House Lessons: Renovating a Life

I purchased House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister as a gift for an architecture buff but became intrigued by it myself. My suspicions proved correct: it's a good story, and I quickly became invested. The author details how she fell in love with an old home in the Pacific Northwest, then engagingly describes the long process of its renovation. Woven into her tale is the story of her life as she enters new seasons and discerns her next steps. 

Just as I did with Nancy Drew mysteries when I was eight, I found myself slipping away to read House Lessons. Bauermeister's prose is relaxing; her approach to telling of her love for a dilapidated, historic property in Washington State is so lyrical and fascinating that it left me always eager for the rest of the story. I was surprised that the seemingly straightforward subject of renovating a house could have so many layers.

The tale charmed me, provoking new ways of thinking about home, place, family, and how we carve out a life in this world. Bauermeister also educated me, frequently pausing the story for intriguing tangents on related topics. Her segues into various aspects and theories of renovation and architecture – chimneys, foundations, space, design, hearths, etc. – pepper the book, offering thoughtful and moving analyses of the things we live with every day but often overlook. 

Bauermeister isn't afraid to delve into diverse subjects like marriage, hoarding, ivy, orchards, or even the things people hide in walls. Comparing her marriage to renovation at one point, she wisely notes, "There were things we needed to change, but how to accomplish that without destroying what we had would be tricky." (43) And her humor shines through in unexpected places, like when she details the items they found while cleaning out the previous owner's belongings. As her family tackled the filthiest area of their newly-acquired home, she says, "I had entered some kind of new and surreal ecosystem, an alternative chain of being: the thing, the box it came in, the remains of what it made, the remains of the thing that ate the remains” (62)

And yet, despite her disgust and revulsion at the previous owner's detritus, she loves the house. She loves it so much she wants to save it.

In the months before I read the book, I had updated a portion of my tired, older home. After suffering the incumbent stresses, costs, and interruptions inherent to construction, I sympathized with the author's renovation journey. But her deeper themes of creating a home and life that reflect the soul's needs and desires resonated even more. I also felt moved by the poignant illustrations of the passage of time scattered throughout the book, especially as they related to her children growing older.

Maybe books, like houses, beckon to us on levels beneath the surface of our consciousness. Perhaps I felt especially drawn to House Lessons because I read it during the pandemic, a season in which I have spent an excessive amount of time at home, and which also marks the last days of children living full-time under my roof. Bauermeister's gentle writing inspired me to contemplate life and the role this home, the place where I have raised my children, has played in mine. 

By the story's end, I felt that I had a better understanding of why my house has become like a well-loved family member. Because, as Bauermeister wisely noted, "Houses are made of wood and glass, but they are also made of the events that happen within them."

Bauermeister, Erica. (2020). House Lessons: Renovating a Life. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books.