoyed a late night dip in the hot-tub which included a dare where we all jumped out and sat down on chairs covered in 1/2 a foot of snow (in case you were wondering, sitting on snow then jumping in a hot-tub creates a slight burning sensation). Also, the sky cleared up and we had an excellent view of the stars.On Sunday we took the Belgian Malinois dogs for a hike through the snow. The homeowners have 2 dogs; the house-sitters have 1 dog that the homeowners gave to them as a Xmas present (a sibling of one of the home owner's dogs) and another friend had brought over her lab. The 4 dogs were quite a handful. Plus, the one visitor dog really was enjoying stalking the cat. We grilled out after our hike, then it was back to Denver.
