As Father John would say prior to drinking wine, 'You have to build a base!' Otherwise your 'house' could fall down.
Used interchangeably for a home, a house is somewhat different. A house is anywhere people live that you would not classify as a family home. So, a house can be anything from a frat house ona college campus to a Penthouse sweet owned by an A-lister Actor or Actress. They are however not homes.
A mechanical version of a house is concrete, wood, drywall, maybe a sprinkler system and absolutely a hot tub. But it is not a home.
so building a house in December is relatively easy, you add in the extra costs to hoard it off, using gas heaters and plastic tarps so your concrete can dry. And it is business as usual. Keep calm and carry on.
Leaving home as a young person, may surprise you that, nobody is immune to stepping into the space that roommates exist and not find it somewhat discomforting.
There are some fun times and shenanigans, like forgetting to mow the lawn for 3 months and then asking the next door neighbour to borrow his mower. We broke it. Or winning a fridge full of beer and everyone being so happy we now have 2 fridges between 6 people. Then losing a weeks worth of groceries because it was not a functional fridge, it barely kept beer cold.
Then finding a girl on vacation from Design school and wanting only to spend time with her for some reason. Then landing in a hospital for a break down. Then watching her graduate. and then losing her Grandfather. Then trying to get better enough to break up with her only to be told pooh pooh. You'll be fine.
First apartment, second apartment, first owned condo, first home. But from that time we were together - it was always a home. Kids, school days, sports and horseback riding lessons. A blur to grown kids.
Who deserves such grace? No human I know. We all fall down and when someone you love is missing from that home, it makes a hollow hole in your heart. So how do you build a house? Don't know, don't care. A home, in your heart this Christmas is so that that hole in our hearts doesn't destroy the world with cynicism and maliciousness.