The dilemma is real.  Choices must be made.  The decision will affect us in the long term and must be taken seriously.  Should we move to a place with an open floor plan for our growing family or do we stay where we are and keep the heated underground parking?  Do you know how difficult it is to find a rental where you can get both?  We have found the best living space EVER and they can’t guarantee any garage, much less one heated and underground.

The garage is the ultimate in spoiled rotten.  We walk down the hall, take an elevator down to the basement and walk out to our two spaces next to each other in this garage.  The car is warm, I never have to scrape off snow or ice or worry about hail.  This is Nebraska after all.  However, upstairs, while we have enough furniture to take care of all eight of us when we get together, it’s pretty crowded and the kitchen is cut off from the rest of the common area.  And the kitchen is SMALL.  I have a group of men in my house who like to cook and they’re bumping into each other and getting cranky before meals.  First world problems, right?

So, the big question is, do we move to adjust for our family or do we stay where we are for our cars?  It sounds like a no brainer, right?  Most unselfish people would go for more space, but we’re actually hesitating because of the garage.  Scary but true.  So I start to make the pro and con list.  Where I am is all white walls, white cabinets, white floors and shaggy carpet.  The other place has hardwood and carpet and has pretty painted walls.  We have ugly white ceiling fans, they have cool ceiling fans in the bedroom only.  We have the tiny kitchen with very little counter space, they have a huge island with tons of storage and places for stools.  Plenty of room for the family.  But no garage.  I don’t want my little bug with its convertible top out in the elements.  Is it asking too much to have both?

I think back to the old days when Doug and I were younger and how we didn’t have a garage for the first ten years of our marriage and we somehow managed to survive.  We didn’t have one we could really use when we moved to Nebraska for Doug to go to grad school. It’s not like we couldn’t do it.  It’s a lot like other things in our lives.  We’ve worked hard to make things comfortable and we remember what it was like to not have things and struggle.  It’s the same reason we sit here at dinner time, look at each other and decide we don’t want to get off our butts to make dinner but we don’t mind going out or ordering in for dinner.  Because we can.  Just like I can stay right where I am and keep the garage.