Build Your Dream Life

It was a Saturday night in early November, and my house was hopping. In the kitchen, the women were sampling my wife’s famous Kahlúa cheesecake. On the patio, the men gathered around the fire pit, drinking beer and telling dirty jokes. The kids were in the family room, a dozen of them, immersed in an hour-long couch-cushion fight.

As I stood watching all of this, I couldn’t help but think: How did I end up here?

Only a few years earlier, my wife and I were living in a small apartment in the New York City suburbs. Our kitchen could accommodate two people, hip to hip. We had no outside space. Our nearest friend lived 45 minutes away. Not that any of this mattered: We had 1-hour commutes and a 2-month-old daughter, so cooking and socializing weren’t even on our to-do lists.

Then Men’s Health called and offered me a job. The decision was a no-brainer: Yes! We’d have to leave our beloved New York behind, but because the job was based in affordable eastern Pennsylvania, we’d finally be able to buy a house. My wife really wanted our kids to have a backyard, and I really wanted a stainless-steel kitchen. We’d long assumed we’d never have either. A month later, we had both.

Looking back, I hardly recognize the man I was before the move. A few of the changes have been monumental: We have a second daughter, for example. But most have been small: I can grill a salmon eight different ways. I can hang a chandelier in minutes. I’ve built a swing set for my kids, erected fiberglass architectural columns in the bedroom for my wife, and constructed a wine rack for myself (just in time for the 2005 Bordeaux’s, too). I also have more friends—close friends—than I’ve ever had in my life. I am fundamentally a different person, and my home has been the catalyst. It’s quite literally made me a better man.

I hope Men’s Health Living can do the same for you. Our mission is to give you the tools you need to seize control of your home and make it work better for you, whether you live in a farmhouse in the country, a colonial in the suburbs, or a studio in the city.

It’s worth remembering, especially in tough economic times, that the American Dream has always been about much more than owning a home. It’s also about positioning yourself to engage your passions. When James Truslow Adams coined the term in 1931, he defined it as pursuing a life that’s “better and richer and fuller.”

Since moving into our new house, my life has become all three. And, yes, it does feel like a dream come true.