If I had enough money to buy either a house or a business, I’d buy a house. A business may succeed or fail. It’s also possible I might change my mind about what I wanted to do in business. However, a home is a lifetime gift to myself.

Right now I’m in small apartment, with barely enough room for everything. All my furniture and things I’ve accumulated since I left college barely fit. I have almost no closet space left. This means my clothes are always wrinkled because they’re crushed together. I don’t have any place to put my cleaning supplies, nor room for more than one set of sheets and towels. A new house would mean a lot more room for all these things.

I love having plants around. It’s very healthy for the air inside and it’s cheerful to have living things growing in a room. I’d like to have a garden instead. That way I could grow a lot of different kinds of plants and flowers, and I could have a vegetable garden in the summer.

Besides having a garden, I’d like to have a backyard with lots of trees and a small fountain in the corner. I love watching birds and listening to them sing. On the windowsill of my apartment, I put out bird seed every morning. In the hot weather, I put out a shallow tin plate with water in it for birds. The trees and the fountain in my backyard would gibe me pleasure, but they’d really be for the birds. The trees would give them a place to nest, and the fountain would be a source of fresh water when it’s hot.

Can you picture my dream house? A business would only give me money. A house would give me someplace special to be myself.