"it takes a heap of living to make a house a home" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the poem \"A Heap o' Livin'\" (1916) by Edgar A. Guest.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "it takes a heap of living to make a house a home",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973, Government of Canada, House of Commons Debates, Official Report, Volume 3, p. 2476 (Google search result)",
          "text": "We often hear the famous lines quoted that it takes a heap of living to make a house a home, but we have to recognize that the family cannot do it without a house in which to start."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Carlton T. Mitchell, Values in Teaching and Professional Ethics, →ISBN, page 123:",
          "text": "It may take a heap of living to make a house a home, as the old cross-stitched samplers used to urge, but a commission-collecting realtor cannot deposit a six percent cut of a seller's hearth sentiments in a bank account.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Max L. Stackhouse, On Moral Business, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "Just as \"it takes a heap of living to make a house a home,\" and just as it takes character to turn an individual into a reliable person, so it takes sustained moral human interactions to make any institution viable.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A house is simply a physical structure and does not count as a home until significant events in the inhabitants' lives have occurred there over a substantial period of time, and they have developed an emotional bond to the house and its immediate environs."
      ],
      "id": "en-it_takes_a_heap_of_living_to_make_a_house_a_home-en-proverb-TdWHIr4b",
      "links": [
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "structure",
          "structure"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "emotional",
          "emotional"
        ],
        [
          "bond",
          "bond"
        ],
        [
          "environs",
          "environs"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US) A house is simply a physical structure and does not count as a home until significant events in the inhabitants' lives have occurred there over a substantial period of time, and they have developed an emotional bond to the house and its immediate environs."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "a house is not a home"
        },
        {
          "word": "home is where the heart is"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home"
        },
        {
          "word": "it takes a lot of living to make a house a home"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Edgar A. Guest"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "it takes a heap of living to make a house a home"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From the poem \"A Heap o' Livin'\" (1916) by Edgar A. Guest.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "it takes a heap of living to make a house a home",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "a house is not a home"
    },
    {
      "word": "home is where the heart is"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973, Government of Canada, House of Commons Debates, Official Report, Volume 3, p. 2476 (Google search result)",
          "text": "We often hear the famous lines quoted that it takes a heap of living to make a house a home, but we have to recognize that the family cannot do it without a house in which to start."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Carlton T. Mitchell, Values in Teaching and Professional Ethics, →ISBN, page 123:",
          "text": "It may take a heap of living to make a house a home, as the old cross-stitched samplers used to urge, but a commission-collecting realtor cannot deposit a six percent cut of a seller's hearth sentiments in a bank account.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Max L. Stackhouse, On Moral Business, →ISBN, page 28:",
          "text": "Just as \"it takes a heap of living to make a house a home,\" and just as it takes character to turn an individual into a reliable person, so it takes sustained moral human interactions to make any institution viable.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A house is simply a physical structure and does not count as a home until significant events in the inhabitants' lives have occurred there over a substantial period of time, and they have developed an emotional bond to the house and its immediate environs."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "structure",
          "structure"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "emotional",
          "emotional"
        ],
        [
          "bond",
          "bond"
        ],
        [
          "environs",
          "environs"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US) A house is simply a physical structure and does not count as a home until significant events in the inhabitants' lives have occurred there over a substantial period of time, and they have developed an emotional bond to the house and its immediate environs."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Edgar A. Guest"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home"
    },
    {
      "word": "it takes a lot of living to make a house a home"
    }
  ],
  "word": "it takes a heap of living to make a house a home"
}