When making the move from Hoboken to the suburbs, Darren and I had to figure out what really mattered.  Where should we look? What sort of community would be right for us?  What amenities could we not live without? What were we willing to give up in exchange for a lil’ plot of land to call our own and the sweet, sweet privilege of not sharing walls, floors, or ceilings with anybody else?

Darren had one requirement – less than a 45 minute drive to his office in Parsippany. Done.

I, on the other hand, had a bit more of a process.

1. I took a NJ Transit train map and drew a small red circle around New York City: No more than 25 miles outside NYC.
2. I worked in downtown Manhattan and needed easy access to NJT and PATH: Town on a train line. No more than an hour(ish) commute door to door.
3. With dreams of the pitter-patter of little feet in our heads, we didn’t have the immediate need for, but expected to within a few years: good schools, playgrounds, parks.
4. I was used to a thriving downtown and the quainter, the better. Need cute downtown.
5. And of course, we (ok, I) needed the ‘essentials’, preferably within a 10 minute walk: sushi, coffee, wine bar, pizza, Chinese, cabs, cheap place for mani/pedis, friends down the block.

Once we worked our way through the first few items, and compared against our budget, we had a healthy list of towns to explore.  Montclair, Maplewood, Westfield, Cranford, and Fanwood all made our list.  In these towns, we attended approximately a million open houses and toured dozens more with our agent.  Finally, we found “our” home in Cranford.

In our search, proximity and access to NYC, and school ratings were all easy enough to get through a bit of Googling, NJ Transit’s website, and online school rating sites.  But what about those ‘essentials’?  There’s always Yelp and loads of other review sites, but we wanted some inside scoop. Eventually we figured those out on our own once we moved to town (and sometimes that’s half the fun!), but it would have been nice to have a guide to point the way.

So my next few posts will bring you my take on the ‘essentials’ in the Cranford/Westfield area.  I hope you enjoy and find them helpful!