My mom's side of the family grew up in Meriden, now they all live in Haddam, where I grew up before moving to Stillwater, MN. Meriden's time has come and gone though Middletown has been experiencing a little bit of rebirth.
You will want to look at homes in Cheshire and Durham.
If you want to live in the country, and I mean country, you could live as far away as Haddam/Higganum and the commute wouldn't be bad at all, there would be very little traffic, probably half hour drive depending on start and endpoints.
CT is beautiful in the summer, nicer than MN in the winter, but that's not saying much.
Schools in this part of CT are great.
What's your timetable? Let me know if I can help at all.
