#411 Home.

What do you love about your home? Annalee and Chad are getting ready to make the biggest purchase of their lives—a house. I went with her to look at a lovely colonial in the best part of town this afternoon and I could tell she was excited that it might be the one, that she was trying to imagine MaryCollis coming home from school 10 years down the road, dropping her backpack in the mudroom and running up the hardwood stairs. It made me think about the things that make home special. It’s more than brick and mortar for sure, it’s a feeling. These are the things that make the house Ben and I share a home—the things I miss when I leave it:
1. The bright sunshine in our huge kitchen windows while we have our breakfast every morning. It’s so warm and bright that you can feel it in your bones.
2. The lamplight in our living room at night when we watch a movie.
3. The way it always smells like the dryer is on — like wonderful fabric softener.
4. The spot where I keep my sweater sock slippers beside my dresser.
5. The clawfoot tub that’s impossibly cold until the hot water starts to run. Then the soothing warmth makes it unbearable to get out.
6. The little dust mound that constantly collects under the chair in the corner in the kitchen. No one knows it’s there, but I do.
7. The bowls stacked on top of the plates in the cupboard. There’s never enough storage, is there? I don’t mind.
8. Wood floors that creak when I sneak to the fridge late at night.
9. The skeleton key that unlocks the doors.
10. The way breakfast smells on Saturday mornings sticks around long into the afternoon. I love that smell.
11. Fresh flowers in a tea pitcher on the kitchen table.
12. Music is always playing in the office. Sometimes it’s David Gray, sometimes Ingrid Michaelson or Etta James.
13. Ben is here. And so is my baby blanket.
Even though my parents’ house will always be my true home, this place is a fantastic stand-in.