There are a lot of factors that can play into whether or not it is a good idea and those factors can change over time. Right now, the commute is only an hour. If the area grows/increases in population, that amount of time could increase a little or a lot. How one feels also depends on if that hour is spent actually driving or just sitting in traffic most of the time. My DH does commute. We have a home on acreage that we enjoy and it is in a good location between 2 cities that have government work (which is who his employer is). A house like ours closer to Santa Fe would be double the price (on a city lot), perhaps triple with acreage. I work at home so I am close to the kids needs for school and socializing. I think it is important to have one parent close to the kids. There are times when the commute does get to him but when he hand the opportunity to apply for a job with a pay raise and shorter commute, he chose not to. There are downsides. He cannot invite his co-workers over for dinner and if we are invited to something, it takes a considerable amount of time. We could sell and buy something closer, but that would be a major disruption to the kids and our life outside of work is here. When the kids move out, he will only be about 4 years away from retirement so our lives will have changed again. If you do buy a house that far out, like most house purchases, it is best to have enough equity in it that if you decide to sell, for whatever reason (in this case shortening your commute), you can afford to do so.

We've worked for ourselves for over 40 years. DH works from home and his truck (it stays a mess!) At one time we owned two large office buildings, so we had an office there to give him a place to go during the day. I stopped going when we moved out (took almost an hour to get there, another back). So I've been totally working from home all this time (with the exception of going into the office for a few years). He does all the legwork (checking on our commercial real estate properties, leasing, dealings with tenants, problems) and I do all the paperwork (leases, accounting, increases, etc). I've worked all morning (end of month, first of month) at the kitchen table, in my pajamas. Dogs at my feet. Cats on my paperwork. Can't beat that, especially since it's raining today. DH leaves daily, although he doesn't need to. He likes to work. He's gone by 4am. Walks, swims, showers. Checks on properties Usually goes to grocery store on way home, and is back here by 10. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. We are slowly retiring, and should be fully retired by 2020. DH would like to travel more. Me? I'd rather stay at home. The only problem is as soon as he comes in the door, the TV is turned on. I like quiet. Especially when I first wake up... okay, all morning! He can't hear as well, so it's too loud for me. I think he gets bored sometimes, so we are trying to decided between pool or no pool, so he can entertain himself a few times a day. Working from home has always allowed us to make our own schedules. Taking time off for traveling is easy. When our parents were all living, it was extremely helpful. I think it is seen by some (one friend in particular) as being cushy, not much to do, we don't work our a$$es off. Maybe not as many hours as she and her DH (both residential RE agents) do, but we are always in working mode. It never fails on the way out of town or while traveling, we get phone calls. All times of the day. Not to mention, not being able to turn off our minds sometimes.

Light neutral tan or cream colored carpet, but if you have kids or dogs, go as dark as you need. Wood floors would look best but you didn't mention that as an option. I'm not big on window treatments, I would do simple 2" faux wood blinds from selectblinds. If you get a wood floor, get the wood look blinds in the same color. Likewise if you do carpet, find whatever blinds look best with the carpet color (there's lots of shades of whites and creams in the blinds selections). I'm excited for you, you'll need to show us how it turns out!

If you submit a backup offer that’s significantly better than the current one, then the sellers will have an incentive to not negotiate with the current buyer if something comes back from the inspection. If it’s just similar to the current offer, then you can just hope that the buyer backs out for some reason.