I have to lead with one word: Booyah!
My family and I successfully negotiated the purchase of a beautiful house in the middle of everything! It's absolutely perfect for us.
The house has enough room that we should be set for all future space needs that I can envision without being too large and inefficient. It's on just under 1/2 an acre which is enough but not too much.
And, most importantly, it is 3/10 of a mile from my office, 1/4 mile from the grocery store and other shopping, 1/2 a mile from the movie theater, and--even more importantly--is 3/10 of a mile from the recently renovated public library.
I'm especially enthusiastic about the distance from my office because, although we're working towards FI, I don't plan to ever retire. (I run my own business and it has all kinds of wonderful perks with very little lifestyle impingement.) I'm more interested in SWAMI status.
Thank you to the Community of the Mustachians. Although we've had our ducks in a row financially for a while, it was primarily due to this blog's hatred of the commute that we shopped so hard to be close to the office. We might not have focused on geographic proximity so much without it. And, I'm thankful that we did.