This Geeky House: An Introduction

About three years ago, GeekMom Ariane wrote an article detailing how she was able to integrate her geeky passions into her new home. I suspect this topic is very much of interest to our readers, it certainly is to me! Whether you are attempting to make a home more inspired by your favorite fandom, or you have a house that is already inspired by its own architecture (like mine, which I will show you later in this column), our homes are our sanctuaries and should reflect who we are and what we love.

I was so excited by this concept, and by my own project, that I have committed to visiting it regularly. While there are many props, art, and more that very literally exhibit our most beloved parts of geek culture, I am also very interested in how these passions can be integrated into a home in a more subtle way. Every month, I’ll visit the homes of other geeks, or share some of the great pieces I find to make your home more geeky! This month, we’ll start with my own project.

When my husband and I saw this house, we fell in love. Architecturally, it is a combination of Tudor, Normandy, and Storybook elements. It is on a hill, surrounded by trees and gardens. It was our dream home, our forever home. It was with a lot of gumption, however, that we took on what will be a long restoration project. This house needs a lot of work, that will take us years to complete, but as my son put it, “it feels like we live in Middle Earth!”

This is the sort of house that already feels geeky. My goal will be to play into that and be playful without it feeling like an amusement park. When we first moved in, my daughter thought the turret in front looked like Rapunzel’s tower and thought we should put a braid out the window. A trip to the craft store, a little help with the braiding, and she put together a beautiful homage to the lady with the long hair. Our geeky love of fairytales ended up connecting us to our neighbors, who loved what we had done, and it connected us with strangers whose delightful gasps when they would spot the braid gave us such pleasure. In fact, one family left us a note expressing their joy and gratitude upon spying it on one of their walks and that note resulted in a new friendship for both adults and kids! We geeks find each other!

We are currently tackling foundation and roofing, the sort of projects that are less sparkle but essential. Years of deferred maintenance have us starting with the basics. Because those larger projects require expertise, I personally started with learning how to restore the beautiful hardware. I am also learning to repair plaster by the traditional method! My kids are very interested in researching the appropriate landscapes, and have started designing their own medieval knot garden, that centers around a fountain they found that looks suspiciously like the Goblet of Fire. To our dismay, all the lighting was stripped from the house before it was sold, so we have had to meticulously research and find pieces that are appropriate. Fortunately, most of the architectural details were left intact, and I am looking forward to getting to the creative projects! Our goal is to maintain it’s historical integrity while adding our own geeky touch.

Our family feels like this house has magic. The family who grew up in this house over the course of almost 50 years clearly loved it from the correspondence we have had with them. Then, a cool thing happened recently—a lady in her 80s named Molly showed up on our doorstep and asked to visit our house. Her family lived here during WWII and she told me all about living in this area during that time, what was different about the house (not much!), and promised to send us any pictures she can find. It was so special to hear her stories and see the affection she still carried for this home! I am thinking about gathering all these stories and historical notes into a scrap book of sorts that can live with the house for as long as it stands.

No matter your fandom, no matter your style of house, our homes are the spaces that should reflect us, that should make us happy. I am really looking forward to exploring the myriad of ways we can create our dream geek spaces. Feel free to send us pictures of how you have made your home more geeky!

Home Sweet Geeky Home!

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