You may have read before how tortured I feel when my housekeeper moves things around the house. Why does she move things that are perfectly placed; or why did she place a discarded gift bow on a sculpture? Is it a joke or a social commentary on my desire to live a perfectly poised life? I know I have written about this once or twice before. However, sometimes the things you despise the most have a way of endearing themselves to you. Take for example when my dog takes to beating me to the bed and claims my side, or when a certain aunt must hit the share button everytime I post something on Facebook. But I digress — back to interior design.

A house's primary task is to shelter us from the environment. They are also meant to hold our personal belongings. Houses are also meant to protect us and collect us into groups such as family, friends or roommates. Although houses are innately inanimate, they do tend to lay the groundwork for relationships or savoir vivre. In this regard it is clear to see that houses, in whichever form, from apartment to townhome to chalet, all are cleverly deciding how we interact.

Architecture is a very powerful medium or language that a dwelling uses to engage us and our relationships. The way a floor plan is laid out can either unite a group of persons in a house or disperse throughout. The windows and doorways can allow light to flow through the home or restrict it, which can affect our moods. It is possible to enhance someone's mood with a good dosage of daylight and create an atmosphere of gloominess in a space that has little or no access to natural light. All houses are obviously not perfect, but rest assured that someone's hand or vision is at play in every built home, whether the architecture seems thought out or not.

It has taken me nearly a half-century to realize that houses possess power over all relationships under a roof. Sometimes architectural spaces are able to make us relax such as a sleeping porch or balcony overlooking a beautiful view, and there are other spaces such as great rooms that although well intentioned, create anxiety and chaos when used by more than two household members because of the incompatibility of uses.

A good lesson to be learned is the Japanese aesthetic outlook of "wabi-sabi" which is to embrace imperfection and find beauty in the things that are transient and not considered complete. In this vein, one acknowledges that a house is a living organism that is meant to change everytime we use or occupy it. Our acceptance and celebration of good traits our house may posses is what makes the difference between a house and a home. A house is much more than we may believe. It is the stage for our lives, and it interacts with us almost like a member of the family.

Joseph Pubillones is the owner of Joseph Pubillones Interiors, an award-winning interior design firm based in Palm Beach, Fla. To find out more about Joseph Pubillones, or to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.