I lived in the Boulder area for a dozen years & worked downtown. I learned my first day on the job that it's way better to live east of where you work! The setting western sun in Denver is vicious! Also, traffic around the I-70/I-25 interchange (Mousetrap) is equally vicious. My BIL & SSIL have lived in the Englewood/Cherry Creek area for many years. It's a nice area. DBIL works in the Tech Center so his commute isn't horrible. The Cherry Creek School District is very good. Also, remember that the farther west you go towards the foothills the more likely you are to experience heavy snows. As a general statement, Golden gets heavier snow than Aurora. Obviously, those are generalities & Mother Nature will always do her own thing so YMMV. Wind is another factor that played a role in where we lived in the Denver area. There's a couple places where the wind is sure to howl & will cause ground blizzards...one is that foothill corridor say from Boulder to Golden & the other is north, up I-25, towards Longmont. The farther north you go towards Wyoming...the more wind. Heck, I've seen snow cover a school bus because of winds even Broomfield. I might have just been lucky but never experienced fierce winds in Arvada. Millions of people love living in Denver. I was not one of them. I'm a gardener. I wanted to cry. I DID cry. My precious plants would freeze-dry over the winter. In summer, they were subjected to being in a solar oven. I got Stage 3 melanoma living in Denver (I'm a strawberry blond) so be careful with the kids (lots of sunscreen!). I hate snow & hate the thought of skiing. If you're going to live in Denver...get started right now on the most important thing in town. The BRONCOS!! John Elway is my personal hero. I have his rookie card & even a Xmas tree ornament. I live in SE coastal CT now & have switched allegiance to Tom Brady & the Pats but still keep my eyes on the Broncos. I think it's against Denver statute NOT to watch the Bronco games. Enjoy your move. Most people love Denver & it's a good place to raise kids. /tricia

I very much agree with Quirk: your boyfriend should absolutely be paying you more than he is. Unless you're being kind to him for a good reason-- he's ill, disabled, something like that-- the amount that he's paying you is essentially scamming you. He would undoubtedly be paying quite a lot more if you weren't in his life. Additionally, here are some suggestions to take some of the pressure off of you: 1. Ask your boyfriend to plan to take ALL of the kids someplace all day on Sundays once in awhile. They could go do volunteer projects, go hiking, go to a park to throw balls/shoot hoops as a family, take a train and go sightseeing, visit a museum which charges minimal/no admission, visit relatives, visit nearby colleges (since the older ones are approaching college age and the younger ones are old enough to be taken along), whatever. If you want to do what your boyfriend has planned, go along. Otherwise, stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet. 2. Tell everyone that they are responsible for their own laundry if you have a washer/dryer in your house. By the time I was 15 and my youngest sibling was 10, we were all doing our own laundry: it's not rocket science and my mother had had enough. She even color-coded the sheets and towels so that she didn't have to do more than she wanted. If the kids wear dirty/wrinkly clothes, it's their problem. They'll clean things sooner or later. 3. Decide that you don't care what the kids' rooms look like most of the time, as long as the mess can be shut behind the door. I know that this can be hard to do, because knowing that a mess exists in the house can sometimes drive me crazy even if I can't see it. But if you reduce the number of rooms that you feel absolutely have to be cleaned to your standards, it will hopefully cut down on the stress. Make the kids clean their own rooms when you really want them cleaned, but try to ignore it some of the time, too. Pick your battles. 4. Use some of Pseudo's tips to get them to pitch in for the areas you decide to care about, and also have them each periodically pick recipes to cook for the whole family. Yes, the kids will complain your ears off, but they'll also get the work done and take some of the load off of you. Plus it's a learning experience that will (especially for the boys) help their relationships in the future. I think most women appreciate a guy who will cook and clean at least some of the time. Who puts "a slob" into their must-have dating/marriage criteria? 5. Reduce the amount of time per week you're spending on food prep, especially on Sundays. There are two things that come to mind here. First, I've been reading a lot about crock pot cooking lately, and there are some very, very easy-sounding recipes out there. You sound like someone who could really use a food prep time that lasts no longer than 5-15 min, followed by a long period of no-work cooking time. The crock pot seems to enable that. The second idea is-- if you can afford it and have the space-- look into getting a large second freezer. My mother used to take one day every month or two to make a ton of casseroles to freeze. It was a lot of work that one day, but it made things significantly easier the rest of the time. 6. Encourage the kids to all have friends over on the same day. It will probably be a very loud and untidy day... but if they have friends over, they'll probably be too occupied to bother you. And you can go into your room, shut the door, and read a book/watch a movie or something like that. Similarly, you could encourage the kids to all go to friends' houses on the same day. This also has the advantage of more quiet/less mess. 7. Make sure that you're doing the things you need to do for your own health and well-being. The demands on you sound utterly exhausting, and it wouldn't be surprising if you were feeling generally run down on top of feeling burned out. Take some time to shut out everything else and make sure you're taking care of yourself. I really hope that things get better for you soon.

Powerwash YES. Paint brick NOOO! Tudors have natural brick or stone and dark wood for the half timbering. Some, called magpie houses, in England have Black painted timbers and bright white stucco. Dark brown trim wood and cream faux stucco siding is appropriate for a 1970s Tudor. If you paint the brick and trim those light taupes or grey you might as well add shiplap and call it modern farmhouse. Really it is your choice if you want to keep the classic Tudor look or follow the latest trends. Powerwashing and some tree trimming will brighten it a lot. Then add some flowers for color.

What did you decide? We bought a Brady-ish house, too, circa 1976. We ended up replacing most of the trim because it wasn't as nice as your honey oak--it was rough orangey cedar that wouldn't really sand or take paint. It did make a big difference! But yours is nicer. You could probably live with the trim for a while and then see, or maybe just look at painting the random bits of trim that aren't on windows/doors (like the one on the living room half-wall) to minimize it. If you want to have a big impact, replace the railing with something sleep and metal. It will change the entire look and make a great first impression. We're in the middle of doing that (the railing was unsound anyway) and replacing the carpeted stairs with partly-open stairs as well.