Glad we live in Boise

When "I" was housing hunting back in 2001 my wife and I were dating.  I knew I was going to ask her to marry me, not sure what she was thinking, and I wanted to get out of my apartment and find a real house.  She was living with me at the time, so she did have a lot more input that she probably realized.  To her this was a place we were going to live for a while.  To me, this was our future home.

There were a lot of things I wanted in a home, but realistically I'm going to have to settle.  My agent started out the process by giving me a stack of listings and asking me to circle specific house aspects I liked.  He made it clear we weren't going to look at any of these homes.  This was just an exercise for him to be able to get a feel for what we were looking for.  Primary on my list was storage for my crap and just getting a good feel for the place.  Carolyn was all about location.  She HAD to live in Boise.  We both loved the place we chose because of its proximity to a creek, the location in town, and the neighborhood.  We have slightly bigger garage than the houses around us and I wanted a place that faced East, which feels right to me.  Our house needed some work, but it was a great deal for the time and I have no real complaints.

Looking back, I see how important the proximity to work really is.  The location of our home is such that we can easily get anywhere in Boise without having to get onto the freeway.  I like living within a short commute to work and other activities.  Meridian is easily accessed too and the only times we use the freeway is when we got to Nampa (a couple times a year) or down to Salt lake City (again, a couple times a year).  I don't have any qualms about using the freeway, it's just something I like to avoid.  Avoiding the freeway, in my opinion, makes the city seem a little smaller.

Some recent studies regarding the expenses of commuting to work.  Looking at the numbers I can see my girlfriend's insistence paid off: