I thought it would be fun to wander through the house with a Flip camera and show how each room looks on a typical day — you know, before we pick up the clothes from the floor, put Clara’s toys away, and fold the big blankets we use on the sofa. Here’s a spur-of-the-moment house tour (while John and Clara stepped out to the post office and grocery store) in all its everyday, lived-in glory.
A few things to note about the tour and the day:
- I’m nursing a cold, so excuse my scratchy voice. Even when I’m healthy I can be a little self-conscious about how I sound.
- Filming while walking and talking with a handheld camera is harder than it looks — expect a bit of jittery movement and some uneven shots. Multitasking = Blair Witch vibes.
- For anyone who asked for office updates from my earlier post, you can get a close, almost three-dimensional sense of the space in the clip.
- Burger, our dog, steals the show as usual. He darts into frame and completely upstages me, then later lounges contentedly in the window.
- I suddenly felt the need to explain Clara’s music class kit on camera. It’s funny what feels noteworthy in the moment.
- You’ll catch a glimpse of John’s console project behind the sofa. When I mention that the console isn’t perfectly level and seems to slope away from the wall, it’s because our floors are slightly uneven — not because John’s workmanship is poor. I’ll share more photos and the full build details on the console later.
- My ceramic dog is still on the back patio. I haven’t been able to decide what to do with it yet; I’m working up to letting it go, one day at a time.
- We picked up two 30-by-40-inch canvases at Michael’s for a very good price. You’ll see them in the tour; we’ll reveal our plans for them soon.
- Toward the end of the walk-through I talk about other rooms while pointing the camera at the dining room and kitchen — a little scattered. I definitely don’t have Spielberg’s framing skills.
- My oddly dramatic final shot on my purse is random and a little embarrassing. Sometimes you just get carried away on camera.
Below is a little bonus that shows how ordinary our days are. We always tell people that Burger sleeps like a human — head on the pillow and body tucked under the covers — and most folks don’t believe it until they see photographic proof. This morning John got up first, so I quietly reached over and snapped pictures after Burger crawled up from the foot of the bed to take John’s spot and sleep for several more hours. It’s an incredibly relaxed life.
What about you? If someone randomly took photos or a shaky, slightly nauseating video of your home right now, what would they find? A child’s stuffed animal in the bed, a craft in mid-project, or something oddly personal left out in the open? I’m grateful I put John’s leopard-print novelty underwear away before filming — could you imagine if that had made an appearance? (Kidding — though I can already picture him blushing if he reads that.)
Homes are living things: evidence of who we are, what we do, and how we relax. The clutter, the projects in progress, the half-folded laundry, and the toys left where the kids last played tell a fuller story than a perfectly staged photo ever could. A lived-in house has warmth and honesty — and occasionally a dog sleeping like a person — and that’s the sort of everyday realness I wanted to capture.
If you’d like, tell me what room you’d be most embarrassed to show right now, or what little quirk of your everyday life would surprise others if they saw it. I love hearing the tiny details that make a home feel like home.