What are some of the nicer areas of Cheyenne to live in? (for sale)

[BennyPhoenix]

What are the nicer neighborhoods where you can find homes on 5 acre lots or larger?

[sunsprit]

Any of the current 5 acre parcel developments to the East, North, or West of Cheyenne city limits would be pretty nice. It all comes down to the price point you're willing to pay and the size/style of house you want .... and the amenities of the subdivision that you want.

In Cheyenne, there's 5 acre parcels being developed now just north of Storey Blvd and west of Ridge Road, with a fair number of large "prairie palaces" being built there. Looks pretty upscale and conspicuous with lots of very energy consumptive two-story house designs and lots of glass ... these places will be expensive to keep in the winter months, even with low-e triple pane windows. Corner to corner landscaping and lawns, which will be water consumptive, too, in our climate. But if you've got the desire to flaunt it ... there's a "nice" neighborhood for you with houses that would be very expensive in other markets.

There's a nice house at 9410 Michigan Street available right now; priced at about $430K. I watched it being built and it's very nice ... with outbuildings and garage, too. On 5 acres, and zoned for equine; right across from the riding club with their big indoor riding arena (and that property, with 7.5 acres and all the equine facilities and barns is available at $419,000 right now ... but I wouldn't call the housing nice and the property's value is that it's a commercial use facility). These properties are just outside of the Cheyenne city limits, on well and septic systems, dirt streets, etc. There's a number of nice 5 acre places along Riding Club Road there, although I don't know of others for sale at this time.

[BennyPhoenix]

I dont like new homes, they are often cheaply made, ugly and tasteless. My preference would be older ranch style homes, with normal size windows. An established neighborhood usually looks nicer since it is likely to have trees.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by BennyPhoenix

I dont like new homes, they are often cheaply made, ugly and tasteless. My preference would be older ranch style homes, with normal size windows. An established neighborhood usually looks nicer since it is likely to have trees.

Without a visit to Cheyenne, I think you're unlikely to appreciate how treeless this area is. There are trees along the city streets, but not in the quantity you'd expect in a city with an eye toward landscaping.

In the established neighborhoods of Cheyenne, such as the avenues, or the south side ... you will not find 5 acre sites, but platted city building lots. Sometimes a house will be built on a couple of lots, so it's a larger site, but that's still going to be only a fraction of an acre.

An "older" ranch style home with normal size windows, on 5 acres ... would be a very unusual find. Most of the "5 acre" housing areas are new or very recent developments of the last 6 years. It would be more likely to find an older ranch home on 35-40 acres, if not much more land ... and it won't be within the city limits, and the trees, if any, will most likely be in a "shelter belt" carefully planted and nurtured by the owners to provide a wind break for the house and barns. Decorative trees for landscaping purposes are going to be few and far between .... they'd be quite the luxury of water and maintenance.

You need to appreciate that Cheyenne is in a high-altitude desert prairie enviroment with lots of winds to blow away or dry out (winter kill) young trees. The only trees that grow to any size naturally are in the sub-irrigated ground along stream beds in sheltered locations. Everything else is hand planted and maintained with a lot of work and care, and even then ... it's an "iffy" proposition that a young tree will survive to maturity. It's not a case of simply going to the nursery or box store and buying a tree and planting it with an expectation that it will survive and grow as is the case in many other climate zones ... even as close as the Front Range of Colorado, just a few miles to the South from Cheyenne.

I've watched many new folks to the area plant a ton of landscaping in their yards (at substantial expense) and I've just looked at it as "dead trees" before they even finished the planting. Many common techniques of handling trees in other places are deadly to trees here ... I've been to a couple of auctions in Ft Collins where the tree "root ball" was burlap wrapped and the trees looked nice. The root ball was cut up in such a way that it wasn't going to survive here when replanted ... or I've watched folks grab the tree by the trunk above the root ball and lift it to carry it over to their truck, which was a convenient way to lift the tree. A "Dead Tree" is the result ... as the injury to the root structure from the trunk is all it takes to keep a tree from surviving here. You must carry a tree here by lifting the root ball with a forklift or handtruck and supporting the tree. And you cannot drive home with the tree exposed on the truck or trailer, blowing around in the wind. By the time you get home, that tree is dead ... totally dessicated, dried out, and shut down internally.

Landscaping is a tough business here, and I've met most of the folks in the business in the area. They're not only clueless, they're pretty much ignorant of the soils, climate, and needs of the trees and vegetation in the area. I can't tell you how many times the national franchise ... one spray fits all types ... have destroyed the trees or landscaping that they are paid to protect because the national pesticide/fertilizer formulations are deadly to our local situation. It's a living, I guess .... but most don't know what they're doing.

Same thing with the local nursery's ... the box stores buy their stock on a national account, and bring in stuff that won't grow here. Of the two local nursery's that were reasonably competent by trial and error over the years, both have sold out to new operators who don't know squat. One is in the process of going out of business (they haven't realized that goal yet), and the other is highly resistant to acquiring the knowledge about the local plants/trees/growing conditions. They're very adept at selling the wrong stuff, the wrong chemicals, the wrong answers to the landscaping issues here. One did send a worker to the local Master Gardener classes, but they've rejected the concepts and solutions .... as if they do know better with their knowledge from totally different areas of the country.

[BennyPhoenix]

I would prefer about 5 acres, but more would not be a problem.
As for trees, I accept what He provides.