The Dilemma of the Good Job

It's no secret that I have worked for some rather unsavory characters; I have a sad history of working in an abusive work environment. That doesn't help my situation at all, for now that I know what it is like to go to work without stress, not be stressed at work, and come home stress-free and able to be okay or even happy about going to work the next day, I frankly don't want to leave my environment. I know I can do worse, far worse than the situation I am in right now, and I fear I can't do much better. In the year plus I have worked at my current job I have never been reprimanded, never been yelled at, never been mistreated, and don't have anyone presuming to tell me how to do my job nor what tools to use to get my job done. That seems like a reasonable and even a normal description of an average job, yet my previous two jobs put me through all those situations.

I cannot express how joyful it is to face a Sunday afternoon and not be stressed about going to work on Monday. Even though I face a two hour round-trip commute, I have not once dreaded going to work. Sure, there have been days where I knew I would be short on work and waiting on one of the bosses to supply me with material, and I rather dislike being bored, but that's not the same thing as wishing I didn't have to go to work.

I have kind and considerate bosses. They have bought me lunch more times than I can count. They gave me my own office behind two locked doors (which works wonders in keeping out distractions), I get to work on a Mac (my preferred development environment), I can play my music as loud or as quiet as I want, I get to choose what language I program in, what methodologies I employ, and what frameworks I use. Shoot, I even have my own bathroom. Since I double as the SysAdmin I can also bring my laptop into work and no one complains, and they even bought a Wireless Access Point a year ago, just for me and my laptop. If the pay were closer to industry standards I would say this is my dream job.

So what do I do? Our lives are on hold because between both our salaries we are breaking even every month. In less than two years I will be thirty and I had pictured myself having at least one child by then, but we'd have to sell our house and go back to renting just to make that happen. Do I wait for my current company to make enough money to give me a raise, or do I start sending out my resume?