Ed’s letter: A home is never finished and that’s just fine.

You’ll never get your home finished. My mother said this to me when I was in my late 20s, with a new house and big plans. I’d been telling her about my schemes for a new fireplace and for landscaping the garden.

“After we’ve finished those things, we’ll be done,” I said.

But Mum shook her head. “You never get your home all done,” she said. I was miffed. Nick and I had a clear vision for our place. We had good jobs and lots of energy. Of course we’d get it finished.

Then, a few months later, I got pregnant. We needed a new nursery; the landscaping would have to wait. Then there was baby number two: along came fish tanks and kittens, and endless different hobbies. The to-do list kept changing, but it never went away.

And this, I have discovered in my time at NZ House & Garden, is normal. The homeowners we feature may be making spaces tailored to one phase of their lives – but they are also thinking ahead to the next phase.

In this issue, for example, there are Ian and Emma Lee, who used splashes of bold colour to create a great casual family home with a shared bedroom for their two little kids in Auckland’s Belmont (page 94). And at Lake Rotoma, Mark Bruce renovated a fabulous mid-century bach as a summer gathering place for his university-aged sons (page 32).

Both places are beautiful, and they are evolving. As the Bruce boys spend less time at Lake Rotoma, Mark is creating a workshop and living there in between business trips. At the Lee home, the kids are growing fast, and their parents are already thinking of their next reno: a verandah and an extra room.

Mum was right. Our homes never get finished, because no matter how hard we push ahead with changes to our living spaces, our lives change faster. But what she didn’t say – or perhaps I just didn’t understand – was that finishing is not the point. Perfection doesn’t happen. The pleasure is in the happy times along the way, and in the process itself, of making a home.

In Belmont, Ian and Emma Lee are cooking up a Malaysian and Italian storm in their new kitchen – and loving the layout and the bright tiles. Never mind that the tight space means guests perch on the back of the sofa to chat to them while they cook.

“The difference between a house and home is what you put into it, the choices you make [to] transform it into something more personal,” Ian says. “That’s the difference.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.