Vegetarian/Celiac Moving To Denver

[jage]

Green are Wild Oats, Orange are Whole Foods, Orange with a purple stripe are planned Whole Foods and clear with a letter represent an airline offering a direct flight to Indy.

And we are coming to Denver in two weeks- this thread is the intelligence gathering for that weekend mission. We're only going to be there for two days so the more info we have going in, the more we can optimize our time driving around and trying to decide whether to move there in December.

We did the same thing with Phoenix, with the intention to rent there. At least with Phoenix we'd been there 10 years ago and really liked it. Boy how things change! Essentially if you're not wearing designer clothes and getting out of a Porsche Boxter, you're not spit in that city, and they let you know it. The only Jeeps I saw were brand new and polished to within and inch of their lives, with all the fake bling that mall rats use. The only old trucks I saw were clearly gardener's trucks. There was a 6 month waiting list to park/store my single car trailer and there was barely space for my truck in the parking lots. Basically I didn't find anywhere that was not overdeveloped, everyone seemed to be shopping all the time and pretending to be one of the mega-ultra rich crowd, busy looking down on all the other people pretending to be loaded.

When I decided to move on, Tucson was first on the list. Coming in through Oro valley I saw old Jeep Comanches tooling around, purpose built newer jeeps, people driving everything from the old pickup to the Porsche Boxter, but also everything in between. Everybody here pretending to be rich has obvious knock-off handbags and sunglasses and they don't look down on anybody because, well, they're pretending in Tucson. Basically there are economic strata here, so we were able to find a nicer neighborhood where it was quiet, there is some real yard and driveway, and yet nobody gets bent if I wrench on my jeep, or park my truck in the driveway. I don't feel the constant judgement of not having a new vehicle nor wearing designer clothes. When I leave my neighborhood nobody knows which part of town I came from and nobody cares.

We've been up to Phoenix a few times and it continues to be just too busy and hectic. It's also hard to get out of the city- if you want to find a patch of nothing to get lost on, it could take an hour going the short way. In Tucson I can be decently in the mountains in 20-40 minutes or in the middle of nowhere in a little over an hour.

We really really like Tucson, except that the people are stone cold morons. You can't talk to your doctor about health stuff, the cashier about groceries, or the tire shop guy about valve stems. Plus it's far away from everything except Phoenix.

[oberon]

Wow.. you paint Arizona in a really bad light. You make it sound like they're all a bunch of stuck-up *******s. Definitely nothing like Denver... well, most of it anyway.

Just so's you know, Phoenix is the closest city to Denver that is larger... and there's nothing even close in size within 500 miles driving distance of Denver.

Good luck.. and I'd be interested to know what you find around DIA as far as available properties are concerned. There are some new developments along 104th Avenue west of E-470/Tower Road that you might like, even if they aren't 1+ acre lots. Just thought I'd mention.

[tfox]

You can probably get a quarter-acre or larger lot size in some of the older 1950s-1960s neighborhoods in the older suburban areas like Westminster, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, etc. Not sure if that's enough to satisfy you.

For right around 500k, there are some horsey properties in a few areas near the E-470 toll road. Look in the area around Brighton, unincorporated Arapahoe County in the neighborhood of SE AUrora, and county areas around Parker.

[jage]

Originally Posted by oberon

Wow.. you paint Arizona in a really bad light. You make it sound like they're all a bunch of stuck-up *******s.

Yeah that's my impression of Phoenix. I'm sure it works for a lot of people, just as I'm sure there are nooks and crannies there where we might be OK, but everytime I go there I just want to GET OUT.

We really struggle with the decision to leave Tucson, and I like Arizona in general. I would and do recommend Tucson for its climate and geography, I just wish that I could get anything done that involved other people- I'll give you another example; I've been trying to combat the weeds we inherited from the previous tenants and I go to the local hardware store to ask about treatments- their suggestion? Put diesel fuel on it or take a blowtorch to it. We're standing in the asile with the Round-Up products and I'm trying to determine the best type and application method, and the best I can get out of these people is "Just use diesel fuel". Arrrgh!

[Katiana]

Isn't there a university in Tucson? I find it hard to believe all the people are "stone cold morons"

Thinking about your feelings about sports, I think you might actually do well in Ft. Collins. Far enough away from Denver for there not to be so much "Broncomania". CSU sports are just not on the level of CU, either. I understand with the new road that it doesn't take long to get to DIA from Ft. Fun.

[jage]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Isn't there a university in Tucson? I find it hard to believe all the people are "stone cold morons"

True, and don't forget I'm here. But I have the whole of the Internet to mine for intellectual companionship- I'm talking about people I interact with at the store or on the street, during the day, doing business, trying to get something done, bought, fixed, planned, etc.

[staje]

Ok, I may have come too late, but in case you are still considering the Denver area I thought you might appreciate my input since I have a fair bit in common with you. First, I live just south of Brighton on 10 acres and we paid 420K 2 years ago. Here is a link to our zillow page to give you an idea of what that will buy you:

Zillow - Real Estate Search Results

You could easily buy something in the Brighton area with an acre under 500K. For our property we paid extra for some of the unusual features like a mother-in-law apartment and a huge barn (we have horses), my sister got 3 acres and a nice modern house for 360K 3 years ago.

I'm also celiac and there are a lot of options, though they are not in Brighton itself. For example I drive to Vitamin Cottage for some things (you can look them up, I go to the one in Lafayette), I got to the Wild Oats in Superior for others, and once in a while I trek to a Whole Foods (I *love* their premade baked goods). All of these involve a drive of 20-30 minutes (on the other hand we live less than 15 minutes from the airport). There are also quite a few places to eat out with GF options - if you search online you will find tons of recommendations. As far as non-chain places go, I personally like Abrusci's and Deby's Gluten Free Cafe. There is also a good celiac association here that has a really good newsletter.

Before I was diagnosed with celiac I was veggie (I'm afraid I've been unable to stay veggie after 20 years because of my many digestive and nutritional problems since being diagnosed). It is very easy to be veggie in Colorado these days, it used to be a pain, but nearly every place has non-meat options. If you want a treat go up to Boulder and try something like the Sunflower cafe. If you stay in Brighton there isn't a lot of choice in restaurants right now (Lone Star, Sushi Place, celiac friendly, Chili's, IHOP, several Mexican places, some fast food, a few chinese places and 3 pizza places, oh, and 3 starbucks and a daz bog). The area is expanding like crazy so there are bound to be more but it isn't bad to drive elsewhere in the city, I can get to pretty much any where in Denver or Boulder in under 40 minutes and it is only 20 or so to Downtown.

[MorningGlory]

Originally Posted by jage

Hi, yet another one considering moving to Denver. We're planning on moving in December and renting to check out the area, as we've done this past year in Tucson AZ. We're also flying up in a few weeks to check things out. We're originally from Indianapolis, Indiana.

If we want to wind up in a nice quiet middle class neighborhood that's not too far from the airport (30 minutes acutal commute?) where should we look?

Is there any place that's got land (not pop-up zero lot lines neighborhoods)? How far from the airport do we have to be before we can afford a more secluded house (see next question)?

Is buying a house with land possible around Denver? (say 1+ acres under 500K)

Also, everytime I look up Denver it's Bronco's this, Bronco's that, anyone there *not* a football fan? Is it possible to live there and not care about football?

The reason Denver is high on our list is because there are direct flights to Indianapolis, there are vegetarian/celiac friendly stores (Whole Foods), but that's really about it. We're really most interested in meeting friendly intelligent people, the latter qualifier being definitly absent in Tucson.

I will just reply to the Broncos part. I think many of us just tolerate the fact that the NFL has replaced the colosseum/gladiators of old, and some spouses for some reason find it necessary to watch. No, of course you do not need to care about football, or any other sport. I've lived here most of my life and I dont even like to ski.

[jage]

Never too late for good info.

You didn't mention Beau Jo's by name, we ate there twice and at Abrusci's once. I got contaminated at Abrusci's but very very lightly. I highly recommend getting the Hoagie sandwich bread as a loaf with your GF Pasta- my wife said it was way better than the table bread.

We were slightly mortified when we tried to go to Deby's on our last day, Sunday, and found out it was closed!

Ah well, we're moving in December (to which part is unknown) but although I can't get my head around the real estate the food and GF support were awesome!

So- having been there there is one thing I'm confused about. Most Denverites when asked "where should we go" said something like "Anywhere but Aurora!" Like Brighton is supposed to be fine, or Centennial, really anything except Aurora.

In doing little but driving through non-Aurora neighborhoods looking at houses for sale we were aghast at the high prices and low maintenance. Haven't you people ever heard of repairing siding or cutting the grass? How do people in 600K 3 bedroom houses live like this- holes in the shingles and broken down trailers in the yard? And the cars! I'm all for having 4 or 5 cars, but every house and all middling older cars? I can only guess everyone is living so far outside their means in housing that a 1994 Corsica starts to look decent.

So we decided to go to Aurora to see what was so bad. We'd seen some industrial areas on the way out from the airport, but nothing scary. In the neighborhoods we found exactly the same things except the prices were more like 175K for a 3 bedroom and the exteriors were intact and the lawns were cared for. Even the cars matched with the same 3-4 10 year old vehicles per house. What the heck is so darned awful about Aurora? Or is it like "South Aurora" but everyone just says "Aurora"?

[staje]

I forgot about Beau Jos - they get their crust from Deby's as does Abrusci's - sorry to hear about your contamination, I've had good luck there in the past but I don't have a lot overt symptoms when I'm glutened.

As for neighborhoods - there is nothing wrong with some parts of Aurora. In the past Aurora was known for having gangs and a lot of drug problems, now this is probably confined to only some of the older areas. If you look in the newer areas (particularly more east and more south) you can find some nice neighborhoods. Commerce City has a similar problem, it is historically labled as being industrial and polluted, however this is not true of the areas to the north and east of central Commerce City, those areas have a lot of new homes and are quite nice.

I'm not sure where you were that you saw 600K homes in such bad shape, but I'm sure they exist. It sounds like you were in an area that was old enough or rural enough to not have covenants, but most newer communities do have them.