If I ask Google what constitutes a home, it will give me a sensible, factual explanation about where one lives; a permanent address. Yet leaving home at 18 for university and living somewhere new each year for almost a decade, I can’t agree. Not one of those places has been home.

For me, home is more than where I keep my belongings and where I lay down my head each night. It’s where I truly feel comfortable, among my family, usually with a dog or two at my feet. It’s where I forget myself completely and remember those innocent childhood days; it’s where I am pulled back to each time, as if by muscle memory. 

Three weeks ago, I married my best friend and something shifted. We celebrated with those closest to us in the garden of my childhood home, among the memories of the family we have loved and lost. But while that house will always have its place in my heart, my husband and I are now looking for somewhere to call our own. Our evenings have shifted from table plans to floor plans, as we scour the web and begin walking through new front doors until we find the one that will become ours. Where he will one day carry me across the threshold. Where we will bring home our own little four-legged, waggy-tailed friends. Where we will, we hope, one day start our own family. 

I’m sure I will still sometimes crave that reassuring comfort of my childhood home, but the prospect of creating our own is wonderfully exciting. We don’t doubt that it will at times be stressful, frustrating, even frightening. I might discover that my husband has terrible taste; he might think the same about mine. Yet despite the inevitable never-ending boxes, the painting aches and pains and endless headaches of solicitors and legal forms, we face the somewhat terrifying prospect of spending everything we have saved on a house and we relish it.

We may be buying walls, ceilings and floors, but to us they will become so very much more. They will become our own safe place, our comfort. Our new home will accompany us through the passage of our lives and perhaps, in years to come, it too will celebrate with us as we toast our children’s marriages under the stars. 

AH, London

Further information

What makes a house a home and why does it matter so much? Our new series, 'Moving Stories', inspired by Savills new advertising campaign, explores the complex relationship between home and home-owner with funny, sad and bittersweet reflections on moving out, moving in and moving on.

We invite you to submit your own Moving Stories and we will donate £50 to Dreams Come True for every one we publish on Savills UK Blog. We'll also make a donation for every story submitted for consideration.