I love design because I have a passion for shape and form and light and texture and history and nature and human experience. But so does every real artist and architect and designer. The reason I focus my passions specifically on custom homes—even more than wanting to fill the world with art and beauty, and I do want to fill the world with art and beauty—the real reason is I want to do my little part to fill the world with custom people.
I love authentic people. I try to fill my life with authentic people. I’d like to be one myself one day. To me, “home” is ultimately nothing more and nothing less than a metaphor for the place where your truest self lives.
TS Elliot once wrote, “Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.”
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the rest of nature doesn’t seems to have a problem with clearing that bar. But as it turns out, human beings have a pretty damn hard time with authenticity. One side of us is always longing to be a true individual but the other side wants to be embraced by the group. And that’s not a bad thing either, but it tempts us along the way to embrace and conform to a lot of stories that, if we were to be completely, utterly, painfully honest with ourselves, are not stories that fit our truest selves.
We all want to be ourself, but more importantly, we all want to be loved for being ourself. And the hard truth is, if you take the risk to become your real self, not everyone will love you. But some will. And this I know for sure, if you risk becoming the custom authentic you that you were made to be, and you keep at it, you will find your tribe.
It’s a lifelong process. Like Neil, I’m five decades into this adventure and I’m still divesting myself of stories that have stuck and clung to me like the threads of a spider web I walk through in the dark.
And if you’ve also begun the tedious work of pulling off those webs, keep at it. It’s hard work but the prize in the end is you. The big beautiful real you.
TS Elliot also said, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
To arrive where we started. That place he’s talking about is home.
Thomas Wolf said we can never go home again, but I don’t think that’s true. I think home is the only place we’re all trying to find, and the only place worth finding. Home is finding a place in this life for your most fully developed, most custom, most authentic self.
And if I can contribute in even a small way as a kind of muse to inspire you to give an authentic life a try, and if you’re ok with that, then for me home is whenever I’m with you. And we’ll keep at it. Step by step. Brick by brick. Doing our best to build ourselves a beautiful life.