They Wanted to Upsize for Their Kids, but Could They Do It on the Upper West Side?

For 25 years, Laura Nupponen and Kevin Kendall lived the Manhattan real estate dream: The couple, who met in the ’90s as undergrads at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and moved to New York together to attend Columbia University, owned a charming duplex in a historic brownstone on the Upper West Side. Over time, they transformed the space to suit their lives.

“We thought that’s where we would live forever,” said Ms. Nupponen, 48, the founder of a small company that presents group music classes for children. Their original home, purchased by Mr. Kendall’s parents in 2000, was the parlor-level studio. Mr. Kendall later bought the basement studio below and connected the two units with a spiral staircase. “We loved that apartment,” she said. “It had the moldings, it had the character.

Then with children came the stuff, and with stuff came the growing pains. They had plenty of vertical space, but not enough floor space.

“Our kids shared a room,” Ms. Nupponen explained. “Our son likes it really steamy, but our daughter would get way too hot. It just kept getting harder and harder.”

“And the new dog didn’t help,” said Mr. Kendall, 47.

Remaining on the Upper West Side — close to the kids’ school, and also to family — was a priority. The couple were hoping for three bedrooms plus an office space, where Mr. Kendall, a mechanical engineer with his own consulting firm, could work from home. Also high on their list: bike storage, a gym, and shared outdoor space.

“With Kevin needing space for running his business from home, we found that pre-war buildings with a classic-six layout or similar were best,” said the couple’s broker, Pat Lehman of Compass.

The search began near their home in the West 80s and moved north from there. “We had to expand the radius to find something in our budget, which was $1.5 million thanks to the sale of our previous apartment,” said Ms. Nupponen.

This two-bedroom, two-bath co-op in a pre-war building on West 94th Street was rife with attractive details, including herringbone hardwood floors, original moldings, built-in shelving and ample natural light. The layout was “awkward,” Ms. Nupponen said, with the living room and dining room separated by the foyer. But both were good size, and the living room could be split into an office or small bedroom. The building amenities checked all their boxes: roof deck, gym, playroom, and plenty of storage. The asking price was $1.55 million, with monthly maintenance of around $2,900.

Another pre-war charmer, though slightly larger, this three-bedroom, two- bath apartment in a building on West 98th Street had been on the market for over a year, starting at $1.6 million. The kitchen and bathrooms were newly renovated, and the bedrooms and living area maintained their original character — parquet floors with inlaid borders, mahogany paneling, French doors. The tiny third bedroom was wedged behind the kitchen, and a fourth bedroom space could be carved from the dining room. The building came with a roof deck, but no doorman or gym. The reduced price was $1.499 million, with monthly maintenance of around $2,300.