Apartment living

C0602t

Hi September mamas! I'm sorry I'm just now introducing myself, now that we are more than halfway through this! I crept around a bit in the beginning and now I'm back! I'm 22w2d with our baby boy. We had an early miscarriage in September, so we are beyond thankful and happy for a smooth, healthy pregnancy :-)
Onto my question-
My husband and I have been living in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 900 sqft condo since we got engaged in 2011. We thought we would have a house by now and have been saving for what feels like forever. We live in Maryland, so it's hard to find what we want where we want it in our price range. Our landlord wants another lease by the end of the summer. Anyone plan on bringing their baby home to an apartment? We look at at least 2 houses a week and with each disappointment, I'm more and more tempted to start setting up his nursery in the condo!

Ceridwen21

I don't have any personal experience with this, but a good friend of mine raised her first child in a 2 bed 1 bath condo and found it so much easier and more pleasant than with her 2nd when they had a house.  She loved how everything was close by, baby proofing was minimal (no stairs to worry about, etc.), and that their lack of storage space forced them to keep only essential items.

rlyttle

Babies don't really take up much room. It's all their stuff that takes up the room. I don't think it would be a big deal to bring a baby home to an apartment, but 900 sq ft isn't much room. It's when the baby get mobile is when it seems like you need more room. Don't rush it if you are not finding a house you will love. 

GlitterMuffin914

We live in a  2 bedroom apartment that is about 1200 square feet. 900 is just fine! Babies don't take up a lot of room, and you don't need a full on baby zone the first year if you don't want to or don't have the space. In fact, we're planning on having baby in our room the first 8 or so months anyway since my sister will be living with us during her last year at college, se we won't be setting up an actual nursery until that point.

I live in San Francisco where space is at a premium. Us city folks can tell you babies only take up as much space as you give them

mapchick77

We were living in a 2BR 2BA condo when DS was born and it worked out just fine for us. Like PP said, everything was close by which made middle of the night feedings a breeze and child proofing pretty minimal. We only moved because we are adding child #2 and we wanted more space. With just one child though it was working perfectly.

ETA: And welcome, by the way! :-)

LucilleAustero

We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with DD until she was 21 months old. I kind of miss it now that we are in our 3 bedroom house.

Ceridwen21

You could also google some ideas for double purpose nurseries (ex. nursery/guest room or nursery/office) to see how others have been creative with small spaces.

C0602t

Thank you so much for the replies! You're all making me kind of excited to stay where we are. We love our location and neighbors(all but one, that's a story for another day!), and it really is a cozy home. I think we just always thought a house was the next step... But it would be nice to continue saving and the right one will come. Now I just need the grandparents to be to stop buying so much! :-)

chardonnay24

We actually lived in a house when we had our first and we're living in an apartment now. We're looking to buy within the next 2 years, but we're also thinking about renting a house until we are ready to buy.

We currently live in a 2/2 900 sf apartment. It's tight but it works. We keep seasonal items (Christmas/Halloween decor, summer toys, camping gear, etc) in our storage unit. We use space bags and under the bed storage boxes to store out of season clothes. We are kind of forced not to have a lot of "stuff", but frankly, I like that we don't have a lot of crap. The only thing I don't like about apartment life is the lack of yard, but that wasn't something I would miss with a baby. We're going to try and squeeze all 4 of us in this apartment for probably 6 months after the baby is born, maybe up to a year. It's not ideal but we can make it work. Good luck! I find a lot of good organizational tips on Pinterest.

C0602t

chardonnay24 said:

We actually lived in a house when we had our first and we're living in an apartment now. We're looking to buy within the next 2 years, but we're also thinking about renting a house until we are ready to buy.

We currently live in a 2/2 900 sf apartment. It's tight but it works. We keep seasonal items (Christmas/Halloween decor, summer toys, camping gear, etc) in our storage unit. We use space bags and under the bed storage boxes to store out of season clothes. We are kind of forced not to have a lot of "stuff", but frankly, I like that we don't have a lot of crap. The only thing I don't like about apartment life is the lack of yard, but that wasn't something I would miss with a baby. We're going to try and squeeze all 4 of us in this apartment for probably 6 months after the baby is born, maybe up to a year. It's not ideal but we can make it work. Good luck! I find a lot of good organizational tips on Pinterest.

That's a great idea about getting a storage unit for holiday decor etc! I agree it would be nice to de clutter and clean out what we've built up over the years!

slowmo

You can do it! We got very lucky in that our house-hunting process went faster than expected, so we'll be in our house by next month. That said, we were fully prepared to move from our 1br/1ba in NYC to a 2br/2ba apartment in Jersey. Just going from a 1br to a 2br would have been a big step up for us! We have tons of friends in the city with babies in apartments, and they all make it work. Like people said, you're much more thoughtful about the amount of stuff you buy and you get very creative about storage. Does your condo have a washer/dryer? Not having one is the probably the worst thing about apartment living!

mcstrepp

We will bringing our LO home to a 2 bedroom apartment(1 bath) I have no idea about the square feet. I am just being careful and picky about what we register/buy for the baby since we have limited space. We are lucky in that we have basement access for some storage and a washer and dryer.

portentosa

Welcome!

I own my own home, but it is our first home that we bought before DS was born so is on the small side. 2bd/1bath 1300sqft. We plan to move within the next few years but I already feel cramped with just the two bedrooms. DS's nursery triples as an office and a guest room. I can't even imagine when both kids are potty trained and all four of us are trying to share one bathroom. Other than trying to multi-purpose the nursery our space has worked well for us up to this point and will probably still continue to work well.... even with my potty training worries. I'm sure you'll be fine for at least a year or two as well.

C0602t

slowmo said:

You can do it! We got very lucky in that our house-hunting process went faster than expected, so we'll be in our house by next month. That said, we were fully prepared to move from our 1br/1ba in NYC to a 2br/2ba apartment in Jersey. Just going from a 1br to a 2br would have been a big step up for us! We have tons of friends in the city with babies in apartments, and they all make it work. Like people said, you're much more thoughtful about the amount of stuff you buy and you get very creative about storage. Does your condo have a washer/dryer? Not having one is the probably the worst thing about apartment living!

Yes, thankfully we have a washer and dryer! Congrats on your new home :-) !!

ConversationFear

I'm not in an apartment, so I can't offer any helpful advice there - BUT I can suggest something in regards to house hunting and leases.

It sounds like you have a good relationship with the people in your building - do you have a really good relationship with your landlord? The reason I ask is  because when DH and I were engaged and looking for a house, I was supposed to sign a lease in August, but we wanted to start looking for a house that fall. I didn't want to sign a year lease and then pay back rent so I worked out a system where my rent went up about $40 a month, BUT they let me pay it month to month with no lease. I signed some agreement that if I did not give proper 30 days notice for leaving that I would be fined the equivelant of a certain amount of rent. It made my landlord feel better and I wasn't attached to anything - AND I didn't feel like I had to "hurry up" and find a house either. Just an avenue you might want to check into if you haven't already. Good luck!

wrightpalomo

Hubbs and I live in a studio apartment. We have one "big" room that we split into "bed area", "living/dining area" and my "office" is shoved in a closet. We have a kitchen where we have his desk in a corner and a bathroom/dressing room as well. Our space is much smaller than 900 square feet- I don't know the exact number but I think we're closer to 500 (main room is 17x22).

We have to stay in this apartment for at least 1 year after the baby is born. We live in SF and rent has recently become unreasonable (to say the least), we have been under rent control for the last 5.5 years so we have a great "deal" on this place. Hubbs is in nursing school until next May so we can't go upgrading right now. 

To save space we are planning on just having a bassinet and co-sleeping, keeping the kid's "stuff" to a minimum by skipping on the changing table, stroller (we would literally have to lock it up with a bike chain in the basement if we had one), pack-n-play, etc. We'll probably get a travel swing/bouncer thing to keep by my desk because I work from home and I'm crossing my fingers for a good napper! We are doing cloth diapers though so we did get an apartment-sized washer to keep us from having to use the building laundry room. 

I think it's going to be totally doable in our apartment so your two bedroom should be fine! I know what you mean about the grandparents and the buying! I've had to have some serious "come to Jesus" talks with my MIL about the reality of our space. She is decidedly not a "minimalist" and is concerned I'll be depriving her grandson with my "hippy ways" (her words)  

C0602t

ConversationFear said:

I'm not in an apartment, so I can't offer any helpful advice there - BUT I can suggest something in regards to house hunting and leases.

It sounds like you have a good relationship with the people in your building - do you have a really good relationship with your landlord? The reason I ask is  because when DH and I were engaged and looking for a house, I was supposed to sign a lease in August, but we wanted to start looking for a house that fall. I didn't want to sign a year lease and then pay back rent so I worked out a system where my rent went up about $40 a month, BUT they let me pay it month to month with no lease. I signed some agreement that if I did not give proper 30 days notice for leaving that I would be fined the equivelant of a certain amount of rent. It made my landlord feel better and I wasn't attached to anything - AND I didn't feel like I had to "hurry up" and find a house either. Just an avenue you might want to check into if you haven't already. Good luck!

Thank you! Sadly we've never actually spoke to our landlord, we communicate through long and foster. We've been on a month to month since October with intentions of leaving. So I guess he gave us the lease ultimatum because we haven't made any moves! He raised our rent by $25, I'm curious what another lease will be but I'm sure it's a lot less than buying a house!

Everyone is making me feel so much better :-) we have our favorite grocery store, vet, and most importantly liqour store within walking distance... It's just too hard to leave!

Sicheyanne

Congrats on your healthy baby boy!

My husband and I live in a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment, this is where we plan on bringing home our baby boy. I see no problems with it.

ham0216

We currently live in a 1Br/1Ba loft and I was really freaking out in the beginning about space, storage, should we move, etc. especially since our lease is up the week of our due date!  We've decided we're staying here for the time being, possibly extending our lease by 6 months, or just do month to month terms.  Although more room & a yard would be nice, I didn't want to add the pressure of finding the right house, packing, moving, on top of everything else that's going on with baby right now. Although it is going to be a little crowded, I like the idea of having her right in the room with us, especially for feedings.  And like PPs have said, babies don't take up too much space in the beginning.  We're only registering for items we absolutely need, & I'm maximizing storage space, cleaning out, organizing the best I can ahead of time.  Plus to help, I tried to look at all the positives of our current place - safety, convenience to drs & work, amenities.. Don't worry, you will make it work  And the right house will come along at the right time.

Dawson56

We got married pretty young (at 24 and our honeymoon baby arrived at 25). We brought her home to our apartment but purchased and moved into our house when she was 4 months old. To be honest, I think the apartment was easier. Everything was so close it made it convenient.

When we moved into our house, I was thrilled to decorate the nursery and all that kind of stuff. But in terms of having the kitchen and bedrooms and bathroom all within an arms reach was great in the apt.

HisMrs08

We live in an apartment, my 2 year old daughter and baby boy will be sharing a room (although he will be by my bed for at least the first few months, as was baby girl.  I didn't want to hassle with a move and stress of finding a house until we were more established with the kids and I got into a better job anyways.  There's no problem with it at all!

slowmo

wrightpalomo said:

I think it's going to be totally doable in our apartment so your two bedroom should be fine! I know what you mean about the grandparents and the buying! I've had to have some serious "come to Jesus" talks with my MIL about the reality of our space. She is decidedly not a "minimalist" and is concerned I'll be depriving her grandson with my "hippy ways" (her words)  

You're not being a minimalist hippie if you literally don't have the space for more stuff! When my husband and I got married four years ago, we got a lot of pressure to increase the size of our small wedding registry. Our non-city friends and relatives really didn't understand how little space we had. We still have appliances in the box stuffed in the back of closets because there is no more room in the kitchen. Scaling back on the stuff is the way to go.

Morocco

We have a two bedroom loft.. And we are all just going to fit in. I agree that it forces you to get what you NEED not what everyone tells you you need!

itsagalsworls1024

We live in a 2/1apartment and will be bringing LO home to an apartment, the only catch with us is we will be moving in August so right before LO is here we will be going to a different apartment. It will take some rearranging and purging but that's part of the process I guess.

pshaortao

We live in a 2/1 apartment (after living in a studio for 2 years!) Originally, my BIL was going to continue living in the 2nd bedroom and have the crib set up in the master bedroom, but due to personal reasons we've asked him to move out this weekend. When LO is here, the 2nd bedroom will be part nursery, part guest room.

We plan to keep her in a bassinet in the master bedroom with us for at least the first couple months while family/friends can stay in the guest room (most of them are from out of state). We are not in a rush to buy a house either since the market here (in northern CA) is ridiculous with people outbidding each other. Our place is actually quite affordable compared to the majority. The school district on the other hand, has a not so great reputation. We will probably reconsider about 3-4 years down the road when it's time to start thinking about where our LO will attend school.

mrsdanielleM2010

Just wanted to add - I grew up in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. When my parents were married, they had the small bedroom and I shared the big one with my brother and sister. After the divorce, my brother moved into the small room but the family computer desk was in there too, my sister and I shared the big room and had moms dresser in it, and she slept on the pullout couch in the living room. You make it work, and if you don't know anything different, it isn't that bad.

ConversationFear

C0602t said:

I'm not in an apartment, so I can't offer any helpful advice there - BUT I can suggest something in regards to house hunting and leases.

It sounds like you have a good relationship with the people in your building - do you have a really good relationship with your landlord? The reason I ask is  because when DH and I were engaged and looking for a house, I was supposed to sign a lease in August, but we wanted to start looking for a house that fall. I didn't want to sign a year lease and then pay back rent so I worked out a system where my rent went up about $40 a month, BUT they let me pay it month to month with no lease. I signed some agreement that if I did not give proper 30 days notice for leaving that I would be fined the equivelant of a certain amount of rent. It made my landlord feel better and I wasn't attached to anything - AND I didn't feel like I had to "hurry up" and find a house either. Just an avenue you might want to check into if you haven't already. Good luck!

I'm curious what another lease will be but I'm sure it's a lot less than buying a house!

I don't know what your cost of living is so I can't speak to your case, but buying a house saved DH and I about $300 a month overall where we are. (St. Louis, MO)

Ciardasully

OP, I have no advice but I wanted to say that I am sorry about loss and am glad that this pregnancy has gone well.  

Amandanmoen

We're in a 2 bed 1 bath appartment and I have no worries. Plus we have a big dog! Nursery will continue to double as a guest room until all the out of town family has come to visit but that is the only part that's not ideal.

My only concern is wondering whether or not we have to tell our landlord about the baby. I don't know why this bothers me. It shouldn't be a big deal but at the same time I don't feel like it's any of his business. Is that weird?

mrsdanielleM2010

Amandanmoen said:

We're in a 2 bed 1 bath appartment and I have no worries. Plus we have a big dog! Nursery will continue to double as a guest room until all the out of town family has come to visit but that is the only part that's not ideal.

My only concern is wondering whether or not we have to tell our landlord about the baby. I don't know why this bothers me. It shouldn't be a big deal but at the same time I don't feel like it's any of his business. Is that weird?

At least in NY you'd be legally obliged to provide the landlord with the name of each person residing on the property. It changes their insurance and requires them to provide things like window guards. I get why you don't want to share the info though

wpatx

We don't live in an apartment, but live in a very small rental house similar to yours in size.  Ours is 3/1 and a little less than 900 square feet.  Similar to you, we are in an insane housing market where tear down houses in our neighborhood are selling for $500,000...which is insane!

I sometimes worry this won't be enough space for us, because I grew up with much more space when I was younger, and I loved it.  However, I always remind myself that baby won't know any better.  Whatever he or she grows up with will be perfect for him or her

I've seen people work with much less space, and get by just fine.

bohemianlc

We are in a very similar situation, as we live in a 2-bedroom apartment. We thought we would be in a house by now, but like you, we haven't found the perfect place yet in the area where we would like to live. We also have to give word by the end of the summer if we want to renew our lease, and it's looking more definite that we will stay. We have also been looking at tons of houses, but nothing has panned out. I don't think it's the end of the world at all to have a baby in a condo or apartment; it requires some purging of unessential belongings, but that's not so bad to do every now and then anyways. We recently had a yard sale at my parents' place to clear stuff out and actually made a ton of $$ for baby stuff!  

We have some friends who have made it work in a one-bedroom apartment, so I'm confident that we (and you!) will be able to make the apartment into a cozy atmosphere for the baby. There are tons of cute Pinterest ideas for creating a nursery and baby-friendly environment in a small space!  

*One word of advice: If you find a way to work out what PPs suggested about working out a month-to-month deal, just make sure you're protected and that your rent isn't going to potentially skyrocket on you. I know that at our apartment, we have the option to rent month-to-month, but our rent increases to whatever the going rate is. Because we have lived here for a few years, our rent is currently over $500 cheaper than what new residents are paying, so it could actually be cheaper for us to break our lease if we found the perfect place than it would to just go month-to-month. Best of luck to you!

*Edited to fix spelling.

harkeyl86

my hubby and i currently live in a 1 bedroom apt and are moving to a 2 bedroom at the end of this month. we live in orange county, ca so a house (even a small one) is WAAAAY out of our price range now. i grew up in an apartment so i think it'll be perfect for us

kirstynikole

We've lived in our own home the last 3 years and are currently selling it to move to another state. We'll be moving into an apartment next month and staying there for an undefined time until we find a home or a rental home we like.

I agree that you make your space work, but my question is do people tend to be jerks if their neighbor has a very fussy baby? I mean fingers crossed that won't be the case but I worry if my child has reoccurring ear infections like I did or is just a fussy baby in general.. are they able to complain about us and if so how friggin ridiculous is that?! DH says he'll have no problem telling someone who complains to screw off but I just wonder... how sympathetic are people?

C0602t

Well, we were supposed to look at a house today and it already went under contract. So we took it as a si

Amandanmoen said:

We're in a 2 bed 1 bath appartment and I have no worries. Plus we have a big dog! Nursery will continue to double as a guest room until all the out of town family has come to visit but that is the only part that's not ideal.

My only concern is wondering whether or not we have to tell our landlord about the baby. I don't know why this bothers me. It shouldn't be a big deal but at the same time I don't feel like it's any of his business. Is that weird?

I know what you mean! We sent our landlord an email asking if we could paint the baby's room, and then I started getting all weirded out like "what if he makes us leave because of the baby?!" LOL of course there's no "no baby" rule in the lease. And he is letting us paint! :-)

C0602t

kirstynikole said:

We've lived in our own home the last 3 years and are currently selling it to move to another state. We'll be moving into an apartment next month and staying there for an undefined time until we find a home or a rental home we like.

I agree that you make your space work, but my question is do people tend to be jerks if their neighbor has a very fussy baby? I mean fingers crossed that won't be the case but I worry if my child has reoccurring ear infections like I did or is just a fussy baby in general.. are they able to complain about us and if so how friggin ridiculous is that?! DH says he'll have no problem telling someone who complains to screw off but I just wonder... how sympathetic are people?

I wondered about the crying too, but the people under us have a baby and I've never heard him/her! Also, since we are in a condo that's individually owned (not an apt building) I'm not sure who they could complain to besides us! And we would have some words for them haha!

C0602t

Well, everyone made me feel so much happier and more comfortable with the idea of staying in our condo. We spent the entire weekend clearing out and cleaning... Organizing... And we took a lot of stuff to store at my mother in laws! We wasted no time buying paint and tonight I'm buying his bookshelves for the walls!!! So happy and excited! Thank you everyone!

wrightpalomo

Amandanmoen said:

We're in a 2 bed 1 bath appartment and I have no worries. Plus we have a big dog! Nursery will continue to double as a guest room until all the out of town family has come to visit but that is the only part that's not ideal. My only concern is wondering whether or not we have to tell our landlord about the baby. I don't know why this bothers me. It shouldn't be a big deal but at the same time I don't feel like it's any of his business. Is that weird?

Before we started TTC I called the rental board and asked a bunch of questions about this! In San Francisco a person under the age of 6 does not count as an "occupant" for occupancy limit purposes and, legally, you are allowed to have one occupant more than is on the lease. Hubbs and I are both on our lease so we're all good. We haven't specifically told our building manager yet but I think he's figured it out. Plus we've told some of the neighbors and we have a kind of gossipy/chatty building so I'm sure he's heard. 

@kristynikole I also asked about the fussy baby issue and the rental board said that it would be illegal to evict someone for having a fussy baby. But that is specific to SF. There are also a lot of questionable evictions happening right now in the city so anything even slightly controversial gets a ton of media and gets taken to court so I'm not at all concerned- can you imagine the heat that would come down on someone for evicting an established, rent-controlled tenant who also happens to be a new mother? I'm sure the neighbors can complain all they want but the land lord can't evict so whatever! 

I'd recommend calling your local rental board (or equivalent) to know what your rights are ahead of time. That way, if your land lord tires to pull something shady (like raising your rent because of the new "tenant") you'll be informed and can shut it down right away. A lot of land lords/building managers don't know all the laws and some of those who do will bet that you don't and try to take advantage. Best to be well informed before the issue comes up! 

bohemianlc

I have always lived in apartments with little kids directly above me; it's just the way it's worked out for some reason! The only time I ever had a problem as a neighbor was in a situation similar to that described by steelersgirl83. The parents let the little kids stay up all night, jumping and running at 3 in the morning. Needless to say, that was NOT a normal situation. They were actually evicted because of the noise complaints; apparently the people next to them were complaining about the kids hammering on the walls all night. It was insanity. 

Other than that, having a baby or a child directly above me has never bothered me. Actually, the parents who live above us came over just the other day to apologize for how loud their baby has been. Honestly, we were so shocked because the sounds have never disrupted us; we will sometimes hear the baby crying in the distance, but it's so soft that it's never been a problem in the least. I think that under normal circumstances, your baby won't be as much of a disruption as you think. And if so, you could always cross that bridge when you come to it. Like previous posters said, you can't be evicted just because your baby is crying, so your landlord should be able to step in if you get a crazy neighbor who can't handle it. I think the biggest struggle with apartment living is just working with a small space. 

wrightpalomo

@bohemianlc and @steelersgirl83 I was thinking of getting the neighbors a gift basket with some ear plugs, candy, and our phone numbers when we bring the baby home- kind of like a "Hey, we have a baby! Sorry you might have to hear him " kind of thing- any thoughts on that since you have had kids as neighbors? It might be a bit much but I figure it's best to acknowledge the change and let them know we're aware they may be inconvenienced. 

bohemianlc

wrightpalomo said:

@bohemianlc and @steelersgirl83 I was thinking of getting the neighbors a gift basket with some ear plugs, candy, and our phone numbers when we bring the baby home- kind of like a "Hey, we have a baby! Sorry you might have to hear him " kind of thing- any thoughts on that since you have had kids as neighbors? It might be a bit much but I figure it's best to acknowledge the change and let them know we're aware they may be inconvenienced. 

I think the ear plugs would just make me worried that things were going to be a big problem when I otherwise wouldn't have been concerned- lol. 

Honestly, I think that just introducing yourself and giving your phone number to them in case there's ever a problem would be a really nice gesture. Not only is it a great way to meet your neighbors, but it shows them that you respect them and want to know if you're ever too loud or if they ever need something. No need to go out of your way and spend money on a gift, in my opinion!