> You can't have a metalworking shop in a condo. I'm pretty lucky, but I have a wood-shop in SF. I live in a duplex townhome, with a garage. The garage has eno

> You can't have a metalworking shop in a condo. I'm pretty lucky, but I have a wood-shop in SF. I live in a duplex townhome, with a garage. The garage has enough room for a car and some shelves and workbenches. I drive the car into the street and park it there (and block my driveway, and nothing else), and suddenly I have plenty of room if I need to get a table-saw out. Yea you need to be intentional and tidy... I share a lot of the tools with my neighbor, and we added weights rack and treadmill too with our space. I know several people with very comparable living situations in the city. I also have a small backyard. Would kids want to play a 10 person football game back there? No. But you can have some private space to grow a garden, and BBQ in summer, and sit outside with a book on a nice day - its a 10 minute walk to a few parks if you wanted space for something more active. I see kids playing in the street all the time too. I also live within a 15 minute walk to 50+ restaurants and stores, I can commute via light rail to the office downtown if needed, I can take transit to the airport, etc. I almost never drive, which is a very common way to die for younger Americans and I walk a lot, which is healthier too. It saves me a lot of money on car maintenance and insurance - if you tell the insurance agency that you don't commute with your car, you can often get the premium to $<50/month, which helps defer the cost of living in the city. Oh and there are hackerspaces, co-working spaces, etc should you need them less or be on a stricter budget. They have much better tools and equipment than I have, even better than in most big suburban homes. You can't have everything, but you can have a lot, and you just have to change your balance of compromises.