Paul spent today going around our new location in England looking at housing. And the choice of how and where we want to live comes down to this…

We can choose a more in-town lifestyle—right in Windsor—in a row house like this (ours would be in the row on the right side):

With a small walled back garden like this:

Or we can live in a new, more suburban house about a mile from his office in Maidenhead:

With a pretty yard like this:
The Windsor house is older, on 3 floors, it’s only 2 bedrooms. He’d have about a 20 min. drive to work. It is right in town; only about 5 minute walk from their main shopping district and about another 5 min walk from Windsor Castle! All their parklike grounds are just down the street. So we’d have less space at home for the dogs but lots of places to take walks. And we’d have to park the car on the street. But we could walk to shopping, restaurants, and the train to London!

The house in Maidenhead is in a very quiet suburban neighborhood somewhat like ours in Boulder. And only a mile from Paul’s office so he could walk or ride his bike there or I could drop him off on really bad days. I wouldn’t be walking distance to shopping etc. but it’s 4 bedrooms, all new everything and lots of space.

So, the dilemma is do we want to try a more-urban lifestyle for 2 years, with easy access to all the in-town pluses (and minuses), or do we want to be in comfortable suburbia like we already are? I can’t decide!