When our house burnt down, we stayed in a rental for a year and a month. The house was very nice, with granite counters and hardwood floors, but it was sooo vanilla. It was like the designers made sure nothing in it would be unpleasant to anyone and therefore there was absolutely nothing memorable or interesting about the house. It was very nice, but totally blah.

When we rebuilt our home, I picked out every detail (my husband would've let the builder pick most of it out) because I wanted a house that was my own and was memorable.