Brownstones & strollers?
My husband and I have two children under two, and are considering moving from a loft (in an elevator building) to a brownstone. Are there any tricks to managing strollers in brownstones? Any advice or wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
My husband and I have two children under two, and are considering moving from a loft (in an elevator building) to a brownstone. Are there any tricks to managing strollers in brownstones? Any advice or wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
You’ll definitely fit into the Park Slope mythos. Anywhere else this entire thread would be dismissed as too weird for words…wondering how to deal with strollers and steps?! Get two umbrella strollers and do all of us pedestrians a favor, it worked perfectly for me for 3 years, at which point the tyke had to walk.
We always kept our Maclaren w/buggy board in the parlor floor entry. The bigger jogging stroller we kept in the basement – lugging it out was just part of the workout. The Phil & Ted’s would probably have to go under the stoop, with some kind of plastic cover to keep out the dirt. Don’t shape too much of your decision-making around the stroller aspect though – you’re in the thick of it now, but the stroller-dependent phase really only lasts a few years (it just seems like forever)…
I meant to say “not universal, but also is not rare.”
I need my 3rd coffee.
OP — the Phil & Ted double (Sport/Vibe style, not the side by side) is really not that bad going up and down the stoop.
The under stoop storage is not universal, but also is not universal. Given that it would be tricky to access, it’s probably not ideal for a stroller that you use with any frequency. Many owners stash their snow shovels, rakes, hoses, etc., there.
I don’t take them out at the same time (usually) — the Maclaren is if I only want to push one and make the older one walk (or we are practicing divide and conquer). We arethink about getting the boogie board to snap on the back for extra danger.
Anyway, that’s nothing. I sadly know of people with multiple single and double MacLaren’s, bugaboos and jogging strollers (because they really do intend to keep up the running across the bridge in the first three years of their children’s lives).
Thanks to all for your helpful (and hilarious!) insights. We have a few strollers, all purchased with loft living in mind. The one I’m most concerned about maneuvering is our Phil & Ted’s double stroller. Don’t see any way around a double stroller given the age of our kids, though. . .
I’m interested in the under-stoop storage or auxiliary “shed” — if we were to buy a brownstone, is this space typical of most structures, or something we would need to build out? We’re just beginning to explore brownstones, so I honestly don’t know what’s typical and what isn’t.
Again, thanks to all the posters.
Boerumresident, you have both a Mclaren and a Phil&ted??? I applaud your conspicuous consumption.
I also bet you’re a joy to walk behind on Smith Street. 🙂
What type of stroller do you have?
We bump or lift our Phil&Ted up to the entry at the parlor floor and leave it at the bottom of the stairs. (The house is a 2 family and the LL is very understanding.) It’s not the smoothest, but it works ok.
We also keep the foldable McLaren around, but that’s a single seater not the side by side double.
Some townhouses have the closet under the stoop that would seem to be ideal for stroller storage, but as DIBS points out, the navigation in and out at the ground level can be tricky.
If you are going to use the subways a lot, either get used to the slow descent/ascent lifting and bumping, or learn where the elevator stations are in “brownstone brookyln” (Boro Hall, DeKalb, and Atlantic Avenue, plus Franklin and Euclid if you are heading to Bed Stuy, and Prospect Park if you are going to PLG).
I use to live on the 3rd floor of a brownstone and one of the primary reasons I moved was because it was such a nuisance having a kid and dealing with all those stairs.
In that building, we were able to store the stroller downstairs near the front door, but you still had to get up the stoop and through 2 doors to get it into the building.
And there were other strollers there too, which, frankly made a mess of the entry way and was a general nuisance to everyone.
If you are renting, you should know that not all buildings/landlords will allow you to keep strollers by the front door. There may not be space to do so safely (i.e., without being a fire hazard) or the landlord may not want them there or other tenants may complain etc.
This is something to figure out before signing a lease. Keeping 2 or 3 strollers in your apartment and lugging them up and down stairs (while also trying to get your kids safely up and down the stairs) is no fun at all. Not to mention all the space the strollers can occupy in your apartment.
Now, I’m still living in a brownstone, but I’m on the 1st floor and can use the entrance under the stoop, so I don’t have to deal with the stairs as much which makes me much happier with things.
The entryway is still narrow, but there is really no avoiding that in brownstones.