You were all so incredibly helpful with your advice on whether to stay in our house and go to Catholic school or move and go to a great public school. http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/which-house-and-school-would-you-choose

We ended up making an offer on the house. The sellers countered, and it's still affordable to us but expensive for the area. There is another house in another neighborhood that we're now looking at too. Here are the features of each, and I'd love to know what you'd do. Thank you in advance!

House 1 (Big yard, so-so neighborhood):
*Blue ribbon school (ranked #3 in our state) that's a 3 minute drive away. No possibility of walking, as it's across a major highway
*Large square footage
*Bonus room
*Huge yard
*5 minutes from my in-laws and closer to my parents and my sister (more babysitting!)
*We'd have to build a fence to surround a couple sides of the yard, which would put this house around $22k more expensive than house 2
*Neighborhood just okay- my husband is not a fan

House 2 (Tiny yard, ideal neighborhood)
*Blue ribbon school that's a 10 minute walk away (ranked #1 in our state)
*My husband's dream neighborhood. Everybody keeps their yards nice, younger families, walkable coffee shop, etc. There's a pool that's a 5 minute drive away.
*5 minute walk from a huge park with open green areas, really fun playground, and at least a mile of paved trails for bike riding, walking, etc. Lots of trees for shade
*700 square feet smaller than House 1 but still big enough for our needs
*Yard is super small. There's a grassy area in the backyard that's maybe 8x12. No patio or sidewalks inside the yard for riding bikes or other ride-on toys. We'd pretty much have to go to the park to get in good gross motor, so I would have to accompany my kids and not be able to just send them outside to play. All houses in this neighborhood have small yards or are way out of our price range.

We think the schools are pretty much equal, so I guess it comes down to the neighborhood and yard. What would you do? If any of you have slightly older kids (mine are 2 and 4), do you really value being able to just send your kids outside to play while you get things done in the house?

Thank you all so much!