One of the things I take most seriously when working with home buyers is trying to ask them – after all the details about how old the heating system is in a house, whether the big screen television will fit in the den, what the property taxes are and how on earth they’ll ever cover over those tangerine colored walls in the living room – will this house feel like home when you walk in the door?
“Home” has always been where we feel best. Safest, most peaceful. And where, as Robert Frost told us, “when you have to go there, they have to take you in”.
Of course, getting away from home can have its restorative qualities as well. My Old Fella and I go to a great place in the mountains every year and do almost nothing. And for the week we’re there, it’s grand.
But home is the place we’re happy to return to. It’s where the sticking doors and familiar sounds and the dopey animals and 20,000 home cooked meals have been. I always try to ask my clients to imagine pulling into the driveway every day and whether they’ll be glad to get there.
That’s what it’s all about.
So this week’s poll question is: What feels like home?
