Lot Lines

I drove directly to the development today after work to time it; its about forty-five minutes from door to door.  Except I don't know where the second door is going to be.  Or if there will be a second door.  BF and I spent about a half an hour on site looking at each lot (there are only a few) and weighing the pros and cons of each one.  We don't really like any of them particularly (more of that story to come) - how do you choose between three or four options when you are indifferent?  Several of the lots back up to an older part of town, that is close to a major road.  The road noise was louder than we would have thought possible, but more of a consideration is what might happen in a few years to the tiny railroad crossing hamlet of houses that look like they've outlived their useful life?  If a Wawa or Royal Farms goes up right behind a house we've mortgaged ourselves to the bone for, we are going to be pretty unhappy.  So, what to do?

Its tough to get excited about spending 300k+ and moving when the available lots aren't exactly perfect in every way (not that I could even tell you what exactly perfect in every way is!)

There was one lot that we loved - it was wooded on one side and sort of secluded, but we over thought it.  The woods are privately owned and not protected open space, so the owner could do whatever he wanted to property that I know we would eventually feel was ours.  Plus, it was very close to the railroad tracks - within 500 feet.  The train doesn't run often, but it runs at night and I'm a light sleeper.  I know Ryan homes are supposed to be air-tight, but I don't know how sound proof they are.  So, while we were considering all of these things, another buyer started the contract process on it.  We simply waited too long.

Its the story of my life.

So, how did you make your lot decisions, not knowing who would be next to you, what their house would look like and whether they would think that planting plastic tulips in their yard counted as gardening (true story)?