Annie Bradley's Profile

This is House #15 and Home #3. It feels like home, even though I know we'll have to leave here at some point - we're renting and the owners want to sell. We can't strip off the bottle-green wallpaper or take up the red carpets, so I've had to make my peace with what's here instead of wishing it were different. It's larger than anywhere I've ever lived - so there's space for me and my ex to share the home and the parenting without having to share a bedroom.

What makes this place feel like home? I feel safe here. I have an ugly, comfortable armchair, inherited from the previous tenants and I get to write my morning pages with the doors open to the garden. I may not love the wallpaper, but I get to cook dinner in the kitchen while my son makes Lego models at the table in the same room. So part of it is about the physical structure of the house - it's very family-friendly - but part of it is about not wishing it were mine. I planted bulbs last winter as an act of faith that we'd still be here to enjoy them. If we weren't, the bulbs would still flower. I've finally realised that home-making is about what we do IN the house, rather than what I do (or imagine doing) TO the house.