What Makes a Home

Now that I'm finally feeling better, I've gotten on track with clearing stuff from my mom's house. The more I get out, the less it feels like home. I'm not sure it's getting rid of the material things that makes the house feel less home-like; I think it is the emptiness. I'm also seeing how really nice a house it is. I may have described it before, but I'll do it here in brief. The best features, and those you see immediately upon walking in the front door, are the cathedral ceilings with wood beams, solid oak paneling, and a light-colored brick fireplace. The fireplace is the highlight of the room, with brick that goes up eight feet to a wood mantle, and faced with brass and glass doors. We've used the fireplace a lot over the years, and there is another one downstairs. We used to use that one a lot too, but the room it's in had a mildew problem a few years ago and no one goes down there anymore except to go through to the back yard.

I'm trying to detach a bit and see the house the way a potential buyer would see it. There are problems -- peeling wallpaper in the bathrooms, cracked grout between tiles, an electrical issue with one of the ceiling fans -- but overall I think it's a nice house that would be a good home for a growing family. It really isn't my home now, even though I do feel at home here. Maybe that feeling is something else that would convey to the new owners.