It is interesting that from a young age I was already comparing my home with that of my friends. According to the article by Valentine (cited below), in affluent societies more than a third of capital is invested in homes. Because of this, a home has the power to represent the resources someone has, or doesn't have. Because my home looked different than others, people assumed things about me and my family. This shows how a home can function as a space that represents an individual. I used to not like to have people come to my home because I was afraid of how they would interpret it and how it would shape their opinion of me. Why do we compare our homes, a place that is shaped by and shapes the individual, to other people's homes? This question made me wonder if there is an ideal home and if there is a home that society expects a certain person to have.
Next, T.V. shows have impacted how I view a home. Shows, such as HGTV's Extreme Dream Home, have commodified homes and turned houses into something public instead of private. After seeing episodes of this show I am left wishing that my house had all of the cool, up-to-date technology and new designer furniture. Growing up, I would go to home improvement shows with my parents. These would take place in the Expo Center near Cleveland. The focus of these expos was to encourage you to buy more things for your home, such as automatic light controls and hand-free sinks. These expos support the fact that purchasing goods can make your house feel like home. However, what makes a home a home? For some people the HGTV dream home may truly be their dream home, but for others this might not be the case. Although I like the houses shown on the Extreme Dream Home series, I don't think I would feel at home there. Purchase, layout and decoration decisions all reflect the person, or people who live in a house. Because of this, it is important to base these decisions on personal preferences and not what you think an "ideal" home should look like. Overall, it's the happiness and love that exist within a house that make it a home. Lastly, It is interesting that the show Extreme Dream Home uses "home" instead of "house", since we normally refer only to where we live (or place where we feel most comfortable) as home. For example, I would not refer to my friends house as a home. Overall, the relationship between "house and "home" is similar to that of "place" and "space". Once we assign meaning and connections to a place, it can become our home.
Finally, it is important to not assume things about a person based on their home, or where they consider home to be. It is also important to not assume which place a person considers their home. A home is constantly evolving and its meaning and importance to a person can change over time. A home is a space that is usually private, so it is interesting to consider who this home is shared with.
Dream Home 2019HGTV dream home tour
Valentine, Gill. 2001. Social Geographies: Space and Society. Essex, England: Pearson Education Ltd. Chapter 3.
You brought up so many interesting points here. My favorite part was when you mentioned that you would often compare your home to others even as a child. I did this throughout my childhood, and I never understood why. In high school, I had a wealthy classmate in my study hall who would constantly brag about his home and everything that he owned. He lived in a house that could easily be featured on one of the shows you mentioned. He even had the audacity to ask the other students the size of our houses and what we owned for the sole purpose of making us feel bad. When he asked me, I told him that I had a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house and I loved every square inch of it. He looked quite taken aback, because how could I have so much love for so small a place? I explained to him that my family had consisted of just me, my mom, and our pets for as long as I could remember, and that we did not need a big house to be happy. We had each other and that was all that really mattered to us. Unfortunately, later that year his house burned down and he lost everything he owned. A week after this happened he texted me and told me he needed to speak to me. We had become better friends at this point, and when we met, he gave me the biggest hug and told me that I had been right; his parents, sisters, and pets had survived the fire and that was all he really needed. I am glad that in his grief, he was able to see what he had instead of what he lost.
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