I’ve lived in some remarkable houses, most of them characters in their own right. The house I’m in today could double as an art gallery — canvases of clouds and seascapes splash across the walls, nautical charts point the way upstairs. One of my housemates is an artist-engineer, and his functional-modular woodworking hangs from the ceilings and lights our stairwell. Our home is filled with beautiful things I can’t make or imagine on my own, and I love it for that — together, our collective gifts hang in balance.