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Since the board is dead, who wants to play...
What kind of home should warrior get?
If things work out we should be ready to move out this summer. Location is TBD, but I'm starting to evaluate my options and it's very overwhelming. I've only ever lived in apartments as a single person and houses as a mom.
Things to keep in mind:
- I'll be renting
- I'll be a single mom w/2 kids under the age of 10
- I know nothing about maintaining a home and/or yard, but am kind of willing to learn.
- My children have only ever known what it's like to live in a house with a yard. I'm not sure why this concerns me since I grew up in apartments and I turned out half way normal.
- I'd like to stay wherever we move for at least 3-4 years.
Types of places I'm considering are: town homes, apartments, single family homes.
So, WDYT? Does anyone have experience raising children in an apartment type setting? How hard is it going to be to keep up a yard by myself if I rent a home? What other factors have I left out?
Bless your heart if you've read this far.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Since the board is dead, who wants to play...
Griffin 10/2007
We live in a small house right now. For yard upkeep, our yard was a huge mess when we bought our house, so I spent forever just weeding and am still struggling with that and trying to get it looking less like a jungle.
However, if there are just shrubs and perennials, you really only need to do some basic weeding, trimming and perhaps mulching once a summer. We have 1/2 acre so mowing is our biggest thing. With a walk-behind it takes about 3 hr to mow the whole thing, so a smaller yard might be the way to go to minimize that.
With that said, before we bought the house I lived in a townhome and right behind my apt was a playground and a large grassy area. Had we not bought our house, that would have been perfect with no lawn care needed.
ETA: my sister rents and they have to maintain the yard, something to ask about when you talk to a landlord.
Elijah Matthew - 5/3/07 ~ Adalyn Rosemary - 3/23/11
*Photos by Kacy Cierley*
My SIL is a single Mom and lives in a condo with the triplets (3 years old). She's currently looking to move simply because of space. The condo is a two bedroom and they just need more room. She has a small outdoor patio that she is responsible for but all other yardwork/snow removal is covered by her condo association. For outdoor play, they often head to the park that is not far from their house, but the boys also spend a lot of time on the patio playing.
Good luck with your decision. The nice thing about renting is that you're not overly tied down if you don't like the decision you make.
Photos courtesy of Jen Rose Photography
I think that I would look into renting a three bedroom townhouse/condo. Something where you have direct access to the outside and there is a yard area. Before we moved we lived in a townhouse with a deck and grass below that. There was room for kids to play, but the upkeep was all covered in our HOA fees.
Taking care of a yard/mowing on top of taking care of a house and kids is a lot of work, this could be one less thing you need to worry about.
I said location TBD. If I do move there, I'm holding you responsible for finding me some place to live since I have no clue where it is.
When my parents divorced my mom lived in a townhouse. It was 3 bedrooms and it was her and my brother, and I living there....except for when my sister came home from college. My mom was not responsible for the yard work (mowing, etc.) or for snow removal. That might be a nice option for you.
My mom rents out two of her homes, and it seems so expensive to me, and, at least at her rented homes, the renters are responsible for the yard work.
Also, if you'd like to see a copy of her rental agreement, just to see one and what's in it, let me know. I could get you one to look over so you'd at least have it to compare to others you might see.
This has been my experience as well. When we were renting one floor of a duplex, DH still cut the grass - it was easier for him to do that than wait for the landlord to come and do it (by which time the grass would be knee-high). Besides, I don't think that I would want the LL coming around that often.
Condo? We had a condo before we bought this house. I still find myself missing condo living from time to time. It was so nice to maintain the inside of the condo, and let someone else do all the landscaping and outside maintenance. Our drive and sidewalks were always shoveled immediately.
You do pay a HOA fee for those services (meaning more rent), but the HOA does a nice job of keeping the complex from becoming a trash heap. They also limit noise after certain hours, and keep it a nice place to live. I found over the years that apartment complexes do not do a great job of keeping noise down, or making rules about what can and can't be present in the common areas.
If you can find a townhouse in a nice condo complex in your price range, you get the HOA benefits, no outside work, and lots of them are big enough that you would feel more like you are living in a house. Good luck. If you FBM me when you are ready to search, I can tell you how to find lots to look at.
I'd shoot for a condo/townhouse scenario. The upkeep is easy (I loved living in our condo for upkeep purposes). The biggest thing for me would be that everything is kind of close together- work, A's school, daycare, etc... As a single mom, you want to be able to get to your kids quickly if you need to...
GL in yoru search!