how has your childhood home influenced your current home?

I'm reading House Thinking: A Room by Room Look at How We Live by Winifred Gallagher.  One of the ideas she talks about early on in the book is how our childhood home or the place(s) where we grew up influences our ideas about our homes later in life.

I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I left for college.   Maybe I was lucky, but growing up I was sometime jealous of friends that got to move.  Odd, maybe.  But as an adult, I've come to appreciate my one-home childhood.  I know I am lucky in that I can't think of a single bad memory in that house on Wayne Avenue.

It's a modest house in a good neighborhood.  Built around the turn of the century, it has a lot of details that are missing in most of the new houses built today.  The trim is hefty, the overhangs on the roof are proportionate and the materials aren't plastic or vinyl.  It was what my parents called a 'handyman special' at the time they purchased it.  It's fun to think of them just starting out in life together, my mom pregnant, and both of them so excited.

Unfortunately because of time and money shortages, I think the house became a thorn in my dad's side.  He was constantly doing projects (My parents have a 'vintage' Ikea kitchen if there is such a thing) around the house and felt as though it was lost time that he could have spent with his children.  I on the other hand have quite a different perspective.  I have lots of memories of the various home improvement projects that went on through the years and I really believe that was strong influence in my decision to pursue a career in architecture.  I have a strong love for old houses and seeing them renovated and restored and am thankful that I get to do what I love everyday.  I would say that is a very general example of how one's home experience can be influential. 

Ms Gallagher emphasizes creating a home that is just right for you and suggests "listing the things that you've loved or hated in past and present homes".  She asks, "Does a Victorian delight you or give you the creeps?  Do you want to recapture the aura of a beloved childhood home or create the exact opposite of an unhappy one?"

The specific things I love about my parents' house are the front porch, the hardwood floors and the deep window sills on the first floor and they are all things that I'd like to have in my home or homes.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

Comments

[Bethany Hissong]

I am so glad you recommended this book... I got it and am only in chapter 2 but I love it!!! I was one of those kids that moved a lot but my Grandparents home was my favorite. Not big or fancy but definately deeply cared for and the most peaceful place you could imagine. My Grandparents were do-it-yourselfers: my Grandpa made cherry paneling himself and built the whole second floor with a huge bathroom for the three girls with a built-in vanity. My Grandma sewed so the linens and things were always special. There was a huge porch in the back and a wonderful garden, fruit trees and beautiful flowers. He loved birds so in the mornings you awoke to their singing. The house always smelled good too. And the basement floor was painted and so clean that all the kids would play down there at big family things in the winter. I wish my house was as inviting and comfortable and full of love as theirs always was!

[p.t.]

I think it's just about happy memories really. I don't have that many around my parents home so don't like the place much, not even my old bedroom (cramped and lonely). Now my grandparents. That's a different story. Between my maternal and paternal side I have memories of wood fires, lots of laughter, slow ticking clocks, perfumed cosmetics,gas flues, wonderful smelling soap, divine dinners, and snuggly beds.I miss my grandparents houses, all the more delightful for their simplicity. I've never missed my childhood home. Ever.My furnishing tastes are as far removed from my mothers as you can get.I would love one day, to be a granny with a warm welcoming home.I take my cues from my grandparents.

[erinn]

Bethany and p.t., thanks for your wonderful comments. I really enjoyed reading them. I didn't mention it, but I would agree that both of my grandmothers houses evoke strong memories of smells and tastes and general feelings of comfort. Bethany, so glad that you decided to get the book!

To all the cherished lurkers, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well, good, bad and in between.

best to all,
e

[Liz]

I was a move around a lot kid so my attachment was to my grandparents house about 30 minutes NW of Boston. They had an old rambling farm house the main house built in the late 1600s and it had been added on to by various owners over the centuries. The slate floored front porch and the winding slate path from the driveway to the porch is still one of my favorite things about the house. The wide wood plank and pegged floors inside, also a favorite. But my favorite-est of al things is how the additions to the house were added on, and so there is the step down into the kitchen, and the 2 steps up to the dining room, and the slate floor in the back of the kitchen where a fireplace and hearth used to be, but now houses a kitchen table. We moved into the house when I was a teenager, and my grandparents retired to a smaller house and my mother bought the house from them. She still lives there. The kitchen stills smells the same as it did when I was a kid - cinnamon and wood, and my old bedroom, with the shady oak tree out the window still has the same light on the walls and floors, dappled bits of light shining through the oak leaves creating patterns on the wall and floors.

Living in the Bay area now, the architecture is completely different here, we live in a 1 story stucco house built in the 50s, very CA, with big windows and a flat roof, and I find myself sometimes longing for the wood and paned windows and funky architectural details of my childhood.

Thanks for the chance to take a walk through my memories of a house that is a touchstone for me.

[erinn]

Thanks Liz! Mmm. I can small the cinnamon and wood.