Welcome Home!

Every writer needs an editor. Someone to look at things with a fresh eye. Someone to help us clear away unnecessary words.

Life takes editing, too.

Anyone who has moved from one house into another always says that moving is a good reason for getting rid of stuff.

Moving makes you think twice before you pack anything because you’ll just have to unpack it later.

Redecorating can have the same effect.

When you remodel, or make significant changes to any room of the house, chances are you’ll have to clear that room first. And when the job is done, who wants to clutter up a new space by bringing everything back in without giving the matter some thought?

Since moving into my little Cape Cod cottage last summer, I’ve been slowly taking my belongings out of storage and bringing them into the rooms. Some things are brought in only to be taken out again. Other items are moved from place to place until they find a home.

Still other possessions have been discarded or given away.

They no longer fit – on many levels – the way my family lives.

For many of us, by decorating our homes we use furniture, fabric and accessories to write the story of a room. Then, like a good editor, we go back and take away. We cut out what isn’t needed or what doesn’t quite fit.

What’s left is the essence of how we want to live.

This week in Home

When Paul and Beth Viren want to revisit their courtship, they don’t have to go far. They just have to look at the walls around them.

For decades, the couple have lived in the big Tudor house they used to stroll by when they were dating and dreamed of living in one day.

The story of their commitment to one another and the place that shelters them – with the decorating and remodeling side-trips made along the way – is our cover story.

Easter bonnets and Earl Grey

You don’t have to put away your Sunday finery after Easter. Area tea rooms are perfect places for dressing up and digging into pastries and cups of fragrant tea.

Cindy Hval highlights two local establishments that are all about ladies who lunch and leaves you with a list of tea rooms in the neighborhood.

In this week’s issue of Home, from home remodeling projects that bring couples closer, to the legacy of a grandmother’s gift to a granddaughter, we’ve filled the pages with pretty pictures of interesting rooms. And each tells a different story.

Enjoy.