Living quarters: guest blog by Blair Roddan

Thinking back, I often think of where I have lived at different stages of my life.

I moved out of my mother's house when I was 20. She'd started charging me rent! Her reasoning at the time was that she would not have a two-bedroom apartment if it wasn't for me living there. At my age then I really didn't understand, but that was her logic. Being kind of rebellious at the time, I went out and searched for an apartment. I found a "bachelor pad"--one big room with a bathroom, refrigerator, hot plate and a closet. What else could a single guy want? I created the illusion of extra space by placing a couple of concrete blocks and running wooden slats above them as a room 'divider,' which also had the added advantage of sort of hiding my bed and providing a little 'storage' area.

After about a year in the 'bachelor pad' a good friend of mine wanted to cohabitate, and I upgraded to a one-bedroom in the same apartment building. After all, I could afford it since I had another person to share the rent. It was there that I built a sofa and my roomate made cushions for it. Neither of us were rich, but we always made do and were proud of our efforts. Alas, we each went out separate ways.

So it was on to another 'bachelor pad', this one in Santa Monica. My dear friends Bunky and Elda were managers of an apartment building there and suggested that I move in. It was slightly more spacious than 'bachelor pad' No. 1, and had two entrances. I was on cloud nine!

In 1979 I moved to Las Vegas and rented a one bedroom apartment. It wasn't fancy, but adequate. Although it had a pool, I never swam in it. 

In 1981 I had met a couple that owned a duplex. They had a one bedrooom available for rent and I grabbed it. It seemed so spacious and private. When I got married in 1983 I carried my bride over the threshold there. But certain circumstances arose and we had to move. We opted for a new apartment complex that was in the process of being built. We could check out the progress daily. That was a lot of fun for my wife and I. When we finally moved in it was terrific. We were the first ones to ever live in our unit!

We lived there for only a few months, I'm sorry to say. The company I was working for transferred me to Orem, Utah. We rented a nice two bedroom condo there. Our son was born soon after, but we only spent a couple of months in Orem as I was quickly transferred back to Las Vegas.

Back in Las Vegas we rented a two bedroom apartment for awhile, since we'd started a family.

As I remember it, 1986 was the year we bought our first home. It was small, though well laid-out. Total square footage was 955. We lived in this house for 9 years. But our son was growing by leaps and bounds and soon it was time to move once again.

So we bought a two-story home that seemed like a mansion to us: three bedrooms with 2 1/2 baths. It had a few faults that we thought we could overcome. After 4 years there, we found we couldn't overcome them and decided to look for another house that we could call home.

We looked at many properties with our real estate agent. Our house had sold quickly so we were under some intense pressure to find something. The minutes I walked through the front door of the house we eventually bought I could see the three of us living there. My wife was at work at the time and I called her to say, "I think I've found the house of our dreams." The owners accepted our offer and here we are, 18 years later!

A house is just a structure, isn't it? It's the individuals living in it that make it a home. Wherever we've lived my dear wife has always been able to make a special familty atmosphere.

Please take stock of your living arrangements. Ask yourself, 'is it just a house or is it a home?' It's a home if it's where you feel your heart wants to and should be; it's a place if you can't remember it at all or if your memory of it is indistinct or if you have no memory of it at all.

It was fun for me to recall the places I've lived since I left home so many years ago. What a wonderful, moving, emotional trip it's been. I invite you to go home-by-home through all the places you've lived in and discover what you think and feel about each place now.