The Only Home for Me

The Only Home for Me

Rated: G

Summary: Home is where the heart is.

It is a dreary winter day. The sky is a blanket of dark clouds and the sun is out of sight. You are strolling along the road, pulling your jacket closer as you try to seek the warmth that you crave and shivering from the December wind. You stop at an intersection of two small streets and glance at the corner lot, where a rather ordinary house stands. Even though the houses in most Irvine communities all appear to be identical, there is something unique about each of them. This house is the only white one in sight, and it stands out like a white sheep in a black herd. The round shingles on the roof are of a warm brown, similar to the color of coffee after you add a bit of cream to it. The front yard is full of greenery, from blooming roses of every color to neat little shrubs trimmed perfectly. If you strain, you can hear a sweet melody being played within. The faint aroma of cookies reaches your nose and you breathe deeply, savoring the delicious smell. Suddenly, an intense blast of wind strikes and the dusty pebbles around your feet begin jumping around. You wrap your arms around yourself at an attempt to become warmer, wishing you were at home and sitting by the roaring fire. You sigh and glance at the house one last time. You wonder who lives there.

I have been living in my home for almost six years, and I still love it as much as the day that we bought the place. Back in 1999, it was only a plot of dirt and a bunch of stones scattered here and there. It was rather bleak, really. But once it started being built, it was wonderful to see the building starting to rise from the ground out of seemingly nothing. It was similar to watching birds build a bird nest, adding a small twig to it every day. The day that we moved in was June 19, 1999. It was a bright, sunny day with clear skies and everyone had a smile on. As the movers started putting the large amount of boxes and furniture in the house, my sister and I ran around the house like wild animals. We were so excited to be moving in.

When you enter the house, you instantly notice the spaciousness. Our bottom floor is a stretch of hard wooden floors, a gentle honey in color with some chestnut and light yellow mixed in as well. A piano is a couple meters away from the front door, ebony and so polished it seems to be sparkling. There is a set of stairs behind the piano with flat carpeting of a cornflower blue and a dull brown. These serve as a transition between the brown wooden floors and the sea of blue carpet in the upper story. The first room is the living room/dining room. The tones here are all white and beige, giving it a pristine appearance. The kitchen and family room are next, both of which are colored in dark tones that make any visitor feel warm the minute they walk in. On sunny days, this area of the house is beautiful because of the bright sunlight that shines through the sliding door that opens to the backyard. The backyard is one of the most beautiful aspects of this house. The garden is a huge green carpet with billions of bright cheery colors all over the place. There’s pink, yellow, indigo, orange, purple, violet. And the upstairs! Spacious rooms and neat bathrooms fill the upper story of the house.

So maybe all the houses of Irvine appear to be the same on the outside, but are different to all the people who live there. Maybe nobody cares as much as I do about their house. But I know that this one is the perfect home that I will never, in all my life, ever forget.