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We moved from the city to a suburb only because we found a house that was walkable to the downtown and public transportation. It has a small backyard, but we can also walk to 4 or 5 playgrounds. I can't stand the idea of having to drive everywhere.
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Walkability is one of the top things on my wish list!!
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To me, more yard = more headaches: mowing, seeding, raking, shoveling, etc.
Walkability is super important, and not feeling isolated.
No brainer for me.
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Definitely walking distance!
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For us, small yard and walkable, no question. Our house is on 0.07 acres, truly microscopic, so 0.25 sounds huge!
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I live in the downtown district of a historic suburb. The property is pretty big- over 1/4 acre but we use the park 2 blocks away more than our yard. We recently did a little soul searching and decided to stay here even with the expensive upkeep of a 100+ year old house because we love the walkable neighborhood
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Walkable! But a quarter acre where I live (actually anywhere around me or around any place I've lived) is big!
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I grew up in a rural area where you have to drive everywhere and I HATED it. I was always so jealous of my friends who lived in town and felt socially isolated. They could get together after dinner but I couldn't because I'd have to get my parents to drive me there and by that time it wasn't even worth it; snow days were no fun because I was stuck at home by myself while they all got together to go sledding; etc. I swore that when I had kids, I'd live in a neighborhood where they could walk to friends' houses. Just something to consider in addition to the more immediate concerns like the hassle of carseats.
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As much as I'd love to have a big yard, walk ability is more important to me. Our first house had a decent sized yard (1/3 acre), which still felt small to me, because I grew up with 3 acres. Well, we moved a year ago, to our ideal area, super walkable, but a tiny (less than 10,000 sq ft) lot. Well worth it and we've made it work.
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As long as your yard is big enough for the LOs to run around a bit and have a few toys out there, I would hands down go with walkable distance! Like many other PPs, I hate having to load the kids into the car to run a simple errand, but popping them in the pram and walking is no big deal. We live about 1.5 miles from our town centre and I love that distance. Our garden is decent sized (for England!), and we do spend loads of time out there, but I would have sacrificed a bit of space to not have to hop in the car every. single. time. I needed to do anything!
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@Foodnerd81: we have a 1/4 acre plot and it's plenty of space!
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Walkability was definitely the priority for us, it was the first thing we told our realtor! It is hard to find in our Boston suburb, but we ended up with about a tenth of an acre, walkable to almost everything.
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I am an ex-city girl and could give a flub about walk ability. Huge yard was top 3 in our list and we sacrificed # of bedrooms for it! No regrets. My friend who owns a "walkable" house has been struggling to sell it since having baby #3. We now walk in our neighborhood and drive to downtown/parks.
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I don't consider a 1/4 acre to be small really, so I'd say walkability would be more important.
I grew up with a yard smaller than that and never knew it was "small" lol We played soccer and baseball out there, had a sandbox (no swing set), played water fights, etc. When we got older we had plenty of parties/kids out there with no problem as well.
We have just over a 1/4 acre now, and it's a pain in the butt to take care of!
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We have a big yard but we can also technically "walk" to town (but there really isn't a centralized town center). Even without kids we never really walked anyway... We would mostly go to Trader Joes, so it didn't make sense to walk and haul the groceries too. But when DD was younger, even though it was a good 15-20 min walk, it was nice that I could plop her into the carrier and go shopping myself without having to do the whole car thing.
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1/4 isn't small - we have about .3 and its plenty big to run around (swingset, trampoline and still tons of room to run)AND we can walk to the shopping center - I love it!
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@Mamaof2: I should have specified- *I* don't think a quarter acre is small at all. It's room to run and play and have a swing set. Done. DH thinks it's small and wants that acre lot.
Also worth noting we haven't found the right house that has either one so its a moot point. I am willing to sacrifice the walk ability for the right house in a neighborhood with other families, he is willing to sacrifice the huge yard. But I'm glad to know most of you all think I'm right.
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@Foodnerd81: oh DH would totally take an acre lot over being able to walk to the shopping center!
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Big yard. We went from living in city to burbs with a big yard and pool an our kids (ages 4 and 1.5) are in heaven.
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@Foodnerd81: Does he plan to do all the yard maintenance, or will you hire someone? Because sometimes my DH starts talking about big yards and then I ask if he's spending his weekends doing yardwork (mowing, edging, flower beds, raking leaves, mulching, killing weeds, etc) AND shoveling sidewalks and driveways AND helping me clean inside, or is he going to pay someone to do it? He hates paying for things, but we have limited time obviously, so then he starts to get more realistic about what having that extra outdoor space entails in terms of $$ and time.
Anyway, yeah, my vote is walkable.
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@Anagram: he says yes he wants to do a lot of it. Just like he says he wants projects in the house that he can do a lot of the work himself to save money. But he also gets home at bedtime, or just slightly before, on an early night, now when he had a 30 minute commute, and works from home on the weekends, so I keep asking him where this extra time is coming from. He can be very unrealistic. These are good points!
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I'd say if he works from home on the weekends you either need a lawn service or no yard. DH does not work on the weekends and we still have a hard time getting him enough time to mow lawn and do everything else associated with it. It's actually a ton of work - grub treatments, re-seeding, over seeding, weed wacking areas the mower can't get to, and of course mowing the entire yard. This doesn't include working with the mulch or anything else in the yard. Throw in weekends where it rains or we have family events and it is tough.
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Walk ing distance for sure!
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Walk-ability! I love when we have visitors (1/month or more usually), they don't have to rent a car and can somewhat fend for themselves if they want to go grab lunch or coffee, do some shopping or sight-seeing, etc.
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We live in the city on a .22 acre lot and it's a PITA sometimes. Our neighborhood is mostly residential so there isn't much we can walk to and I kind of hate yard work, especially when I'm pregnant. So I would pick a more walk-able neighborhood with a smaller yard AND a park/playground close by. I don't want a postage stamp sized yard, but maybe something a bit smaller.
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Walkable. We are in the suburbs, but in a town center concept neighborhood with small yards but a central park for the boys to run around in, and even a small playground. And we can walk to a handful of shops/restaurants, the grocery, and Target. Plus I'm so glad we don't have a ton of yard to keep up with, because we can barely maintain what little we have!
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@Mrs. Bee: This!
Walking distance to town center is a complete game changer for me. I was raised in SoCal and driving everywhere is all I knew before moving to our current town. One of the reasons why we don't visit my mom more often is because I hate having to drive everywhere!
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Outdoor space for sure!
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We are a 5 min drive from town, so it's been easy to grocery shop, go to dinner, get a cup of coffee, etc. Now that we've got the kiddo, sure loading the car up is a bit more of a hassle, but it doesn't seem that much more inconvenient than loading him in the stroller for a walk. When we moved out of the city, space was important to us. We figured if we are this far out, we want the bigger lot with the yard and the quiet. If walkability was super important to me I wouldn't have made such a big move out here.
So at the end of the day, yes we have to drive all the time, but not everything is accessible downtown anyway (like we have to drive to the bigger grocery store, to Home Depot, clothing stores, daycare/school, the dump, etc.) Plus if it's raining or snowing or very hot (oh New England weather!) you'll want to drive anyway.
Oh and be prepared to be shocked at the time you spend on the yard! Pay attention to the trees on the property and how many leaves you'll get in the fall!
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@YogiRunner: you know, the leaves in the fall never even occurred to me! I've been thinking of summer stuff like mowing and weeding and seeding, and winter shoveling and salting. How could I forget raking?
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Walking distance & small yard. I miss this from where I lived before moving into DH's house where we have to drive everywhere & have a lot of yard to maintain. I don't do the yard work, but it takes a lot of time & effort, & sadly I don't really appreciate the end result, myself.
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