Friday, July 23, 2010

This Week I Said Goodbye to "Home"

My grandmother passed away last year.This week we sold her home of 52 years and I said goodbye to the house that has been the most stable notion of "home" in my life. My childhood home was sold many years ago and I seem to be a restless nomad, moving house every 2-3 years. Yet grandma's house has always been there as the stable, comfortable "home" for the whole family. Family members gathered there every holiday, and on occasional Sundays. It was a hub.It was full of food and laughter.

My grandmother's home wasn't a "beautiful" home by the typical musings that I write here or that you might see in magazines and on HGTV. It was a fairly typical post-war track home. My uncles and grandpa dug  the basement themselves (yes, you did read that correctly - they dug the basement). It had one tiny bathroom and one very tired kitchen.
Yet, despite any physical flaws, it was the most comfortable and loving home that I have ever experienced. This is the feeling I would love to create for every one of my clients in their home. If I could, I would ensure that everyone in the world had such a haven of their own - a place of perfect love and comfort, with a few cosmetic blemishes, too. I haven't totally mastered this process, but I'm working on it. How did Grandma do it? I think just a whole lot of love. That's exactly what you get when you have a house that has played host and home to 8 children, 15 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and even 1 great-great-grandchild.
I miss my grandma and I will so miss her home.
Moving in with the 8 kids.

The Living Room addition in the 1960's. (love the draperies)

Christmas with the grandkids in the early 1980's

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

7 comments:

Debra said...

The definition of beautiful...you've got it right here in the description of your Grandma's home. What a great post. Well done, friend! I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes!

Unknown said...

I will miss that house so much. It was most comfort and welcoming place I have ever been. Thanks for sharing this!

Tmccall said...

That is so heartfelt and beautiful. You said it so well - and what we all want our Homes to convey. Your grandma poured her love into everyone around her and that most definitely is home.

Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer said...

What a great post... I think many, many people can related to this.

Your grandmother was absolutely lovely!

Beautiful Habitat said...

Thank you all for your feedback. It was tough to write something so personal, but I wanted to say a proper goodbye to a home that special.

Loya said...

Wonderful post, Tennille. Made me think of my grandma and grandpa's home, now owned by someone else. Can't drive by it without being flooded with bittersweet memories...

Jane @ The Borrowed Abode said...

Oh, to this day I still have dreams where I return to my grandma's condo in West Palm Beach. I only visited it until the age of 5, when my parents moved my grandma to a nursing home and sold the condo, but I remember the smell, the feeling, and the look of it to this day. And I definitely miss it. It was decked out in hideous 70's decor, but it was definitely a positive place.

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