A few years ago, we moved from Scarborough to Waterloo. Like most people, we imagined finding the perfect home—the kind where you step inside and immediately hear a choir of angels singing.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, we spent weeks wandering through houses that tested our patience and our ability to fake enthusiasm. Some were too small, some felt like they were stuck in the 1970s, and some had that special mystery smell that made us leave faster than we entered.

After a month, exhaustion kicked in. We stopped looking for a dream home and started looking for a house that simply had walls and a roof and didn’t make us question our life choices. Eventually, we settled on one—not because it was The One, but because at that point, it was A One, and that was enough.

At first, it was just a house. The kitchen felt too cramped, the backyard had an old wooden dock that looked like it was one strong wind away from collapsing, and the floors had seen more history than a museum. The lighting was so dim, we weren’t sure if the previous owners were running a home or a secret detective agency.

So, we did what all homeowners eventually do: we tore things apart.

We redesigned the kitchen, so it actually made sense.
We added more washrooms because waiting in line in your own house is a special kind of suffering.
We ripped out the backyard’s wooden dock before nature did it for us and poured concrete—because solid ground is underrated.
We replaced the floors, painted the walls, and switched to LEDs, because why live in a house when you can live in an energy-efficient, well-lit masterpiece?

And somewhere in all that destruction and rebuilding, this house became our dream home.

Not because it started that way. Not because it was perfect when we bought it. But because we made it ours.

Life rarely hands you things in their final, beautiful form. The job, the relationships, the plans—everything starts as something and turns into something else. And if you stick around long enough, if you put in the work, if you throw in a few good laughs along the way, what once felt like just a house becomes the place where your life happens.

Because dreams aren’t always found. Sometimes, they are built.