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Commuter profiles

• Published April 03, 2007

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The commute required him to leave home at 6 a.m., and he didn’t return until 9 or 10 p.m. That lasted about three weeks.

“I would be really stressed out and tired by the time the weekend happened,” he said.

So he rented a room in King County, where he stayed on weekdays. Last July, he and his wife, Jennifer, bought a 388-square-foot condo in Seattle.

For now, it works well. Jennifer Flinton can work part-time in Olympia, where she has built up a network of friends. Her in-laws help with their 5-year-old son, Jimmy, who has autism.

She doesn’t feel stressed wondering what time her husband is going to arrive and if she should make dinner. And she said they spend better quality time on weekends now than when he lived at home.

“We both are really independent people. We’re not the type who are constantly holding hands,” she said.

Paul Flinton said he sees his family just as often as when he was commuting, with far less stress. Now, if he needs to stay late at work, he doesn’t feel pressure to get home. He can spend evenings munching on a store-bought chicken or canned chili and watching movies rather than white-knuckled on the road.

“I go to bed, get up the next morning and do the same thing. It’s pretty quiet,” he said.

The trade-off, of course, is that Jimmy grows up a lot during the week. Their son has started a new treatment and is talking more. Paul Flinton also missed the excitement on his son’s face when he opened birthday presents in October.

The couple discussed moving to Seattle, but Jennifer Flinton is hesitant.

“My support system’s here — all the people I know, all my family. ... It took me many years to cultivate.”

She joked that she’s afraid to calculate if Paul’s annual salary increase from $88,000 to just more than $100,000 is eaten up by the cost of the condo. In fact, at $12,000 a year in mortgage payments, it’s about even.

But Jennifer Flinton points out the decision was not about money. “The mental health part of it — he’s happier, the family structure is happier — makes up somewhat for cost. That’s how I choose to look at it,” she said.