Karl Minges and Michael Urban met in Manhattan in 2009, when Dr. Minges was a graduate student at Columbia University, and eventually settled in South Central Connecticut, where both had grown up.
In the years after their 2014 wedding, the couple adopted four children, now ages 3 to 10. Their house in Cheshire, Conn., with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, provided plenty of space and an easy walk to school with the kids. Both worked in West Haven, about 30 minutes south.
Two years ago, Dr. Urban, 47, landed a job as an assistant professor of occupational therapy at Columbia’s medical school campus in Washington Heights. The commute was grueling: He usually took the Metro-North train from New Haven, schlepping a backpack stuffed with clothes, computers, snacks and assorted supplies. During the week, he often stayed overnight at a hotel.
The drive to work for Dr. Minges, 41, who is now dean of the College of Health Professions at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., was 45 minutes — long but doable.
“If we had a crystal ball, we would have lived someplace closer to the city,” Dr. Minges said. “But we love the town we’re in, and the kids are having fun in the schools.” They also have plenty of grandparent support nearby.
To split the difference, the couple decided last year to buy a small place in Manhattan as a pied-à-terre. Dr. Urban could spend nights there when necessary, and they could take the kids for city adventures on weekends and holidays.
“I had the ‘aha’ moment once when I tried to pick up Mike’s backpack,” Dr. Minges said. “I thought: You are going to throw out your back.”
Actually, it was a shoulder that hurt, Dr. Urban said, from “having to carry two or three days’ worth of life around.”
His Columbia colleagues encouraged him to rent rather than buy, reminding him that renters don’t need to worry about fixing what breaks. “But with houses, I’m used to something always coming up,” he said. “I do a lot of handy stuff, like house repairs.”
For up to about $600,000, they sought a no-frills one-bedroom somewhere on the West Side, a straight subway shot to Columbia’s medical campus.
Dr. Minges preferred a street-facing unit on a first or second floor. Too many stairs would be tough on the kids — and on them, over time, if they kept the place long term. Through Columbia’s work/life office, the two were connected with Kelly Cole of the Cole Team at Compass.
“They were OK with a small place but wanted to accommodate the kids, too, and that was a difficult needle to thread,” Ms. Cole said.
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
About The Author
