Moving

Over the past 6 months, my wife has aggressively been looking for a new home for our family in Lakewood, CO.  We moved into our current home in 2007 with me working in Broomfield and her working in Lakewood and having a baby on the way.  Our goals were roughly equidistant between our places of employment and a good school district for the kids.  Our budget at the time was $250,000 hoping that one of us could carry the mortgage in case the other chose to stay at home.  We bumped that budget slightly, but were blessed with a comfortable home in a great neighborhood.

Since 2007, I have changed jobs twice and am currently working in Golden.  My wife has the same employer.  We now have two daughters that have chosen to attend the premier public liberal arts college prep high school in the area, which happens to be in Lakewood about 30 minutes from our current home.

During the 2019-2020 school year, my daughter would take the 45 minute bus ride or I would drive her 30 minutes.  Our younger daughter still needed to be dropped off at school 7 minutes away from the house.  With Covid-19 we got a little break in Spring 2020.  The fall of the 2020-2021 school year started with hybrid learning and me working from a home office.  As the year progressed we felt like being closer to work and the girls being closer to school would be very beneficial.

I am attached to the neighborhood for a number of reasons including familiar running and bicycling routes, nearby tennis courts, and an AA club down the street.  The restaurants leave a little to be desired, but overall it has been great.  The Apex parks and recreation department has a host of terrific offerings.

Our new house is 30 minutes south close to US 285 and SH 121.  As it turns out there is an AA club 5 minutes from the house.  There are bike paths heading to Bear Creek Reservoir.  I will be a half mile from Henry Lake and Marston Lake.  There are even loops I can do around the neighborhood as short as 2/3 of a mile.  Foothills Golf Course is right down the road.  If I got into triathlon training again, Chatfield is a half hour away.

The girls will be 5 minutes from school, my wife will be  15 minutes away from her office and I will have a 20 minute drive instead of a 25 minute drive.

The house is significantly larger at near 5000 square feet versus 2800 square feet.  In terms of space we use, the garage is 3 car versus 2 car.  There are 4 bedrooms upstairs instead of 3 bedrooms.  The basement is similar, but larger.  Finally, the main level has an office.  The yard is bigger (8712 square feet vs 4965 square feet) and has a nice deck with an awning and walkout basement.  Rather than ceiling fans, there is a whole house fan.

Packing has been tough.  My bulkiest items are books.  This is closely followed by sporting goods (3 bicycles, golf clubs, ski gear, camping gear, climbing gear, scuba gear, tennis gear, etc.).  A literal ton of gym equipment (600# stall mats, 600# plates, 100# barbell, 165# atlas stones, 250# tire, easily 285# misc). My clothes also need to be paired down and I continue to put a dent in this periodically.  I also have the china set from our wedding that is difficult to pack.