Housing

It's a little silly, but I think one of the more difficult decisions that Aaron and I have had to face in our marriage is where to live. Moving across the world or across the country doesn't bother us, but when we are faced with a choice between price, space, community, and the distance to local coffee shops we get stuck.

When we were in graduate school in Canada, we lived in this tiny little suite above someone's garage. We LOVED it and one of our closest friends lived right next door. Then our landlords had to go and sell the place and so we had to move. We were faced with a *horrible* dilemma. Should we move a few houses down to another garage suite that was smaller or should we move 4 miles away to a much bigger basement suite for the same price?? Oh the drama. We were stuck, we couldn't decide. We got hung up on the assets of the neighborhood and community. Our favorite coffee shops were within walking distance, which was very important to us as students and our neighbor was one of our closest friends. We weren't foolish enough to think that we would see just as much of them 4 miles away. But we were thinking of starting a family and having more space was very appealing. Anyway, after one long evening of sitting in our apartment going around and around, we finally decided on the bigger space.

Okay now you have sufficient background on the drama of making a housing decision for Aaron and Kate. We are once again faced with a similar housing dilemma which boils down to a decision between space or community.

We have lived in co-housing for almost 2 years which has been a great experience. Especially after a day like today. It was sunny and almost warm. Neighbors were out on the lawn playing croquet, Montana was running in and out of the house playing with kids. Friday night there was a potluck and game night. I slipped into the other room to nurse Amos and a neighbor came and gave me a foot rub and talked with me as I fed my baby.

BUT...you knew it was coming...I am feeling a little cramped in our space. We don't have a door on our bedroom and we are constantly trying to keep clutter out. Our closets are always disorganized and I am supposed to be getting my mom's old dining room table which may or may not fit. We are making it work with two kids, but I am curious how it will be when Amos starts crawling and the kids start sharing a room. We have to pay for a storage unit because we have zero storage for things like camping gear, Christmas things and baby clothes.

So by July, we need to figure out what we should do. There are currently no bigger units for rent in co-housing. Do we stay and make our small space work? And while I write this, I am keenly aware of people all over the world who live in spaces smaller than 780 sq. feet with more people. I feel guilty thinking about how blessed we are. And I am longing for a dishwasher...is it even okay to think that??

Well this post has taken a different turn than I expected! Maybe my answer lies therein. Stay in co-housing, count my blessings, get over myself and buy a new pair of dish gloves. That wasn't so hard, now was it?