These words identify any kind of shelter that serves as the residence of a person, family, or household. House lacks the associated meanings attributed to home, a term that suggests comfort, peace, love, and family ties. It may be said that what a builder erects is a house which, when lived in, becomes a home. Such a statement may be considered sentimental, echoing the lines of Edgar A. Guest ("It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home"). Sentiment or not, one usually speaks of "buying a home" and "selling a house." But firemen put out a fire in a house, not a home, and reference is always made to a "house and lot," not a "home and lot." Conversely, one usually refers to a "home for the aged," not a "house for the aged." Since home and house are so subtly differentiated in use, why not sometimes resort to residence and dwelling and save confusion?
Dictionary of problem words and expressions. Harry Shaw. 1975.