well I'm originally from braintree, now live in colchester and worked in clacton for some time so guess I better say something )
There are a lot of very nice areas round this way, most of the villages mentioned above by chris would be good areas to live... but if one of you has a job in Braintree and one in clacton the main thing you want to be looking at for areas between those two will be easy access to the A12. wivenhoe is very nice, and will be OK for getting to clacton but a nightmare for getting to braintree as you would have to cross Colchester.
a good locationl location for both for those places would be stanway or copford which would be about in the middle and has good access to the roads needed to get to both of them, you also have some nice villages round that area such as west bergholt, Eight ash green, Fordham and great horkesley.
Chris is slightly worng in a couple of things he says.. the A120 between braintree and colchester is a nightmare at rush hour, and love joy was mainly filmed in Long melford not Coggashall :) (sorry chris I know that for a fact, I done some work on the set!)