Our House: A History

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Purchasing a house is a milestone in anyone’s financial and family
life. This album reaffirms the feelings that blossom with home ownership
and provides a structure within which to capture all the details of the
relationship.

Basically, Our House is a blank book with a built-in tour guide. The
homeowner is presented with spaces for adding photos, clippings, fabric
and color swatches, floor plan, financial and legal information,
observations, and notes. The difference between any off-the-shelf album
and Our House is that the latter prompts the process of documenting the
life of the house by providing divisions, ideas, specialized forms and
page layouts, quotes, anecdotes, facts, and even some light reading in
the form of essays that celebrate the house. These essays are by
well-known authors such as Alice Munro and Harry Bruce.

The album has designated sections for the history of the house, family
events, memories and milestones, plans and specifications, technical
systems (heat, hydro, etc.), physical details, improvements and
renovations, landscape plans, and financial records.

If entries are made with reasonable diligence, the album will become a
valuable reference for the homeowner, a wonderful piece of nostalgia
that improves with age, and a family heirloom.