My home is the center of my world. I've lived in the same house for the entire twenty-eight years of my marriage, creating every aspect inside and out, crafting the home of my dreams. We've all seen the magazines featuring dream homes that have every imaginable luxury and comfort that money can buy.......and it takes a sizeable amount of money to make those wishes materialize. How many people dream and wish and postpone their happiness until they attain that mythical house that will allow them to live the wonderful life they imagine?

As a child, I would amuse myself by planning what sort of house I would live in, how I would decorate it and what I would do there. Being an avid reader with an overactive imagination, my dream abode was an underground burrow in the woods and all the woodland creatures would be my neighbors. I would host tea parties, plant hollyhocks beside my kitchen door and live happily ever after.

In reality, my husband and I built a new house in a new subdivision to start our new life together. I was completely in my element, choosing the floorplan, colors, cabinets, and all the myriad details and choices that go into constructing a home. We made a conscious decision to live in a small, affordable house, to make it our own using creativity and ingenuity. It became our "dream" house because we choose to see it that way. I don't want to postpone my life until all my hopes and wishes come true. After all, it's not the material aspects of a house that makes it your dream. It's the life well lived within the walls of a house that truly makes it a home. By the way, I do love to host parties. I've planted hollyhocks (and hundreds of other perennials, trees, shrubs, herbs, fruits and vegetables) outside my kitchen door, and the little woodland creatures are my dearest and closest neighbors.