January 28, 2008

A Home

What makes your house feel like a home?

The other night I was sitting in the dining room thinking that this house, the one that has driven me crazy and that I've pretty much hated for the last year feels like home.

We were grateful for the friends who let us live in their house for most of the past year, but their house, though we took it over, never felt like home. For many months I was in a state of displacement.

I'd always thought it might be my children that made a house into a home, and they certainly go a long way in creating a lived in feel to a place, but alone they didn't make a place home. Was it the furniture I've had following me around for so long? I don't think so, because when we bought this house, my mother gave me a lot of stuff she didn't want anymore, so much of the furniture is new to me.

Building a home is truly full of many stages and pieces. This place is beginning to feel like home, but the boxes and clutter, the baby sleeping in my closet -- all lend a somewhat temporary air to the place.

What really made this place suddenly become home to me though, despite all that, was the night we unpacked our books. We have a lot of books and we haven't unpacked them all. I also haven't read them all, but taking them out, seeing my old friends and putting everything up on the shelves, made this house less of a stranger. My family lives here and so do our books.

Comments

Yup, makes sense to me. Whenever I move, one of the very first things I end up doing is putting up bookshelves and putting all my books away. I'll have piles of boxes everywhere else, but the books will be all nicely organized! :D

Posted by: Karen at January 28, 2008 09:24 AM

Interesting thoughts. I'm not sure it's books that make it my home, although my husband would probably disagree. I think it's the pictures. I always was one to have my pictures hung the first week we moved in. Once I had pictures on the walls, it felt like home. I never quite thought about it like this before, but I'm pretty sure that's my final answer. ;-)

Posted by: dcrmom at January 28, 2008 07:04 PM

I so totally agree, the books help make it feel like home to me.
It was a year before I rebelled and started unpacking the books (the original intention was to wait until we got more done on the house), but I hated knowing that my books and my grandmothers china was hanging out in the basement. The books came out first, the china is still hanging out downstairs.

Posted by: blair at January 29, 2008 07:18 AM

Glad you're finally in! I know what you mean about the books. Chris has an amazing System by which he organizes our bookshelves ... he always takes (in my opinion) an inordinate amount of time putting books away after a move, but I must admit that it's nice having the most important furnishings in order.

Posted by: Another Jordana at February 9, 2008 05:13 PM