house 15 mins from town question

[Snapdragon]

hi

I am wondering about opinions on a situation.  For many yrs I lived "in the country: almost a 1/2 hr drive from "town".  2 yrs ago I moved to another town and have been living a 5 minute drie to the stores and downtown. I have loved this as a sahm of a 2 yr old in terms of convenience and connection. We have been renting and looking to buy n this new town and thinking we wanted to stay less than ten minutes- ideally 5- from "town."

Now this new house has come up as a possibility for me to buy which is really 15 minutes from downtown. It is actually only ten minutes to the school I will send ds from preschool to 8th grade, about 11 minutes to the park, 12-13 mins to one end of town and 15 minutes to where we buy our food.

Where we live winters can be long and cold and icy so that is a consideration.

It is a great house at a great price and I actually have a friend with a 4 yr old who would live walking distance from me-. But it remains essentially a 15 minute drive to town. Also for dh it changes his work  commute from 18 mintes to 26 or something. also ds and I visit dh at work a lot too(famliy business) so that added drive affects us too.

So will it be a bad choice since I am not a huge fan of driving/isolation  - but the ohuse is great and the price is great--trying to decide--

also we have looked for about almost 2 yrs at the housing market in this area and never once found anyting good within the 5-10 minutes. The housing market in my area is small and slow.

I am trying to decide if I should go for thishouse and deal with the driving or pass it up and hope for something closer?

Edited by Snapdragon - 9/8/12 at 4:26pm

[tiqa]

I would have no hesitation getting it... but only you can tell for sure.  If I ever want to buy a house *in* town that would be fine for the benefits of walkability etc.  But 15 minutes is not too far at all.  It also wouldn't discourage other parents from driving to you.  30 mins, probably - but 15 is still OK I think.

[Snapdragon]

thanks tiqa! Even 15 minutes in snow and ice?!

[tiqa]

When there's snow and ice we don't leave the house.  (And we live where there's a lot of snow and ice.  ;)  )  We stock up on food and such.  Not to say that we're antisocial, we're not, but in the winter season our activities slow down.  Even 5 minutes in snow and ice can be dangerous, really.  Once I got into a crash literally down the corner from our house once, not even a block away.  Even walking on ice can be iffy.  We do walk around our neighborhood on snowy days but that's about it.  We try to make plans for the days when the roads are clear.

But... we don't have outside jobs to go to, and we homeschool, so we're lucky in that aspect. YMMV.

[gillibean]

We're 15 minutes from town and we like it.  We're just off a highway so the roads are pretty well cleared when it snows.  

When I was growing up we lived 20 minutes from town which wasn't too bad but the hills with curves were sometimes tricky to get up in the winter.

[Snapdragon]

I drove there yesterday and from the closer end of town made it in 11 minutes (in ideal weather) so I feel a little better about it---  it is amazing how much more one can get for their money just 5 extra minutes of driving! Where I live now is 6 minutes from town and seriously 11-12 minutes from town gives so much more house and space for the same price.

[Mulvah]

I really understand this struggle.  One thing I am trying to think about is that our children will get older and a 15 minute drive now seems longer than it will when they are older.
 

[Snapdragon]

I passed on the house! It was really nice but actually at the highest end of my price range and then some- and I realized if I had to seek reasurrance on MDC about the distance then I really wasn't comfortable with it! I am gonna try to stick to my original vision of closer to town :)

[chel]

Glad you found a decision.
Do want to add that as kids get older it get worse. They do more without you, but you still have to drive.
Lots of time I have to stay at older dd's activities when it would take too long to go back home and return again.

[Snapdragon]

chel- totally. I thought about that too. The thing is I am ready to live close to town for a while so I could tell however nice the house was I wasn't into the drive! It feels like a relief to have moved on.

[Mulvah]

Originally Posted by chel 

Glad you found a decision.
Do want to add that as kids get older it get worse. They do more without you, but you still have to drive.
Lots of time I have to stay at older dd's activities when it would take too long to go back home and return again.

I was looking into this question before and we were advised on the age in terms of crying, able to handle longer car rides, etc. (which makes sense for us), not school activities.  It makes total sense and I didn't even think of that.  

Edited by Mulvah - 9/17/12 at 10:42am