Your Old Home

[Julie-Ann]

Have you ever gone back and checked out your old home?
We sold our last home 6 years ago. We had spent 9 years there renovating inside and out. I was quite the gardener then and created a beautiful cottage garden out the front and a forest of small trees out the back.
Mr16 loves to drive past when we are in the suburb. I hate it, just the front garden alone was ripped out and looks a mess. My DH went to pick up a letter 6 months after selling the house. He said they removed all the trees from the back garden:eek:. I would hate to see what it looked like inside.

Have you ever gone back? How did you feel seeing someone else's things in your home?

Thank goodness our old home didn't look this bad.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab86/jamhind/oldhouse.jpg

[Lanne]

I am pleased i am not the only ones. Our family home was sold to a developer (they bought 4 in a row). It was gutted and 'renovated' for a quick sale. DISASTER. We went through as prospective purchases and I nearly cried. All the original features were ripped out and dodgey second hand kitchen installed. Weird and wonderful addtions from tennants who had been in place in the mean time etc. Horrible. Now there is a 6 foot high fence and you can barely see in. I can't even really show my son the house due to the fence.

Times change. I figure we live in a new house and so the landscape has changed to accommodate us. You sell it and have to let it go. But you do get to keep the memories. I now photograph each house before we pack to move, so I can keep a clear record of how we lived there.

[Freogirl]

We moved interstate from our first family home and we drive past every time we head home for a holiday. It has changed very little and still has the picket fence that my husband built nearly 15 yrs ago, he congratulates himself every time on what a great job he did building it ! They have even kept the exact paint colours we had. The only distressing part is how much the value has increased since we sold it!

[Susie]

We have moved a fair few times, and lived in various countries. I cant now go thru as a prospective purchaser, but i can have alook via Google Earth and see how the garden and outside is doing.

Our first house in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, was a 100 year old victorian 3 strorey house and we gutted and renovated it. Stripped all the floors and skirting boards, redecorated, well wallpapered every room and re made the bathroom completely.

The chap who purchased from us, was an interior decorator and had been in lots of mags, he continued where we had left off and added the furnishings that actually suited the house. We sold about 7 years back and i do pop back every so often thru google earth to check it hasnt been pulled down.

I also check out estate agents on line to see if its up for sale, then i will be able to see the inside again.

We lived there for over 18 years and my grandmother owned it before we did, she bought it in the early 1970s and absolutely loved it. One of my houses that I do miss.:)

[Julie-Ann]

Bumping this one up today. I would love to hear your experiences on going back to old homes:)

[yvette72]

yes i have we moved to qld from nsw around 6 years ago now, we when back to sydney for a hoildays just a few months ago and yes we checked out all our pervious homes all 5 of them.

[Julie-Ann]

Were they very different Yvette? Were you disappointed or glad you went back and saw them?

[stormy]

The one and only house I grew up in as a child has been demolished (Mum and Dad built 2 units on the land, kept the front one as their 'city base' and sold the back one. The first house I bought has been demolished too, to make way for the bigger house we built last year!

I'm not very nomadic, am I!!

[Julie-Ann]

There seems to be a pattern here Stormy - you leave destruction in your path lol:D. It must be nice to know that there is a very good chance you are going to be in the same house for ages. At least then you can feel comfortable investing in things like solar power.

[yvette72]

julie-ann our first home was a total wreck it has been rented since we sold it over 20 years ago now.the second home we renvoted the new owners rip everything out as soon as everything was finalsed which is ashame had new carpets new kitchen etc.they did all this to rent it.more money then cents i think.the other looked ok.The last home we had before moving to qld looked much the same from what we could see but its on the top of a hill all by itself so hard to tell really.it was my favourite really was two storey overllooked all the houses in the area and had views of the blue mountains,a million dollar view as they say.also had a in ground pool.It looked like a manison due to the ground had a 1200sqm block ,no was not dissopinted to have a look,also went back and looked at the first house i lived in as a baby in summer hill nsw in sydney well about 4kms from sydney itself