Brendan & Lori O'Gara

My family is known to be different. We have been called weird and that does not bother us. They are looking at us through the lens of traditional conventions of the American family. 

In some ways, we look like everyone else. We are married with children. We live in a middle-class neighborhood. That is about where it stops being normal.

Walk-in our home and you will be confronted with walls of bookshelves. Some units bought in a store and others my husband made. You will see my Doctor Who collection right next to a large print of Jesus on the cross. The latter usually make people cringe. We have a kitchen, but no dining room. We have a library, not a living room where the one television we own is located. I don’t have to worry about my children putting their feet on the sofa. I don’t have to worry about using coasters and water rings on wood from wet glasses. All the things my mother, grandmothers and all the traditional housewives of the past few decades stressed about is gone from my life.

Our house has what rooms most American houses may have, except one. We do not have a dining room.

We have an Omni Room. (My husband called it.) The room has a large table and we do eat meals there. It is a game room, hobby room, schoolroom, workroom, and a party room.

We are looking to buy a house with an open floor plan so that we can expand the concept of using rooms for need not traditional separations of space. The exception is, of course, bathrooms and bedrooms. Those are private areas.Even in the private areas we have already told our children that their space is just that, theirs.

Think about the space that you live in and how you can make it your own. Toss out tradition and make it comfy for you and your family. Fill it with what makes you happy.

If visitors don’t like it you can toss them out the door.