Love and Houses

Remember when I wrote about My Childhood Home? That was fun. I'm excited that my home was included in Houzz.com's Childhood Home series. I really enjoyed reading about other's memories of their childhood homes as well. 
It's serendipitous that the Houzz series would include my childhood home the same week that I wrote about our Redmond/Seattle house. --Especially because my daughter thinks of our Redmond home as her "Childhood Home". We lived in the Redmond house from D's junior high school years until she was a college student. I guess it makes sense that this would be the home she thinks of when she think of "growing up". 

D. shared her thoughts about out house by commenting on the post. Her comment moved me, so I'm including it here:

It's interesting the things that form indelible memories. Some of the strongest memories somehow make you happy even when it wasn't "fun" at the time. Being locked out of the house when there's a pot on the stove? Not fun. But kind of funny in hindsight. We did a lot of living in that house. 

Thinking about past houses reminds me of a fun novel I read several years ago, Love and Houses.

You know, clearly love and houses do go hand in hand. And by "houses" I mean "homes". It doesn't matter if it's a house or an apartment or a condo or a loft... What matters is the memories you create there.

Amazon.com Review

Love and Houses, by Marti Leimbach, is a very entertaining book, at times even laugh-out-loud funny. The narrator, Meg Howe, is 37 years old, seven months pregnant, and newly separated from her husband, Andy. She is also literally between homes because she and Andy bought one house before selling their apartment and are now saddled with two mortgages they can barely afford to pay. To Meg, houses and relationships are inextricably entwined.

If Meg seems a little flip, it's only because she's fighting to maintain her equilibrium. As Leimbach peoples her novel with old friends, old lovers, eccentric but lovable errant husbands, and new babies, houses stand for stability. When her friend Carla asks Meg why she cares so much about "a house, a mere structure," Meg responds: "It's what it means." 

I hope you had a great weekend. I also hope you remembered to set your clocks forward to get to work on time on Monday!

I hope that for myself as well.