Moving from Connecticut to Irving,Texas

Southlake, Keller, and Grapevine are a fairly short commute to Irving and are great places for families to live w/lots of housing.

When I first moved to the DFW back in 2000, my 2 daughters went to Las Colinas Elementary School. It is in Carrollton/Farmers Branch ISD but in Las Colinas (North Irving). Spectacular school & teachers. They also went to KinderCare after-school in Valley View. I researched all the day cares and liked that one the best. We based our living location on the ISD's and the school I wanted my daughters to go to.

I also have to recommend Dr. Megan Conoley with Medical Clinic of North Texas as a pediatrician. My 6 month son has been going to her since he was born. She cared for him in the hospital right after birth. She is wonderful and talks to you and listens to your concerns. Her staff is also very friendly.

Hi E.. My husband and I lived in Las Colinas (part of Irving) for 2 years and my husband was raised in Irving. My recommendation is to have your kids enrolled in private schools. Irving ISD is not a very good school district. My husband loved the diverse atmosphere but he felt that he had a horrible education. From teachers I know that teach there I would say it hasn't changed. There are some great private schools in Las Colinas (North Irving). My husband has gone to an eye doctor in Las Colinas for 20 years. His name is Dr. Kirvacic on MacArthur. Hope this helps!

Coppell is a really good area to live in...excellent schools, great central location to everything. One drawback is that you'll pay quite a bit more for a house in Coppell...compared to Flower Mound or Lewisville.
Flower Mound is a great choice as well, with great schools and a comfortable small-town feel.

E.,

I live in Coppell, near Irving. We have a great small community with a wonderful school district. I love the people here and the kids are wonderful.

As for other areas, try Grapevine, Southlake, or Flower Mound. I would not suggest Irving proper.

Good luck in your search and welcome to Texas!

Hi! I moved to Texas from Ct about 4 years ago. I actually moved to Plano (which is about 30 min from Irving)
My husband works in Irving and we live in Arlington, about 15-20 min.

Parts of Irving can be nice. There's also Las Colinas (very nice!!) and Coppell. Grand Prarie is close and parts of that are nice too. north Arlington (where we are) is nice too

There are tons of pedis (i'm actually looking myself, i'm preg with my first due at the end of June). There are also quite a few hospitals around the area too.
Good Luck on your search. If you have any more questions, or need me more help. Please feel free to contact me.
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Welcome to Texas!

I grew up in Fort Worth but have lived in Irving for the past 10 years, most of that in the Las Colinas area.

We are actually in the process of moving to Carrollton at the moment, but that is to get my husband closer to his work.

The Coppell school district is one of the best in the metroplex. Coppell is a nice place and close to north Irving. Valley Ranch is a community within Irving (as is Las Colinas). The east section of Valley Ranch is within the Carrollton ISD and the west side is within the Coppell ISD. I would recommend the Coppell side, if at all possible.

If you go to:
http://www.irving.net/
This will have links to the City of Irving's website (just rennovated and very helpful), the Irving ISD website, the Irving Chamber of Commerce, the Irving Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the library and the local junior college sites.

If you take a look at this map (it's actually for the parks locations, but it works...), it might help to give you an ideas of the various communities. Valley Ranch is the section in the uppermost part of the city above 635 (hard to read on the map, look for Mustang Park Rec center listing, 635 is the multilane roadway intersected by the label). Las Colinas is just below Valley Ranch and extends to an area somewhat marked by where the DFW Airport juts out to the southeast (if you were extend that part of the airport along the path it is going, you would roughly get the border of Las Colinas).
http://www.ci.irving.tx.us/parks_and_recreation/facilitie...

I hope that helps. I'm at work right now and this was just stream of consciousness as I only had a quick moment. Please feel free to email me if you have any quetions.

I have really enjoyed living in Irving and if my husband had not taken a job farther away, we would still be here.

Good Luck! and welcome to the area! :-)

P.

We live in Plano and absolutely love it! It's so family-friendly with tons of parks, greenspace, dog park, hike/bike trails, a nature preserve with a beautiful trail; schools are excellent! And everything is in Plano -- diverse selections of restaurants, large movie theaters, good shopping, etc. etc. We hardly ever have to leave Plano for anything. Here's the city website for more information... www.plano.gov and here's the Independent School District website.... www.pisd.edu
If you look in Plano...I recommend buying or renting a home west of 75/Central Expressway... the home values go up faster on the west side in Plano; of course they are more expensive, too, but you're buying an investment. It's definitely a good place to buy for a long-term home investment.

Other places I'd recommend... other Collin County cities (Collin County is north of Dallas County): Allen, McKinney, and Frisco (Frisco is booming big-time right now -- lots of business and new home construction! but a good investment already if you buy here, it has an excellent mall that is very popular - people come from all over the metroplex to visit Frisco's mall Stonebriar Centre because it's so family-friendly and attractive with great, affordable stores. Frisco has great shopping outside the mall too -- Sam Moon is really popular here -- a discount purse, jewlery and accessory store. There's a beautiful minor league baseball field in Frisco too - Frisco RoughRiders and those games are great family outings.) I have friends and family that live in these cities and are very happy and pleased with the city goverment, services, schools, neighborhoods, etc.

Feel free to email me if you have more questions.... Welcome to Texas!!

I can help you with a home purchase if you are going to buy when you get here.

Chris

The best place near Irving school wise would be Coppell. If you didn't mind being a little further away, Flower Mound has awesome schools as well. I don't have first hand experience, but I know Irving schools are not very highly rated. I think some areas of Valley Ranch which I think is actually a part of Irving attend Coppell schools so that might also be a good option. I live in Flower Mound and love it. We go to church in Irving and the drive is not bad at all (15 to 20 minutes - maybe more during high traffic times).

I lived in Las Colinas for 2 years and LOVED it! It's a new, clean, growing, and beautiful area. You have your convenient shops (Gap, Pier One, TJ Maxx, Target, Super Wal-Mart, etc), restaurants, new hospital, great day cares. I moved to uptown Dallas when I got married, otherwise, I wouldn't have left.

The better schools are in Valley Ranch (Las Colinas & Valley Ranch are suburbs of Irving). Irving ISD is an OK school district. Only two schools were ranked in the top 100 schools in Dallas area, Irving HS (49th) & MacArthur HS (64th). I taught at Trinity High School (Euless, TX) and Flower Mound HS (Flower Mound, TX -close to Grapevine & Las Colinas). I would recommend a school in one of the surrounding cities of Irving (Grapevine, Colleyville, Carrollton, Flower Mound, Coppell, Richardson) or private school.

My OB is in Grapevine, and I took my son to a pediatrician in Las Colinas but wasn't completely happy w/ her, therefore I wouldn't recommend her, but my OB is great!

Please email me directly if you have more questions. I would be glad to help you out any way possible.

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Hi there,
I live in Flower Mound, about 30 min. from Irving. I might be able to offer some advice, but I would need a little more info (like are you looking to purchase a home or rent and what price range). I am a loan officer in the area, so I know it pretty well. Let me know if I can help!

Flower Mound is the BEST place to live and raise children! I was raised in the mound and I wanted to raise my children here. Schools are great and the people are very friendly. I actually live in Wellington of Flower Mound. Please email me with any questions. Also, my Mother is a Realtor if you need any help looking.

We love Miss Bloomingdale's Academy in Irving for preschool. We live far away but work in Las Colinas. It has been really wonderful for our children!