Karen's place is very spacious (bigger than it seems on photos), and ~8 minutes walk to the train station. That's basically what I needed. There are several cafes and shops around (though by no means is it a bustling suburb), so you're self contained enough there even without a car. The hosts live upstairs in the same house, and to be honest, it's far from being "insulated", and when their kids run around, it might be a bit noisy. That said, most of the time, they were amazingly quiet, and given that in reciprocity I was allowed to play music whenever I liked, it was a pretty good deal that I have no regrests about (just have to note it in the review in case it's critical for someone else).