Please, don’t throw out the idea of a low-maintenance yard. Here in Calgary (which is pretty similiar to Colorado in a lot of ways) we have tons of yards that are low-maintenance landscaped, and they are simply gorgeous. Likegotpasswords mentioned, done poorly it would look like hell, but done properly, it is amazing. We have done about half our front yard in drought-tolerant, low maintenance plants, and it looks absolutely wonderful.
This is a real hobby of mine - if you’d like to email me, please feel free. And congrats on the new house - it sounds very, very nice.