Would You Have Bought the Same House if You Had A Telecommute Option??

My job is mostly remote since COVID but I have to be able to come into Manhattan on little notice so I have to be within a couple of hours. I love my house but might have bought something similar less expensive with a longer commute.

 

More fortuitous stroke of luck than anything else. Other than the jail thing.

When I got the job at Turner in 2001, Gwen decided she wanted to teach at a school some 35 miles from downtown Atlanta, which left me with anywhere from a 40-minute ride at 2 a.m. to 2 1/2 hours on a rainy/snowy/crash-filled rush "hour." Eventually Gwinnett County added commuter buses, which meant I didn't have to pay attention to the road but it was still a pain in the ass for someone who always worked morning drive radio or midnight deadline print while living less than 10 miles from the station/paper.

Fast forward to 2006, when Gwen and I decided to use some of the money she inherited to buy a weekend cabin in western North Carolina. I offered to buy Mom and Dad's place in West Jefferson, but they turned me down, which was fine because it was a good five-hour drive from Lawrenceville, pretty long for a two-day getaway. Instead, we found this place outside of Helen, Ga., which was only 75 minutes up the freeway but far enough from the city to be peaceful and quiet. Nice mountains, nice trees, crazy neighbors.

A year later, my boss at NASCAR.com -- Duane Cross -- asked me to transition from senior editor to traveling writer -- which allowed us to move here full-time and eventually get out of the Lawrenceville house (just weeks before the 2008 market collapse). Decent Internet, a TV that could receive SPEED TV and a cellphone was all I needed at that point.

So other than battling commute traffic to get to and from Hartsfield-Jackson 25 weekends a year, I wrote everything from the couch for the next five years. The PGA.com gig was also telecommuting, with the exception of the four majors. In that case, Turner put me up at one of the nearby hotels for the week, and I just walked across the Connector to Techwood every day.

 

If I had the chance to telecommute hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

You all should ask Alma what he thinks about me telecommuting

 

I've been a non-remote worker for 31 yrs and just not geared to do so starting now. I was just remote for another week due to COVID and it was a slog for me.

My commute is 30-40 mins (12 mi.) and I actually treasure that wind down town. Its not too much traffic, and I enjoy the views of SF and the bridges on the way in (especially with the top down).

I really enjoy the short commute, the great schools, and the weather climate where I'm at. So no for me.

 

We bought where we bought for the public schools, and would do it again in a heartbeat. With a high school junior and sophomore in the house, we've thought about selling in a couple of years and making a ton of money, but the market is stupid crazy and we don't know where we'd go and not have a huge payment. So we're probably in this house for the long haul, which is fine.

 

Schools were the driving factor for us; private school for two, 15 yrs ago, was going to be $60k after tax per year. Figured could pay a lot of mortgage for that and it’s worked out.

 

I'm a long-term renter, and I love the accessibility of where I live. But it's about 45 minutes from the edge of my coverage area.

I haven't been tied to an office for years, but I was still doing in-person assignments during the worst of the pandemic. If I was truly remote, I think I'd like to spend long stretches living in different places to try them out. Say, a month in Boston, a month in San Francisco, a month in Chicago, maybe a month in London or Paris or Amsterdam, etc. It's long enough to make connections to different communities, rather than a brief vacation drop in.

 

A month in SF wouldn't give you an accurate picture of living in SF. SF has a very cool climate which is a drag, but it's a very concentrated city with a multitude of little neighborhoods that are their own with different vibes (North Beach, the Mission, etc.) and exploring each of them is what tells you you're in SF.

 

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but this sort of talk is kinda infuriating to us who have been going to work every day through the pandemic. This wishcasting of being able to vacation while you work. It’s jealousy, I’ll admit, but still infuriating.

 

I’ve worked harder and longer in the past two years than I ever have. And that includes a decade as a journalist!

The year when my wife and I balanced 50- to 60-hour work weeks with 24/7 babysitting of two young children who couldn’t go to school is something I’ll never forget.