Snowy Greenhaven

March 13, 2008 (upper) - March 14, 2008 (lower)

We all awoke to a snowy blanket covering the entire neighborhood, today. We are expected to get snowfall for 3 of the next 4 days.

We also had a new home for sale in Greenhaven pop up on the market this morning (3/14/08): 6915 Silverwind Circle - 5 bed 3 bath "Aria" - Listed at $334,000

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Wagner iTeam at Keller Williams Realty - Greenhaven Real Estate Agent

Top 5 Things I Love About Living in Greenhaven

1. The Park. The Greenhaven Park has been such a lifesaver for us, as we have 2 children who LOVE it there! And? That is a whole lot of grassy areas that I don't have to mow! And the pavilion has been home to MANY parties and BBQ's - such great memories!
   
2. The View. I love driving into the neighborhood (from Roxford) and seeing that beautiful mountain in the distance.
   
3. My Neighbors. I have never lived in a neighborhood where so many people were so friendly and willing to chat or help dig out snow bound neighbors!
   
4. My House. John Laing's "base" options were so much better than the other builders that we visited. Even though we did go a little overboard on upgrades, we could have walked in without any upgrades and had an excellent home. (And I love my outdoor fireplace!)
   
5. The Holiday Spirit. Whether it is Halloween or Christmas, I love walking (or driving) around Greenhaven and seeing everyone's Holiday Spirit!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Greenhaven Resident and Realtor®

Halloween in Greenhaven - 10/31/07

Halloween in Greenhaven was a BLAST!

There were Trick-Or-Treaters out for hours! We gave out a lot of candy. And our kids? Well, they made out like bandits. (A trip to the dentist may be high on our lists ...)

We walked around most of the neighborhood, and in my opinion, the BEST streets were Thistlewood and Abbeywood. (Although the haunted house on N.Silverwind was awesome!)

Abbeywood was definitely the best "bang for your buck" - This is where the bulk of our kids' candy was found. Thistlewood, as a whole, had the best decorations and most Halloween spirit!

Here are some more Greenhaven Halloween scenes...

Share YOUR Greenhaven Halloween pictures ... GreenhavenCommunity@Gmail.com.
We will post them HERE!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Wagner iTeam at Keller Williams Realty - Greenhaven Neighbor and REALTOR
What's for Sale in Greenhaven? Check out the Greenhaven Real Estate website ... or call us: 570-7715

First Snow of the Season: October 21, 2007

SNOW!

Today we all awoke to SNOW on our cars, roof tops, yards, fences ... It is the first snow of the season, and it actually happened when they SAID it would. (Bravo to our weather men.)

You know what this means, my fellow Greenhaven Neighbors...

Now we can "officially" flip that switch on our fireplaces, heat up the crock pot of soup and sip some hot cocoa ... and to think it was 77 degrees yesterday...

Stay warm friends and neighbors!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Greenhaven Neighbor and Neighborhood REALTOR

New High School on Black Forest, North of Greenhaven

What IS that giant looming to the North of Greenhaven? It is the new Falcon, School District 49 High School. We have been watching it grow and grow over the past few months. How big IS it going to get?? I do not know … yet.

I have heard that the proposed set up will have the parking lot to the North of the building and the football stadium will be North of that, so the residents of Greenhaven will be far removed from the "Friday Night Lights". The soccer fields and baseball diamonds and tennis courts will be to the West of the school.

Templeton Gap is proposed to be built all the way through to the school (before the new High School opens in 2008) – acting as the main thoroughfare to and from the school. This will leave Black Forest Road a bit quieter, at least for now.

I have heard that some Greenhaven residents are concerned that there will be a bunch of hoodlums hanging out in our neighborhood park once the school is built. Honestly? I WAS once a "hoodlum", and our park is too far away from the school to be that popular of a hang out. So, the only "hoodlums" that will be at our park will be our own kids. ;)

Here is a progression of pictures from a few months ago to now:

Picture 1: Early Summer. View from Black Forest Rd. Nothing there!
Picture 2: Early July. View from Black Forest Rd.
Picture 3: Mid July. View from Silverwind and Goldenrain.
Picture 4: Mid August. View from Black Forest Rd and Roxford.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Greenhaven Real Estate

Greenhaven Father's Day BBQ and Potluck - June 16, 2007

Last Saturday (June 16) was the Greenhaven Neighborhood BBQ. There was about 60 people who arrived - bringing food and fun!
We fired up the grill at about Noon and Derek (the chef and grill-master ... AND the mastermind behind the gunbo ... ) started BBQ-ing hotdogs, hamburgers, brats and chicken. Sidedishes were brought by all those who attended and included pasta salads, lettuce salads, deserts and all kinds of delicious foods!
There were name stickers and pens – for many of the folks to get to know eachother better.
Everyone who brought Diet Coke (as asked in the invitation), was instructed to leave it on the picnic table in the sun, as WARM Diet Coke shoots much higher in the air than cold Diet Coke.

First, we gathered all the kids together and did a water relay. We split the kids into 2 teams and had them dunk a sponge into a bucket of water, run across the field to an empty bucket and wring the water into that bucket. The first team to fill the bucket was the winner. Winners received 2 raffle tickets. Those who did not win still received one raffle ticket. From there, the kids ran to the playground and the grassy areas playing with the balls and Frisbees that were available.

Next up was the M&M Guessing Game. See, the night before, I had filled a canister with M&M’s. I counted how many I had put in there. Yes. A lot of work! … But well worth it! After the water relay, people were asked to guess how many M&M’s were in the cannister. The prize for the person who guessed the closest, was to take home all the M&M’s. Needless to say, there was a lot of competitive interest in this game. There were so many fun strategies that people used in coming up with their guess! There were 728 M&M’s in the canister and the winner was the young lady who guessed 758. She was VERY excited!

From here, all the folks who brought Diet Coke went out onto the field with a roll of Mentos. Countdown … 3-2-1 … There were Explosions of Diet Coke went everywhere! Some as high as 20 feet into the air! How exciting!

After this event, everyone was handed a raffle ticket. After everyone had at least one (some of the kids had 2 or 3), we gathered everyone under the pavilion and started raffling off the bouncy balls, gift cards and a Longaberger latte mug (brought by our neighbor Deb!). (When this was first organized, people were asked if they wanted to help “sponsor” gifts for the raffle.)

Throughout the 2+ hours that we were there, everyone was talking, laughing and making new friends. This was such a fun time and we can't wait to do it again!

Posted By: Mariana Wagner - Greenhaven Neighbor

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

Rainbow and Moon Over the Models

Here are some pictures that I took of the models (when they were still models...) from our front yard.

Spring and Summer of 2006 - I do not know the exact dates.

Picture 1: Rainbow over our neighborhood. Picture taken with my cell phone. Not too bad!

Picture 2: Moon in the colorful evening sky.

We have an Eastern view, so we get some amazing sunrises and some great dusk shots as well.

(Taken by Mariana Wagner - Greenhaven resident)

Greetings!

This post contains a few pictures of our neighborhood that I took last Summer.

• Picture 1: View of Silverwind from near the top of Dublin. Summer 2006.
• Picture 2: Abbeywood Drive- View from Silverwind. Summer 2006.
• Picture 3: View of Silverwind and Thistlewood from Dublin. Summer 2006.

We have such a colorful neighborhood! I feel like I live in a box of Crayola Crayons! :o)

Winter Wonder ... Bread?!?

It snowed, again! I guess my prediction for “no snow on New Years” from my last SNOW post has been proven wrong. Over the past few days we have had even more snow, here in Colorado Springs. Depending on where you live, snow has fallen anywhere from 7″ to a foot, between Thursday and Friday. Whereas last storm the eastside (like Greenhaven) got hit harder than the reat of the city, this storm fell harder on the foothills.

Again, we knew it was coming. Only THIS time more people decided to prepare … But no one knew how difficult it was going to be to “prepare” - as many of the stores did not have regular deliveries because of the last snow storm and the Christmas holiday.

Derek and I went to several stores, in search of “comfort food” to prepare and share with our friends and neighbors. What did we find? Well, we sure did not find BREAD! Have you EVER seen a major grocery store with shelves THIS EMPTY?!? And the bread aisle was not the only vacant place in the store… HUGE sections of canned goods were gone. The meat section only had remnants that there was once USDA Fresh cuts of anything. The produce section was down to a few scraps of Organic cabbage, yams and exotic peppers. What about the dairy section, you ask? Well, I have NEVER paid that much for a gallon of milk … ever! Pickings were slim … and this was the same story in most grocery stores around town.

I guess there is a silver lining to every snow-filled cloud, right? Well, since we could not get many groceries, we did not have much trash (or so that should be the case…). This would be a good thing, as the trash collectors have been out of commission for 2 weeks, now - due to non-navigable roads and holiday schedules. Can you BELIEVE how much trash built up in these past 2 weeks - especially since Christmas was one of those days?!? Whew!

The theme of the neighborhood, for the past couple days was “Put the trash out and hope that it magically disappears.” (It finally did disappear, after accumulating for over 16 days …) Thank you Waste Management for working this weekend!

Today, Saturday Dec.30, we had some great blue skies - a welcome reprieve from the cloudy gloom. Now, it is still chilly out and the wind is still sounding like lost souls floating around my house. But the blue skies are that happy reminder that we live in Colorado- home of 300+ days of sunshine every year!

(Story and pictures compliments of Mariana Wagner- Greenhaven Resident)

'Twas the Week Before Christmas - Snow!

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the 'hood ... The snow started falling, but all was still good!

It started Wednesday morning - the wind… wild, wild wind- whipping snow all over our city, especially in eastern neighborhoods, like Greenhaven. By 10am, Wednesday the whole city knew that it was time to stock up and bunker down for a storm. (However, not everyone actually stocked up and bunkered down…) Businesses planned on being closed for the remaining of the day, and Thurday.

Midday proved to be white out conditions, such that I could not see my front porch … from my front window!
By sundown, if you were not already home, you were all but doomed. The snow had blown itself into massive drifts and collected itself in convenient spots - like intersections.

Thursday morning, we awoke to a more peaceful setting - the wind had all but ceased, but the snow was still falling. I looked out my window to see our neighbors homes (and cars) BURIED beneath feet and feet of snow drifts. Somehow the location of our house deterred the drifting snow- leaving us with no snow to shovel. Now, I LOVE to shovel snow, so I “geared up” and headed outside, armed only with a shovel (and my camera).

First, I helped a neighbor dig his way out of his house. There was quite the drift around the front of his home. From there, we headed down the street to help dig out another neighbors car. He had tried to make it home, got high centered and stuck- in the middle of the street, and made it the rest of the way home (2 blocks) on foot. We dug him out and he drove home.

What a way to start my day! I went back home, drank my 1st cup of coffee for the day, put on some stylish orange leg warmers and headed back out.

I went, first to check out the entrances to our neighborhood. There are only 2 ways to enter and leave our neighborhood - Roxford (the East entrance) was nearly impassable, due to a massive snow drift! We went on a brief tour of the neighborhood, talking with neighbors in all states of wonderment and frustration at their current immobile predicament. We helped those who needed help, an took pictures of homes that needed more help than we could give.

We wandered through snowdrifts that were taller than me, tackled friends in the snow, watched kids sled out their front door, were quite entertained by a few drivers trying to overcome 5’ snow drifts with no luck… We dug out a total of 4 homes before lunchtime – including several sidewalks… But not before getting some pictures of buried cars!

You know, there is a wonderful thing about Colorado… the snow falls, but does not stay for long! Friday brought us crystal blue skies (and super crowded stores!!).

I was reminded, once again, at what a wonderful neighborhood we live in. People who had already dug out of their homes offered help to those who were still battling the drifts. Almost every street had bundled up neighbors gathered here and there chatting and watching the kids play in the snow.

Later that night, we had some friendly neighbors (including our new friends from Florida ... I bet they miss the warmth, now!) over for some homemade beef stew and played some games.

(Written and photos by your Greenhaven Neighbor~ Mariana Wagner)