How Our Family’s Idea of ‘The Perfect Home’ Keeps

Changing

Are you ever sitting around and just think what really makes a home perfect?? I feel like our

family asks this all the time. When the kids were younger it was all about having space to run

and play but now sometimes I wonder if smaller feels better because it’s easier to clean. Crazy

right??

The funny part is what we call “perfect” keeps changing almost every season. Last year it was all

about having that big open kitchen so everyone could sit around the island, and then suddenly it

was a backyard with a swing set, and now my daughter says the perfect home is one with her

own room where she can shut the door when she wants.

Sometimes I laugh because we never really agree. I say a wrap-around porch would be amazing

because I could drink my coffee and wave at the neighbors. My husband says a finished

basement is perfect because he wants his own space for tools and random boxes (that he never

touches anyway). The kids just say pool, pool, pool — even though we all know no one’s getting

in it when it’s freezing cold outside.

And don’t even get me started on “flex rooms.” One week it’s a nursery, then a toy room, then a

homework corner, then I’m looking at it like maybe it could be my office. I love how the same

four walls can feel different depending on what we need at that moment.

Our idea of perfect also changes with the noise level. When everyone’s talking at once I think,

wow, maybe the perfect home is one that has more little corners where you can hide away with a

book. Then when it’s too quiet I think maybe the perfect home is just where everyone piles in the

same room and we end up watching TV together even if no one really likes the show.

Sometimes when we’re curious, we scroll through photo galleries online just to see how other

families set up their spaces — like the ones showing Toronto homes with modern layouts and

cozy finishes. And on rainy nights I’ve even clicked through Florida houses with beach porches

and bright patios just for fun. It’s more daydreaming than shopping but it always sparks new

ideas of what we might want one day.

What makes me smile though is how the idea never stays still. It’s not about the biggest house or

the fanciest stuff, it’s about how it feels. Some days that’s a small cozy place with soft light,

other days it’s a yard big enough to kick a soccer ball.

So maybe there isn’t just one “perfect home.” Maybe it’s whatever fits the season we’re in as a

family. And maybe in a way that’s what makes it special.