“Where Are Your Kids’ Toys?”
One question I get asked a lot is, “Where are all your kids’ toys?” When we first moved into our condo, for a long time we had a couple giant tupperware bins in the corner of the living room that…
Author Archives: Adrian Crook
Stuffed: The Decline and Fall of the American Monster Home
“A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. … So now you got a houseful of stuff. And even though you might like your house, you gotta move. Gotta get…
Top 10 Tips for Toys in Condos
Since I launched 5 Kids 1 Condo, one of the most common line of questions from our readers has to do with kids toys. Where do we stow them, what type of toys are best, why do we have so…
Kids and Condo Windows: From Freaky to Fun
One of the biggest concerns when we first moved into our condo on the 29th floor of a downtown highrise was kid safety. It’s a corner unit with floor-to-ceiling windows in every room, which is fantastic for letting in natural…
Kids, snakes, and spiders — oh my!
I have always loved animals. When I was a kid, I kept lizards, salamanders, snakes — anything I could get my hands on. And I’ve always had a particular soft spot for the critters that generally don’t get much love from…
Downsize your life, upsize your happiness
The new year is a time when many households, including mine, take a good long look at our finances. As a father of five small kids, I’m particularly interested in how other families organize their finances to achieve a good…
“Hello, Neighbour”: Kids, Socks, and a Lesson in Kindness
Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside (DTES) is Canada’s poorest postal code. It’s home to some of our most marginalized people – addicts, the homeless, sex workers. It’s also right next door to where we live, in trendy, upwardly mobile Yaletown, which…
Space Saving: The Entertainment Optimization Experiment
As any urban dweller knows, making the best use of limited space is an ongoing challenge. And when you’ve got five kids in a 1000-foot-square condo, the more usable space you can create, the more real estate you’ll have for…
Our Top 5 Sweet Treats in Vancouver for Kids
We eat pretty well every meal at home, but sometimes it’s nice to take the kids out for a treat. There are tons of well-known, and some lesser-known, treat haunts in Vancouver. But what’s worth its weight in sugar are those…
How Walkable is Your Neighbourhood?
As issues like obesity and global warming continue to dominate news headlines, more and more families are re-evaluating their own lifestyles. Many of us now eat healthier, more local food, produced with fewer chemicals and less packaging. And many of…
31 Fun Things To Do with Kids in Vancouver
Not long ago, my friend Amelia asked me to write up a guest post on her blog, Seven Suitcases. Amelia is an author and former Lonely Planet writer, who also has five kids. Amelia was looking for a post on what…
City Life Takes Off After Kids’ Bedtime
There isn’t a week that goes by without me thinking about this several times, usually after a night out with a client or friend, so I thought I’d write about it. One of the great aspects of living downtown is…
IKEA Hacking Your Way To Kid Stacking
Making the best use of limited space is a constant effort in refinement. Everything has a footprint and if we can clear up floor space, that’s just more real estate for kids to live and play in. With five kids…
Condo Pools: Kids’ Secret Weapon In The Battle Against Winter
For three years we lived in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where the kids swam daily either in the pool or the Caribbean. They loved it and would spend hours in the water, playing with each other. Birthdays were usually held…
Exploring Our Urban Environment On Small Feet
We’ve just finished up our first full summer in Vancouver since we moved back from Mexico last year. Downtown was fantastic – full of things to do for families and always beckoning us to go for a walk. And while…