Moving to Denver in 2014

[denverbound14]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

We are focused now on finding a school for my daughter. She goes to a Montessori school here in NM and we wanted to keep her in one. I just found out that they have public Montessori schools in Denver, too so that's great and gives us more options.

We will be taking a little trip soon to scout out areas we may be interested in. I've heard good and not so good about many places so we'll have a lot to look into.

I'll be graduating with my nursing degree this December and hopefully will have no problem getting a job at one of the hospitals there. But I would prefer to work at Denver Medical or the Children's Hosp in Aurora.

We won't be buying right away so it's not too big a deal if we don't love the first neighborhood we move to.

And my husband will be applying for jobs at one of the newspapers around. He doesn't mind commuting. However, we've been commuting 45 min. each way for four years 6 days a week and I'm ready for a little less commuting.

We'll be visiting soon, so any other info you guys can give would be helpful. We definitely want a place where we can walk to some shops, etc. and not have to drive everywhere like we do now living 45 min out of town.

I've heard quit a bit about the southern areas of Denver, but nothing about the northern and north western side. Can anyone tell me about those places and what they're like?

[scrapper105]

There's probably not much point in discussing various neighborhoods if the Montessori school is the most important predictor of where you will settle. I could tell you about Broomfield, Katiana can talk about Louisville and other northern suburbs and mic111 also knows a lot about the northern suburbs.

Make a short list of the Montessori schools and then see if you can afford the houses/apartments that are IN BOUNDS for those schools. We'll go from there.

[denverbound14]

So these are the Montessori schools we are looking in to right now:

Montessori School of Denver
1460 S Holly St
Denver, CO 80222

Giplin Montessori
2949 California St
Denver, CO 80205

Denison Montessori
1821 S Yates ST
Denver, CO 80219

Montessori Children's House of Denver
(there are four locations to this school. The one we are visiting when we come down is in Stapleton but I will list them all.)
Mayfair: 1467 Birch Street Denver, CO 80220
Stapleton: 2211 Xanthia Way Denver, CO 80238
Hilltop: 690 Colorado Boulevard Denver, CO 80206
Park Hill: 2600 Leyden Street Denver, CO 80207


So for we are looking in areas around these schools. If anyone knows anything, good or bad, about these schools as well, please share.

[davebarnes]

Colorado School Grades
the search function is weak
you have to find the exact school name

[denverbound14]

One of the schools we are looking into is in Stapleton. I've been looking in to it and it seems like a really nice area for our family. Can anyone who lives there or knows the area well comment?

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by denverbound14

One of the schools we are looking into is in Stapleton. I've been looking in to it and it seems like a really nice area for our family. Can anyone who lives there or knows the area well comment?

There should be lots of information about Stapleton on here if you search.

Stapleton is a new community built in the new urbanist school of thought. They used a variety of builders so not every house is the same. Smaller lots, alleys, homes closer together, lots of parks, good community rec centers, tons of families with kids to the point where people without kids can tend to feel out of place.

The downside to me is that there are no mature trees because it is so new and there is a lack of walkable eating and shopping as compared to Denver's older established neighborhoods. The dining options are not great. It is suburban without a lot of the bad stuff most massive suburban developments have.

You get a lot more house for your money than you do in the best older neighborhoods in the city, but it costs more than most of the newer suburban developments.

As for the schools, since it is basically all upper middle class families feeding the schools, they are quite good. The high school is not built yet.

[Katarina Witt]

Since none of these schools are in the north area, I don't think a discussion of the north burbs would be really appropriate at this time. There is a public Montessori school in Boulder, Community Montessori. Charter school, lottery admission.

Community Montessori Elementary School

[feepy5]

Nursing jobs are very hard to come by here. Find a job before you move. The market is saturated with new grads as there are a ton of nursing schools that have sprung up here in the last few years. Many hospitals have had layoffs here, including Denver Health most recently. I'm an RN at a hospital downtown and we have literally 100s of New grads applying for one open position.