Would love a view of the Mountains, am I crazy? (Denver: 2014, apartment)

[dixiemur]

Thanks. I'm just looking at an atlas of Colorado, so clearly I'm pretty clueless about the landscape out there. I will plan to visit Longmont and those towns you mentioned. Thanks a lot for your input. I guess I just need to drive around and see where I'd like to live and then try to find a job there or near there. Sounds pretty random; there's probably a logical way to go about this?

[Techn0lady]

You'll find plenty of places with mountain views out there. Most of those places will be either high rises downtown or any place more than a few stories high on the west side. Anyone who says otherwise probably lives in Poughkeepsie.

[Techn0lady]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

BS.

I've lived in Lakewood, Golden, Englewood, Thornton, Ken Caryl, Littleton, Park Hill, Crestmoor, Sherrelwood, ... and NEVER HAD A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS in over 40 years of living in the area.

I am very sorry for your loss and do keep in mind that they are doing wonderful things with stem cells these days and in a few more years it may be entirely be possible to grow new retinas !

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by dixiemur

Geez, how depressing. I'm not expecting post card views, maybe foothills are what I'm referring to. I was hoping there were some apartments or townhomes, where you knew you were in Colorado and not Minnesota. I lived in Montana for several years and had views of 'foothills' I guess, no matter where I lived.

Effectively, this is the view you'll get from most of the Denver metro area, the foothills to the West. The closer you live to those foothills, the less view you'll have to the West.

For example, I lived in Ken Caryl's Williamsburg Filing 1 ... I was one of the first pre-build buyers there ... and got a site that was on the higher ground of that subdivision (and thankfully, without bentonite on that site) ... and all I had for a view was the foothills of the Ken Caryl area to the West. Being right up against the foothills, I had no "mountain view" whatsoever. For awhile, I had a rental house near Bandimere Speedway, same thing. The sun set over the foothills, not the mountains and there was no view beyond the hillside behind the Speedway. And that's what the newer subdivisions along C-470 have for a view, just the foothills to the West.

Even in places like Morrison, there is very limited views to the mountains. Buried in the canyon, it gives viewpoints to the adjacent wooded areas, but not the mountains.

There just isn't the opportunity (jobs) in Montana, and flights to anywhere are expensive. Estes Park seemed really nice, as did Boulder.

Estes Park is nice, but much of it is simply buried in the mountains without any views except the adjacent housing/forest hillsides. We go there every year for several conferences and have stayed in just about every area with B&B's or cabins for rent. The best views we've gotten of the mountains in the area is the last few miles into town on the highway heading there. From the county fairgrounds, the views are nice, too. I've taken our horses trailriding in the area, and mountain vista views are limited from a lot of the trails ... although you are riding in the mountains and it's very nice.

I liked the Dillon/Silverthorn area too. There's got to be someplace with jobs and views in western/northern Colorado; I know these desirable places will be more expensive. Any 'hidden gems' out there?

If you can find work in mountain places like Leadville or Grand Lake that gives you a livable income, you'd have lots of mountain vistas/views. Consider looking for work/housing in the Summit county area ski resort towns. You'll be living in the mountains and have lots of vistas to look upon each day, even if not necessarily from your residence.

What you do for work will greatly affect your ability to live in the desirable mountain areas. Survival level wages doing menial work has a lot of competitors for the available jobs because many folk are willing to take the trade-off simply because they can live in the mountains and follow the dream/lifestyle for awhile. Bear in mind that there's a lot of demand for the jobs or work opportunities even among the highly skilled and professionals (even MD's are struggling to find opportunities so they can move to the mountain towns, there's only so many practices that can be supported on the population base or the specialty clinics) ....

The reality is that for most folk, most viable jobs are in the Denver metro area and you do what you can to live there and visit the mountains when you can. Look at the unemployment rate for Colorado's various trades, skilled workers, and professional folk and you'll see that job opportunities are somewhat limited. You're competing against a lot of people who want the dream in Colorado at any cost along with a lot of college grads who want to stay in Colorado, willing to work at almost anything for just about rock bottom wages. This is not a new trend, either ... saw this decades ago; watched the daughters of several friends get pysch degrees which didn't qualify them for much more than nursing home staff, and they couldn't get hired at that because there were MSW's, MS's, and PhD's in the field applying for those jobs, too. They all went on to get MSW's, thinking that would get them jobs ... and still didn't get hired at anything meaningful or paying a living wage. A few went on to getting their teaching credentials and got hired at various school districts in the area. I've seen architects, engineers, veterinarians, and many various BA degree holders have to leave the area when they couldn't find work in their fields and couldn't make it on their commission sales jobs they took in the interim to survive.

Good luck in your job search.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Katiana

If you have west windows, you will have a mountain view from anywhere in the metro area.

Not necessarily, unless you have a direct line of sight. Which is somewhat hard to come by, especially at lower elevations.

[smtcpa]

I'm not sure, but what the OP refers to as "mountain view" and what you natives refer to as mountain view may be much different. When I read comments that you don't have mountain views from Golden and Boulder, I thought you were being sarcastic. I have the same wishes as OP regarding mountain views when I move to CO, but I would be happy in Arvada, Boulder, Louisville, even some parts of Denver. The views from Boulder and just east of Boulder are, IMO, fantastic. Just seeing something other than cornfields, like I do in IL, and the comfort that those mountain play lands are there not too far away is enough for me.

[davidv]

Part of what is here is true.

The closer you are to the western part of the Metro area, the harder it is to see the mountains from your home. I can be in the mountains in 10 minutes, but I can't really see them from my home. The other homes and the mature trees block my view. If I walk up the street to the school, I get a great view. When I drive the major streets around my house, I can see the mountains perfectly.

And yes, these are mountains. They don't need to by 12,000 ft snowcapped peaks to be mountains.

Now I don't see the 14ers because the smaller mountains block the view, but I am okay with that.

[Techn0lady]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

If you can find work in mountain places like Leadville or Grand Lake that gives you a livable income, you'd have lots of mountain vistas/views.

I'm sorry but that's really nonsense. When you actually line in the mountains you really don't have so much of the beautiful mountain view that the OP is looking for as much as a view of the mountain next to you.

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Consider looking for work/housing in the Summit county area ski resort towns. You'll be living in the mountains and have lots of vistas to look upon each day, even if not necessarily from your residence.

The OP clearly said that he wishes to live in Denver so I am unclear why you are telling him to live a hundred miles away from Denver with a commute that would take a small snowtruck to reliably accomplish in the winter. Remarkably bad advice. [/quote]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Survival level wages doing menial work has a lot of competitors for the available jobs because many folk are willing to take the trade-off ....

The OP, when you actually read his post, clearly says that he is looking for apartments in the $1000 range so why you are giving him advice about "survival level wages" is once again, beyond me.

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Look at the unemployment rate for Colorado's various trades, skilled workers, and professional folk and you'll see that job opportunities are somewhat limited. ...

Again, this is remarkably bad advice. The reality is that unemployment has been steadily dropping since 2010 and now is at 5.4%, the employment growth rate is at 2.9% all significantly better than the national average. You can use "teh google" to verify that. The reality for everyone else in my universe is that Denver has a growing and viable job market and is one of the better places to go job shopping in the country.

You seen to be some sort of "Debbie Downer" intent only on giving out factually incorrect information to the OP and I have no idea why but it's the internet and it takes all kinds I suppose

[Techn0lady]

Originally Posted by davidv

Part of what is here is true.

I can see the mountains perfectly. ...
And yes, these are mountains.

That is such a beautiful view Two more weeks and I'll be able to enjoy it every day

[davidv]

Two more things:

Your original post said you were looking east of I-25 and north of I-70. That area of the metro area is the least desirable part of the metro area.

If you want sweeping vistas of the Front Range, you should be in SE Aurora. It sits higher than Denver and the views you get there can be magnificent. Of course you are an hour away from the mountains at the point, but if seeing is better than experiencing, then that is the place to be.