the transformation from house to Home

Something amazing has happened. I am sure it has been in the works for a while, but it seems it needed a weekend of torrential downpours, followed by a weekend of temperatures over 100 degrees to show itself.  And to top it all off, it was hidden in home repairs!

 So we have put up a new chandelier, one that fits with our gothic-castle-pirate-tropical-middle eastern inspired house design (and yes those do all go together), with minimal damage to anyone (just one small electrocution, thats all), instead of the generic new house pendulum chandelier that we had previously.  

We now have a light and a ceiling fan in our formerly dark bedroom, that is inspired by the Caribbean island of Nassau to cool us with a remote control, so no one has to get out of bed to turn it off, although the remote control holder was installed right next to the light switch WAY across the room from the bed (which doesnt make any sense to me at all!) and was installed thankfully without any electrocutions (and only 12 trips to the power box, 6 hours, 3 trips to Home depot  and 1 battery stolen from the garage door remote to complete), which goes to prove anything that can go wrong will go wrong!  (Who new that the battery we were trying to use was dead?  Note to self ALWAYS check the battery before going back to the store to return defective merchandise.) 

Our fish tank which has been in place, although empty since the say we moved in (over 2 years ago) finally has gasp! Water in it and a running pump, filter, etc. with NO leaks (crossing my fingers that I dont jinx it) and is awaiting the kids and I (okay and probably Nathan too) to take a trip to the fish store to get a touch of live rock and a few (actually 7) green chromis

 

 The childrens bathroom which was previously used exclusively used for middle of the night potty visits has now been reborn due to the addition of a shower curtain (which means we get our bathroom back to ourselves, yeah!)

 The final wall of our foyer and upstairs hallway is completed.  Well, maybe not completed, but started and over half way done (No turning back now!).

  

  So along with all the little stuff like putting a rack up in the garage for the brooms and mops and clearing out the clutter from the garage to prevent anyone from tripping and falling (namely klutzy, clumsy me), fixing the blinds in our bathroom that Navi accidentally pulled down, hanging the vacuum attachments in  the laundry room, removing the old satellite boxes from the TVs, gathering our excess stuff in an Ebay / craigslist box, and steam cleaning the carpets (okay this one is still a works in progress too , but the downstairs is done) and all the other little piddly stuff that seems to build up,  I think we have made quite an improvement. 

But in my opinion the truly amazing thing that has happened, is also the most important  improvement of all.  It is an improvement that cant be bought, or seen, or even repaired, its something inside of you, the feeling of home that you get once you have made enough memories, shed a few tears, put in lots of sweat, some blood and an electrical shock or two.  The feeling of home.  A Home is not something you can buy or build, but rather something that is gradually developed over months and years.  Seeing a babies first step back dropped by the wall you spent hours painting; watching your children dig for roly-polys and earthworms in the garden you carefully planted full of red flowers (which sadly enough all turned out to be pink); hearing little voices yell as loud as they can Shabbat Shalom during the first Shabbat song sung every Friday night at the table that took you years of searching for, under the glow of the perfect chandelier;  opening a kitchen cabinet to find it filled with fruit and vegetable stickers (put there apparently for no other reason than to annoy me, your wife, but really because you did it as a child); Waking up with a cool breeze and the sound of birds chirping outside of the window left open in the bathroom; checking on your little darlings as they sleep in a room filled with hopes and dreams.  Although these are just a few of the things that transform a house to a home, when you add them and all the others up you end up with a feeling and a desire to stay forever.  You feel comfortable in your surroundings, enjoy the little things that dont mean much to anyone else (like that all the colors of the house can be found in the hallway rug), the house becomes an extension of you and everyone who resides inside it.  A home is comfortable and inviting; relaxing and rejuvenating; exciting and safe.  

When Nathan told me he finally thought of this house as his Home, and began to wax on about what the next 20 years and more will be like here in our house, as if he were actually looking forward to getting older (something he dreads!), I knew he had finally found what he had been looking for, what he had gone to Jamaica hoping to find, why we had moved back to San Diego from LA, something that he hadent found fully anywhere else, and that is something simply incredible, extremely rare, and invaluable to anyone who achieves it.  It is Home.

 

Side note:  This week JoJo has developed a very mischevious Laugh.  he is definately going to be a trouble maker.  I will try and catch it on video for everyone to see, but so far have been unsuccsessful, probably becasue he’s always up to no-good when he laughs that way, and I am trying to catch him and stop him!  7/25/06 Update: video is uploaded look under my videos.

~ by Robin on July 21, 2006.