Are Stairs Really A Problem?

[Anonymous]

Dealing with kids, groceries and gear means an elevator is a must for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are the kids, how many kids, and do you plan to have more?

OP here. We have a 4 month and plan to have a second one in the next two years. We plan to stay here until oldest is ready for school and we move to the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stairs inside the condo? Or the condo is a walk up?

OP here. Sorry - I thought I was clear. The condo is on the second floor in a walk-up. It’s almost 30 stairs. The condo is one level with everything on one floor.

Do you have storage for strollers, bikes etc. on the ground floor? It would be annoying to have to carry any of that gear up and down the stairs. But at least with the stroller that is only for a limited period. Switch your kid over to a scooter early.

OP here. Its has the storage in the foyer for a stroller to fold up. It also has underground parking ( one floor below the foyer) with extra storage space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to purchase a condo and we have two options we really like. One condo is nice with an elevator but we want to do a couple thousand in cosmetic changes ( paint, kitchen hardware, kitchen lights, etc.), and it is about $25k more. The condo we are leaning towards is nice and needs no updates, is 25k less, and has stairs ( 1.5 flights). The only reason I’m hesitant is because of the stairs and young kids. We currently live in a high rise with an elevator and its super nice, but I don’t know if 25k more and a couple thousand in updates is worth having an elevator. Both condos are comparable in taxes and HOA fees and in the same area. Are stairs really that big of a difference?

Are you talking about stairs inside the condo, or stairs between the front door of the condo, and the front door of the building?

They are very different things.

OP here. The front entrance is level with the street. You walk in to a small foyer and go up 27 steps ( one flight, landing, one flight, landing, one flight and then the unit). The condo is single level with no stairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kids are not in strollers I think its fine. Lugging a stroller up and down stairs would be a pain though. And what about bikes, scooters etc?

OP here. The condo has underground parking ( a small flight down from the foyer) for storage like a stroller, bikes, and other stuff. We can easily store there and it will be only one small flight from the parking area to the foyer and street, or we can go out of the parking garage to the alley.

[Anonymous]

Hard no. Baby and groceries. Baby and car seat bucket. Baby and sibling in a few years. Stroller after someone in the building reports theirs was stolen.

Also toddlers are PAINFULLY slow on stairs. So it will take 5 min (not joking) for your kid to get up or down the stairs and you can't just run and put stuff down while wait. So imagine coming home from work with your work bag, dinner, your jacket, kid jacket, and then step, wait. Wait. Wait, step, tell you something, step, look at the wall, step, wait. Wait. Wait. Step.

If it was your only option, fine. Not saying you have to spend 25k more, but 5-8 stairs maybe. 30?? Heck no. I want to kill myself watching my 2.5 year old on 13 stairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard no. Baby and groceries. Baby and car seat bucket. Baby and sibling in a few years. Stroller after someone in the building reports theirs was stolen.

Also toddlers are PAINFULLY slow on stairs. So it will take 5 min (not joking) for your kid to get up or down the stairs and you can't just run and put stuff down while wait. So imagine coming home from work with your work bag, dinner, your jacket, kid jacket, and then step, wait. Wait. Wait, step, tell you something, step, look at the wall, step, wait. Wait. Wait. Step.

If it was your only option, fine. Not saying you have to spend 25k more, but 5-8 stairs maybe. 30?? Heck no. I want to kill myself watching my 2.5 year old on 13 stairs.

OP here. All storage units are locked. We wouldn’t keep it in the foyer because it’s so small. I didn’t realize little kids are that slow on stairs.

[Anonymous]

Stairs will be a pain, especially if you aren’t parked directly in front, like a house with stairs from the driveway. Baby in a bucket seat, plus diaper bag, groceries, anything else you may be carrying with you... it’s a lot. And if you have a second and have to deal with holding the older kid’s hands AND the other stuff. If everything else about it was perfect, or it was the only place you liked in your price range, it would be doable. Everyone has to make compromises, and I have friends who live in a 5th floor walk up in Manhattan and they just deal with it. But if you have another option for only a little bit more...I’d go with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard no. Baby and groceries. Baby and car seat bucket. Baby and sibling in a few years. Stroller after someone in the building reports theirs was stolen.

Also toddlers are PAINFULLY slow on stairs. So it will take 5 min (not joking) for your kid to get up or down the stairs and you can't just run and put stuff down while wait. So imagine coming home from work with your work bag, dinner, your jacket, kid jacket, and then step, wait. Wait. Wait, step, tell you something, step, look at the wall, step, wait. Wait. Wait. Step.

If it was your only option, fine. Not saying you have to spend 25k more, but 5-8 stairs maybe. 30?? Heck no. I want to kill myself watching my 2.5 year old on 13 stairs.

I've been living in a 4th floor walkup in NYC for 15 years and have 2 kids (a 4yo and 2yo). This is the third 4th fl apartment I've lived in (the 2nd one I've owned) and we chose the 4th floor over lower floor units for a variety of reason. We leave our stroller in the entryway. Yeah there are some times when it's annoying but it's totally doable. I know families of 3 pulling the same thing off. Zero regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hard no. Baby and groceries. Baby and car seat bucket. Baby and sibling in a few years. Stroller after someone in the building reports theirs was stolen.

Also toddlers are PAINFULLY slow on stairs. So it will take 5 min (not joking) for your kid to get up or down the stairs and you can't just run and put stuff down while wait. So imagine coming home from work with your work bag, dinner, your jacket, kid jacket, and then step, wait. Wait. Wait, step, tell you something, step, look at the wall, step, wait. Wait. Wait. Step.

If it was your only option, fine. Not saying you have to spend 25k more, but 5-8 stairs maybe. 30?? Heck no. I want to kill myself watching my 2.5 year old on 13 stairs.

OP here. All storage units are locked. We wouldn’t keep it in the foyer because it’s so small. I didn’t realize little kids are that slow on stairs.

Not all kids are slow on stairs. For better or worse, my three-year-olds are faster than me.

I don't think the kids on the stairs are really the problem here. It's how are you logistically going to handle carrying things up and down the stairs? Particularly when you have two kids? If your current child is not compliant, you'll still need to hold his hand to keep him from running away a few years from now if/when you have a second child. I think you'd find ways to manage if you only need to deal with the kids, but it will be particularly challenging anytime you have anything besides the kids to carry.

[Anonymous]

You'd be ok with the stairs OP if you have storage. Kids are curious and slow everywhere, stairs, or no stairs. Pick the house that suits your lifestyle better, where you can see yourself living and growing as a family.

[Anonymous]

Do you have friends or family with mobility issues? Might be an issue for them to visit. Or if one of you gets injured. Not necessarily a deal breaker but something to think about.

[Anonymous]

Can you store your stroller in your car trunk? Presuming your car is parked in a parking lot right near your front condo door, of course. That’s what we did when we lived up stairs with babies. It was no problem. And such a short time that it’s an issue.

[Anonymous]

It's more of a problem for groceries, etc...

If you need to save money and have a place that is livable now, I would go ahead and buy it. I smucked groceries up the stairs for ten years before we could afford a non-stair house, and not a townhome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are the kids, how many kids, and do you plan to have more?

OP here. We have a 4 month and plan to have a second one in the next two years. We plan to stay here until oldest is ready for school and we move to the suburbs.

Definitely no on the stairs for me in that situation.

I can’t imagine trying to get from the car to the condo with a diaper bag, baby, toddler, and groceries. Sounds like torture and definitely worth the extra money for the elevator.