sfoley

You've obviously not seen much of waltham. True, its "eclectic" in parts - but the areas where the big apartment complexes are in N Waltham are very nice (you do know where most of the venture money on the east coast comes from? clue - Winter St, Waltham) Also, you are travelling route 20 against the traffic.

Looking back at your post my guess is you're at Tilted Mill on rte 30 - and getting there is a piece of piss cross country and doesn't even involve rte 20.

Bob

rent for an apartment in watertown is bloomin' expensive compared to natick, and natick also has the speedy train rather than just the regular commuter train apparently so it's about 25 mins out....

Bob

most of the venture capital comes from the bin ladens and other ME familes, I know, and route 20 is a car park first thing in the morning where ever you go, which is something i'm trying to avoid.

ideally, we rather liked Sudbury, but there's not much apartment stock there for the money, ashland also weren't bad, but that required going through framingham to get anywhere and we seriously didn't want to do that *lol*

sfoley

yeah - it also runs about once every 2 hours - last one at 11pm. And its a 35 minute ride from Natick to Back Bay.

I assume you are looking at "apartment complex" rents. There are many bargains to be had if you look around craigslist and look at some privately owned apartments. I lived outside the general MBTA served area when I first got to boston in my 20's and I cursed my one year lease the whole time. And personally I'd much rather pay an extra 200 bucks a month to not be somewhere sleepy where everything shuts down at 8pm

sfoley

I think you are confusing route 20 with 128 (the boston M25). Route 20 is a sleepy road that meanders through weston and sudbury, but has a shit load of lights past 95/128

Bob

nope, i ain't confusing 128/I-95 with rt 20.....route 20 is a morning carpark, if it ain't people using it to get to the pike, it's people taking kids to school in the morning....and sudbury does go through rt 27, but the main road through it is still rt 20.

Bob

we're not that bothered by boston or the night life tbh, so the evening commute isn't the biggest deal, just a bonus...and complexes, don't mind either way, we're keeping options opened...just as long as they include heat/water and snow plough...i'll go barmy if i have to snow plough...i just have to dig the car out now and that's enough to drive me barmy.

been using craigslist, boston apartments, boston globe, mass apartments, boston rentals as sites to check places out.....trying to avoid the stupid broker fee's, and live somewhere leafy, but still drivable to get to places.

sfoley

ok - understood. Don't rule framingham, marlboro or waltham out just because you think they are "a dump" - there are nicer parts of each city, and dumpy parts of natick - after all you are only renting, and schools aren't important. Also you may get lucky and find a cheap 3 BR rental in wellesley, sudbury, wayland or even weston! and, if you work on rte30 - bear in mind its a real easy ride from south waltham via auburndale, and there are some nice spots there along the charles river. waltham may well have the appearance of a dump because it used to be a very blue collar place - reality is real estate there is now v expensive, and the place is very upwardly mobile. boy i wish i'd bought one of those places in cronins landing when they were selling for <100K back in 94!
oh - and my first post was to the op who was asking for a family place near burlington. arlington still best fits the bill imho, or possibly even west medford.

smeg

I moved from Oxford to Boston about 3 years ago.

I work at a tech company in Lynnfield, but we're about to move office to Burlington this summer (I believe into the old Genuity building)

I lived in Jamaica Plain for a year, but the commute past fenway and storrow killed me, so we moved to the North Shore.

Right now I live in Lynn (which is a dump, as a rule), but like any town here, I'm in a great part of the town, walking distance to the beach (3 blocks and great for the dogs), walking distance to the Swampscott commuter rail line. I'll be commuting in around 30 minutes to the new office when the move happens.

Bob

Aye, cheers for the info, it's all good to hear

And yeah, Auburndale is somewhere in Newton that we're looking for..and still an eye on Sudbury, but Sudbury is still a bit out there, and a tad pricey, Wellesley is way out of our price range from what we've seen...and I know that there are nicer parts to Waltham etc, but I'm trying to avoid, because i've already had insurance quotes for us living in various towns, and it's already going up $200 for similar coverage living in a nice part of Natick, but would go up at least $400 if we lived in Waltham or Framingham...and that's certainly putting us off over any saving in rent for Waltham...that and we're to far away to go down and check every place we like out, so are gathering a bit of a short list in little concentrations *l*

sfoley

Insurance? You mean car yes? I know there is a big difference, but I never quite understood why - car theft isn't exactly a big deal anywhere here, especially compared to the motherland! My mother in law still doesn't get why I don't really give a toss leaving the front door unlocked - explaining to her that even though I live only a half dozen miles from the city, break-ins are as rare as rocking horse crap goes right over her head. She watches too much TV I think.

Bob

Aye, car insurance....and yeah, theft ain't a problem here either, it's getting the car written off by a moose or a deer that'll be the major issue....but what i'm not liking about MA is the at fault state, so it's your insurance that has to pay for any damage even if it weren't your fault, which is a pain....and i've only had my ME license for 1.5 years, which is a pain, even though i've had my UK license for 8 years now....gotta have full comp insurance as we've only the one car and need it to get around....not to mention, way to many deer knocking around.

RoB1833

Try these:

http://www.circleinsurance.net/contactus.html

They took my UK driving history into account.

nun

I agree. The cab from Boston to Watertown is about $20

Bob

cheers...i'll give them a shout as well

though one of the brokers said that the quote i got was taking my UK history, though i'm still skeptical *lol*