job transfer to denver, need small town (country setting) to raise kids (Lakewood: homes, living in)

[jennifer long]

hi all, my husband is getting a job tranfer to denver. we dont like the city life and want to raise the kids in a small country town. does anyone no of any around the area. wthin aprox, 30-40 miles of denver. he will be working at lockheed martin. I looked up on the map, I saw sedalia, deertrail, arvada, lakewood and a few more. does anyone no what those towns r like? We r prob. going to take a trip out at the end of the year, btu we would sortof like to get an idea of were to start looking.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Arvada and Lakewood are suburbs, not small towns. Have you ever commuted 30-40 miles in the snow?

[Mike from back east]

Jennifer: Denver is a large metro area of 3M people. It would help us if you knew the approx location of the job at L-M.

Generally, small towns 30-40 from downtown Denver are Bennett, Brighton, Castle Rock, Elizabeth, Evergreen, Fort Lupton, Franktown, Genesee, Golden, Idaho Springs, Larkspur, Lochbuie, Watkins, and perhaps areas south of Parker, etc.

These are hellish commutes to the city when it snows, and just plain suck as an everyday drive.

[delta07]

Most of the surrounding towns around Lockheed Martin are all just suburbs of Denver. The urban sprawl surrounding the city is pretty bad! They won't have the small town atmosphere your seeking (possibly Sedalia, but it's been years since I've been there so not sure anymore). You might consider something in the mountains, such as Conifer, Aspen Park or Indian Hills. These are still small towns, although the cost of living in those areas may be higher than the city. You will also deal with more snow in the winter, but the commute would be doable when the weather is decent. You might have a few days in the winter when it may be hard to make the drive though.

[davidv]

Here are some areas that will fit at least some of your criteria: Roxborough, which is very close to the Lockheed Martin plant in Waterton, Louviers,which I know little about other than it is next to Chatfield State Park, and Old Morrison, which is separated visually from the Metro area by the foothills and is close to highways that lead to L-M. Other areas near L-M Waterton that offer a little bit of isolation from the metro area but are very suburban are Ken Caryl Valley, which is isolated by the foothills from the city, and Trailmark, which is isolated from the metro area by the Denver Botanic gardens and Chatfield St Park. Both areas have only homes and few amenities.

Sedalia is just a traffic light and a couple of bars on highway 85.

[jennifer long]

thanks all, and yes, right now he travels up mountains to go to work, aprox 40 miles away now. we have a large truck so its a little easier than the car. we dont mind some travel. we just want to find a farm like place to live were the homes are not too close and we would have enough ground for a small animal farm. we dont need close to stores or anything. aslong as they r bout 30 miles or so. just something quiet, friendly, spacious, wth trees and some land. lol, i no its hard to explain, so we r hopeing to come out at the beginging of the year to look around. thanks for advice

[Katiana]

So is the job in the north or south metro area? In the north area, you might look at Niwot, Hygiene, Berthoud, and so on. I don't know the south area very well.

[davidv]

I looked at your other posts and saw that you are from Pennsylvania. You should be aware that a small farm there is nothing like a small farm here. Colorado is a dry grassland. There are few trees, streams, or water of any kind around here. Large animals like horses and cows need to be fed quite often; grazing is really not an option because the animals will overgraze your small plot in a short amount of time. The same is true of your smaller animals like goats, pigs, sheep, llamas, etc. If you find a plot in the mountains you should also know that there are predators like mountain lions, coyotes, bears, etc., that will kill your animals if given a chance.

There are some hobby farms around the metro area. I suppose the best place for you to look for such a place is south of Castle Rock in the Larkspur area, near Franktown, and by Perry Park. These would all be significant drives of at least 30 miles one way to work on roads that can be very treacherous in bad weather.

[2bindenver]

Martin has two major work sites - the ULA is in Centennial and the "plant" is in Waterton Canyon. There are some offices here and there.

Small acreage properties are $400,000+

[Katiana]

Sorry I wasn't more observant about the workng for Lockheed-Martin business. That eliminates the northern areas entirely.