possible move to colorado, help! (Denver, Grand Junction: houses, unemployed, good schools)
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hiya guys,
first post here so bear with me!
we are thinking about moving your way next year, depends on where hubby gets a job.
im orig from NC but went and married a highlander and been in the wilds of northern Scotland since 1999.
Hubby is an analytical Chemist at a decomishioning (sp) nuclear power plant and has been offered early release in may of next year.
we are a family of four with two young boys.. sam 7 and ben 6
Ben is autistic and Sam has a few language delays that are getting a lot better ( he only began speaking at age 4)
anyway, what is it like in colorado? from what ive read its ideal for us.
do not want to go back home, as much as i would love to be near my family, the climate is not for my own family! seriously hubby and 6 year old are fair and red!
i would ideally like something rural, safe with good schools. not too expensive but not bottom of the rung either. would prefer to live outside a town if we could but be able to drive in easy enough.
any help would be greatly appreciated!
gonna be a lot dif. than when i made the move here 10 years ago.. there was only me then.. now i have my whole familys life to worry about.. *grins*
ohhh and me and sam are quite horsey.. so def. would be looking for a school to carry on his lessons!
hiya guys,
first post here so bear with me!
we are thinking about moving your way next year, depends on where hubby gets a job.
im orig from NC but went and married a highlander and been in the wilds of northern Scotland since 1999.
Hubby is an analytical Chemist at a decomishioning (sp) nuclear power plant and has been offered early release in may of next year.
we are a family of four with two young boys.. sam 7 and ben 6
Ben is autistic and Sam has a few language delays that are getting a lot better ( he only began speaking at age 4)
anyway, what is it like in colorado? from what ive read its ideal for us.
do not want to go back home, as much as i would love to be near my family, the climate is not for my own family! seriously hubby and 6 year old are fair and red!
i would ideally like something rural, safe with good schools. not too expensive but not bottom of the rung either. would prefer to live outside a town if we could but be able to drive in easy enough.
any help would be greatly appreciated!
gonna be a lot dif. than when i made the move here 10 years ago.. there was only me then.. now i have my whole familys life to worry about.. *grins*
ohhh and me and sam are quite horsey.. so def. would be looking for a school to carry on his lessons!
The climate is dry and I guess anywhere you'd look on the Front Range sprawl-blob would have facilities and/or schools for children with special needs. However, if your kids are fair skinned, you'd want to be in someplace like Maine or Vermont with atmosphere between fair skin and UV rays. High elevations mean high UV rays which means more sunburn and possibly sun-borne skin problems.
The climate is dry and I guess anywhere you'd look on the Front Range sprawl-blob would have facilities and/or schools for children with special needs. However, if your kids are fair skinned, you'd want to be in someplace like Maine or Vermont with atmosphere between fair skin and UV rays. High elevations mean high UV rays which means more sunburn and possibly sun-borne skin problems.
Portland, OR or Seattle would be even better for that as they're at sea level with lots of cloud cover.
we want to get away from cloud cover and sea side though. the weather here is grey year round, with no seasons and just more and more rain. the highest temp in summer is about 28c
what they cant handle is the muggy heavy heat of humidity. not really thought about Or. but will have a look at it.
one of the main reasons we are looking at colorado for me any way.. is the four seasons and the ammount of sun it gets.
we want to get away from cloud cover and sea side though. the weather here is grey year round, with no seasons and just more and more rain. the highest temp in summer is about 28c
what they cant handle is the muggy heavy heat of humidity. not really thought about Or. but will have a look at it.
one of the main reasons we are looking at colorado for me any way.. is the four seasons and the ammount of sun it gets.
Portland might be a bit too much like Scotland but you should take a look at more inland cities like Bend or Sisters, OR or Boise, ID. These are very livable smaller cities,that aren't just suburbs of a big city like Denver, with enough critical mass of their own. I'd pick one of them over a Front Range 'burb burg any day.
we want to get away from cloud cover and sea side though. the weather here is grey year round, with no seasons and just more and more rain. the highest temp in summer is about 28c
what they cant handle is the muggy heavy heat of humidity. not really thought about Or. but will have a look at it.
one of the main reasons we are looking at colorado for me any way.. is the four seasons and the ammount of sun it gets.
There's only two weeks of fall and spring anymore in Colorado. You'd be trading-off muggy for dry and possibly allergies. The good news is then since it only gets about 28c in the summer where you're at, the temps in Denver can get as high as 40c in the summer, although that's unusual. It is going to be 35c today and this is the backside of September!
Portland might be a bit too much like Scotland but you should take a look at more inland cities like Bend or Sisters, OR or Boise, ID. These are very livable smaller cities,that aren't just suburbs of a big city like Denver, with enough critical mass of their own. I'd pick one of them over a Front Range 'burb burg any day.
The only problem with living in either Bend or Sisters is the economy right now. My husband and I moved to Bend from Grand Junction, CO a little over 2 years ago. He had a job lined up, but I did not. I'm still basically unemployed, although I substitute teach when I can. Boise is much larger than either Bend or Sisters, so you might have better luck there, although it's pretty ugly IMO (but you'd be very close to some beautiful country).
at the moment we are living in the far north of scotland in Wick, to give you an idea of the weather here..
this was written by Robert Louis Stevensons in a letter to his mother
let me just say that in the ensuing years not much has changed.. we are down to 7,500 people.. the fishing is now dead but the people are the same. i have been here 10 years and its not a happy place! the people are very dour about things.. i never see anyone walking and smiling!
and in a town so small the vandalism is ridiculous! people cower from teenagers because they are afraid of having their windows smashed in by the nobs!
and dare you say something to them, for they know their rights and you will have the police tapping at your door for saying something to them!
im so ready to move back home *G* somewhere that people at least smile and say hello in passing.. instead of just walking by with thier heads down!
Letter: TO MRS. THOMAS STEVENSON
WICK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1868.
MY DEAR MOTHER, - . . . Wick lies at the end or elbow of an open triangular bay, hemmed on either side by shores, either cliff or steep earth-bank, of no great height. The grey houses of Pulteney extend along the southerly shore almost to the cape; and it is about half-way down this shore - no, six-sevenths way down - that the new breakwater extends athwart the bay.
Certainly Wick in itself possesses no beauty: bare, grey shores, grim grey houses, grim grey sea; not even the gleam of red tiles; not even the greenness of a tree. The southerly heights, when I came here, were black with people, fishers waiting on wind and night. Now all the S.Y.S. (Stornoway boats) have beaten out of the bay, and the Wick men stay indoors or wrangle on the quays with dissatisfied fish-curers, knee-high in brine, mud, and herring refuse. The day when the boats put out to go home to the Hebrides, the girl here told me there was 'a black wind'; and on going out, I found the epithet as justifiable as it was picturesque. A cold, BLACK southerly wind, with occasional rising showers of rain; it was a fine sight to see the boats beat out a-teeth of it.
In Wick I have never heard any one greet his neighbour with the usual 'Fine day' or 'Good morning.' Both come shaking their heads, and both say, 'Breezy, breezy!' And such is the atrocious quality of the climate, that the remark is almost invariably justified by the fact.
The streets are full of the Highland fishers, lubberly, stupid, inconceivably lazy and heavy to move. You bruise against them, tumble over them, elbow them against the wall - all to no purpose; they will not budge; and you are forced to leave the pavement every step.
To the south, however, is as fine a piece of coast scenery as I ever saw. Great black chasms, huge black cliffs, rugged and over- hung gullies, natural arches, and deep green pools below them, almost too deep to let you see the gleam of sand among the darker weed: there are deep caves too. In one of these lives a tribe of gipsies. The men are ALWAYS drunk, simply and truthfully always. From morning to evening the great villainous-looking fellows are either sleeping off the last debauch, or hulking about the cove 'in the horrors.' The cave is deep, high, and airy, and might be made comfortable enough.
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