Apartment Hunting
Not so common sense of finding a place to live in preparations to
have a baby
By:
Bruce Bahlmann
This can be an exciting time! New baby on the way and looking for a new
place to live and start your new family. The problem is most apartment
shoppers "think" what is good for adults has to be good for babies. Even if
they try to think about their baby on the way and try to think what they
might need the results will be disappointing. Here are some lessons learned
about apartment shopping that could pay off huge for you.
Think Handicap
It is strange thing to say, but it is so true! If you think handicap, you
will be living large in the city with your new baby. When you look for
apartments ask to only see ones that are handicap accessible, have elevators
with maximum of one (1) step to enter the building, or only look
for those that specifically advertise such features in the paper. The key is that the
apartment building and the floor that your prospective apartment is on is
handicap accessible. You need not require a handicap apartment complete with
bathroom rails etc. that is for the handicap - just the building and floor must be
handicap accessible (or has a maximum of one step) as you will be pushing around a baby cart and will
greatly appreciate this feature of your new apartment. Looking at
non-handicap apartments might be cooler, yea it could be the best ever deal
or the best ever "walk up" that you have ever seen. However, once you have
your child, who is going to schlep up the stairs with baby, carriage, bags,
diapers, etc.? Walk ups are impossible to live in with babies. Those people
that manage to raise children in walk ups are super human and frankly living
an impossible life. An elevator is not a convenience when raising a baby in
the city, it is a necessity - don't kid yourself.
Multi-level apartments look cool too, but represent a challenge to caring
for a baby if the baby room is upstairs and the laundry is downstairs. A
single level apartment may be boring but it works best for children. If you
still think it is boring to live in a single floor apartment and just can't
force yourself to live in a single floor (one dimensional) apartment you
best get check your single life at the door. Things are going to get a lot
simpler from here on out - get used to it!
Location, Location, Location
Parks and near running paths are good, but near handicap subways (ones
with elevators) or near
grocery or drug stores or elementary schools is better still. Near great
restaurants, attractions, or quiet streets is good, but near a playground or
convenient walking distance from your spouse's work so they can come home
for lunch or go for breaks with the family is even better.
How many rooms?
Some people think that you can share a room with your child and that you
can easily place the bassinette along side your bed when they are newborns.
While such activity works great if you are a single parent trying to live on
a budget, it doesn't work if you have one or two working parents or you want
to have any kind of relationship during your first year after your baby is
born. Babies
make all kinds of noises all night long - these are completely normal. Each noise can trigger an immediate
response from its parents to wake up and address their needs. If you can
afford it, minimally seek an apartment with one bedroom and a study that has
a door you can shut, windows you can open or close (without drafts), shades
that can be drawn to make the room completely dark (pitch black is the
absolute best!), and a bedroom that is
close by but not at opposite ends of the apartment. If the apartment does
not come with such things as shades or has drafty windows, ask if these can
be fixed or added as a condition of renting the property.
Laundry
In apartment laundry is a must if you have a baby. Especially if you use cotton diapers but
even if you don't your child can go through 3-4 outfits a day. If you don't
have in apartment laundry you will be schlepping laundry back and forth to
your shared machines every few days with a baby in one arm and laundry in
the other. You will regret not having laundry before your child is 2 months
old. Both washer and dryer are a must. If you have your choice, get the
laundry connected to 220v service rather than 110v (220 is half as expensive
to run). If you are unsure, ask to look at the electrical plug. If the plug
has 2 or 3 prongs and looks like home appliance plug it is 110. NOTE: if
it only has 2 prongs it is an electrical hazard.
Garbage Disposer and Dishwasher
Yikes, these too! Well they may seem like ultra conveniences, but to a
spouse left to care for a newborn any convenience is worth its weight in
gold. A garbage disposer is HUGE when having a baby because you can easily
scrape their plate or high-chair table into the sink, clean it, and then
grind it all up with the water turned on. Nothing to scrape into the garbage
which may not be taken out each day making the place smell bad. Dish washers
help save time and can be loaded and run by your working spouse each night
before bed and then unloaded by the spouse each morning before they leave
for work. Starting each day with everything clean in the kitchen can make
life just a little better for both parents.
Carpet versus Hard Surfaces
Carpet in the bedrooms is ok, but through out the apartment will become a
challenge in the near future especially when the baby can crawl, spits up
around the apartment, or starts throwing food at the dinner table. The more
hard surfaces the easier it is to clean up these messes WHEN they occur -
carpet provides an additional challenge to every clean up and may not always
clean up as easily as one would expect. It may also prevent you from getting
your full deposit back.
Bathtub!
A shower just won't due, you need a real tub or full bath. While you can
bath babies in the sink till they are 6 months (either the kitchen or
bathroom sink), after that point, the bath
tub will be sorely missed as the child out grows.
Enclosed Spaces
A spacious loft can be an amazing space, but nearly impossible to section
off. Some lofts have open stair cases, railing free walk ways, and hardly
any internal walls. WHEN your baby begins crawling, such spaces give your
baby the freedom to roam at will and place everything at their reach or
require you to purchase a
play pen. It is better to allow your baby to roam
more restrictedly while keeping them far removed from such places as open
stair wells, kitchens, bathrooms, or any other place that could pose a risk
to your child if they were able to gain entrance while un-attended. Baby
barricades or fences are quite useful for the kitchen, bathroom or and such
places but they require interior walls to construct - so think ahead.
Beware of Doors and Hinges
Door hinges can be VERY DANGEROUS to children if they get their hands
caught in them (accordion doors are the worst). Curious children can place their fingers in them even when
rigorously schooled to not do so. Thus it is a good idea to fence off such
hazards, or buy
hinge guards the prevent children fingers from entering the
danger zone of door hinges. If the apartment has lots of doors with hinges
that cannot be fenced off, take that into consideration.
Also note that doors may be too narrow. Measure your baby carriage and
make sure that your door openings will allow it to pass with ease. One would
think that such passage could be assumed, but in the case of older
apartments one cannot take anything for granted (32"+ for front door should
be minimum).
Lead Paint
HUGE issue with older apartments to the point where they have legal
clauses in the rental agreements to isolate land lords from parents of young
children. If your apartment is older and has not been very recently painted
or even if it has been recently painted you are at risk (perhaps small, but
you will have to gage this for yourself. "Any" signs of flaking paint on the
window sills = keep looking. Don't take the risk. If you can fence children off from
being close to walls and windows where the lead paint may reside you might
get by but try to envision how such prevention might look cosmetically and if you will be
happy doing it in such an open space - practicality may prevail. Newer
apartments - like those built after 1980 don't have this problem, but
anything before you cannot be certain.
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