Suburbs, Rockland and Billerica (Boston, Cambridge: apartment, rental, condo)

[toberead]

I'm currently living in the Philly area, but I've been looking for a new job. I have a job interview with a company that's currently located in Rockland. However, they are building a new building in Billerica that will be opening in 1 1/2 to 2 years, and the plan is that everyone will move there once it opens.

I'm looking at renting an apartment, but I have a lot of heavy furniture and tons of books, so it would be fairly expensive to move twice. (The company will pay for my relocation from PA, but if I moved again, it would be on my own dime.) I know Rockland and Billerica are pretty much in opposite directions from Boston, but is there anywhere in between where I could live and have a reasonable commute to both locations? Or is it just too far?

I'm a little wary of moving to the Billerica area and commuting to Rockland in the interim period, because who knows what will happen? I moved to PA a year ago thinking I'd found a permanent home, and 10 months later I was laid off. You never know.

Karen

[goyguy]

Would it be feasible to put most of your "heavy" belongings in a storage facility and live minimally for the interim? I'm thinking the way to go for you could be to rent a furnished apartment on the Rockland side of the world. There are many complexes in nearby Weymouth, from which you'd be minutes away from work and driving against the prevailing traffic pattern. Randolph is another community in that neck of the woods with numerous apartment and condo rental arrangements available. (In both instances, the complexes are mainly standard-issue '70s mock Tudor, mock Mediterranean, or "brick box" buildings. But they're kept spiffed up.) Then when your employer pulls up stakes it'd be that much easier to follow suit: no hauling of stuff back out of a dwelling, no "Which of these 27 crates did I put the dish towels in?!"

If you think it'd be a hassle to pay storage fees for as long as two years, let me reassure you that the cost would be worth it. The highways into Boston are parking lots from as early as 6 AM on every work day, and the loop road alternative (128) to driving through the city is backed up more often than not too. I live and work in Cambridge; my neighbor on the "cube farm" commutes by car from Billerica and is frequently racing into the office just in the nick of time. "If I'm not driving out of the garage by 7 o'clock I can forget about arriving early" - our day at the races begins at 8:30. You'd be in the daily gridlock part of the way, then once you're out of the city headed north (or on 3 north to Billerica from 128) most traffic would be in the other direction; the scenario would of course be reversed in the afternoon. So...you'd realistically need to allow 2.5 hours, minimum, to make that haul every day. One way. My Billerican colleague's story is a common one, I hear it all the time from suburbanites.