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The Perfectly Imperfect House

This past week, my dog Hudson and I stayed at a little house on several acres of land about 40 minutes east of Lake Michigan in a small town called Newaygo. The listing called it quiet, private, and spacious.

*Exactly* what we wanted.

And before you go thinking this is one of my posts about false advertising or marketing gone wrong (ha!), I’ll just say the house was great and we had a wonderful time.

Why on earth, then, would I write a blog post about it? I’ll tell you.

The house was built by the person who rented it to us, and I could tell from the photos that this was a house built from the heart. It features an open layout with a loft, and my dog Hudson loved sitting at the top of the stairs and “keeping an eye out,” like so:

imperfect house

However, one thing I could not tell from the photos that I came to equally appreciate about this house is how perfectly imperfect it is.

The railings that line the stairs meet in a very haphazard way.

The boards that run along the bedroom ceiling have many gaps.

The homemade sliding lock on the front door is sticky, and you have to learn how to pull the door inward just so for it to move.

The kitchen light dims a touch whenever you turn on the kitchen faucet.

The side walls up in the loft are wholly unfinished, as though the builder got tired near the end and called it “Good Enough!”

And that is why I’m writing a blog post about this house today.

How many of us obsess over some undefined idea of perfection when we could have simply called it “Good Enough!” and moved on? This house, I think, can teach us a thing or two about how little perfection matters when creating a thing.

After all, these quirky imperfections became one of my favorite things about the house. Like a mistake on a quilt your mother made you or a missed note by a trumpet player on your favorite album, these imperfections make a creation all the more real and even more endearing.

So the next time I find myself obsessing over some notion of perfection (that doesn’t exist by the way), I’m going to remember this house’s quirky touches – the sticky lock and the unfinished walls – and say, “Good Enough!”

Won’t you join me?

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Meet Janelle

Janelle Reichman, web designer in Ann Arbor Michigan

Janelle is a blogger, web designer, WordPress queen, dog mama, singer-songwriter, guitarist, Michigander, and lover of life. Read her story...

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