|
|
Post by dazeepetals on Aug 5, 2018 4:20:40 GMT
Well, after 11 LONG years living in hot, sweaty, swamp-ass having South Texas, this KS girl is moving to CO next month! Moving to CO has been an idea that started in my head long long ago (think high school) and finally is coming to fruition. After losing my Mom about 1.5 years ago to brain cancer (GBM), I've really tried to change my mindset and live more in the moment. We never know when something could happen and change our lives forever and I don't want to sit around in my 60's and wish I would have fulfilled a dream I've had for so long that I could obtain with a little elbow grease. So after some brief searching with nothing to find, a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn and offered me an interview for a position that I could relocate to CO for. I flew out to Palo Alto, CA for the interview 2 months ago (which was lovely) and haven't heard from them since. Then out of the blue, they contact me and say after some shuffling around they are ready to finally fill the spot and offered me a position and compensation I couldn't refuse. This isn't a completely easy decision, as I love my job here and my coworkers, love my neighbors, and will miss everything Texas, but I need a change.
So with that said, I've loved the advice I've been given by the ever helpful Peas before about areas to move to in CO. We have narrowed it down to Louisville/Lafayette/Superior, CO or Castle Rock, CO. I need to be somewhat close to the airport as this job will require some travel, so living way up in the mountains isn't feasible (although I'd love it). We will rent for the first year before we buy (holy house prices) to make sure we are sure of the area we want to live in and save up some $$. Anyone have any opinions about these areas?
What is your best advice for a new CO resident that might not be common knowledge? Especially for a South Texans!
Can't wait to actually be able to knit hats, gloves, etc and be able to use them!! We can't even use them down here!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Delta Dawn on Aug 5, 2018 4:37:58 GMT
I taught my dad tonight about living in the moment. You know as I do that life is short and you can make significant changes if you need to. This one is huge and heck I left Canada for Japan and came home again. It was all awesome. Good luck!
|
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Aug 5, 2018 4:47:09 GMT
Welcome to blue skies and gorgeous settings. I live in the Springs which is about 40 minutes south of Castle Rock, but I can't tell you much about housing in the areas you have chosen.
As far as the weather, you will be arriving during a great time to move. Currently we are in the 80's most days and have little humidity. We have awesome weather and then once in a while we get a bunch of rain and hail. Make sure you buy/rent somewhere with a garage. My advice would be to get out and hike around. On your weekends, go visit neighboring areas and see places you might want to live. Don't be surprised if you get winded easily. The lack of oxygen takes a bit to get used to at first.
Denver has a lot to offer, and if you aren't used to traffic, it could be a bit of a shock.
I think you'll like it here. It is really a wonderful state to live in.
|
|
|
|
Post by patin on Aug 5, 2018 5:23:20 GMT
Will you need to commute to an office? Or will you work from home,( except for the airport.) Your other 2 choices are great- newer/nicer areas, but are nowhere near each other, so I was wondering. Yes, housing has gotten ridiculously expensive.
Traffic is awful here during the commutes. Also a lot of drivers don't seem to understand merging or the use of blinkers.
We don't say y'all, or all ya'll. The mountains are always West so you get really good at directions.
I think you will be be pleasantly surprised by our weather. Winters are not too bad- it will snow one day & the next day the sun comes out & melts most of it. When you first arrive your skin will be really dry & you will need to lotion a lot. After you get used to the low humidity it gets better. Drink lots of water both for the dryness & the high altitude.
I love Colorado!
|
|
|
|
Post by internetmama on Aug 5, 2018 11:30:03 GMT
Congrats on your move, I remember your post about Longmont. For your airport runs, you will want to use E 470 which is a delightful toll road. Castle Rock seems really far to commute to the airport and also I believe they do get heavier snow in the winter than the other cities north of Denver.
Your other choices: Superior and Louisville will be more expensive than Lafayette. You might have a hard time finding available rentals in the first two cities. My daughter was trying to get moved into an apartment in Superior but they had wait lists until September and that was in June. She ended up in Lafayette and it was a bit less expensive and had move in ready options. Some might say Lafayette is more country-ish but the prices will reflect that. Louisville is the hot spot for people who wish they were in Boulder so the availablity and pricing will reflect that. Check out the schools in each place too. You may tend to find really good elementary level and maybe not so much when it comes to upper level options.
Good luck on your move- Colorado is gorgeous especially in the Autumn. Snow driving tip: go slow and double up on your braking distance especially going down hill! If you can get a garage for your cars it will make winter mornings much easier. Also, strangely you can’t buy liquor at the grocery store except for weak beer. You will get use to the altitude but always expect and remind your out of area visitors about it. Never take them to the mountains the first day of their trip.
Hope you end up loving it here!
|
|
|
|
Post by kamper on Aug 5, 2018 13:15:00 GMT
We moved from League City three years ago come November. We love it here. I live in Parker about 5 minutes north of Castle Rock. It does get a little more snow since it is higher. Another consideration is that CR is not part of RTD (the transportation district) so, not only will it never be connected to light rail you will have to pay for parking at the stations. Where you live really needs to be based on where you will work. C/E-470 makes getting to the airport a breeze. Traffic is nowhere near as bad as Houston. Drivers here are just plain bad and rude and red light running is rampant.
Eat all the Mexican food you can now. It is near impossible to find anything good here.
Even though housing (and car insurance) is more expensive we don't regret moving here at all. We are outside all the time. I never get tired of seeing the mountains.
|
|
|
|
Post by hop2 on Aug 5, 2018 13:17:55 GMT
Your brave. I hope your dream move is everything you want it to be.
|
|
|
|
Post by ferblover on Aug 5, 2018 14:18:30 GMT
I live in one of those towns you mentioned! Yes, house prices are crazy here!!
The weather in the Denver metro area varies. My parents live about 20 minutes from me and can get no rain while we had hail(how do you feel about hail because we get a lot of that here) or they can get a couple inches of snow and we get nothing. The views are nice though to watch a storm roll in, it seems many times we can just get sound but no rain.
Where would you and your husband offices be located? Do you have kids so you are looking at schools, what ages? Are you looking for a lot of land with your house or is neighborhood living okay? Do you want a town that has family activities or more night life?
|
|
|
|
Post by paperaddictedpea on Aug 5, 2018 14:23:26 GMT
I don't have any advice except to say that I spent a little time in that area for work a couple of years ago (I attended training in Louisville) and I didn't want to leave! I felt like I could happily live there. Good luck with your new adventure.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 14:26:18 GMT
May I ask why you chose those cities? What was your criteria? Since one is north and one is south of Denver, I wondered what it was about those two places.
|
|
|
|
Post by dazeepetals on Aug 5, 2018 14:26:22 GMT
We moved from League City three years ago come November. We love it here. I live in Parker about 5 minutes north of Castle Rock. It does get a little more snow since it is higher. Another consideration is that CR is not part of RTD (the transportation district) so, not only will it never be connected to light rail you will have to pay for parking at the stations. Where you live really needs to be based on where you will work. C/E-470 makes getting to the airport a breeze. Traffic is nowhere near as bad as Houston. Drivers here are just plain bad and rude and red light running is rampant. Eat all the Mexican food you can now. It is near impossible to find anything good here. Even though housing (and car insurance) is more expensive we don't regret moving here at all. We are outside all the time. I never get tired of seeing the mountains. Thank you! I will be working from home, so for me the only stipulation is getting to airport for travel. DH isn't sure where he is going to work yet, but his goal is to be working from home from a few side jobs he has right now at some point. I'm going to miss Tex Mex badly. After moving here, I realized how HORRIBLE Tex Mex/Mexican food is in the majority of the country. I go back to KS and can't eat their Mexican food. Just not the same. I'll have to bring some salsa also since I'm now used to spicy salsa! DH said car insurance should be lower there (he works in insurance business) so hopefully it's not more. TX was definetly more expensive that my rates in OH and KS before. Also with all the recent floods and hurricanes down here, rates have been going up quickly. Housing, yes we are going to have to swallow that pill. But for us, it's worth it to be able to be outside all the time and go hiking easily. |
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 14:27:03 GMT
#1 tip: make sure your vehicles are all wheel or 4wd and have good tires BEFORE the first snow.
|
|
|
|
Post by dazeepetals on Aug 5, 2018 14:46:49 GMT
I live in one of those towns you mentioned! Yes, house prices are crazy here!! The weather in the Denver metro area varies. My parents live about 20 minutes from me and can get no rain while we had hail(how do you feel about hail because we get a lot of that here) or they can get a couple inches of snow and we get nothing. The views are nice though to watch a storm roll in, it seems many times we can just get sound but no rain. Where would you and your husband offices be located? Do you have kids so you are looking at schools, what ages? Are you looking for a lot of land with your house or is neighborhood living okay? Do you want a town that has family activities or more night life? I will be working from home. DHs job it yet to be determines, but eventually he will hopefully be working from home also when his little side jobs take off. We do have kids, DS5 (nearly) and DD(1.5 years). DS wouldn't start Kindy here (cut off date is Sept 1st) but I've learned that in CO the cutoff date is Sept 30th. We will likely place our DS in a private Montessori/Kindy school to possibly give him an extra year before entering public school. We aren't necessarily looking for land, maybe someday, but for now we like community living. That's the hard part about leaving our neighborhood here, we love our neighbors. We hang out all the time and our kids get along so well. I will truly be sad to leave them. We are not night life people, but we love a good brewery! |
|
|
|
Post by dazeepetals on Aug 5, 2018 14:51:32 GMT
May I ask why you chose those cities? What was your criteria? Since one is north and one is south of Denver, I wondered what it was about those two places. Well, I did a lot of searching for communities in CO. These 2 notoriously came up as good ones. I really love Boulder, but we simply can't afford it. We are looking for a "smaller" town, but not too small. Honestly, my criteria included a Sprouts, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods within a reasonable distance as one factor. We currently live in a small town, that really has become a subburb of Houston. While I hate the commute into town for work, I love the smaller community feel. We want to be close to Mountain bike trails and hiking. |
|
|
|
Post by dazeepetals on Aug 5, 2018 14:52:17 GMT
#1 tip: make sure your vehicles are all wheel or 4wd and have good tires BEFORE the first snow. We can get the good tires before snow fall. All wheel or 4WD cars will have to wait a bit. |
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Aug 5, 2018 15:19:51 GMT
Speaking as someone who has lived both places, my best advice is to buy a vat of body lotion and an excellent face moisturizer. You will feel like your skin is going to dry up and peel off after a few days. 😂
Make sure you have waterproof gloves and an ice scraper for your car.
We love Colorado but just aren’t used to that climate any more!
|
|
|
|
Post by SweetieBugs on Aug 5, 2018 15:54:33 GMT
I used to be close to a lady that moved from CA to Lafayette back in 1998. I visited her a few times early on. Their home and neighborhood were very nice. It was like a developer dropped down a planned community in a large farm field.
They did not like the local public schools and sent their kids to a charter type school called Peak to Peak (K-12). They were very happy with the school and pretty picky about their kids' education. They are still living there and very settled in. I thought the whole area was very pretty and I enjoyed a bit of the country feel along with the quirky city feel of Boulder and other nearby places.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 15:58:03 GMT
#1 tip: make sure your vehicles are all wheel or 4wd and have good tires BEFORE the first snow. We can get the good tires before snow fall. All wheel or 4WD cars will have to wait a bit. They are at least front wheel drives, though, right? |
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 16:06:04 GMT
Honestly, my criteria included a Sprouts, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods within a reasonable distance as one factor. Then the ones you picked should be good. I would skip Castle Rock as that drive on I-25 can be brutal, especially without AWD. I love the different ideas on a small town. Around here, small towns are up to 5000 or so. |
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Aug 5, 2018 16:08:25 GMT
If you lived in KS, you have driven in some rough snow and ice. You'll be fine.
If you travel for work, how many times month would you drive to the airport? It really is out there by itself. I might not worry as much about the commute if is only a few times a month. I would rather find a home in a neighborhood that I loved.
We live about a mile from the base of the mountains and the weather is very different than other parts of the city/state. Seems like bad weather will just jump over us and hit the rest of the city. You can expect to have some bad weather mixed in with very mild winters. I came from Nebraska and felt like the winters here were so much better than the snow on the ground from Halloween to Easter winters of my childhood. I think our lack of humidity keeps the summers and winters more mild.
ETA: Say goodbye to the bugs. While we have them, they don't seem to love Colorado like the humans do. We hike every week and have never seen a rattle snake. We do, however have bears, coyotes, fox and an abundance of bobcats. These creatures live in the neighborhoods.
|
|
|
|
Post by originalvanillabean on Aug 5, 2018 16:15:10 GMT
We just visited CO this summer for vacation. It's beautiful and although I don't have any advice - I wish you the best with your new position and move!!
|
|
eleezybeth
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,784
Jun 28, 2014 20:42:01 GMT
|
Post by eleezybeth on Aug 5, 2018 17:34:33 GMT
Congratulations on the job! This random stranger is proud of you for making the leap!
I would avoid Castle Rock like the plague. We have friends who just moved to Louisville about a year ago and they love it. One is a Westerner and the other isn't so it is a good mix for them.
|
|
|
|
Post by internetmama on Aug 5, 2018 17:35:38 GMT
May I ask why you chose those cities? What was your criteria? Since one is north and one is south of Denver, I wondered what it was about those two places. Well, I did a lot of searching for communities in CO. These 2 notoriously came up as good ones. I really love Boulder, but we simply can't afford it. We are looking for a "smaller" town, but not too small. Honestly, my criteria included a Sprouts, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods within a reasonable distance as one factor. We currently live in a small town, that really has become a subburb of Houston. While I hate the commute into town for work, I love the smaller community feel. We want to be close to Mountain bike trails and hiking. The only Trader Joe’s for the northern cities is in Boulder. There are a lot of Whole Foods and Sprouts around. You might give Niwot and South West Longmont another look too. I’m not sure Superior meets the feel of small town but Louisville and Lafayette definitely would but not sure they have your shops. The Sprouts in Boulder has really bad parking. Anywhere is close to trails and hiking! |
|
|
|
Post by bwife on Aug 5, 2018 17:56:03 GMT
Good for you for making this move! I want to move to colorado so bad. My husband thinks I would hate the winters. I think we would be fine. one of the main things holding us back are house prices! Yikes! We are currently living outside of KC and while house prices in JOCO are some of the highest in KS, they dont compare to what they are in areas of CO. I wanted to send you the link to a blogger that I follow. About a yr ago ( maybe 2 now) they moved from TX to CO. she lives in boulder. But she might be able to give you some insight on how things were that 1st yr. She seems to respond to emails and messages pretty well. HOH Allison. Here is her FB page. Allison HOH FBGood luck to your family! |
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 18:23:03 GMT
If you won't have an office to commute to and to and from dia is the real test, you hold live in the smaller cities on I-76 and/or 85. Brighton, fort lupton, fort Morgan, Wiggins, platteville, gilcrest...they are all small, but growing as people escape the prices of Denver and its suburbs.
|
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Aug 5, 2018 20:44:32 GMT
Congratulations on the job! This random stranger is proud of you for making the leap! I would avoid Castle Rock like the plague. We have friends who just moved to Louisville about a year ago and they love it. One is a Westerner and the other isn't so it is a good mix for them. And Louisville is close to Boulder and maybe an hour or so away from Estes Park. If you are here late September, take the drive up the mountain to Estes Park. Hundreds of elk come down from the mountains and hang out at the local golf course and eat and bugle. We are going next weekend. We're renting a cabin and shopping and ATVing in the Rocky Mountain National Park. It makes for a great day trip too. |
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Aug 5, 2018 20:47:51 GMT
You might also want to see how expensive your property taxes will be on your future house. I seem to remember that our property tax rate is quite low compared to other areas (not sure if that is everywhere in Colorado though). It might help you decide where to put down roots. When we first moved out here 30 years ago, they were a third of what my dad was paying on his house in Nebraska.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Aug 5, 2018 21:03:58 GMT
You might also want to see how expensive your property taxes will be on your future house. I seem to remember that our property tax rate is quite low compared to other areas (not sure if that is everywhere in Colorado though). It might help you decide where to put down roots. When we first moved out here 30 years ago, they were a third of what my dad was paying on his house in Nebraska. they are super low (according to the Texan transplants next door). Of course that is why our school funding is so low and why many of our roads suck. (I'll stop before this turns political). |
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Aug 5, 2018 21:18:14 GMT
You might also want to see how expensive your property taxes will be on your future house. I seem to remember that our property tax rate is quite low compared to other areas (not sure if that is everywhere in Colorado though). It might help you decide where to put down roots. When we first moved out here 30 years ago, they were a third of what my dad was paying on his house in Nebraska. they are super low (according to the Texan transplants next door). Of course that is why our school funding is so low and why many of our roads stuck. (I'll stop before this turns political). I just looked it up. Texans on average pay 2% and Coloradoans pay 0.5%. Huge difference. |
|
|
|
Post by stampinfraulein on Aug 5, 2018 22:46:13 GMT
I don't know what other people pay, but out here in SE Aurora my property taxes are $6000 per year. Yikes.
There are only 2 Trader Joe's in Denver and the one in Boulder. We want more but they just won't build them, darn it! Plenty of Sprouts. Not as many Whole Foods. (It's a 30 min drive in traffic for me to get to the nearest WF, same to the nearest TJ's). Castle Rock is going to put you even further from those, and unless you want to pay the high tolls on E-470 you will have to fight traffic on I-15 and I-225 to get to the airport. I think you might find more of what you are looking for up north of Denver.
|
|
