Commute Princeton, MA to Burlington (Boston, Westford: ski resort, real estate, apartment)

[Babette12]

Hi Everyone -- Dh and I want to live near Mt. Wachusett. Dh works in Burlington and can swing a 4 day week as well as a flexible schedule. Is this commute (along Rt. 2, I presume) reasonable. Main motivation is to be closer to skiing. Thanks!

[Louisville Slugger]

You're looking at 100 miles a day roundtrip. I'd rather be closer to work and then do all my driving for skiing when I want to.

That's probably 3 - 4 hours a day in the car with traffic. Could be worse in bad weather.

Not worth it in my opinion. He is going to be so burnt out after all that driving he won't want to go skiing.

What is your budget? Can you afford to live closer to Burlington?

[tysmith95]

Plus Wachusett isn't much of a mountain.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by Babette12

Hi Everyone -- Dh and I want to live near Mt. Wachusett. Dh works in Burlington and can swing a 4 day week as well as a flexible schedule. Is this commute (along Rt. 2, I presume) reasonable. Main motivation is to be closer to skiing. Thanks!

Move near Nashoba Mountain for after work skiing in the winter and tiki bar/volleyball/pond beaches in the summer. Also closer to NH/VT for weekend skiing trips, and you can still get to Wachusett with ease when necessary. While I understand it's not a great 'mountain', it serves it's purpose for some runs during the week. Out of your car and on the lift in 2 minutes.

It falls in Westford, but Littleton/Acton are within a few miles too. Best of all, it's 15-20 miles to Burlington.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by mwj119

Move near Nashoba Mountain

My driveway has more vertical than Nashoba.


Buy somewhere like Waterville Valley, NH or Lincoln where it's 120 miles of all highway and do 3 nights per week in a studio apartment or with a negotiated hotel rate. Beg as much telecommuting as you can so a lot of weeks are 2 nights. You have one early out-the-door per week driving south. At 5am, every car on the road north of Concord is going at least 75 mph.



I did that from my Killington place a few times when I was between metro-Boston housing.


WaWachusett to Burlington is "extreme commuting". I would never pick that.

[Babette12]

Thanks for the reality check! Yes, Wachusett Mountain (LOL) and Nashoba are small hills. Our thinking was that we'd actually get more skiing in by living close to one or the other. We live in Marblehead now! We're about 5 years to retirement so there are a lot of ways this could work out over the next few years. The idea is to have a place for skiing now and for living once retired. We'll need a fixer upper (have done that before and loved it!) or a small cabin that can be added on to. There's tons of real estate in central/northwestern MA/Southern Vermont and Southern NH. Just need to get to know the lay of the land. Small town, not famous.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Babette12

Thanks for the reality check! Yes, Wachusett Mountain (LOL) and Nashoba are small hills. Our thinking was that we'd actually get more skiing in by living close to one or the other. We live in Marblehead now! We're about 5 years to retirement so there are a lot of ways this could work out over the next few years. The idea is to have a place for skiing now and for living once retired. We'll need a fixer upper (have done that before and loved it!) or a small cabin that can be added on to. There's tons of real estate in central/northwestern MA/Southern Vermont and Southern NH. Just need to get to know the lay of the land. Small town, not famous.

As a 25 year property owner at a ski resort in Vermont, I wouldn't recommend that path in Vermont until you fully understand the tax ramifications. You won't believe how hard it is to get any trade people to show up for those fixer-upper projects. Plumber/electrician/HVAC/excavator. If they make it within a week of when they say they'll be there, you're doing well. As a retiree, you also need to consider that the only world class medical care is in Burlington or at Dartmouth/Hitchcock. I wouldn't want to have something bad happen to me living in Southern Vermont.



To play devil's advocate, you can do long term rentals in Colorado/Utah and ski on real snow and more reasonable temperatures. I have a number of retiree friends on my Facebook feed who load up the SUV or Subaru in January and do the drive west. They ski some midweek days in New England in the fall to get some leg strength and spring ski on nice days when they get back.

[Babette12]

@GeoffD I sent you a pm.

[thenewtexan]

Originally Posted by Babette12

Hi Everyone -- Dh and I want to live near Mt. Wachusett. Dh works in Burlington and can swing a 4 day week as well as a flexible schedule. Is this commute (along Rt. 2, I presume) reasonable. Main motivation is to be closer to skiing. Thanks!

Oh God, no! NO!

[495neighbor]

Westford to Burlington very doable, usually 30 to 45 min each way. Wachusetts not so much, more like 2 hrs each way. Lots of other opportunity for winter recreation too – ice skating or hockey at Olympia, cross-country skiing at Great Brook Farm. Acton to Burlington was 45 min when I lived there. Nashoba Valley is packed with young kids, especially the night skiing. The summer Tiki Bar is very fun and more adult.