Sunday, April 22, 2007

Greenhaven Community - Why I Love It Here!










Greenhaven was built by John Laing, and consists of about 230 homes. It is located in the northern part of "Ridgeview at Stetson Hills" - in the northeast part of Colorado Springs - nestled at the northwest corner of Black Forest Drive and Dublin Boulevard.

I love living here because I am far enough to the east to really appreciate the sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains and Pikes Peak, yet not too far from all that Colorado Springs has to offer. We are also just minutes from the shopping, entertainment and restaurants found on the Powers Corridor.

Our neighborhood has been referred to as the Crayola Neighborhood because of our vibrant house colors - particularly the "Cottage-Series" homes on the South half of the neighborhood. Deep blue, rich turquoise, burnt orange, vibrant red, bright yellow and energetic green were among the colors available to new home owners. The northern half of the neighborhood (the Windchime-Series) has more subtle colors - but not without a splash of blue, yellow, red and orange every few houses. A drive through our neighborhood is nice reminder that we are not living in Edward Scissorhands Land (where every home looks the same).









John Laing started building homes in Greenhaven in the Summer of 2004. With the model homes all for sale or moved into - our neighborhood is now finished - no more construction, as of Spring 2007. New homes were available in the high $100k´s to mid $200k´s when they started in 2004, and now, you can find resale homes, here, priced and selling from the high $200k´s to the mid 300k´s! People love living here and the pride of ownership is prevalent. A drive down any of our streets will show this.

Yards are not too big, so they are easy to maintain. The Windchime homes (in northern Greenhaven) all come with nice front porches - and many of the homes also have really nice side or front patios - some with outdoor fireplaces! The Cottage homes (in Southern Greenhaven) come with a variety of front porches, upper balconies or side courtyards. Each home is unique and boasts tons of character.

Eventually we will have more neighborhoods to the west and north of us, but Greenhaven was not built on a grid: Silverwind Circle "circles" the entire neighborhood and only 2 streets (and 2 more eventually) lead in or out. One leads to Black Forest Road and one lead to Westbound Dublin. For now, Greenhaven is destination-only.

One of the nicest features of Greenhaven is the neighborhood park. John Laing was smart- they finished the park before building any homes. What a great attraction! It sure was for us. We have 2 children and wound up buying a home right on the park. I could not ASK for better! When talking with other homeowners in Greenhaven, I have found that the park was the motivating factor for many of them.

Besides the fact that the park is like a huge yard that I do not have to maintain, it offers a lot to our neighborhood. There is a play structure with slides, games and a bunch of things to climb on. There's also a large field for football or red rover, kite flying (Colorado Springs DOES get its fair share of wind...) or anything else that may require a huge grassy area. In the middle of the park is a huge covered pavilion with picnic tables where we have had plenty of neighborhood BBQ´s and birthday parties.

Which brings me to my favorite part of Greenhaven: The people. I love my neighbors. I have the best neighbors ever - all 230 of them! Everyone is friendly and you can´t go too far without seeing neighbors helping each other in a yard, chatting on a front porch or corner or playing with their kids and dogs in the park.

I love this neighborhood, and am happy to live here, surrounded by my friends and neighbors who call Greenhaven ... Home.

Posted by: Mariana Wagner - Greenhaven Homeowner