Downtown Walpole has a bunch of decent pizza places, restaurants, and sandwich shops, but no dedicated coffee shop in the downtown area (I guess Farmer in the Dell has coffee, but it doesn’t have the same cafe vibe and their hours are a little strange). My family would frequent if there was one in downtown Walpole, and there have been a few large apartment buildings that opened downtown in recent years. The old waterworks flatiron building would be perfect. It’s got a lot of character, big glass windows on the pointy end of the flatiron, good exposure to Main Street… unfortunately there is a man interior decorators office there now, otherwise I’d open my own coffee shop there haha!

I live out in Walpole and work in Back Bay. As others mentioned, driving takes an hour to an hour and 15 most days, but the commuter line gets me to the office in 40 minutes. $4k would get you a decent house out here, but the commute may be on the longer side compared to what you are looking for. That being said, I’d look at some cheaper towns close to one of the commuter lines (Dedham and Readville come to mind). That’s likely your best bet to rent a house in that price range.