Relocating from minnesota to colorado?? (Denver, Arvada: homes, high school, living)

[cjthyr]

My wife and I along with our three boys 5, 3 and 1 are about to hopefully relocate to Colorado from Minnesota. My wife has family there and lived there for a while through high school, I lived there for two years in my late teens, otherwise here. We are in our early 30's and I have a small remodeling company here and have been in business for about 7 years. We are looking in the coal creek area up to the Nederland area to live and were wondering if anyone has an opinion or perspective on first trying to find enough work until word of mouth spreads, knowing in advance I will most likely be working in the west suburbs area and second any info good or bad about those areas to live. We currently live in a suburb of Minneapolis similar to Arvada and are ready to try a different pace, style or whatever one calls it, of life. We visit out there every year and have for the past ten years and are familiar with the Denver metro down to the springs. Thanks for your time.

[Lupulin]

Do you think you would have enough work in those small towns? Or do you plan on commuting to the larger cities to the east?

I considered moving to Nederland once (while working in Boulder), but after hearing some stories from a co-worker and a friend that live up there, I changed my mind. I'm a "mountain person" in that I climb a lot and I spend a lot of time in the backcountry, but I don't think I could handle living up there full time. Winters are essentially 9 months long. And, often, when Boulder gets a little rain or an inch of snow, let's say, Nederland might be seeing a foot. Thus, getting to work, which would normally be 30 minutes or so on a dry day, may entail digging your car out of a drift and then plowing your own driveway for an hour (my friend, like many up there, have their own plows, as their driveways are long). There were a few days a year that my co-worker just couldn't get to work at all (he had no plow and a short driveway).

There are other hardships as well, like you'll have to deal with septic systems, wells/pumps (my friend's well is 600 feet deep, so it requires a pump, which fails/freezes from time to time), wildlife (lions and bears), and wildfires. It's like a different lifestyle and a different world up there -- just up the road. Just saying all this to make sure you're aware. Visiting in the summer months is completely different.

But, hey, if this is what you're looking for, then you could be really happy up there. And some of the homes are in the towns, so the living may not be as rough. Oh, and because you're from Minnesota, I didn't bother to mention the cold, as I think you can handle it.

[cjthyr]

Thanks for your info and questions, it helps keep us realistic about this. We have done some homework over the past three years to try and keep the shock factor of moving to a minimum if thats possible by staying in the area during different times of the year. By in the area I mean from Blackhawk to Nederland. We thought it might be a bit far to commute for what I do so we have sort of narrowed it down to the lower coal creek area if possible. We have a wood burning stove here and are comforable with that as a primary heat source, I enjoy the cutting and splitting (free therapy). I am not sure about the snowfall amounts there but I get by here with a plow on the front of a 4x4 and that hopefully should work there aside from the large amounts.

We do need to learn more about the wildlife in the area for multiple reasons and I have been hooked up to city water and sewer so it will be a learning experience with maintaining a well and septic.

Thanks again for your time.