Establishing the Denver Office

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Waiting for the call.....

It all started with one phone call. A call that we had been waiting for for several months that was causing us to be anxious, nervous and excited all at the same time. This would be a game changer in our life. A new beginning and adventure. This is a big business opportunity for Jeff and he is ready to take it head on and I am just along for the ride and adventure. Our plane leaves today at 4:35 to Denver, CO where we will spend several days searching for our new "home away from home". Minnesota will always be my home. It is so bittersweet for me. Excitement for a new adventure but sad to be leaving my home, friends and family behind. But we will be back to visit and we hope our family and friends will come to visit us too.

In search of the right space

Day 1: Today we were on the search for office space and apartments. We started off looking at an office space near the airport. Okay space but not sure about location. The rest of the day we spent looking at apartments. Our last trip to Denver we looked at a few apartments also and found one we really liked but we wanted to check out a few more just to see more options. We toured two apartments in the Broomfield area which were with the Camden Living (Flatiron and Interlocken) development. Each were nice but either they didn't have the availability or we didn't like the location of the unit. We also were disappointed to hear that the community areas were only open during business hours. Not really ideal for entertaining guests. We were going to view one more place but they were on lunch break and when we looked around the area we decided to skip it due to the busy area that it was in. I think we both had our hearts set on the very first apartment that we looked at which was The Lodge Denver West in Lakewood. So we had some lunch and headed over to The Lodge. As soon as we walked in again we just knew it was the "right space". We were able to get some more time to look around since the leasing agent was busy with another customer. During that time we chatted with a resident who had just moved in 3 months ago and seemed to really like the place. We also found out they had extended hours for their club house which we were happy to hear. Two apartments were available on the upper floors that we liked. Unfortunately we were not able to get one of them since it was occupied but we are just hoping that it will have a nice view of the South Table Mesa that sits behind the property. So we told her we'd take it. It is located directly across from the main office which will be convenient for getting mail and accessing the club house, pool and gym. Move in date is Aug. 7th! We were pretty happy and excited with our choice and we actually agreed on the place! Tomorrow we search for the right office space.

Day 2: Office space. We toured 5 different office spaces including the one from yesterday. They were all very similar in that they all had a reception/greeting desk and then several individual office spaces within a complex. There was one location that we were not too impressed with the style of office as it almost felt like you were in a coffee shop with very small spaces with glass windows and just ply wood for the walls. It had a very modern millennial type atmosphere. (kind of hard to describe) Didn't quite fit the WSB style. Jeff was mainly looking for just a small office space to accommodate 2-3 desks for workers or employees coming in from MN to use if needed and a space to use as a mailing address. Most of Jeff's work will be done in the field or at home. Three out of the 5 were with the Regus company and we liked all of their locations. The locations were in the Cherry Creek area which is a more upscale business/shopping area of Denver. It is also conveniently located between the Excel Energy office and the airport. One location in particular that stood out to both of us was the one on S Colorado Blvd. The office complex was very nice with a cafe downstairs, the office space was on the Penthouse level and had an awesome view of the city. The location was right next to two hotels with several dining options. This location actually was one of the lesser priced spaces surprisingly. After our office space tours we stopped in at a self storage facility near our apartment. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest for awhile before headed over to Cort to pick out our furniture for the apartment. Jeff and I don't necessarily agree on our styles of decor. He was looking for more of an upscale feel with white furniture and I prefer the nature colors (browns, greens or even black). Turns out that most of the furniture to choose from did not come in white as Jeff preferred and we ended up with more black leather furniture which I was fine with since the apartment is all white. Much to my surprise we were able to compromise on most of the pieces and still stay within the budget. To end our evening we had a celebratory dinner at an Italian restaurant that Jeff had been to during his last trip to Denver with a co-worker. It was very authentic Italian and a very nice place. We were both very full after dinner and went back to the hotel to rest our full bellies and call it a night.

Heading to the mountains.....

Tuesday, August 1st we started our journey to Denver with our U-haul full of clothes, some office items and some misc. items for the apartment. We left from St. Paul after Jeff's meeting around 3:00 and drove for 10 hours and 25 min. (712 mi) with stops every 2 hours. Jeff's goal was to get to North Platte by 1:00am. That is where we stopped to spend the night and get some zzz's. It wasn't too bad of a drive except for the last couple hours. It was interesting to see the change in landscape from Iowa to Nebraska to Colorado. Iowa was all green with some hilly fields and pastures and lots of wind turbines. In Nebraska, the view was mostly flat fields and pastures. Entering Colorado the green turned into more brown with lots of open spaces with grazing cattle. The mountains are not visible until you get into Denver. We arrived in Denver around 12:00 noon. This was the beginning of our very active day. First stop was to the storage space we rented to drop off the things for the apt.. Since this was located close to our apt., we decided to stop in to make sure the lease all went through with his company. The apt. was also available for us to view since it was occupied at the time we had reserved it. I was happy with the view we had from our balcony! We just know we are going to love it there. They are even going to install a ceiling fan for us for free that we purchased since there is no light fixtures in the bedrooms.

Next on the list was dropping off the U-haul. Afterwards we headed to Jeff's office space to set up a few things. Our hotel that we are staying in for about 6 days is just a few blocks down from his office. That was our next stop. Checking in to the Hampton Inn & Suites and unpacking some things. By this time we were starving since we hadn't eaten lunch yet. It was already 5:00! We ate at Chili's and then were off again to look at some vehicles. Jeff has his truck but we need a 2nd vehicle so we are looking for something fun to drive in Denver! Why not right? After checking into leasing for a year, Jeff opted to purchase a vehicle which was more cost effective. We want a navigation system so we are looking for something a couple years old. We are looking at a Dodge Challenger or Ford Mustang. I've always wanted a Mustang until I drove it. The Challenger proved to be much smoother and less clunky to drive. Didn't find anything tonight so we will keep looking. One more stop for the evening was at World Market to check out some furniture for the apt. Cool stuff and unique but also a bit higher. We got some good ideas. It was now around 8:00 and we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to the hotel to relax before bed.



Getting settled

We have been in Colorado for 13 days now. Slowly we are getting settled in. The first week we stayed in a hotel until our move in date to the apartment which was August 8th. Basically since we were starting from scratch we had to purchase everything for the apartment, including cleaning supplies etc. The beds, two night stands and some essential kitchen stuff was all that we rented from CORT. So we spent the first week shopping a lot for furniture and supplies. Jeff was looking for a industrial style of furniture and decor which was a little harder to find. We searched a lot of furniture stores before finding some pieces he liked and ordered some on-line as well. We are also getting accustomed to the apartment style of living. Living on the 3rd floor is great! Nice view, no noise above us but it's been a little challenge when it comes to getting our purchases up to our apartment. Luckily there is an elevator to use. So far we love the apartment. They installed a ceiling fan for us in our bedroom since they did not come with lights in the bedroom. The facilities are well maintained and nice. We've already enjoyed the pool, fire pit, game room and business center. Our apartments sit at the bottom of the foot hills. While Lukas was here to visit over the weekend we hiked up to the top of the foothill which was a challenge considering the elevation we were still getting used to. Once you are at the top, it's a flat open space with trails to walk along and some pretty nice views of Denver and the surrounding area. We are also just a short drive to Look Out Mountain which provides an awesome view of the mountains and Denver's surrounding areas. Internet and TV will be installed this week and our table, curtains and lamps should also be here this week. Just wanted to give a brief update for now. Pics to follow when I get internet hooked up and can use my laptop.



Tomorrow will mark our 2 weeks being in the apartment. We are finally starting to feel settled in and like it's a home. More like a vacation home as it feels like we are on vacation. Only a couple items of furniture left: office desk which is on back order and a lamp for the living room which we just ordered. We are keeping our eyes open for a pub style (bar height) patio table and chairs but for now we will just use our camping chairs. We purchased a rug from Home Depot that we cut to fit the balcony which really makes it feel cozy. Plus added a fall plant for some decor. And some cool lighting for at night which was actually a Halloween light that swirls colors on the ceiling. It looks pretty cool and adds just enough light. In order to furnish our apartment, we've done lots of shopping. The furniture stores have all been nice but it's the chain stores like Kohl's, Walmart's, Targets that we have noticed a big difference in compared to in MN. The quality is just lacking. The customer service is slow and not very knowledgeable and the store quality is poor. Lots of empty shelves or out of stock (could be due to the volume of people in the Denver area). Also the stores shelves are not clean and organized. We were very disappointed to see the Kohl's store (which is one of our favorite places to shop back home) had clothes just piled on the shelves and not folded nicely. Most of the cashiers are very slow and want to sit and chat with you rather than check you out and there are usually only 1 or 2 cashiers open at a time. Just poor management. Besides, the department stores lack of quality, we did find the grocery store King Soopers to be pretty impressive. It is a large grocery store with lots of food options and a fresh meat market and deli. Reasonable prices and conveniently located just 7 minutes away. Unfortunately for Jeff there is no Menards. The closest one is about 100 miles away. He was pretty bummed about that. I was happy to find a Marshall's nearby (which I haven't shopped at in the past) a Plato's Closet and the Colorado Mills mall. Unfortunately for me the mall is temporarily closed right now due to some very large hail in May. They anticipate it reopening in the fall. I've heard it's a really nice mall.

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Comments

[Joyce]

Apt
Looks nice ,nice Veiw.