Anonymous wrote:townhome during school year

beach condo in the summer (My kids and I live there; husband drops in whenever possible.)

Lol sweet deal!

Seriously, I would LOVE to live there!

Anonymous wrote:OP We're in a garden style apt with washer and dryer in the unit. Garage is right under our building and it's all elevator accessible. So far it's better (and bigger) than any house we could afford.

We have a HUGE garden all around the building where the kids play all summer long! 2 pools, racquet ball, tennis and basketball court, sprayground and a club house with a nice deck/grills, a business center, gym, professional kitchen and free cooking classes. There's free coffee there all day long and free Bfast once a month.

I can only imagine how much all of it would cost us if we had to pay separately for it.

Oh and I cant forget the on sight dry cleaners (pick up and drop off at the door) and the nice guys who remove the snow, leaves and keep our grounds nice and clean.

We travel 5 weeks per year and it's been like this since we were dating. DC is 1 and has been to 3 different continets already!

We would not have it any other way.

PP, if you happen to be still on and wouldn't mind sharing, where do you live?

OP We're in a garden style apt with washer and dryer in the unit. Garage is right under our building and it's all elevator accessible. So far it's better (and bigger) than any house we could afford.

We have a HUGE garden all around the building where the kids play all summer long! 2 pools, racquet ball, tennis and basketball court, sprayground and a club house with a nice deck/grills, a business center, gym, professional kitchen and free cooking classes. There's free coffee there all day long and free Bfast once a month.

I can only imagine how much all of it would cost us if we had to pay separately for it.

Oh and I cant forget the on sight dry cleaners (pick up and drop off at the door) and the nice guys who remove the snow, leaves and keep our grounds nice and clean.

We travel 5 weeks per year and it's been like this since we were dating. DC is 1 and has been to 3 different continets already!

We would not have it any other way.

townhome during school year

beach condo in the summer (My kids and I live there; husband drops in whenever possible.)

There are a ton of spontaneous ballgames in the park across the street. Most likely my child will not be able to rode a bike unsupervised near here anytime soon. Although if she gets into trick-riding (I'm not thinking this is likely) she can go to the skate/bike park a few blocks away. Or, she can rollerblade in front of the white house. Or take the metro to the pool to swim or the circulator to kayak or see a free performance at Millenium Stage Or walk to take a class at a museum or see a 3d IMAX film. Any unsupervised activity is a long way off for us, but when she is ready, she will have amazing opportunities.

OP, don't be dissuaded by PP. Yes, there are bad complexes, but these should be pretty obvious. We have none of these problems in our downtown condo: laundry in unit, assigned garage parking with elevator, tons of nearby museums, no noise problems, haven't seen a bug in the seven years we have lived here, great common space that we don't have to maintain, a concierge that takes care of a lot of little daily tasks such as packages and the rare repairman, and continually increasing value that is expected to continue. I do wish we had a closer playground and there are days in which more space would be welcome, but I would never trade the rest of the conveniences for these
minor issues.

Just because some condos are bad does not mean that many are not wonderful.

Where do your children ride their bikes unsupervised, play soccer spontaneously, throw a Nerf football, etc?

OP, don't be dissuaded by PP. Yes, there are bad complexes, but these should be pretty obvious. We have none of these problems in our downtown condo: laundry in unit, assigned garage parking with elevator, tons of nearby museums, no noise problems, haven't seen a bug in the seven years we have lived here, great common space that we don't have to maintain, a concierge that takes care of a lot of little daily tasks such as packages and the rare repairman, and continually increasing value that is expected to continue. I do wish we had a closer playground and there are days in which more space would be welcome, but I would never trade the rest of the conveniences for these
minor issues.

Just because some condos are bad does not mean that many are not wonderful.

The short answer is, I think it depends on the condo and the community.

We have a condo in Alexandria that was fine when we were single and even with 1 kid, but now that we have 2 -- and they obvioulsy will continue to grow -- it is quickly becomming too small and we have 1070 sq ft so bigger than some homes we've looked at. And actually I can live with that but there are so many reasons why this condo was a bad choice for us. Let me count the ways...

The laundry facilities are in the basement and we are 4 flights up (they are garden style condos so when you walk in there are 2 flights up and 2 down -- we are on top floor, laundry is on the bottom floor). The more kids you have, the more laundry you have and the less time you have to do it. There is no just putting it in before you go to bed, drying it when you get up, fluffing when you get home from work and folding). I would never ever live someplace again without my own W/D.

Parking -- getting down to the parking lot with a toddler and an infant alone was a challenge, especially in cold weather. If kids had been spaced father apart maybe not so much of an issue but when both needed help down the stairs it was difficult, if not impossible.

No backyard and not enough playgrounds within easy walking distance. Condo has small playground but kids there are usually too big to be there and just hanging out with nothing else to do.

Little privacy or alone time -- no where at home to go when DH annoys me and no upstairs or downstairs to be alone with one kid at a time. We are all always together. Sometimes this is great, but not every day.

Bugs -- it is a shared living space, after all. We have not had big problems with bugs but do see a roach from time to time and I am grossed out by this. If you have dirty neighbors, which you cannot control, good luck. Pesticides and children make me very uncomfortable.

Noise -- you are trying to get baby to sleep and neighbor downstairs (a renter rather than an owner) has music so loud it is vibrating your room but it is only 7:30 PM -- well within quiet hours.

Lastly, resale values of condos have fallen drastically and will be the last part of the market to return. If you go this route, choose carefully or choose a townhome instead. Wish we had! There is no amount of money worth it to us now that we are a family of 4 in a small place with all of these issues.

Parking lots are not well plowed in ice/snow -- too many cars in the lot to being with so never gets fully plowed. See note above about being in parking lot with small kids. What I would do for a driveway and/or garage!

We live in a very boring townhouse in a very boring part of Rockville. We travel internationally once a year. We go to my husband's home country (North Africa), and from there, do a mini tour (3-4 days) of whatever layover city we fly through. So far Amsterdam, Madrid, London, and Paris with our kids.

We also do long weekend trips in the U.S. All east coast so far. I'm planning a trip for next summer to the Grand Canyon. I think the kids are old enough to really enjoy that now.

Live in a condo in Alexandria, take 3 or 4 vacations a year plus plenty of weekend trips. Glad to no longer have a house and yard that needs upkeep.

We live in a condo in silver spring, which we could afford on one salary if we reallllly had to. The community is lovely- there's a small playground across the street and a pool in our development. There are tons of other young families there too, so my kid sees a lot of other kids his age. Our condo is small, and this will become an issue once we have a #2, though we figure we have at least a year or two after #2 is born. honestly, I couldn't imagine having a whole house and yard to take care of - all the mess to clean up all the time!

We max out contributions to TSPs and the 529 first, then put money into savings for our eventual house, though we wish we could live here forever! We travel fairly often, though many trips are rather frugal, like going along with a spouse to a conference and staying extra days, stuff like that. We happen to have a fair amount left over each month, so don't budget anything particular, but I think we'd just go to cheaper places or visit friends/family if we couldn't pay for hotels and airfare.

We live downtown. We try not to take too many days tgat aren't big trips. We do a lot of long weekend camping type trips using comp time instead of things like a week at the Delaware beaches and save up the money and days off for a big trip once a year. We have a lot more time to prepare and be cost-conscious because we have essentially no commute, which I figure gives our family an extra 20 hours a week (assuming an average hourcommute each way for each of us if we moved out). We get really antsy if we don't travel internationally once a year (or do another short, weekend or three-day weekend trip monthly).

We faced a lot of pressure to move to the burbs and considered it seriously despite our strong desire to stay in the city. We couldn't move at first though because our condo building was in litigation, thus preventing sales. This turned out to be quite fortuitous as we really love raising our child in the city and the freedom it provides us. Plus, although there may not be as many families nearby, we find ourselves having extremely similar values and priorities as those that are here. It isn't for everyone, but if you want to do it, don't listen to the naysayers, just try it out and see if it works for you.

Husband and I are both GS-14s with the federal government. Not rich, but we live enough below our means so that we have money for "adventures."

We live in a townhouse in Burke. We do at least one family vacation per year (the kids are small now, so we do things like Lancaster county, Disney World, national parks, etc) and my husband and I go on at least one trip alone together overseas each year (cruise, Brazil, Belize, Tanzania, whereever). When the kids get a bit older, we'll probably do more international travel as a family.

It isn't hard to prioritize once you decide to do it. We have a "vacation account" separate from our checking and savings. We put a set amount into it each month, so we know we'll have money for our vacations.

Really, we just sat ourselves down one day and asked ourselves "Are we living the lives we want to live?" Both in jobs we enjoy, but they aren't our life. In neighborhoods we love, but occasionally like to leave. We decided we wanted more travel so we just made it happen!!

Where do you live? Why did you decide to live life this way?

We are at a point where we are thinking about adding a second child and trying to decide if we want to move out to the burbs for the house or get the condo. I read the travel vs house thread and saw lots of PPs writing that they live in condos or townhomes and choose adventure and other things to do with their money and so do their neighbors! I think if we had a community like that, we'd probably choose it in a heartbeat, but we've been feeling pressure lately.

So who are you? Where do you live? How do you deal with the vacation time and make sure that adventures abroad and otherwise are prioritized? Do you go every year?

I'm so fascinated by this option!