I\u2019m feeling emotional after reading Regina Sirois<\/a>\u2018 interview answers. They are so genuine, written straight from her sweet heart, and her last three answers left me sitting sentimentally for some very long minutes. This is certainly a lovely home, friends, but this tour left me admiring so much more than the Sirois family furnishings. Please enjoy it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have an unconventional home because we have an unconventional life. (Don\u2019t we all?!) My husband is an artist who does visual special effects and computer animation, and I am novelist<\/a>. We both work from home with our two daughters who are four and nine. With all this togetherness (day after day after day) we need a home that we like to be in because we are always there! Together. Always.<\/p>\n After an exhaustive search for a house that would allow my husband a separate entrance and suitable place for a studio, we found our home driving past a For Sale By Owner sign. I went to look at it and immediately thought, \u201cBy Jove, I think we\u2019ve got it.\u201d I knew it was special when it met all of our business needs and had that amazing sun room that we call the art room. My children can work their creative hearts out and I never lose my kitchen table to sudden bouts of inspiration. My husband says to mention that there is a three-car garage and a built-in shed for the mower. That\u2019s what did it for him!<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if our style has a name. Definitely mid-century modern, but with an artistic and natural twist.<\/p>\n We are a rare case of husband and wife caring equally about home design. My husband hates anything fluffy, anything country. He is modern all the way. I add a touch of whimsy. I love natural, unexpected elements that have a hint of humor and happiness.<\/p>\n We never changed our style with children. My friends ask me how I can do glass tables with children. I just smile and say, \u201cI tell them not to break the glass tables.\u201d It\u2019s never been a huge issue. The only way children affected my style was to increase my creative outlets. There is nothing more fun than going to town on a kid\u2019s room. There are no limits.<\/p>\n I tell my children that the more things we have, the less we love our things. If they want a new toy I often make them pick a toy to give to a friend. I have issues with clutter. It makes it hard for me to work or be happy or even breathe when my environment is chaotic. When in doubt, I throw it away!<\/p>\n Also, don\u2019t waste money! Those kids are going to college. Decide what you want and watch for it on Craigslist and clearances. That is how we got almost everything we own.<\/p>\n I say that I want my home to look like a New York loft married a beach cottage and had a baby. I want elements of excitement and elements of tranquility. I am inspired by nature and industrial design. I like to put the best of man with the best of God and watch what happens.<\/p>\n When we buy a home, we look at it and dream as big as we can and say in a perfect world with an unlimited budget this house would look like\u2026 Then we form a detailed plan of furniture, flooring, colors and accents, and then don\u2019t do or buy anything outside of that plan. I\u2019d rather wait ten years for what I really want than buy a filler that distracts me from my grand plan.<\/p>\n You might be curious about the challenages of both my husband and I working from home. What challenges? I am typing this in complete peace and my children are not running in circles through my \u201coffice\u201d and dropping their pet rats on my shoulders. Did I mention I use sarcasm sometimes?<\/p>\n I work at a desk off of the kitchen, penning my novels in the very heart of the house so I am accessible. Sometimes too accessible. I try to work while my children are at school or otherwise engaged. My husband uses our basement as his studio, and thanks to sound proofing he doesn\u2019t even know what kind of trouble he\u2019s missing. What works for us is to be respectful. I never bother him during the day unless it is necessary. He tries to give me space when my keyboard is a clicking. And we both drop everything when our children need us. We decided a long time ago that we are in this life together, so we put our family first and our jobs second.<\/p>\n My favorite time of day is evening. I am either reading my girls a story in the \u201cboat room\u201d that belongs to my nine year old, or we are sitting in the sun room with the windows open to a breeze, waving to neighbors or painting pictures. My husband took the screen off our toy room window and we often sit on the roof of the sun room at night and watch the day go to sleep. That is my children\u2019s favorite place to be, and I think they might be right.<\/p>\n My favorite thing about living with kids is their heads! The smell of their clean hair when I press my face against the soft strands. I can\u2019t stop kissing my children\u2019s heads. They\u2019re used to it by now. If I don\u2019t grab their noggins and tell them they smell like sunshine, they feel confused. I love their voices and their hugs and the miracle of being loved so unconditionally and forgiven for my mistakes so completely. My daughters are my greatest treasure.<\/p>\n I also love that my four year old can\u2019t say the \u201cth\u201d sound. I know she\u2019ll figure it out eventually, but right now she has a \u201cfedder cowection\u201d instead of a feather collection and it makes me laugh out loud every time we talk about it. Now that I say that, it\u2019s the laughter. I will miss their laughter the most when they are gone.<\/p>\n I hope they will remember our home as a refuge where they are completely loved. I hope they remember our home as a beautiful place to be and play and dream. I love a clean house, but it cannot always be. There is brownie batter on my floor. There is spilled paint on my patio. There are grass clippings on my welcome mat.<\/p>\n I hope someday I walk into my daughters\u2019 homes and find just enough mess to prove they are enjoying life, and just enough organization to prove they\u2019ve got their lives together.<\/p>\n I wish I had known that my children would be my best friends and the women I most admire. I might have treated them with more tenderness and respect in those hideous moments of frustration that every mother faces. I wish I had known how much good I could do by resisting the need to punish and criticize and spending more time adoring them.<\/p>\n [ 6\/19\/12 Update: This just in! Regina won the Young Adult Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award<\/a> for 2012. That\u2019s a big deal! Go Regina!! ]<\/p>\n \u2014-<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/designmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/CRW_7066.jpg\")
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