I'm moving to Seattle, where would you recommend living?

Oh, lucky you. You will have your pick. Check out Wallingford, which sounds much like your description, but there are many districts close to UW that will charm you with their coffee shops, lovely homes, parks, and restaurants.

Cleveland.

Personally, I am fond of Greenwood and Fremont myself and feel that they have a great assortment of eateries and watering holes. However, neither is exactly what I would call “quiet”, especially not after having five acres in the woods in NH.

Of course, those are places I like to hang out, not places I would really like to live. I am happy to be a bit North near the Snohomish county line in a quiet place less than a mile from the water with nice, big woods nearby, so there are your parks. I live in a nice, quiet neighborhood well within ½-hour of the U-district unless you are silly enough to try taking Aurora at he wrong time of day or stupid enough to try I-5 without packing a lunch. You’ll learn when you get here. Hell, I’ve made it to Pikes in under 30 minutes without running lights or speeding with yards aplenty. The catch? Not within walking distance of good food or decent bars, hence why I am glad Greenwood is less than a ten minute drive :)

Rents are a little more reasonable here too. Everybody wants to be right in the middle of it all, so Wallingford is a bit spendy; looking at ~$1000/month for a 1-bedroom from what I’ve seen last time I looked. Greenwood has nicer places from $650, and where I am is around that range as well

I would look into the Wallingford, Ravenna, Greenlake, Wedgewood and Lake City neighborhoods.All of these places have what your looking within walking/biking distance. They also all have quiet neighborhoods in which you can definitely find a house with a nice yard. Like @jerv I also like Greenwood and Fremont, along with Phinney Ridge and Ballard, but I would also agree that they are a little less “quiet”.

Wallingford and Ravenna. Greenlake may be tricky to find places but would also be good.

Hundreds of new apartments are being built on Capitol Hill. Very cool. You might have to share. Buses to the U District.

One thing you may need to know is which streets are “main drags” or arterials. For instance, Greenwood is mostly quiet, but 3rd Ave, Greenwood Ave, and 85th St. are particularly busy in that area, and Aurora Ave is also known as SR-99; it’s actually a state highway that you’ll probably become quite familiar with once you get to Seattle. That said, any street with a number that does not end in a 0 or 5 is generally quiet.

@Zaku Green Lake, home to Beth’s Cafe and my favorite computer parts shop. A few bars too, and pretty decent so long as you’re more than a block away from Aurora.

@forestGeek Ballard…. meh. Don’t get me wrong, parts of Ballard are nice, but parts of it are rather industrial, which I think the OP may not like.

@susanc Capitol Hill is cool, but also rather densely populated, so I don’t know if there are many real yards there. Then again, there are lots of coffeehouses, bars, and plenty of live music there, so it may be worthwhile.