What a Home Ought to Have

I thought my wish list for a perfect house was pretty complete. Then I looked outside.

Back story

We've been thinking a good bit about houses lately here at Casa CoalBear. We are sprucing up the one we live in and thinking of one we'll move to. 

I expect most of you are either normal or exceptional. Please know that some of the rest of us bravely shoulder the burden of chronic dissatisfaction. You may be married to a person like this. You have my sympathy. My wife is too. Here's how you know. Your furniture spontaneously rearranges itself when your back is turned. Glossy brochures of new automobiles appear on your coffee table. You'll have conversations--more truthfully, you'll listen to monologues--about how your house would look if we could just eliminate that wall.

If you are married to such a person, sites like Houzz are an addictive substance and should be rationed by a caring third party before somebody succumbs to creative possibility overload.

I've perused Houzz quite a bit. A bunch. Lots. And I thought I had this next house thing figured out. 

Oh, Wouldn't That Be Lovely?

Here are a few things that, while not imperative, would be enticements to me.

H2O. The house I can happily go to sleep dreaming of has a water view. It doesn't have to be waterfront property. A glimpse will do. But from some point in the house, occupants can see light dancing on waves, fish jumping, birds hunting, and even on inclement days they'll see the surface of the water gossiping about the moody weather.

Porch. The weather won't keep people inside because this house will have a deep porch, so deep that quite a few musicians can gather there and stay dry no matter how hard the rain is falling. The porch has a wide wall, ideal for sitting on and just below the wall are thick, soft bushes in case any guests have difficulty prioritizing drinking and safely perching. 

Outbuildings. The third 'Oh, Wouldn't that be Lovely?' item is a large pole building that will hold a couple of vehicles, a shop, and the stuff that we refuse to clutter the house with this time but still won't let go of. 

The rest of the shopping list is the usual -- a couple of bedrooms, a kitchen, some bathrooms, a laundry room, a family room, and space for a home office. Is that enough? Apparently not.

The Show

I thought I'd covered it all until I looked outside and remembered the show. My mother-in-law planted two magnolias to the side and front of this house. I think the next house ought to have magnolias and, if I get my druthers, I think they've already been there a good long while. I'm not ready to forgo the show.

If you don't have a magnolia in your yard, you should know that they are a glorious celebration of spring. They're a perfume worn for a day in the sunshine. They're a cascade of blushing petals gathered together like the loveliest fruit and weighing down the branches that hold them to sway in the breeze. The blossoms are translucent. When the sunlight finds its way into them, it's as if they've found their soul and each beams as brightly as any new convert, filled with the conviction that their story cannot be ignored. They are visually arresting. Against a blue sky, they are one of the finest color combinations going. 

For the gentlemen among you, magnolias are like lunchtime in the city, when the parks are filled with beautiful young women strolling, striding, or sitting in the sunshine, thrilled to be outside without a sweater or jacket. Honestly, in springtime don't all women become beautiful young women? It's a special time of year and a magnolia in bloom is a superb expression of it.

Youth has its day, but not without a little help. The contrast of these flowering buds with the aged branches that support them appeals to me as well. That's why a young magnolia just won't do. I want to see the marks of time, the scars of branches sloughed or cut, the age spots of lichen freckling the shady side of the trunk, and the thick solidity of a plant too stubborn to quit. I want to enjoy something that will be there after the blush of youth has become a pink carpet and dark waxy leaves have taken their place to shade all below.

I still have my dream list, but it was incomplete. I think a fine old magnolia is one more thing a home ought to have.