The Giesekes: Lessons from Hudson Street

We still live on Hudson Street in Redwood City. When we moved into our 2 bed, 1 bath duplex 4 years ago Thanksgiving week, I never imagined the experiences that would pile up here. I was thinking about that 1 year lease and wondering if we'd still be in the Bay Area after that year was up. It was kind of a splurge, so spacious compared to our tiny apartment. We had an entire room dedicated to a hardly-used home office. We filled gaps in the furnishings with an artificial indoor tree and bookshelves full of trinkets accumulated over our 24 years of life.

2009 on our way to Phantom of the Opera and a Jewel concert, respectively

2010 pregnant and hoping to be our way to the hospital soon

Somehow it has been 4 years and we're still here. I'm gazing at my 2-year-old playing in our living room. Our baby is napping in a pack-n-play in my bedroom and I am amazed at the changes for the better. But over these years the rooms have each shrunk. First the office became a nursery filled with clothes, toys, and eventually wall-to-wall cribs. Then suddenly the living room was too cramped to move around and play. Then it was the bathroom - 1 narrow peach-tiled bathroom that all too often contains 4 people at once! Lastly it was the kitchen that collapsed in on me with a table that could barely fit the highchair and booster, much less the 6'5" guy I serve dinner to every night.

Jessie and Jackie bathe Jackson and Renee. Plus CRIBS!

2009 Kitchen for 2!

2010 Gathering around our table.

2011 and everyone's cooking

2012 and making big messes

and thankfully 2 of us are cleaning, constantly

And so we prayed and looked. "Is it time to move?" we asked each other. "Is it time to buy a place of our own? Or at the very least rent a 3 bedroom with a big living space?" I was excited at the idea. We'd put in our time here and now onto bigger and better. We could look for exactly what we wanted. We could have room to have people over and to all sit around a table together. Maybe a guest room for family to use when they visit instead of cramming them in with the kids or just saying, "sorry, you can't stay." Maybe we could live closer to my friends and host holidays and figure out good school districts and have Bible study at our place. A new social world could open up. "We could bless others," we thought. "Surely God will provide."

The "guest room" aka the rooms with 2 kids and a futon, pictured

We prayed and looked and our jaws dropped. The prices were crazy. We knew we lived in an expensive area, but the cost, even of comparable rentals to our packed little place, was unbelievable. Not only was a 3 bedroom out of the question, we suddenly knew how lucky we were to have our current duplex at the low low price that hadn't gone up in 4 years. But I wasn't settled and I wasn't done trying. "We could buy a starter place! We could still have it all!" And we looked and we prayed and every single lead we were interested in dried up. It was all dead ends and non-possibilities. God was sending us a resounding, unrelenting NOT NOW. WAIT.

I didn't like it. And I still don't really like it and I don't know why I can't have more space and a guest room for my family and a dining room for our guest and a garage for our stuff and a yard for our kids and, for goodness sakes, another bathroom. But He says WAIT and wait we shall. So I felt really lead to write this post to help me figure out the WHY of the situation. Why isn't He opening that door and finding us a deal, or dropping extra cash on us? What is Hudson Street have to teach me that I haven't learned yet? Here a few lessons that are coming to me as I write them:

1. How to find room where there is no room - the quantity of unused pieces of space I've discovered in our duplex over the years mystifies me. Every time there was a new essential item without a "home" I'd either discover some closet I could purge of old college papers eating up shelf space, or another storage bin that could fit in under the crib, or sometimes that the "essential item" was not as essential as I thought.

Angry, trapped Jackson shows off some of our storage solutions

2. How to not buy a lot of stuff/ how to get rid of stuff - With limited space I'm learning to only buy or keep what I love and use regularly. Not to buy it if there's a chance I won't use it or don't have a spot for it.

Barely room for these 2, much less all of their stuff!

Ok, this could be more organized

3. How I don't really NEED it - I need a bigger house like I "need" new shoes or cuter dish towels. I want it, I don't really need it to live another day. And if I want it and I can't get it, that's ok.

Bring Cosette home from the hospital. The kind of stuff I really need.

Goofin' in the kitchen

4. How I can have people over afterall - It turns out I CAN host things, even though I don't have a lot of space. That fear of it not being the perfect setting was holding me back for many years. Once I started inviting people in, I realized that hosting small groups was easy, play-dates were doable, and even bigger groups were possible occasionally with some rearranging and forethought.

2009 Carving pumpkins in our living room on folding tables borrowed from work

2010 Bridal shower for Brice and Lydia in our yard and sewing date with Heather and Jonah in the kitchen

Kitchen full during Melody's 31st birthday/fondue/sweatpants party

2011 More Halloween and more folding tables.

Full House (haha, lame) for Jack's 2nd birthday party

2012 Friends in our side yard area. This space didn't really have a function when we moved in but has since proved a reliable play/entertainment space.

2012 Birthday with family in the backyard

5. A small house is easier to clean - With learned diligence I've found that I can keep the place dusted and vacuumed a lot of the time. Plus I learned to pick up after myself. We have very few spots for things to pile up before we start tripping over them. I finally had a break the bad habits of piling and procrastinating. It's easier to deal with a pile if the alternative is eating dinner on top of it (putting away the laundry is still my nemesis!)

Jack learning to vacuum and use the laundry basket young

The only thing I let pile up is my french toast! (I wish that were true. I don't have pictures of my messy piles because I try to hide them)

6. How everyone I know is in the same boat - Actually, I have it a lot better than some, and I'm only referring to Bay Area friends and not globally, but yes, that too. Many of my friends don't have a yard or garage or laundry room like we have now. Some have a tough time finding a spot to park their stroller. We have a lot more than I think.

Front outside area

Back outside area

We have a garage that serves as a pantry, project area (shown here with dresser drawers drying), stroller parking, play spot (Dan and Jack inside the baby gate), temporary storage (see couch on its way out), and home to many tools (see table saw) we hope to use someday.

Laundry Room! Now that's a luxury to not have to drag bags of clothes and rug-rats in and out of the house

So I'm trying not to see small rooms, cracked walls, and cheep counter tops. Everyday I'm looking at rooms where both kids took their first steps, at walls that do a great job of holding up the roof and keeping the weather out, and at counters that are great for preparing meals for 4 everyday. Would I trade my Hudson Lessons for a much bigger house? Tempting, but I'll pass, at least for today.

That peach tile is growing on me. Jack's first bubble bath.

Angry boy in the "dining area"

Living room without furniture. In between couches in 2010

With furniture and baby gates 2011

Nursery in 2010 and 2011

Our very spacious hallway. This open layout was one of the selling features when we first moved in. Little did we know how much the little people would use it to romp.