Sharon Collinge and Joan Laubacher bought their Martin Acres home in Boulder in 2001, planning to stay there.
“We didn’t have children (at the time), and we weren’t thinking of having children,” Collinge said.
But as their family grew – their son Jacob is now 10, and daughter Savannah is 8 – their 1,175 square-foot home began to feel cramped, a situation made more difficult because the house has only one bathroom. They enclosed a garage seven years ago and explored other expansion options, but they were cost-prohibitive. So was buying a larger home at Boulder prices.
Too bad, because they loved their neighbors and the community feel of South Boulder. However, when her gym moved to Lafayette, Collinge started visiting the town regularly. She realized Lafayette also had a sense of community, as well as bigger houses at lower prices. They looked around and decided to move.
Towns such as Erie and Lafayette, which have vacant land on which to build, have seen continued growth as people within and outside Boulder County choose them as comfortable places to raise their families.
“It was really coming down to wanting to have a home that could grow with our needs,” Laubacher said. She also likes that Lafayette is more ethnically diverse than Boulder, making it similar to the small town in California where she grew up.
Said Collinge of the move: “I think it’s going to be a really nice place for our children to finish growing up.”
The new house is 2,700 square feet with four bathrooms – two full and two half.
“When we first move in, we’re all going to flush the toilet at the same time,” said Laubacher with a laugh.
