Moving to the vacinity, help with location ideas?

[preppy]

I accepted a job in Watertown and we assumed my husband would find a job downtown and were considering Newton, Brookline, Charlestown, and Arlington. My H just threw me for a loop because he has an offer with his current company to be a remote sales rep for the state of NH. He thought we would live north of Watertown and somewhere south of lowell-ish. Will I want to die commuting along 95 or 495, I feel like it could be madness. I also have NO CLUE what towns that would be nice in the area. Access to highways would be a must for us both, a nice downtown/main street, close by shopping, outdoorsy things (trails, bike path, dog parks) close by. Any ideas of where to re-start our search is he decides to go with this job? Thanks in advance!