You can spend a fortune on housing all you want. It's your loss.

I have a certain quality of life that includes all of the things you list.

If you're bored, it's your own damned fault. There's plenty of great stuff just a short walk away from my house, and everything else is a reasonable drive away.

I can walk to several nice restaurants and bars. There are walking and biking trails. There is a cool riverfront. There are little shops. There are multiple museums and theaters and orchestras within half an hour of my house. I don't golf, but there are well-respected courses nearby. Our local medical system is as good as any in the U.S., with two teaching hospitals and a med school.

And I paid less than $100K for my house. We've customized it to have a recording studio in the attic, which is great fun. We frequently have live music in our house. We have a goldfish pond, a pergola and an awesome treehouse in our yard. We have an outdoor living area on the covered portion of our deck. It is paradise. We spent time and creativity, not money, making our house and yard what we wanted it to be, mostly with reclaimed materials.

I am never, ever bored. Quite the opposite!