[Imagine found here]
I saw a great TV show Saturday that I’d never seen before – Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls.
For people like us who have scorned a multi-channel existence and rely only on broadcast TV for idiot-box programming, this was quite a find. I’ve seen TLC’s adult version of Trading Spaces, and have enjoyed the transformations portrayed, but always thought, “There’s no way I would be happy with that in my house.” The time and budget constraints mean the results often lack some of the polish that real-world projects can provide over time and with more money. Plus, I’m all for doing that sort of thing myself after scouring others’ ideas and realizing what it is we want.
Anyway, the kids’ version of the show is a 180-degree turn from the original. There was no mention of budget, though there’s still a 48-hour time crunch in which to squeeze out decorative dharma. Kids are often so much better at visualizing what they really want, too.
The kids I saw knew each other’s tastes pretty well. The boys knew the girl wanted her room to have a more exotic feel, and it was turned into an Arabian Palace-themed abode with magic-carpet bed, purple walls and a camel. The girls knew the boy wanted his room to be more adventurous with a seafaring theme, and it was turned into a pirate ship, complete with planked walls, a raised, decked bed and mast in the middle of the room.
You can find several before/after photos of all the episodes here.
My first “big boy” bed was a firetruck bunk bed my dad built for me, with plans from Southern Living. It was more than a place to sleep – it was a play center that took me on myriad adventures near and far. It was the envy of all my friends who came over. Sadly, when it was time to give it up, my parents had no other use for it and the bed was dismantled to be used to kindle fires (a sad, strange twist in its history).
The point is, we’re all trying to make our personal spaces more personal. Even in recent tough economic times, new home-improvement centers open and thrive on our searches for home. It is only natural to want to make our homes and the rooms in them ours. For many, this is one reason for buying rather than renting: within legal limits, you can do whatever your imagination and budget will allow.
Here’s some universals about finding “home”:
1. The objects in it must be valued for some reason.
2. The colors must be pleasing to the occupants.
3. The placement of objects (and flow of rooms) must be functional and pleasing – feng shui or otherwise.
4. Personality can be expressed through one’s home.
5. Although sometimes hard to define with words, you know home when you find it.
6. The people in your home are often more important than anything else.
7. Home is where your heart is (see No. 6), but it’s also where you keep your junk.
8. Your home may not feel like home to anyone else but you.
9. All the money in the world can’t build home for you unless you know what home means to you.
10. A house in order can promote a restful soul, a peaceful mind and help foster happiness. But there’s so much more to happiness than that. A home alone won’t make it so.
For years, the American Dream has been described as owning a home. I think more important than having your name on a deed and being granted the privilege to pay property taxes is finding home.
What does home mean to you?
Owning a home is still an important part of my image/wish.
Having been a renter for a long time, I have been kicked out of apartments on two different occasions because the landlord unexpectedly decided to sell the property. I can't feel like it is truly home if I am so much at the whim of a landlord.
In fact, even the term land-lord evokes images of aristocrats owning the land *and* the peasantry.
To me, home is the comfortable, familiar messiness of my tiny little Manhattan apartment.
Home is also the name of a comfort food restaurant near me. They have awesome meatloaf, fried chicken, mashed potatoes. Mmmm...Home.
In Reference to your money post.
In the words of Ben Affleck in 'Boiler Room':
"They say money doesn't make you happy? Look at the F*%@ing on my face"
Evil maybe. Necessary, possibly but I think not. Of course the obvious is that money creates more problems than it solves. But could this greedy world survive without it? Money is nice, but wouldn't the world be better off if we had stuck with trading instead?
at home = not at work!
I watch the kids version of Trading Spaces on the Discovery Kids show on NBC. I saw the episode you described in your post and am always impressed with how creative the kids get (and how the space turns out at the end).
I rent, but my apartment is home. Or perhaps, because I feel the city is home, the apartment is also home. It's small but cozy, comfortable and very personal - decorated with objects that reflect my culture and interests.
I used to feel my parents house was "home" but that changed five or six years ago. Now I feel like a welcome visitor, but don't completely relax and feel at "home" until I'm back in DC.
Home is where I feel most comforable in my skin. Where I feel inspired. Where I can find the people, places and things that I love.
I'm sorry to say that, for me, home is where the t.v. is.
Wow, T-bone; great post, as always.
This one really hits home for me, as I just moved this weekend and it was bittersweet. While the new place is nicer, safer, bigger and with all kinds of new amenities...it was hard to leave my old place behind. I made it so very much mine; everyone that visited remarked it was so "me".
Now I've moved in with my boyfriend, and the place is "ours". I know it'll become home, and already I do love it - but there's something about that first place on my own I will forever hold in my heart. It had a king of magic to it. I felt very comfortable and happy there. I couldn't speak the whole night before we moved out. And it wasn't a palace. It was a very small loft with central heat and air that rarely worked, a half-rotted out kitchen floor and it was right next to a bunch of college bars. But I loved it - oh, I loved it. Home is definitely where you make it. :)
Thanks for giving me a chance to remember my now-old place so fondly.
I like the comment 'home = not at work'.
Home is every man's (and woman's) castle. It is a place where you are always welcome. A place to interact and share quality time with family and friends.
The place where you unwind after a hard week or day at work.
The place where there is no dress code...boxers after work....if you belch or rip a few...it doesn't matter (hey, I'm a guy). That place where you don't need to check the toilet seat before taking a sheat! (pun intended.) The place where I boot up the trusty computer to blog! ;-)
The place that you gravitate to when you don't feel well and where you allow vegetative functions to occur...like sleep....and I can think of others.
As much as some may say that home can get boring and we need to get out, it is a place that I love. Home rocks dude!
Right now "home" means chaos, but that will change soon - hopefully back to "comfortable."
The kids trading spaces is freakin' awesome... WAY better than the "grown up" version. I have seen rainforests, basketball courts, spy training rooms, 50's diners... these kids are so cool.
And I want a pirate room. Right now.
Home is where the heart is - in my opinion and my heart is in North Carolina - *smile* go figure - another great show like this is called "Merge" I LOVE that show!!!! They come in and redo your WHOLE house merging your lifestyle with your wife's!!!
I own a house, and usually wish I didn't. My son and I carry "home" with us wherever we are. Sometimes I wish we didn't have the house to tie us to a location...
Man, do you read my mind or what?!?
I'm currently struggling with this very issue. I think is home where the people you love are...but what if because of other factors, the people who you love can't all be in a reasonable proximity? Is home with your husband, even if you hate every other thing about where you are living? Is that just where you live for the time being until you can be back home again? I wish I knew.