It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home

Cultural  

1. A house is just a building until we have lived in it long enough for it to feel like “home,” a place intimately associated with life's trials and joys. This saying is from a poem by the twentieth-century American author Edgar A. Guest.

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Example Sentences

A much less elegant truism can be traced back to hokey versifier Edgar A. Guest: “It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.”

From Washington Post

Here is his best-known poem:  It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home, A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye lef' behind, An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind.

From Slate

Examples: Home It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home.

From Time Magazine Archive

Universal expected to feature Cinemactor Guest in a picture suggested by his most famed verse, "Home": It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home, A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam.

From Time Magazine Archive

It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home, A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye left behind, An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind.

From Project Gutenberg