Be It Ever So Humble...

it will eventually feel like home! I know. That is not the way the saying goes. However, PK and I closed on our first house yesterday. We have been married sixteen years and this is the first house that belongs to us. Well, as my dear hubby said yesterday in a way that he found funny, "It belongs to the bank, but we can call it ours."

We have rented, lived in student housing, base housing and a parsonage. We have called many places "home." I know all too well the feeling of moving into a new house and knowing it is the place we will live, but it takes a while for it to feel like home. Right now the "new" house is an empty shell (other than some junk the previous owners didn't quite get out). I long for the day when we have spent some time away and walk through the doors and I am overcome by that sense of peace that screams, "Ahhhh! Home! Kick off your shoes and relax!"

When we lived in California (those "when we lived in California" stories are starting to sound like the "when I was a kid we walked three miles in the snow, barefoot to get to the outhouse" kind of stories) we were living in base housing and due to some changes we were being moved to different quarters on the other side of the base. I remember telling one of my friends that it didn't seem like home. She said, "Bake something. Baking cookies will make it seem more like home." I don't think she used the word "homemade" but that is the way I heard it. I've repeated those words to myself with each new move since then.

I'm not sure it is the smell of fresh baked cookies that make it smell like home, but rather the steps it takes to get there that make it seem more like home. One does not walk into the empty shell of a house and whip up homemade cookies or even a decent meal. The kitchen needs to be unpacked and organized. That is always my first step in unpacking. Once the kitchen is in working order, I feel like the rest of the house can come together. After all, isn't the kitchen the heart of the home?

In my house, little hands will surely be there to help make and eat those cookies. It is the beginning of making memories in a new house. Perhaps the act of making memories is the beginning of making it home.

I have made it a point to do a final walk through of each place we have lived after it is empty and the last thing to do is drive away. I'm not looking for anything left behind. PK's OCD tendencies take care of that. I'm doing a walk through and letting the memories of each room flash through my mind. The memories are still photographs in my mind. The ones I will never forget...

I love traditions and I have been very careful to build those into our lives. As we circle through the first year in the new house and put those traditions to practice we will build lasting memories and before I know it I will walk through the new door and something inside of me will scream, "Ahhhh! Home! Kick off your shoes and relax!"

Our new house

Aaron at the front door

From the dining room looking past the front door into the living room

Aaron by the fireplace in the living room

Other end of the living room looking toward the dining room

Dining room

Heading upstairs

Upstairs in front of Aaron's room

Top of the stairs...Aaron's room on the right...girls' room on the left

Looking back down

Dining room into the kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen

Back to the island looking at the bay window and window seat with STORAGE

Aaron found this rope on the tree in the front yard

Monkey see Monkey do