A home is a home is a home…not.

Inspired by something MissJackie recently posted about being “home-less” I wanted to share a bit about my home. I love my home. I really do. I haven’t loved or felt at home in any of my prior living establishments (with the exception of my parents home). I was just the tenant. I paid my rent just like all the other people in my complex.

Over the course of ten years I have lived in many different places starting with the dorms back in 1994 at WMU. The dorms where an adventure. I think all college students should experience the dorms. It's truly a test of how you can survive with lots of different people in a extremely confined spaces. From the dorms, I moved into an apartment with some fellow students. I won’t call them friends because I don’t think these two girls wanted any other friends other than themselves. From there, I moved back into the dorms after a summer spent at my parents house. Good ole Zimmerman. This is where I met my good friend Lisa. It is also where I learned how much fun college could be…whether that is a good thing or bad thing, it was fun. I then moved into an apartment with my dorm roommate and a fellow education major for the summer. That was fun. When school resumed in the fall I moved into a house with 4 other girls…big mistake. 5 girls, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Not enough room for all the cattiness. Then it was back home to the parents while I did my student teaching...no money to live by myself then. It was from there that I moved across country with my then boyfriend (now husband) to sunny Cali to live in the smallest most expensive apartment I had ever lived in. Who would have thought that for $1000/month that you could find anything smaller? I could not believe this. From there, we upgraded to renting a house. That was much nicer, but still didn’t feel like home. Then we were forced to move, so we found the biggest apartment that the three of us could reasonably afford. We stayed there for 3 years….me, my now husband, and James (some of you have met James). That was all over about 9 years!!! How many places was that??? I lost count.

Anyways, now my husband and I own a home in Holland, MI. We love our home. It isn’t anything particularly special. It’s a brick ranch. Not much to look at from the outside. Inside we have 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a dinning room, living room, family room and kitchen spread out over about 1900 sq ft plus an unfinished basement. Not too shabby. But that is not what is so special about this house. It’s the patio. We have a screened in patio that is an additional 333 sq ft. We are currently getting ready to do some work to the patio. Tile specifically. We just bought all the product we should need. Some nice terra cotta colored tile that will compliment the chocolate brown color of the house. We are excited to do our first project. I can't wait until its done...to sit on the patio on a nice Michigan evening, have a glass of my fav wine and read a good book with no bugs landing on you! Ahhhh! What more can I ask for?

A home is more than just the walls where you live and sleep. A home is also the feeling you get when you walk inside. You just know you are home. The structure itself is almost comforting.

I love my home. After a long day, it is comforting to walk in those doors and know that I’m home. I can relax. I can be myself.