House and home

This morning I saw a blog post from a friend of mine who is currently in Hungary. His dad, who lives near Budapest, recently died, and he's out there to try and settle things, as they say. He posted some photos from the house, and it's relatively small, but I would characterize it as comfortable. It's certainly not the kind of thing we have here.

That tossed my memories back to Hawaii as well, where for the most part people don't live in big houses. Quite honestly, I don't think they need more than they have. Indeed, perhaps none of us really do.

I grew up in a fairly small, probably typical, house in the inner city. It was not exactly a good neighborhood, and I'd stop one notch short of calling it the ghetto. As a kid, naturally I didn't know any better, but I'd be horrified to raise a family in that environment now.

When we moved to the 'burbs in grade nine, our house was perhaps even smaller, if at least 70's construction. It sure wasn't the kind of place that dominates the subdivisions, that's for sure.

At age 27, when my career felt like it was going places and I was making serious coin, I very much wanted to have a house again. That's when Stephanie and I bought the place I'm in today. We really didn't look anywhere else, and it just happened. It was new, but mostly built when we got involved. As you might expect from the guy who drives cheap cars, we weren't looking to over-do it or buy more than we needed, and it certainly wasn't to keep up appearances. I think we just wanted a reasonably nice place that was truly ours.

A lot has happened since then, and now it's my house, I've remarried, and I'm sharing it with my wife. But it just doesn't feel like it's "our" place. There's so much history here, and all of it mine. I can't help but wonder what our next place will look like, and where it will be.

Diana's house, which sits unsold in Cleveland, is pretty classic stuff in terms of Midwest city houses. With my baggage around my experience a few miles from there (we got robbed when I was 11), it's hard for me to think of living there and feeling safe, so I feel like I'm locked into new and suburban. I know deep inside that I probably don't need it, but it's what I know now.

Then I see a place like the one my bro-in-law lives in near Seattle, and I'm in love with that. While fairly large, I wouldn't describe it as pretentious at all. In fact, his whole neighborhood has a surprising amount of character.

Comfort and safety is what makes a home, for me anyway. But even with that in mind, I really want to start a new adventure with Diana somewhere else. I can't help but wonder what it will look like.