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my wife and i are house hunting
we are not finding what we want in our price range close to my job, so i am considering taking on a longer commute so that we can have more house
anybody here drive ~1 hour each way to work? do you hate it? will i regret such a long drive each day? am i nuts? :gone:
i dunno what to do :dunno:
I'm doing it ATM and have done so for about 1½ year. Took about 45 min. each way at my previous job.
It doesn't bother me that much, but I wouldn't mind getting a job that was closer to where I live. One of the reasons is that gas is expensive here so it costs me quite some money even though I do car pooling.
Sometimes it's actually quite nice to just sit in your car and relax on your way home, but other times it sucks, especially if you've been working overtime.
I'd guess it depends on the (a) the person, (b) the roads you'd have to travel, and (c) the car you're driving.
For example, I'd NEVER be able to do it. I have an intense hatred of being in the car. Makes me crazy. So, for me, (a) would be all the reason I'd need not to do it.
My father, on the other hand, has been doing it for years. He's always been better about taking trips in a car than I was so (a) isn't a problem for him. He takes the Interstate (4 or 6 lanes all the way) to work each morning so (b) is pretty painless, too. Finally, he LOVES his car, which makes (c) no problem.
I considered taking a job up in Raleigh once (for a great deal more money than I was making here at the time), but ultimately decided that I didn't really want to move. I then decided that there probably wasn't enough money out there to make me willing to drive an hour or more to work everyday. :D
I'd look at it pretty closely, FoBoT. Two hours out of your life every day is a lot. About the longest I ever did on a consistent basis was 45 minutes, back in the 6 or so years I lived around Detroit.
I find my current drive, ~30 minutes to & from Tampa, to be just about right. If I were closer, I'd have a tendency to get sucked into work at odd times and maybe some weekends. The hour round-trip commute makes me think about it (and usually decide not to ;) ).
Longer gets to be a real drag and pretty soon you wind up actually hating it, or at least I did. This attitude transfers somewhat to the job and you're in a downward spiral. :mad:
Unlike Dyyryath, I really don't mind the driving itself. It's just the unproductive time. OTOH, if you got a deal on just the right house that was good enough...
I did it for 2.5 years up the I5 Corridor..Olympia to Renton while at Boeing. It SUCKS!
Everyday you work you lose at LEAST TWO hours of your life. Not to mention additional time stuck in traffic. Two hours is BEST CASE scenario. Figure THREE hours a day JUST commuting.
You will also get up earlier and go to bed earlier because you have to get up earlier.
All in all, your quality of life will decline. You will end up hating your job because of the commute, and your marriage may suffer because of the mood you will be in when you get home.
:(
I commute 2 hours round trip every day. About an hour each way is pretty much normal around here.
We moved further away from the city to get a much better house and don't regret it in the slightest.
If you are bringing up a family or if it's just yourselves the home is so important.
Whilst the commute is a drag and there is no getting away from it and times will be where you hate it.
The home you are making should be the overriding reason for any of this type of sacrifice.
I've done it. When I was in Cali, I lived 18 miles from work but the traffic was so bad, it took me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get to work, and it was generally worse going home. I'm in temporary housing now, and am about 50 miles from work (but no traffic so it takes me about 45 minutes to get there and the same to get home. I also have the added mileage of bringing my kids to school (about another 15 minutes to drop them off/pick them up) as I wanted to enroll them closer to the area that I wanted to ultimately live in. It takes quite a bit out of your day, and for me, after we get home, it's homework, dinner and baths for the girls so the entire day is shot.
I've just recently purchased a house that is less than 20 minutes away from work and I find myself looking forward to it.
For me, the long commute has always been part of my adult, working life so it was just there. Now that I have an opportunity (in about a month) it's hard for me to drive the distance.
Ultimately, it's best for me and the kids. It might be different if I didn't have any. I agree with Fozzie...the house is so important, but you have to decide what you are comfortable with. I probably wouldn't care if it was just me.