Evergreen? (Center, Mead: buying a home, neighborhood, buying) - Denver - Colorado (CO) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

Nav · 09-09-2008, 01:45 PM

Evergreen is a gorgeous place to live, lots of family activities and wonderful parks. However, it also depends where in evergreen you live. In town life is pretty suburban, but head out to the western side of evergreen and you need to be prepared for a more "natural" kind of living. There are mountain lions living in evergreen and they are dangerous to small pets, especially at night. Attacks are rare, but they do happen. most dog owners, have caged areas to let their pets out in. You will get snow, and lots of it. In the winter you will most likely be looking at an hour commute to the western edge of the city, around highway 470. Depending on where you live it can vary by 30 minutes. Most people move to Denver and have visions of living in a quaint mountain town such as evergreen and move there only to move back to suburbia a year of two later. They find its just too much for them. But, if you like the more rural way of life, you cant beat it. I had a deal on a house in evergreen (which fell through) so I did a ton of research on the area. Eventually, I ended up in Elizabeth. I'm still in the hills (although not as tall), I'm in a forest, but the commute is so much nicer!

Nav

nele · 09-09-2008, 02:16 PM

We lived in Evergreen a few years back when we first moved here, then lived in Denver for a few years. When it was time to buy, we looked in Evergreen but couldn't really find anything that met our requirements (privacy and quiet), in our price range. Ended up buying on Lookout Mountain, in Golden, and we love it! The proximity to Denver is a plus, and it feels like being in the mountains though I suppose it's really just foothills. :-) Much more affordable than Evergreen too.

bhcompy · 09-09-2008, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nav

Evergreen is a gorgeous place to live, lots of family activities and wonderful parks. However, it also depends where in evergreen you live. In town life is pretty suburban, but head out to the western side of evergreen and you need to be prepared for a more "natural" kind of living. There are mountain lions living in evergreen and they are dangerous to small pets, especially at night. Attacks are rare, but they do happen. most dog owners, have caged areas to let their pets out in. You will get snow, and lots of it. In the winter you will most likely be looking at an hour commute to the western edge of the city, around highway 470. Depending on where you live it can vary by 30 minutes. Most people move to Denver and have visions of living in a quaint mountain town such as evergreen and move there only to move back to suburbia a year of two later. They find its just too much for them. But, if you like the more rural way of life, you cant beat it. I had a deal on a house in evergreen (which fell through) so I did a ton of research on the area. Eventually, I ended up in Elizabeth. I'm still in the hills (although not as tall), I'm in a forest, but the commute is so much nicer!

Nav

how do you like elizabeth? my wife wants to add horse properties to our potential list when we get the goahead to move again and ive heard elizabeth has plenty of them. is that true?

Nav · 09-09-2008, 08:25 PM

Yes, Elizabeth and its neighbor, Kiowa are horse friendly. Actually, Elizabeth is a nice refuge few know about. Acreage can be found pretty easily, although its not necessarily cheap, it is not excessively expensive. I work in Englewood, so my commute is about 40 miles. Its a ways, but I work 6:30 - 3:30 so traffic is pretty light. I'm about 45 minutes in in the morning, 55 on the way home. We have the rolling hills covered in dense ponderosa pine forests and open pastureland. As far as location, there are 2 separate ways to get into Denver so you are never "trapped" if snow is bad in one direction. We are only 20 minutes to the Outlet Mall in Castle Rock and 25 minutes to Southlands Mall in Aurora. Park Meadows Mall in Lonetree and DTC are about 30 - 35 minutes away. Colorado springs is only 45 miles away so its easy to go there and "play" on the weekends. Best thing is, Elizabeth is in Elbert County, which is not considered "Front Range" so Taxes are much less and we dont have to deal with emissions inspections like the front range counties do. Its a bit rural, family oriented, and about as far away from the "tract house" mentality as you can get.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Nav

MCNPA · 09-10-2008, 01:46 PM

Evergreen sounds great. The mountain lion thing worries me a little bit with my two dogs, and children on the way, so I'll have to consider, but it still sounds like a possibility.

robertzimmerman · 09-10-2008, 03:23 PM

One disadvantage of Evergreen is that you will spend a *lot* of time in your car. Shopping for anything except day-to-day groceries/beer/whatnot involves a trip to town. My sister-in-law lives (and works) in Evergreen, and she chews through the cars and the gas like you wouldn't believe.

SheridanL · 09-10-2008, 03:54 PM

If you are not a "massive shopper",...like Macy's, Nordstroms, etc.,,you should be fine!! Mind you,..Denver is only 28 miles away!!
If you just want "mall" shopping ,...there are plenty WAYYY before Denver...such as the mall off of Kipling and I70!! Can't remember what it is called...been there it's just that it wasn't there when I was growing up!
It's not like you are isolated (just "feels" like it...which is PERFECT, isn't it??)
I drove from Aurora everyday, to Evergreen to the Hair Salon I worked at in the late 90's. Can't be THAT bad or, I wouldn't have done it, right?? JMO.

cvinny25 · 11-11-2008, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MCNPA

My wife and I have been searching areas of Denver we might be interested in moving to. A beautiful place seems to be Evergreen. Great schools too. Can anybody tell me more about Evergreen? Is it a good place to raise children? Lifestyle there? Houses I've seen online seem gorgeous in my price range, provided we could get jobs near Evergreen or in Denver. Don't mind commuting under 1 hour preferrably.

Hello,
I'm not certain you will see this as your posting was done in Sept, however, if you are still considering Evergreen to live, I STRONGLY SUGGEST IT.
I moved from N. California 5 years ago and love it. The Winter is easy, the community is perfect for families and the commute to the high country or Denver is a piece of cake.

SheridanL · 11-11-2008, 02:49 PM

Evergreen Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nuf said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If one is used to a 30-45 minute commute, Evergreen would be a no-brainer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LEDFuller · 02-01-2009, 06:10 PM

Does anyone have info on specific neighborhoods in Evergreen? And we cannot go over 500K ( and really should stay under 400K). We really want to be very close to a grade school, preferably walking distance ( I know, it's a lot to ask...)

There seems to be a real community, which is what we are looking for. And one concern I've heard from friends that went to H.S. there is that if you aren't rich, you might feel a bit out of the loop.

Any thoughts?

Thank you.