Notes from the Field

Yesterday, my mom drove us into Morristown so we could get an initial sense of what it was like.

It was a brisk, clear day following Saturday's torrential rain and howling wind, so the visibility was great. We mostly stuck to the commercial areas since those were the parts my mom knew, and were where it was easiest to pinpoint specific destinations.

The town presented a clean, well-kept face, with an impressive array of goods and services. It seemed comparable in size to some much larger cities we'd seen outside of New York, while still feeling very recognizably like NJ and retaining a small-town sensibility about it. We liked the fact that the office-park type areas were in a distinctly separate section from the myriad restaurants, shops, galleries, and charming cafes, which were all clustered within a very walkable downtown. One thing that particularly struck us was that even on a Sunday, there was noticeable activity in evidence, which we hadn't seen in many other places -- even Philadelphia! When I think of Morristown as we saw it yesterday, the word "happening" comes to mind. It struck us as the kind of place that would be able to stand on its own in providing real entertainment options on a Friday or Saturday night, as well as honest-to-goodness employment opportunities, rather than having to heavily rely on adjacent locales for its viability. This was something we found particularly appealing. Furthermore, we were really impressed with its branch of Kings supermarket. While not self-consciously quaint the way Maplewood's was, it was *much* bigger, with a far wider selection -- we daresay it rivals even our favorite supermarkets in NYC. We also checked out the train station. Again, it didn't present a distinctive image like Maplewood's, but it had indoor waiting areas on *both* sides of the track, rather than just one, and was spacious, clean (including the restrooms), and sensibly laid out. Trains run on weekends there, too.

We also stopped by one of the major real estate offices in town to get the name of an agent we could call, and were surprised when the person manning the desk turned out to be an agent herself. She immediately pulled up some listings on her computer corresponding to ones we'd seen online ourselves, and offered to take us to see them in three weeks' time (we can't go next weekend because I'll be out of town, and the following weekend is Easter weekend so she won't be available). We would like to have interviewed her extensively and asked for references, as we'd planned to do with any future agent we worked with, but the situation wasn't conducive to it and we were on a tight schedule. On the other hand, we figured that we could sort of interview her as we went along, rather than limiting that process to a specific time and place. And since nobody in my family had recommended her, it would be easier to extricate ourselves earlier on in the process if we weren't happy with her. That being said, we got a very positive first impression of her. She was particularly friendly, alert, and a good listener, and struck us as being more efficient than any of the realtors we'd spoken with in Maplewood. Let's hope this translates into much better service than what we got previously!

My hubby and I decided that we would use the intervening time the weekend after next to rent a car and explore some of the residential areas on our own, just to get a clear grasp of the layout and the various neighborhoods. That was a piece we didn't really have a clear understanding of during this trip, and would obviously be critical to a well-informed decision.

But based on what we've seen up to this point, our general feeling is: so far, so good.