Home Is Where Our Books Are

This month, we celebrate the launch of TENEMENTAL by Vikki Warner! Detouring from the traditional timeline of marriage-kids-house, twenty-six-year-old Warner skips straight to home ownership and buys a run-down three-story house in Providence, Rhode Island. Suddenly, she's responsible for a rotating cast of colorful tenants, and adulthood means exploding plumbing, gentrification, and navigating the 2008 market crash with no blueprint. Told with grit and good humor, this debut memoir is a candid exploration of how sharing space profoundly reshapes our lives and forces us to grow into ourselves. 

To prepare for Warner's witty debut, the FP staff reflected on the best places we've lived, from a Victorian house in California to a shack in Maine (yes, really)!

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Sophia

🏡: One-bedroom apartment in an old Victorian house

🌏: Santa Cruz, California

🕓: 9 years

The longest residence of my adult life, this house will always have a special place in my heart. I loved gardening in the front yard, listening to the sea lions bark from the beach just a few blocks away, and watching my cat watch the crows that flocked on the power lines just outside.

Lucia

🏡: My childhood home

🌏: Kittery Point, ME

🕓: 13 years (plus many, many visits)

My parents' house is my favorite place on earth. It's cozy, near the ocean, and they always have snacks.

Jamia

🏡: Apartment

🌏: Northern Manhattan

🕓: A long time!

I love my home, particularly my bookshelf!

Lauren

🏡: House

🌏: Kissimmee, Florida

🕓: 5 years

My mom and I's first house post-divorce, Lake Evalyn was straight out of a fairy tale for my eight-year-old self. The house had a vaguely Victorian feel, but was cozy like a cottage, with a porch swing, jasmine growing along the side of the house, and a lake down the street. Because it was so close to Disney World, we could see fireworks every night in the distance. I had my own room, which we painted lavender, and that was where I first read Harry Potter. After myriad temporary housing situations and a cross-country move, this was a place that finally felt like home. 

Alyea

🏡: My childhood home

🌏: Dublin, OH

🕓: 18 years

When my mom finally sold it, my brother filmed the final walkthrough of our empty house and there were a lot of parts of the walls and floors that I had never seen before. It really made me appreciate all of the decorative touches, creaky floorboards, and chipped bannisters that made it my home.

Drew

🏡: Apartment

🌏: Gramercy Park, NYC

🕓: 21 years

It's just the right size for one person and after all of these years I have tweaked the space so that it suits my lifestyle perfectly. The best thing about my apartment is the view to the east. I love watching the sunrise every morning, and then seeing the sun and clouds play across the sky all day long.

Suki

🏡: childhood home

🌏: Bernardsville, NJ

🕓: 16 years

Whenever someone asks where I grew up or what my childhood was like, this old house is the first thing that pops into my head. It was home. 

Hannah

🏡: A shed

🌏: Maine

🕓: One summer

I spent a busy summer during college living in an empty toolshed that allowed me to be closer to one of numerous summer jobs. There was a toad outside the door every night when I got home, and I fell asleep to the truly strange and terrifying sounds foxes make at night. It felt pretty rustic at the time, but I was essentially glamping.

What living situation do you cherish? Ever live in a mansion, apartment, shed, or house (yes, we just played MASH)? Are you a reluctant landlady just like Vikki? Tweet at us @FeministPress to share your story!