A Dream Commute from Weehawken

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/realestate/rental-commute-weehawken.html

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In the fall of 2018, Connie Klube traded a commute from New Jersey that would sometimes devour three hours of her day for one that takes less than half an hour each way and includes a pleasant ferry ride.

Although she can’t enjoy the benefits of that commuting trade-off during the pandemic lockdown, neither she nor her husband, Karsten Andrae, have ever looked back.

The couple had lived in Fair Lawn, N.J., since 2005, when they moved to the United States from Frankfurt. They chose Fair Lawn largely because of the schools. But now their son is grown and living in central New Jersey, and their two older daughters live in Germany.

Ms. Klube, 55, recalled how the frequently onerous commute to Midtown Manhattan, where she works as a construction manager, finally became too much. “It was like two weeks in a row where it took three hours a day,” she said. “I said, ‘Forget about it, I’m not doing it anymore.’”

Mr. Andrae, 57, a chemist who works in Totowa, N.J., was also happy to relocate, as the house had come to feel excessive for two people.

“We had a bunch of rooms we weren’t using — we had a guest room, a room that didn’t even have a purpose,” Ms. Klube said. “It was a nice single-family house, about 1,700 square feet. We had even put in a new kitchen the year before, but we didn’t want to shovel snow anymore.”

They wanted to stay west of the Hudson River, so as not to saddle Mr. Andrae with an equally arduous reverse commute. Focusing their search on waterfront towns with ferry service to the city, the couple took a liking to the first building they saw, RiverHouse 11, in the Port Imperial neighborhood of Weehawken, about a three-minute walk from the ferry terminal.

“We were so impressed,” said Ms. Klube, who liked that the building was still under construction. Not only did they warm to the idea of being the first tenants in their apartment, but she was also able to evaluate the construction quality.

“You want to look at insulation between apartments, the way the Sheetrock is put together, the windows, the bathrooms and kitchens,” she said. “You can really see the quality, or if it’s just thrown together and cheap.”

RiverHouse 11 met her standards, and the couple signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment, for which they pay $4,190 a month, which includes parking for two cars and amenities — a pool, a gym, a spinning studio, a rooftop lounge and package lockers, among other things. In September 2018, as soon as their unit was ready, they moved in, and they sold their house a month later.

$4,190 | Weehawken, N.J.

Occupations: Ms. Klube is a construction manager; Mr. Andrae is a chemist.They moved to the United States in 2005: “We were feeling ready for a change,” Ms. Klube said. Considering countries where Mr. Andrae could transfer with his job, they took a trip to New York, where they visited the Empire State Building. “I said, ‘Why are we not moving here? Look at all these cranes. There is work for me here.’”Mingling at their building pre-pandemic: “You could go up to the rooftop, drink a glass of wine,” Ms. Klube said. “There are tenant events where you can meet people. There are a lot of young people, but also some older people who did the same thing as us.”The rooftop garden: Ms. Klube is glad not to have to tend it. Invited to a gardening event by the building manager, she happily declined: “I said, ‘I moved here so I don’t have to do gardening.’”

“We never regretted it,” said Ms. Klube, who was delighted to regain several hours of her day by taking the ferry. “It’s a commuter’s dream. I leave here at 7:15 a.m. to catch the 7:20 ferry, and I’m at the office by 7:40.”

It is also a completely different experience than the Port Authority bus she used to take to and from work. Rather than being stuck in traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel, she now watches the sun rise and set from the upper deck. “Even people who are on the ferry every day take pictures,” Ms. Klube said.

It was an easy transition in other ways, too. Their apartment is about 1,200 square feet, so they brought furniture that would work in the new space, got rid of what wouldn’t and bought a red designer chair to complement the modern look of the place.

“We both grew up in apartments and lived in an apartment with our family in Germany, so we knew what apartment living was going to be like. For us, it’s perfect,” Ms. Klube said. “When we were at our house in New Jersey and heard it was going to be a very windy day, I’d be like, ‘I hope we’re not losing power.’ Here, everything is taken care of. You’re busy at work, and you don’t want to spend time cleaning or taking care of leaves.”

She added: “Having your own house is the American dream, not the German dream. It’s totally accepted to rent there.”

Of course, now that they leave the apartment only for exercise walks and grocery shopping — she and Mr. Andrae have been working from home since the coronavirus struck — she does miss her old backyard. “Not the house and the commute and all this, but having a lawn and a chat with the neighbors over the fence would be lovely,” Ms. Klube said.

They also slightly regret passing on a unit with a balcony. “Now I wish we had one,” she said. “We thought, ‘Oh, it’s more money.’”

But the building’s roof is open, provided tenants observe social-distancing protocols, and there is still the waterfront path, which they try to walk on early in the morning, when it’s still quiet.

Before they moved into the apartment, they used to drive to a place where they could stroll along the water. Ms. Klube, who started taking photos almost a decade ago for a construction blog she wrote for industry friends back home, found that she loved photography — something she can continue, even now.

“I love to take pictures of the skyline,” Ms. Klube said. “Karsten says, ‘Why do you keep on taking pictures? You have 100 of them.’ But it always looks different.”

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