Hoboken Mom Condo Living
Planning the long-term & juggling the everyday

I normally try to stay as far away as possible from Hoboken politics because I find them incomprehensible. There is a subset of the Hoboken population that gets incredibly impassioned about them; the rest of us can barely grasp the complexities to each situation, let alone understand them.

However, there are two things that are crystal clear to me: 1) 18 months ago, when I bought my four-bedroom, Hoboken was in a fiscal crisis. There had just been a huge property tax hike to cover large unplanned expenditures (I remember something about an unauthorized, expensive pension payout), and 2) Mayor Cammarano had just been arrested for accepting bribes, and I received a number of concerned emails from people who were thinking about moving to Hoboken but were deterred by the amount of very bad press the city was receiving. We are now thankfully past that terrible time in Hoboken’s history, but where do we go from here?

I am a careful steward of my family’s finances. I put almost all our expenses on two credit cards (American Express Blue and a Upromise mastercard because not everyone takes AMEX) so I can track our monthly spending. Our household expenses are not static from month to month since we have large sporadic payments (quarterly property taxes, annual car and homeowners insurance), so I keep a significant cash cushion in a money market to cover those predictable expenditures along with unexpected ones like car repairs or illness.

Only when all of life’s major and minor expenses are safely covered do I undertake luxuries like the family vacation we recently took to Washington DC. Did we have a wonderful time? Absolutely, the kids were angels on the car trip and had a blast visiting the Smithsonian and Capitol Hill. Did we get a great deal on corporate housing? Yes, we spent only 75% of our projected vacation budget and will go for a longer visit next time. But was the experience worth jeopardizing our household’s long-term stability? Not in a million years.

There has to be balance in all things in life. A city is no different from a household in that regard. My family is weathering the current recession incredibly well because I plan well. Many aspects of life are not predictable, but I have found that having a cash cushion gives me many more options when I am dealing with them. My credit options are incredible because we always pay our bills in full, on time, and keep a healthy chunk of cash in reserves. I just received a Upromise Mastercard with a 15-month 0% APR on purchases, along with up to 10% college rewards on gas, grocery, drugstore and dining purchases.

When our car gets dinged up by parking on the street, I pay cash upfront and negotiate the price with the body shop rather than go through my insurance company. I get much better deals by paying cash, plus my insurance premiums don’t go up, which long-term more than offsets any immediate savings from getting my insurance to pay for repairs.

Safety is important. So is compassion. But even when I feel like we are in great financial shape, I know misfortune does not discriminate; my husband’s industry could crater, one of us could get sick, all sorts of minor and major events could conspire to sink our financial ship. I have a responsibility to my family to give them good lives in the most prudent, thrifty way possible. That means not everyone is going to get what they want 100% of the time. I feel terrible for the families of the Hoboken police officers who are facing layoffs. I would not wish myself in their shoes and would love for there to be a way to save their jobs. But creating an enormous public outcry does not change the facts of the situation. Not too long ago, Hoboken was on the edge of insolvency and is still far from financially healthy.

One budget surplus is not the same thing as thrifty, careful, long-term management of income and expenses. A city has many more wild cards than my household; soaring pension and healthcare obligations to retirees, a hospital with a multi-million dollar annual budget, various maintenance and repair issues, all while facing decreased revenues. It will impact the lives of many thousands if any one of these extremely expensive wild cards forces Hoboken into or near bankruptcy, which is happening in California. I know it is hard to cut spending, but it has to be done for this city to have a solid, sustainable future. That is what I would do if my household had just experienced a major budgetary scare and was on the first step to the road to financial recovery. The money has to come from somewhere; if not the police budget then somewhere else.

Hi Kathy,

I’ve seen your blog and have found it very interesting reading. Is there any chance you might be able to offer advice from a realtor’s point of view so that my husband and I don’t unintentionally behave inappropriately and become nightmare clients for our realtor. What I mean is that we have a history with our realtor. When we bought our previous little 1 bedroom in Hoboken in 2000 our realtor represented the seller. Then we found out she lived in our building. So, we were neighbors for the six years we lived there and then we used her to sell our condo before we moved to London. I meant no disrespect to her when I posted a message on the Yahoo Hoboken Moms site. I simply thought I’d take advantage of all avenues available that might help us find a condo we really like. I’ve had two responses from people who were planning to put their condo up for sale but have not yet listed with an agent, and whose condos sound like a potential match for us, and who have invited us to come view them. This is where I want to make sure we do the right thing and not disrespect our agent who is working for us trying to find us the right place. Is it inappropriate to now go and view a condo without our agent? Should we contact her and ask her to accompany us to the viewings? Are we likely to annoy her by telling her we’ve found places we’d like to view without her? I don’t know how to proceed from here and have a feeling like I might have done something “wrong” from a realtor’s point of view. From our point of view, we’re just desperate to find a condo to settle in and call home and want to do anything we can to find it without behaving unethically or offensively.

Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

Best wishes,
G.

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My answer:

Hi, G.,

Hoo boy, that is a really sensitive area. First of all, let me be clear that I am not a realtor. I am coming at this from a buyer’s standpoint, the same as you. That said, I know a fair amount about MLS rules. Not anywhere as much as a realtor knows, but more than most people. So glad to hear you find my blog useful, it’s always great to get feedback from other moms so I know I’m not just talking to myself!

You didn’t do anything wrong by posting your notice on HobokenMoms. You are legally allowed to view ANY apartment with a different realtor. You could see five apartments with five different realtors and it would be totally legit. The only obligation you have to your realtor is that you have to place an offer on a unit that she showed you through her. If you make an offer either on your own or through another realtor, that would be a definite MLS violation and she would have grounds to sue you and the other realtor.

That being said, there is kind of an unspoken agreement that you owe something to the realtor who got you up to speed on the market. If you have a relationship with a realtor and she is the only one who is showing you properties, then 99.9% of realtors would feel that you owe them the commission in exchange for the time they invested in you. That ONLY applies to MLS listings, however. In a FSBO transaction, such as the two owners who contacted you, the seller has no obligation to pay a realtor fee. You can tell your realtor about the FSBO sales but legally the seller does not have to pay a fee and most likely will refuse to do so.

What can happen in situations like this is that the buyer independently pays a fee to their realtor. That is very, very rare, but I have spoken to realtors who have seen it happen. The other problem is pricing. Typically FSBO sellers are looking to sell their property at the same price as they would have through the MLS, which means they get to keep the commission they would have paid to the realtor. It is highly unlikely they will drop the sale price enough to compensate for the fee (typically 5%; on a $700k sale that works out to $35k). That means that you will have to pay the market price PLUS a voluntary fee to your realtor.

You can certainly try to bargain down the sellers to make them drop the price enough. However, I have found that sellers are FSBO for a reason; because they don’t have a gun to their heads to sell and want to try to sell on their own first before going with a realtor. That lack of urgency almost invariably means they price their units too high and are unrealistic about the true market value of their property. Every single owner I know, including me, thinks their property is worth the absolute maximum possible. It usually takes a few months of dealing with showings to make owners get realistic and drop their price two or three times down to fair market value.

When you make it easy for them by appearing out of nowhere and want to buy their unit, they haven’t had a chance to experience the true grinding ordeal of listing their unit and so are almost always very difficult to negotiate with (ie. you make a low offer, they get insulted and refuse to counteroffer).

The flip side of the realtor compensation structure is that it’s like hitting the lottery. 99% of their clients wind up not buying, so they waste a lot of time on people who don’t pay off. It’s buyers like you and me, who only look when we are truly serious, who are their fantasy. In the three times I have bought properties, I spent exactly one day each time going to showings, so I estimate my realtors have gotten compensated at well over $1k/hour. That’s just crazy, you don’t owe anyone that kind of payoff.

What I suggest if you do buy FSBO is calculate roughly how many hours your realtor has spent on you, both on showings and doing research on your behalf. Multiply that times $50, and then make sure your final sales price is low enough that you can pay that amount to your realtor. The MLS contracts I have signed that allow me to sell FSBO include an addendum allowing for $2k payment to the realtor if I sell on my own to compensate them for the time spent marketing my unit. That is usually more than fair on an hourly basis.

If your realtor agrees to this structure, definitely bring her along to the FSBO showings to help you negotiate. She can prove her worth by giving you comparables of recent sales to help support your offer, and give you advice about the contract details and closing docs (ie. flood insurance). That is where a good realtor can really shine. I can’t promise you that she won’t be pissed that you are pursuing FSBO sales, but if you are upfront with her about your plan, then any reasonable realtor will be okay with it. She won’t be happy, but she won’t be furious.

Kathy

One of the many reasons why my husband and I chose to buy a home in Hoboken is because we can afford to maintain it on one income. Housing prices, while expensive for the rest of the US, are still much lower than in Manhattan or Brooklyn, and you get the benefit of lower income taxes, which more than outweigh the difference in property taxes (I estimate we are paying an additional $6k in property tax versus $12k in income tax savings). Condo fees are also much lower than standard co-op charges, and groceries and clothing are much cheaper, so overall I estimate our cost of living is about 25% less than if we had purchased a comparable home in Brooklyn.

We stretched to buy a four-bedroom condo rather than a three-bedroom because I own a consulting business, which enables us to deduct a portion of the household expenses. The IRS rule is that in order to qualify for deductions, a home office must have a door that closes and is not used for another purpose (ie. a kid’s bedroom). It’s really nice to deduct that 12% of our mortgage, insurance and utility bills, but the real savings come from itemized deductions. Our annual mortgage interest and property taxes far exceed the $10,700 standard deduction, plus I can deduct all my business expenses like cellphone bills, child activities and a large part of our car expenses.

Because I am married to someone who is a full-time employee, I don’t have to deal with the usual small business hassles of getting health and life insurance. My husband and I are able to leverage the benefits from both corporate employment and self employment. We contribute enough to my husband’s 401k to qualify for his full employer match, and then put away as much as possible into my retirement IRAs and personal 401k since that money lowers my income (and therefore my taxes, which are higher than my husband’s since I have to pay self-employment tax).

I would not be able to deduct my business expenses if we were renters (even assuming we would be able to rent a 4BR). Net after deductions, we are paying about the same on a monthly basis to own our 4BR as it would cost to rent a large 2BR. The longer we stay in our home, the better our financial picture looks.

Because the cost of living is lower in Hoboken than it is in NYC, we also run a much lower risk of triggering the alternative minimum tax, which kicks in for couples earning $150,000 or more. When I was running financial scenarios, I figured out I would have to work full-time for us to raise our family in Brooklyn. That made buying in Hoboken a no-brainer.

It’s been a few months since I last posted on this really large three-bedroom, and that’s because the apartment sale was in stasis. The main holdup was that there were tenants in place, which was making the place show REALLY badly (think three single guys with girlfriends, beer, and dirty laundry). The developer decided to vacate the unit since he is serious about selling, and as of this past Monday, the unit is vacant.

As I suspected, the unit is in excellent condition. The developer’s handyman has been going over the place with a fine tooth comb, checking electrical outlets and smoke detectors, replacing light bulbs, and repainting. It looks really good, in move-in condition.

The financials are also excellent. I filed a tax appeal on the unit, which successfully reduced the assessed value by 20%. The current taxes are $11,213, so it’s safe to say the 2011 taxes will go below $10k. A similar unit in the same building recently rented for $3,500/month, which is about the same as the monthly cost to own BEFORE income tax deductions (tax savings should put the net monthly cost under $3k).  It’s also nice to know you could always rent out the unit if necessary and cover your monthly costs. The building is almost 100% owner-occupied, and there are over $100k in reserves. The building also has the maximum in flood insurance, so you won’t have any issues with closing.

As I have said before, when you buy an apartment in a 3 year old building, you get the benefits of new construction without the hassles. You know exactly what you are getting, which for me is worth taking the plunge.

It’s a nice apartment at a decent price. The developer is offering incentives ($2,500 credit at closing to buyer + large bonus to buyer’s agent who delivers a contract). There’s not a lot of inventory on the market right now, so if you are looking for a lot of space in the city, it’s worth checking out.

Hi Kathy,

I came across your blog randomly with a Google search on Hoboken living.  You are a talented writer and provide SO much information.  I truly appreciate all the information you provide on a daily basis!  Here’s a little background on myself and I’m hoping you can answer some of my questions about living in Hoboken.

My husband and I  are expecting a baby in December.  We currently live in Passaic County.  We reside in a spacious townhouse with a wonderful community and our next door neighbors are our best friends.  I teach nearby, which is a short 10-minute commute but my husband works in the city which door to door is almost an 1 and 45 minutes each way on NJ transit and the Path.  With a baby on the way, I would love to have him home earlier…plus after 10 years of commuting this way, he’s getting burned out.

My husband and I actually met in Hoboken almost 5 years ago.  I was living there at the time and loved it but worked 3 jobs to maintain my Hoboken lifestyle!  He has also lived there (over 10 years ago) and always felt that Hoboken was a ticking clock when it came to living there.  Once people started having families, the alarm went off and up they moved to the suburbs.

We still have friends that live in Hoboken and we frequently visit them.  We have noticed a huge influx of baby strollers and young families in the area and have started to do some home searches.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a lot of new(er) condos in our price range and with adequate space!  We are now seriously considering moving back to the area and building a family there.  My husband would be home a lot earlier and my commute will only double (20 minutes…not too bad) and we are so into the healthy lifestyle that Hoboken can provide us, which you also mentioned in one of your blog entries.

Sorry for the long intro, but now here are my questions:

1.  Being a teacher, I’m really interested in my child’s education.  I know your children are not in elementary schools yet, but based on what you hear around town, how are the schools?  I know when I lived across the street from the middle school, I used to hear fighting (mostly girls!).  I also heard horror stories about the high school but I guess that’s a long time away.  I am an advocate of private schooling, as I went through the system, but now being on the other side…the side that’s actually paying…I’m not sure if we want to pay our taxes as well as foot the bill for schools.

2.  Where in Hoboken do you recommend us looking?  I know that Hoboken is situated in sections and you live in the SouthWest section.  We had a realtor bring us around yesterday and she showed us property there as well as the up and coming NorthEast (?) section by the movie theater.  We saw potential places in both sections.  My husband loves to walk so anywhere we live is fine with him even if it’s a 15 minute walk to the Path.

3.  Living where we are we have nice space.  Not too much, but not too little.  We share a backyard area with our row of townhouses and we spend a lot of time on our deck.  We also have a pool in our development that we unfortunately don’t visit enough during the summer.  How important is outside space to you?  I feel that once we lose it, we will regret not having it.

4.  Gyms.  I recently read you joined the Sky Club.  I used to be at Club H and heard the horror stories 5 years ago when the Sky Club gym went under.  No electricity, poor service, etc.  I’m guessing it’s all better now?  Again…my husband and his healthiness…is an avid gym goer.  I occasionally dabble.  Going to a decent gym is important to him and I told him that if we live where we live now, he would have to cut back on his gym visits after work from 4-5 days a week to 1-2 days a week.  That killed him but I was thinking I probably would kill him if he came home at 9 pm every night like he does now and I was home with the baby all day!  Other than the Sky Club and Club H, are there any other gyms you recommend?  Or even better, buildings that have stellar gym facilities?

Ok, all done!  I appreciate the time you took to read my email.  Whenever you get the chance, please respond back.  I look forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,
T.

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My answer:

Hi, T.,

Glad to hear you liked the blog and found it informative! I have a two year old and four year old, and the short commute (35 minutes door to door) was definitely a huge part of why we bought our four-bedroom condo last year. I have lived in Hoboken for nine years, and the place is completely different from when we first moved here. It has gotten a lot more upscale and has a ton more grocery stores, such as Garden of Eden, Kings, A&P, and Shop Rite. There are also lots more kid-friendly facilities like Kidville (great gym classes and open playspace sessions for rainy/snowy days) and Monroe Center for the Arts (and host to tons of toddler dance classes).

Having my husband home early has been a blessing, especially since my two are only 18 months apart. He gets them up in the morning and is always home for bath and bedtime. We cosleep (groan) and trade off putting the kids to bed. That is how I was able to start working from home; he would put my daughter to bed while I got in a few hours of work each evening.

As far as schools go, the Hoboken public schools are excellent from pre-k up through sixth grade, plus there is a lot of selection. I toured the Wallace school and was impressed by the teachers as well as the ranked classes determined by state test scores. Hoboken Charter school goes all the way through high school and is pretty good, and there is always the possibility that the kids will test into High Tech High School (the bus picks up on Washington St and it’s about half an hour away). If we need to go the private route, the Hudson School tuition is only about $14k/year, which is definitely doable when combined with the relatively low property taxes. I am paying about $11k/year for a 2,100SF new construction four-bedroom (compared to $25k for a comparable property in Montclair). A large 3BR for sale in my building is paying under $10k in annual property taxes.

There are basically four quadrants to Hoboken plus a middle area around Willow Terrace. NE and SE are closer to transportation (ferry & PATH), Washington Street and the waterfront. They are pricier and are usually walkups without parking, plus the SE noise from bars and traffic can be quite intense on weekends. Willow Terrace has more houses but is farthest from public transportation, although the newly expanded HOP lines run past there.

NW and SW have the Light Rail and the most new construction. Some people prefer the NW because they can take the midtown bus through the Lincoln Tunnel and the uptown ferry. That is where there are the most vacant lots so expect a lot of construction in coming years. SW Hoboken is where the most housing was constructed over the last 5-8 years and is best for people who like to drive since that is the fastest place to get out of Hoboken to the turnpike and Holland Tunnel. It is also closest to Jersey City shopping (3.5% sales tax!) at the huge A&P, Target, BJs, Bed Bath & Beyond, Morton Williams and Newport Mall.

Many of the new construction condos in SW Hoboken have large gated communal courtyards. We have one in my building where my kids play with the neighbors’ kids, riding bikes and building snowmen. We used to have an enormous private outdoor patio attached to our two-bedroom; it was literally almost as big as the condo interior. But we found we didn’t use it as much as we expected. Between the snow, blazing sun, NO HOSE, and evening mosquitoes, we decided we needed some outdoor space (we have 120 SF) but that indoor space was more important for our family. I also found that appraisers don’t give you much more value for a large outdoor space versus a small one; small balconies in my old building received a $5k credit versus $10k for my enormous patio.

I toured a number of gyms around Hoboken when we first moved here, and Club H and the Sky Club are definitely the nicest. We had a pretty decent gym with sauna and steam room on the same floor as our two-bedroom condo but found we rarely used it (maybe 10 times in the 5 years we lived there). Most building gyms in Hoboken are pretty small and basic in equipment (the Hoboken Grande gym was actually the nicest I have ever seen).

The thing about building gyms is that you have to pay for their upkeep in your monthly maintenance, plus build repair/replacement costs into your reserve fund. I would much rather have the option to pay the extra $89/month rather than have it automatically built into my maintenance. If we are going to be in our four-bedroom for years then I want to keep our costs down. I absolutely love having the Sky Club across the street; they are open until 10pm, well after the kids go to bed, and the facility is clean and run well (great nursery for drop-offs). I know there were a lot of issues when the NJ Devils owned it, but it has been under new management for about a year now and I have found them to be very proactive and responsive. And I love the pool, it is by far the best one in Hoboken. My kids are great swimmers because we have it right across the street.

My standards for choosing a condo are a lot different from most people’s because I have been a condo board president for the last five years. I look for things like a completed transition engineering study to make sure there are no expensive construction issues, a healthy reserve fund to cover the inevitable capital repairs like a roof replacement, two elevators and trash compacters since I know how most buildings fail to properly maintain them (they need biannual servicing) and thus break frequently, and a great parking garage. The majority of indoor parking garages in Hoboken have spots that are too small for large cars (ie. minivans), and are poorly designed with weird columns all over the place. If I am committing to living in a place for 10+ years, I need to have a spacious parking spot in a garage that is easy to navigate, and I found everything I was looking for in my current building.

Congratulations on the impending arrival of your baby, and please feel free to email me if you have any more questions.

Kathy

(Initially posted on the HobokenMoms group)

I wasn’t crazy about my Pliko P3 to start with because it’s kind of difficult to fold but have found it extremely handy and versatile over the the last 4 years. The seat is cushioned and comfortable for an infant, unlike my City Mini, but is tall enough that my giant 4 year old can fit in there when she gets tired of walking.

I have a buggy board attached to the back & hang a diaper bag + groceries from the handles with no risk of it tipping over, also unlike my City Mini. It is my go-to stroller when I go into the city because it is light & folds compactly. I have gotten a ton of use out of it over the last four years and expect to keep going for another few.

I also own a Phil and Teds Vibe with doubles kit; I wrote about it for Hoboken Patch.

The City of Hoboken announced Vacation Parking in the city’s garage for only $5.00 a day! Details at theBokenOnline @ http://ow.ly/2lyqM

The green Hop line is perfect if you live in SW Hoboken & have a kid going to school @ Wallace or Brandt, great for cold weather! And the price is right at $1/ride.  Details at http://bit.ly/cJYaxk

When I was a child, I learned the parable of Joseph and the coat of many colors. The thing I took away from that tale was the seven fat years followed by 7 lean years. During the late 1990s to early 2000s, when my husband and I were both working full-time, I made sure to save a comfortable amount each year as an emergency/investment fund. Windfall income like bonuses and income tax refunds went right into savings.

During boom times, nobody ever thinks the party is going to end. Easy credit facilitated trying to match the Jones, with everyone buying homes, flat screen TVs, and new cars. It was psychologically hard during those years for me and my husband to live frugally, buying a home in an unfashionable part of Hoboken and wearing our clothes and shoes until they wore out, often mending them until they were beyond repair. But our thriftiness paid off. When the bubble burst in the fall of 2008, we had almost 50% equity in our home plus a large cash cushion.

During each of the last three recessions, the degree of economic insecurity has increased by 150% over the prior one, with minority groups disproportionately impacted. That was a huge factor in our decision to buy a large home in Hoboken. We felt that the highly educated population had a good chance of remaining employed, and that even those experiencing unemployment were likely to have financial resources to tide them through bad times, thus making foreclosure unlikely. It is also fairly easy to rent your home in Hoboken since the population is transient and we are so close to NYC, with 24-hour public transportation. We also liked the fact that Hoboken is only one square mile; that means there are limits to how much development can take place, thereby devaluing our property by dramatically increasing the supply of homes.

So, at a time when many people thought we were headed into a global depression, my husband and I took the plunge to make the biggest purchase of our lives. Our family now has the stability and space we need to flourish, and that was the gamble I made when we purchased our home. And our bet paid off. We are now in the process of rebuilding our finances as a hedge against the future, but we got exactly the home we wanted at a good price and excellent interest rate. I have also found Hoboken to be a hotbed of industry and innovation; I am collaborating with a bunch of other moms to provide professional consulting services to local businesses that work with our family responsibilities, and also talking to another mom about starting a Montessori co-op to get the best education for our toddlers at an affordable price. Only in a city that is a mile square and has so many educated, proactive residents would these kinds of opportunities be possible.

UCLA recently videotaped 32 suburban families for one full week to get a handle on individual stress levels and to quantify the the amount of time spent on chores, child care, and leisure. The NYTimes reports that: “Inside the homes, researchers found rooms crammed with toys, DVDs, videos, books, exercise machines; refrigerators buried in magnets; and other odds and ends. The clutter on the fridge door tended to predict the amount of clutter elsewhere.

Outside the homes, the yards were open and green — but “no one was out there,” said Jeanne E. Arnold, a U.C.L.A. archaeologist who worked on the study. One family had a 17,000-square-foot yard, with a pool and a trampoline, and not even the children ventured out there during the study.”

I have noticed before that people tend to use their outdoor space a lot less than they expect. When I visit relatives in suburban Westchester, I never see anyone in the backyards, despite manicured grass and gorgeous swing sets. If the point of moving to the suburbs is having a backyard, then I think people need to seriously evaluate how much they are going to use it.

I used to own a 2-bedroom apartment with a giant outdoor space. I noticed after the first couple of years that we rarely went outside, even when the weather was nice. I tried buying really nice outdoor furniture, a carpet and huge umbrellas to provide shade, and we still didn’t go outside much. No al fresco breakfasts or dinners, aside from the occasional family barbecue. It was either too sunny and hot (our unit faced full south), or it was getting dark and the mosquitoes were out. Even after we had kids, we would maybe use the space for half an hour on nice days.

So when the time came to move into a bigger home, I knew that we wanted some outdoor space but that indoor space was higher priority because we would use it frequently. We wound up getting a 2,100 square foot 4-bedroom with a 120 sf balcony, and the combination has worked out really nicely. We have enough outdoor space for the kids to plant flowers and herbs, paint on their easel and play in their wading pool. They shovel snow in the winter and barbecue in the summer.

Living in a walkable town like Hoboken provides lots of opportunity for playing outdoors. The kids and I leave the house to go to classes or the playground in the morning. We walk over to Washington Street to pick up organic sesame pretzels (low salt!) and freeze-dried fruit at Basic Foods. We pick up frozen yogurt or ice cream on the way back home. We are out of the house for easily five hours, and we are walking around the entire time, so the kids get fresh air and exercise.

If we lived in the suburbs, I don’t think I would ever leave the house. Packing supplies and a stroller for a day out in the car is a huge excursion, whereas I leave my double stroller set up and ready to go each morning. On Fridays, we often meet my husband at the ferry terminal and walk home together for dinner and bathtime. His 35-minute commute makes it easy to spend time together as a family, and not having to mow the lawn on weekends is priceless.