Verified answer

The "water" being Puget Sound or the "water" being Lake Washington? If you're anywhere from Renton to Shoreline you're right by Lake Washington.

Personally I would avoid Renton - it's rather white trash plus very flat and devoid of views, character. Issaquah, Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, Bothell, Edmonds, Lynwood, Mukilteo, Everett are all less than half an hour out of Seattle. There's good and not-so-good areas in each so the best thing would be to drive around those neighbourhoods to see which you like best. The best rentals are often the ones not advertised. They just stick a sign out front and that's enough to find renters.

Not sure what your budget is but Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville are definitely pricier than the other cities I mentioned. Also not sure if you're looking for a studio, apartment, townhome or house to rent. Go to http://www.rent.com/ to search for places or http://www.seattletimes.com/

A half hour drive in rush hour puts you in North Seattle somewhere, not in Everett. It's something to keep in mind as you look for places to live. It's common here for people to have 1 hour + commutes each way.

In order to get a "private" location away from other houses, you'll either need to have a larger budget in order to rent a home with a larger amount of land, or you'll need to go further out.

If you really want more privacy, you might look at Bainbridge Island or Vashon Island, But both come with ferry rides to get into Seattle, which is more than 1/2 hour out.

Keep in mind also that the waterfront in Washington state is usually privately owned, so if what you want is access to the waterfront, you'll need to be looking either for waterfront property specifically or something near a public park.

the one place that's on the 'east side' suburbs that i'd suggest is kirkland. it actually has its own waterfront. all the other places i'd suggest are north of seattle - check out shorline or edmonds.

Try Shoreline...