Living In and Around Denver..Questions..

[RachelV]

I-70 is not that bad with a little advance planning and common sense. Having a flexible place to sleep up there (i.e. a short term or long term rental) is a game changer. Personally, I'd say that out of maybe 20 weekend-centric drives per winter I have about 2 that are ordeals.

Real estate aside, cost of living here is very cheap compared to the east or west coasts. Coming from Toronto, you may not find the real estate prices as shocking as many. You can still find nice things for non-insane prices, as long as your definition of "nice" doesn't include acres of land or 5,000 sq ft. Home prices do vary wildly based on what you value in the place where you live: proximity to trails, easy access to mass transit, lots of space, etc. There are tons of options.

I've been in Boulder since 2011 and moved here from NYC. Feel free to PM!

 

[Philpug]

Gas is cheap.

 

[fatbob]

Think if I was doing it with a clean sheet and could swing it, I'd highly consider living up in Summit and reverse commuting. Fridays work from home, weather a total shitshow - sorry can't get in telecommute. Depends on job and facetime required of course.

 

[socalgal]

Most employers will give more $ before they give more vacation. Almost all actually.

Other people that work there will never know what you make, but they'll know pretty quick if you got a ton of vacation when starting. That usually leads to them bitching about their lack of vacation and a general negative environment.

My DH has experienced this at his company. We would take an extra week of vacation rather than a bigger raise. As a result, we just budget and subsidize extra days off w/o pay anyways.