"If you sweep a house and tend it´s fires and fill it´s stove and there is love in you all the years you are doing this, then you and that house are married, that house is yours."
Truman Capote, The Grass Harp
It was a series of coincidences that lead me here but what´s keeping me here is this house, our home. We had to save for it while we were planning it, work for it while we were building it and I had to fight for it while my marraige was breaking up when the children asked me to promise them that we could keep on living here. Here there is colour and laughter, it´s our haven, we can be ourselves here, we decide how people are treated, who comes in the door and what goes on inside these walls. Here are the people we love, some in flesh and blood and some smiling from the walls. Here we live, love and dream. I found the above quote in Realsimple magazine and it describes perfectly my relationship with this house. I am in love with my partner and I adore my children but I am married to this house and it´s the reason why I live where I live.
23 comments:
Claudia - I had to tell you this! I usually do all of the links at once for Sunday Scrib. & then go back and read people's posts one after another but today I was pulled into your post immediately because of your amazing pictures. I just loved looking at your house! It's enticing and warm and friendly! And then your words were exactly what I needed today. EXACTLY. I've been really struggling with home and homesick lately and you got me thinking about what MY home needs to be about. Thank you so much, my friend. I feel better after reading your post than I have for weeks.
thank you.
That's so beautiful! And your home looks gorgeous, Claudia. I absolutely agree with Meg. It feels so warm and inviting. You can just tell it's a home that's full of love, life and laughter! Thanks for inviting us all in.
what an incredibly warm and playful home! and the truman capote quote is wonderful. it seems like it fits you and your home perfectly. :)
What a lovely home. To build it and then to fight for it!
I've been thinking about what you meant when you wrote "...I am married to this house," because it is so true for most of us. We rely on our homes emotionally, financially, physically - all of it. It really is a relationship. I am going to remember that line. It's simple but says so much.
Oh Claudia, that is a wonderful, beautiful house. I understand, so very much so, what you mean when you talk about fighting for it, being married to it - sometimes we need it as much as we need to breathe, don't we?
Thank you for sharing.
--Shuku
Beautiful - both your words and your home are simply beautiful.
I love seeing the photos, and the quote. Your home reminds me of the homes I used to have in Germany. it looks inviting and cosy, I can see why you want to stay married to it! :)
Such a lovely home you've created, full of energy and personality. Thanks for sharing.
How happy a story that you have succeeded in keeping the home you love. Did you do the mosaic tree on the wall? I'm jealous!
I love the photos! Looks like a beautiful place to live and comfortable. Thanks for the read.
This is so wonderful and so upbeat and rightfully so. I love the contract of the evolution of your house into a home and space for you happening at the same time as the deconstruction of your marriage. And what a lovely happy ending.
very cool pictures! what a lovely story. you are very lucky to feel that way about your home. ~Bella
http://deelovelee.typepad.com/mamamuses/
Oh, I am in love with the tree mosaic on the wall! What an inspired place to live...
I got a lump in my throat reading this. The pictures are lovely, and a tribute to your survival and spirit.
arriving from sunday scribblings; really enjoyed the photos of your interior; such rich colors!
Hi - me again! I just wanted to tell you that I quoted you on my site - I hope that's okay. If it's not let me know!!
I love this house too! It's amazing.
Wow! Your home is so colorful and alive! I love all of the art, and the warmth. Wonderful. The words by Capote give me something to think about...
I am sort of new to the Sunday Scribble, and that is how I found your blog.
:)
Love this, Claudia, and also the stories your links led to, about the days of painting your walls bright colors -- what a wonderful act of self-expression that was at that time in your life. I've always been baffled by how people are afraid of color, the vitality, beauty of it -- Jim's oldest sister visited for the first time last year and her first comment walking into our house was, "I prefer beige." and I thought, "you poor parched soul." (love the pictures of your house!)
beautiful.
Beautiful!!!
I stumbled upon this, and as I read it, it reminded me of a quote I have hanging in my entry way:
To us our house was not insentient matter--it had a heart and a soul and eyes to see us with, and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us and we were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out its eloquent welcome--and we could not enter it unmoved.
-Mark Twain
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