I get to enjoy the modern stylings of a postage stamp sized property with an oversized house. Where most older homes would have people in the backyard, I'm in my climate controlled living room.

I hire a guy to come by every two weeks and mow my lawn. He charges me $30 each time. I used to do it myself, but I decided to spend my time doing other things. If I did it myself, yard maintenance is unbelievably cheap and not all that time consuming, a half hour every 2 weeks. I probably didn't even get through 3 gallons of gas over an entire season and I've had the same lawnmower for 6 years. I don't water my lawn, it's pretty brown right now.

I use the pool system (we have 4) a handful of times during the summer, but I don't mind paying for it as part of my fees since at least I have the option. The pool houses double as community centers and party spaces which is nice. I can take cheap yoga classes in one year round, I think it's $5 a class.

I don't use the playgrounds and don't have any kids, but my wife and I make extensive use of the private park and trail system in my development. The central park is about a half-mile long (almost exactly long as NYC central park is wide), wooded, filled with trails (a circuit is about 2km), a small lake, adult exercise equipment, tennis courts, a field hockey pad, a basketball court and a few open green spaces. But there's something like 20 more miles of trails and smaller parks and green space all throughout. It's all immaculately maintained.

At one end of the park is a small amphitheater where they throw a summer concert series. We get our own 4th of July fireworks show too.

If I lived in a dense Manhattan style city, I'd probably end up spending it all on building fees, higher rent and significantly higher grocery prices.

That last sentence, plain and simple, is what it comes down to. Suburbs are cheap and that's why people live there. Cities like Dallas are built on that idea.

I've never been to my community pool, but it is packed every weekend. I live near the ocean and own a boat, so that is how I spend my summer Saturdays.

I enjoy the cutting the grass. My yard takes about an hour to do the whole cut/edge/trim. I view it as exercise and time to think.

> I view it as exercise and time to think.

That's kind of interesting, but it's how I view my commute (mostly walk|bike given bearable weather) in NYC.

I water the plants every couple of nights in summer, takes 10 minutes. Mowing the lawn takes 30 minutes every couple of weeks. A small exchange of time to have a backyard for the dogs to play in and to have fresh tomatoes. As a bonus, I refuse to water grass, so I rarely mow in the dry Seattle summers (worry not, it comes back just fine when the rain starts in November). This Indiana boy feels kind of stupid mowing in December, though.

Outsource? Bah, I grew up mowing acres so I can manage my lot that is measured in square feet. I'm not paying someone for a task that takes 30 minutes. What's next, pay to have someone load the dishwasher? There is no mower maintenance: it's battery-powered.

Pools? I know of one house within a several mile radius of my own house that has a pool. It's right down the street, the dogs and I walk past it all the time. I've never seen anyone in it, and I'm not even sure that they fill it with water anymore. It's Seattle, you'll never use a pool.

Playgrounds? The park 400m from my house always has someone using it even in the dark and rainy Seattle winter. The wide gravel trail a block from my house always has traffic. Even during a run at 5 a. m. on a dark, rainy December morning, the mutt and I will see someone out there on the trail.

Maybe it's Seattle, maybe it's just my neighborhood, but folks do get outside and utilize what's available to them.

It is a community pool so I pay someone to maintain. I would rather not mow the grass if I didn't but it is extra exercise. And I am not bothered enough by it to outsource it. I do enjoy taking care of the flowers and watching them grow.

Pool is used pretty often by the family (so far).

I'm from the UK and a lot of people don't like living in the city for one reason, a garden. People want to have there own private piece of garden where they can buy plants. Gardening is massive in the UK and is not seen as a chore.