Best of: Park Hill and Stapleton

Lucky for us, our friend just bought the house across the street from us! She's never lived on our side of town so I thought I'd give her a little neighborhood guide to a few of our favorite spots in Park Hill/Stapleton. Everything here is within a couple miles of our street, tried and tested by us!

Welcome to the neighborhood, Lauren!

Park Hill Restaurants
Table Top (22nd & Oneida)
-Fun place for date night or happy hour, great food

Neighbor's Wine Bar (22nd and Kearney)
-Good for a glass of wine, patio

Cherry Tomato (23rd and Dexter)

-Italian food

Oblios Pizza (22nd & Kearney)
-Take away pizza, can sit and eat too, casual

Spicy Thai Sushi Wow (22nd & Oneida)
-Takeout/delivery for Thai food and sushi

Stapleton Restaurants

The Bistro at Stapleton (29th and Ulster)

-Wine, cheese plates, little french cafe-type place

Udi's/Etai's Cafe (29th & Quebec)
-Good breakfast spot
-They deliver dinner!

Coffee Shops
Starbucks (29th & Quebec)
-In Stapleton Town Center, also in King Soopers

Cake Crumbs (22nd and Kearney)
-Breakfast, coffee, cupcakes

Ice Cream
Nuggs Ice Cream (Fairfax & Colfax)
Menchies (Northfield Stapleton, by movie theater)

Park Hill Grocery Stores
King Soopers (27th and Quebec)
Safeway (13th and Kearney)

Spinelli's (23rd and Dexter)

Liquor Stores
Grape Expectations (23rd & Kearney)
-Lots of wine
Oneida Liquors (22nd & Oneida)
-Cheap

Stapleton Nail Salon
Sweet Life Nail Bar (23rd & Valentia-ish)
-Cute, clean place

Hardware Stores

Ace Hardware (Colfax & Oneida)

Home Depot (Quebec Square)

East Denver Gyms
Corepower Yoga (29th and Quebec)
Stapleton/Central Park Rec Center (MLK & Emporia)

Walk, run or ride bikes up and down Montview (pretty houses)

Stapleton Shopping Centers

Stapleton Town Center (29th and Quebec)Einsteins
Starbucks
Corepower
Udi's/Etai's 

Liquor store

Walgreens
Library

Farmer's market (Sundays)

Quebec Square: (Just past MLK on Quebec):
Home Depot
Party City
UPS Store
Rocky Mountain Green Chili Company
Panera
Jimmy Johns

Park Hill/Stapleton residents: what are your favorite spots in the neighborhood?

We bought a house!

After six months of looking at what feels like every house in Denver, we finally, finally closed on our home last week! What followed was an insane 72 hours of packing, moving, assembling and organizing. Thank goodness for my family who helped us a TON! 

Highlights:
*There is not a single box left in the house itself. The garage is another story...
*Our new Ikea bed has tons of storage and fits perfectly in our room!
*One set of next door neighbors are absolutely awesome and I think our puppies will be great fence-friends.
*We have a dumpster! I never thought I would be excited about this, but when you have that much moving trash, it helps!
*Flowers, wine, and housewarming presents from friends, family and our realtor!

Lowlights:
*I measured all 9 windows incorrectly, which meant a second trip to Home Depot to get them re-cut - only after we each had a meltdown about it.
*We moved during the hottest two days of the year so far. Did I mention we don't have air-conditioning?
*It took two trips to Ikea to get the bed (not a nearby destination)!
*I got stung by a bee in the front yard - boo!

We can't wait to settle in and start making this little brick bungalow ours! I'm already learning so, so much about being a homeowner and we're loving our new neighborhood so far. Excited to host lots of dinners and parties in the near future (after we get some air conditioning)!

Househunting: Week 2 Wrapup

Went out again yesterday for a slightly more manageable 8-house tour. Of course again we really liked the first house we saw. What is wrong with us?! Ha ha. The location and condition of the house were perfect. There's an attached garage and a big backyard. But, there's only one bathroom and it was just a smidge on the samll side with no basement. I was totally into it but Max did not seem convinced we could fit into a house that size. We'll watch it for now.

Otherwise we saw some homes in the north-central neighborhood that we love (Park Hill), but we didn't absolutely love anything. One house was absolutely filthy and smelled like cigarette smoke, one house was beautiful and huge but was situated on a fairly busy intersection, one house was super-close to my sister's house but was very dark and had an awkward layout.

We went south again to Virginia Vale/Virginia Village and saw a few homes that needed some work and one that was so filthy and messy that I couldn't even see past the clutter to imagine myself there. Think dirty underwear on the floor, dishes everywhere and even hairbrushes floating in the bathroom sink. Yuck! I think we decided we don't love that area enough to keep looking there.

I know it's only the second week so I definitely don't want to "settle" for the first house we saw yesterday. However we are going to have to compromise somewhere, whether we trade a brand new kitchen for one extra bathroom, a two car garage for a basement, or a great location for more square footage. There'a a lot to consider, especially when we both have strong opinions about some of those deal-breakers!

That's about it for now! Happy Monday and happy early Valentine's Day, too. xoxo

Week 1 Wrapup

So as I mentioned yesterday, we went out with Kari to get a look at a wide variety of houses in several neighborhoods. It was the day after our big snowstorm and we definitely got a feel for what the neighborhood roads would be like unplowed!

We started in Park Hill and immediately loved the first house -- of course! It had everything we wanted, was nicely updated and even had a few things we didn't even know we wanted - like a master bath in the bedroom and his-and her closets!

The next few houses are sort of a blur, but they included a house with a super-creepy fish tank (sans fish) where they were also burning candles everywhere (wonder what smell they were trying to hide?) and a house with shelves on almost every wall. There was one fix-n-flip we loved but it only had one tiny bathroom, and one house we both liked with an amazing kitchen and huge garage, but a very small living room. However, almost all the Park Hill houses had qualities we loved - brick ranches on quiet streets with unique architectural detailing like coved ceilings and arched doorways.

After Park Hill we saw two houses in Skyland and Whittier. We had seen the Skyland house online and thought it would be cheap and easy to update, but that was not the case. It needs a LOT of work and I don't think we are ready to replace 50 year old windows, knock down walls, gut a kitchen, etc. I loved the Whittier house - it looked like it was from a Pottery Barn catalogue - but there was absolutely no parking -- not a garage or even a parking space. While that is a drawback for Max, it's still on my list!

Then we headed south to the University Hills area. I had never really considered that area and I think I would have to do some more perusing before I decide if I like it! It's not as central as we would like but the homes are cute and we did see one with an adorable Ikea-remodeled kitchen. The funniest house we saw all day was straight out of the 50s, complete with mustard-yellow appliances, shiny lime-green wallpaper in the bathroom and even wall-mounted hand-mixer.

After all was said and done we liked the first house enough to warrant a second look only to find out it went under contract that day! BUMMER! But we will keep our eye on it in case something falls through and can't wait to see what else is out there next weekend!

Neighborhood love: Park Hill

Another favorite neighborhood we're looking at is Park Hill. The charm of the houses in Park Hill is so great.

Description from the American Planning Association:

The largest share of Denver's tree-lined parkways is located in Park Hill. Developed at the height of the City Beautiful movement, these "shaded drives," used frequently by runners and walkers, are at least 10 degrees cooler during the city's hot and dry summers. Nearby amenities include City Park, Denver's largest; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; and the Denver Zoo.

There's lots of trees and brick bungalows and random pockets of cute restaurants/retailers. There's also a lot of young families, so it's safe and I know the schools are decent (great for resale value). However, there are *very* few homes below 30th Ave in our price range. So unless we get creative (or give up on that second bathroom) this one might be a stretch!