1200 Miles West

In our Livonia house we didn’t have much really have a dining room, so we were excited after moving in to the new house to go out and purchase a new table and chairs. For whatever reason, we both figured that we’d find something that we could immediately agree on and bring home. (Who knows what we were thinking!)

We elected to visit both American Furniture Warehouse (an Art Van like store) and Scandinavian Design (a more modern alternative) before making an actual purchase. Did I mention that we visited each one twice? If you ask Mike, he leans more toward traditional furniture, while I like to break the mold every now and then and buy something that people wouldn’t expect.

Now, the pictures don’t do justice to the slate tile work of the table, but here’s a few snap shots to give everyone a sneak peak at what we settled on. We also bought six leather chairs to go with the new table. It’s a good thing that we visited each store twice as the table came from Scandinavian, while the chairs are from AFW.

We’ve also set-up the orange stained cabinet that my Dad refinished for us last year and it’s a nice compliment to the colors in the table. We’re definitely looking forward to having our first dinner party with friends so that we can enjoy the new purchase!

Mike and I eat a small breakfast every morning before we head off to work. Sometimes it’s a bowl of cereal, while other days it’s a granola bar and a piece of fruit. Okay…so Mike doesn’t normally eat fruit, but that’s not the point of this blog entry. That’s a whole other discussion in itself.

On the weekends we like to go out to breakfast and instead of eating a full lunch, we typically get a breakfast that consists of eggs, bacon and toast. The problem is that at home in Michigan we had the option to choose between Bob Evan’s (Mike’s favorite) or IHOP. Each had options that we enjoyed at a reasonable price.

Since we’ve been in the house we’ve gone out for breakfast twice and for whatever reason we dined at The Village Inn, which if you haven’t been there before it’s basically a step down from Denny’s. So, we decided today that we’re not going back. We’re going to try to break out of our 2 mile radius and find something that we enjoy. Hopefully we’ll find it before my parents arrive on the 10th as I know they are always up for a good breakfast…although maybe we can just convince my Dad to cook, which would be even better!

What a coincidence that Mike and I would end up in the State that produces the most beer in the nation. The Colorado brewing industry produced more than 23.3 million barrels or 724.5 million gallons of beer, edging out second place California.

Part of the reason for growth in the state is the growing popularity of craft beers, which include New Belgium Brewing Co., along with Anheuser Busch in Fort Collins, and Coors Brewing Co., which has been based in Golden since 1873.

When you come to visit, we can definitely find a brewery tour to take you on! And if you’re partial to Fat Tire like Mike is, you won’t even need to leave our house!

Driving to work on Friday morning, we heard a news story that Denver is the healthiest city in the country. I also found the following online:

People who live in the Denver metro area boast the best average health ranking among 25 comparable metropolitan areas, according to a report released Monday by The Metro Denver Health & Wellness Commission.

While we still have some unpacking to do, we’re headed to the Aurora Reservoir this morning to test out their new 8.5 mile long roller blade trail. I’m planning on taking the camera with me, so watch for pictures later today!

Update:
We made it the entire way around the lake, however it has to be one of the windiest days we’ve seen in Denver, so I feels like we bladed 10+ miles instead of just 8.

Last Tuesday I was able to tag along on a real estate sales call in Glenwood Springs, CO. Becki (my boss) and Ronnie a co-worker were presenting to the Swift Communications group and seeing as they use CareerSite for their employment solution, I was invited to attend.

I don’t have much to say about the sales call (the jury is still out as to whether or not they’ll sign with us…) but I was impressed by the gorgeous surroundings. Here’s a few snapshots that I took from a roadside park.

Interesting facts about Glenwood Springs:

Elevation: 5763 feet

Population in 2006: 8,765

Estimated household income: $44,000

Median resident age: 32.6 years old

Mike filled you in on most of the details from this weekend, but what’s a blog entry without pictures?

When we arrived at the house on Friday after the closing we were surprised to see the four landscapers taking a siesta in our front yard. Here’s a look at the house with our new sod and no napping landscapers.
The movers that we had unload our POD containers were fantastic. They were able to unload three containers in less than three hours.

Here are a few pictures of what it looked like shortly after they were done.

Here’s the kitchen in all it’s glory. While all the boxes are now gone from this room, there are still a few things that I haven’t been able to locate. I guess that’s part of moving and we’ll see how long it takes me to find them…or if I’ll just go without.

Mike’s pride and joy is now housed in the upstairs bonus room. For those of you who don’t know, I’m talking about his TV…not me!

Long term plan for this room is to build an entertainment center much like the one we had in the basement of the Brookview house. Too bad we couldn’t bring that with us!

All three beds are set-up, so we’re ready for our first visitors. Mom and Dad bought tickets yesterday and they will be coming out to see us in early October…anyone else up for trip?

We turned in our keys to our downtown apartment today! It wasn’t too hard to let it go, but there are a couple of things we’ll miss.

Here’s the Top 5 list:

#5 - The Free 16th Street Mall Bus
#4 - The restaurants and shopping all within walking distance
#3 - The fitness room five floors down
#2 - The two minute walk to work

And the #1 thing we’ll miss….drum roll please…

The fact that they let us put our trash in a chute that goes all the way from our floor to the basement!

Now there are also a couple of things that we won’t miss including:

• The 5am wake-up calls by the garbage truck emptying the dumpsters out back.
• What a pain in the you-know-what it is to drag groceries from the car to the 8th floor.
• The 600 sq/ft apartment with no bedroom door!

I know our passionate and devoted followers haven’t received an update in quite some time so I figured I better throw something up. It will be minus Erin’s normal pictorial bonanza as the camera is buried somewhere and hasn’t been found yet. I would expect to see some new pictures in the next couple of days.

At about 0945 on Friday morning we completed the final signatures and took possession of our new home. It has been a whirlwind since then to say the least…

On Friday we took care of sealing all the grout. No idea why they consider that home owner maintenance as opposed to what you normally do when you install tile but Erin and I completed that task to ensure our grout would stay new looking. The first two POD containers had arrived by dinner time. One of our windows was fixed and the phone installation had been finished before we headed back to downtown for the last night in our apartment.

On Saturday we packed up the majority of our belongings in the apartment and headed back to the house to meet the movers for 0830. They arrived and with the cooperation of PODS, all three of our pods had been emptied and moved into the appropriate part of the house by 1130. For some reason though the entire 2.5 car garage was full even though we came from a 2 car garage - maybe my tools multiplied on the way here? We spent the majority of the day focused on the upstairs and by 1800, Madden was running on the big screen… Oh and we set up the master bedroom and the two other bedrooms.

Sunday was Kitchen day and underneath 32,000 pounds of wrapping paper we found most of our Kitchen. It is amazing how dirty stuff your old stuff looks when you move it into a new house. The house is pretty livable and mostly unpacked with the exception of the garage and a complete sparseness of furnishings.

More soon…

Located only 30 miles from Denver, Golden Gate Canyon’s hiking trails offer something for everyone. We had originally selected the Frazer Meadow /Horseshoe Loop Trails, but after speaking with the ranger at the Visitor’s Center we changed our plans and elected to take give the Burro Trail a try:

Burro Trail
Permitted uses: Foot only
Miles paved: 0
Miles non-paved: 4.5
Total distance: 4.5
Usage: Medium
Degree of difficulty: Difficult
Elevation: 7,800

This trail did not appear in our Denver Day Hikes book, so we (aka I) assumed it was a moderate hike like the others we had reviewed in the book. The first mile and half was treacherous, especially since we were out drinking the night before.

Once we had hiked about one-third of the trail, we made it to my favorite area which was the heavily wooded section. Don’t get me wrong, I like to see the scenic views from the edge of the mountain as much as anyone, but it was warm today and it felt nice to walk through the cool forest.

The entire hike took us about two hours to complete, however I don’t think we saw another hiker until we were about 30 minutes from the end. It was nice to spend a morning in the wilderness.

That might be due to the fact that Mike and I finally selected our washer and dryer this weekend and after much research and an in-store demo, we selected the Samsung 3.8 Cu. Ft. Front Load Washer and Dryer in Tango Red.

When we decided to move to Colorado, I had a short list of must haves that Mike agreed to. One of those items was a cool new washer and dryer, but as you know I didn’t want just any old white or black ones. I wanted color!

So color is what I got. We also purchased the pedestals that go with the washer and dryer and we were pleased to find out that there is a full refund for each of them - that’s $398 back! Which if you ask Mike, we paid too much for two machines that sometimes eat our clothes.

The good news is that I’m happy and I’m definitely looking forward to my first load!