The making of a dream ! ( From house to home )

It's hard to believe that today it's two years since we moved in this place we call home and I'm not counting the 9-10 months it took us to build it. My home is not just a home for me, it's my cocoon, my sacred space, my identity and I often find myself so passionately doing up every corner, putting things together, changing it often, moving furniture, hanging pictures, flooding everybody's walls on FB with it's pictures, whether they like it or not ;) recharging my batteries, breathing, living , relaxing.  Today, as I  reminisce about this journey , I fondly recall the day when we bought a  barren plot of land and started building our dreams on it.

The husband and I had no experience or expertise whatsoever in this endeavour and building a home required tons of it. We had never even got a wall erected in our life, leave alone building a home but then we were keen and eager to give it our best shot. It was a long procedure and we encountered many things good and bad ...people cheated us, we were provided with bad raw materials at times, we trusted people too much at times and repented  later. There were times especially during the monsoons that we ran out of  building material and the scarcity of  it in the market resulted in total chaos with work coming to a standstill for a couple of days but the good thing was that  it was a life enriching experience for both of us and the memories are something I will always hold dear for the rest of my life.


Sharing some beautiful memories as I walk down memory lane.

This is how I remember my house under construction for the longest time possible. Something that just gave a semblance of a house, half built brick walls, and a false ceiling precariously held by numerous wooden beams in the most crooked fashion and this is what it looked like for a long, long time. It made me feel like there was nothing going on there but I was made to believe work was going on.

Finally the beams came off from the ground floor only to be carried up and put right back in the same order.

A house under construction has to be the most dangerous place ever with rusty nails lying upside down, iron rods protruding from every corner, wooden planks hanging from the roof giving the impression of falling off any moment. I really pitied these kids belonging to the workers there who lived amidst this chaos and always  looked happy to be there. I, being a mother with two kids in tow, whenever I went there understood the perils of living here very well. I had numerous panic attacks when I saw my kids running amok and at times tripping and falling over something but thankfully we survived all of that. Soon my kids felt quite 'at home' even in this mess and happily spent time playing with these kids and making sand castles, collecting pebbles and  shells whenever they were not throwing heaps of sawdust at everybody else present there ;)

And finally, our terrace on the second floor is ready construction wise.

That's my daughter ( three years ago ) enjoying a moment on the terrace. She was thrilled to be there. There were no railings or boundary walls but the view was spectacular for them, of course my son is not in the frame here. Maybe he's somewhere playing in the sand :)

 This is the enclosed part of my small terrace and the wall in front is what I call my pink Warli wall today.

This is exactly how it stands today after I painted the Warli figures .







 Finally the house takes shape and this is what it looks like some months later.

 Quite an achievement this. Here we are getting the ramp ready and it also marks the end of the construction work.

The small area in front that I now call my small patch of green. Not too green at the moment but it did'nt take me long to plant some grass and put everything under the sun ( literally ) that could grow here .

 This is how it looked last year. Well, this year I have made a few changes and have not taken any pictures yet.


 The making of my Kitchen ~

Well, this happens to be the most happening place of my home according to me. The heart and soul and the hub of all activities. I just cannot club it with the rest of the house. It needs a special mention :)

I still remember how thrilled I was when work finally started on my kitchen. I was like this very excited child who had been eyeing this toy for a long long time in a store and finally  gets to lay  hands on it . First it was the floor tiles that totally floored me and then it was the carcass of the entire cabinetry along with the grilles on the window. When that happened , I knew my big moment had arrived :)

Well, Rome was not built in a day and I could so imagine that ;)




 The tiles and the backsplash taking shape here. I scanned the whole city  for that perfect mosaic backsplash that I so badly wanted and I was so happy with what I settled for , finally !

 Okay, some flesh was added to the carcass, sounds gross but that's what it's actually called... the carcass in the kitchen language :) The cabinets and the chimney go up too.

This is how my kitchen looked on the day of housewarming. Of course a lot has changed or rather been added and it looks a little different now.
The best thing I like here is the amount of natural light that streams in through the windows , makes it a happy, cheerful place. Mine is an eat-in kitchen and I especially designed that extended counter or breakfast table as we call it. We've placed high chairs around it and this is more of a family room than a kitchen. It' s where we unwind after a long day, where we normally have meals , where the kids do their homework, colouring, project work etc when I'm cooking and also where they love to sit and sulk when things don't go their way :)

This is how the kitchen  looks today :)

On the day of housewarming  :)

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Coming back to the present, this is a small corner in my living room  which is my favourite. It has the lovely orange wall behind  and that makes it all the more pleasing  for me :)

And a  courtyard wall that has a Madhubani painted by me recently. I feel my home is still new and there is lots to do, lots to add and I'm happy it's an ever evolving process .


Coming back to what my home means to me, I think I have given a fair idea. Each pillar has a story to tell, each wall speaks because I know all about it as it came up brick by brick.
There are many people ( family as well as friends) to thank here who helped us by giving us the much needed advice and guidance whenever we needed it, ( I will not name them for the fear of embarrassing them but they know who they are. A big , big thank you to all.) my mother, who has not only been physically present as much as she could during this phase but was always there in spirit throughout and I can't imagine going through this without her,the divine power up there who I strongly believe in, helping us to overcome  each and every hurdle and of course the husband who always gave me a free hand in everything.

 The word 'home' has a different meaning for each of us but whatever it may be, it is very close to our heart. The best definition of a home is what I heard from Mr. Bachchan during one of the episodes of KBC some years ago. He said , in hindi, " Ghar ek aisi jagah hai, jahan aate hi aisa lagta hai, jaise aap apne maa ke god mein aa gaye ho" , roughly translated as " a home is a place where on entering, you get a feeling of coming to your mother's lap" ( hope I got that right ). That's a such a sweet definition and so true. It  should give you the security, the comfort, the warmth and the reassurance of a mother's lap. Mine surely does and I'm happier when I get my mommie's lap too in that lap. Gosh ! I have written too much today, not making  much sense now. Gotta go !

 P.S. Keep those dreams alive.....they do come true :)