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Really bizarre list but does anyone dearly miss childhood home after parents sold it

56 replies

Ghosts2020 · 30/10/2020 03:18

I lived in my main childhood home from around 6 to 16, I was actually the one who encourage us to move due to space it was an ex council ect, however despite myself being in my early to mid 30's now I am incredibly and perpetually sad by the sale of our old house, I adore my parents and siblings current house but I really miss my home if anyone understands how I feel. I have suffered grief before and it is honestly how I feel, I have felt like this since a few months after the sale, almost regret

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Ghosts2020 · 30/10/2020 03:18

Early to mid 20's sorry **

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Toddlerteaplease · 30/10/2020 03:41

My parents keep talking about selling. They bought it off plan when they were married in 1977. And it was a very happy home. It doesn't feel so much like home any more though as they have very few of the things we had as children. But I'm still not sure how I feel about them selling it.

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Ghosts2020 · 30/10/2020 03:45

@toddlerteaplease I understand, I have multiple siblings and was fed up with space so pushed us moving and actually picked out their current house, but I for some reason get really upset about our old house, I don't k ow if it's because our cat went missing before moving and I entered the old house a month after moving to get our cat back and was thrown by the immediate and not really needed changes, I've felt sad ever since

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Toddlerteaplease · 30/10/2020 03:49

I find it really odd that they paid £8000 for it, and it's now worth over £200k

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Ghosts2020 · 30/10/2020 03:59

@toddlerteaplease have you considered buying it, I really want to buy and sell not far into the future and I want to buy and let my parents old house and my grandparents current house x

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Phoenixrising2020 · 30/10/2020 04:04

The home I grew up in was the silent member of the family. I miss it dreadfully. It was sold so quickly and there were major upheavals around that point.... I am still grieving for it.

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tearinyourhand · 30/10/2020 04:14

My mother lives in ours, and will do until she dies (or is unable to live alone any more). I don't feel any particular sentimental attachment to the house because I always disliked it, despite having had a happy childhood there. But I know that a couple of my siblings will be devastated when the time comes that we have to sell the house.

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Nomnomarrgh · 30/10/2020 07:38

Not my house, but my grandparent’s house. There was a family tree in the basement and the ceiling if the attic was painted in a funky style by my uncle. When they sold it, it was really hard, especially when they told us all the changes the new owner was going to make.

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chomalungma · 30/10/2020 08:06

We moved around a lot so Grandma's house was the mainstay - it was part of my life for nearly 50 years.

I was upset when they painted over the height markers they'd done as we all grew up!!

I still go back to the village and can see the house. But eventually, I got over it.

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Punkpumpkin · 30/10/2020 09:18

I was sad when my parents sold our childhood home - more than I expected to be really. However I don’t really think about it any more - helps that they completely relocated so I don’t ever go to near the old house anymore.

They also moved in to a different family house - when they sell that it might be strange, it’s been in the family for 3 generations now. I keep teasing DH that it’s nearly our turn to buy it!

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icecream2965 · 30/10/2020 09:18

After my parents divorced and sold it, developers moved in. The next door neighbour sold their house to developers for twice the amount and I assume the new owners did the same.

It's down a cul de sac and now the end of the cul de sac is a block of flats. All the other houses are the same, some of the neighbours are still there. I find it wierd to go back and I always want to go and look at the end of the fence by the trees as that was the end of our garden and where I buried our pet mouse (!) with a little cardboard-sellotaped tombstone (!) when I was 7.

DF find it sad especially as he put a lot into the garden. DM is just gutted we sold then and didn't get rich Hmm

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Valkadin · 30/10/2020 09:23

The house I lived in from 6 to 18 was not a happy home but my goodness it was a beautiful house. It has been converted in to five flats now, it was a a huge very early Victorian town house a little like the one on Upstairs downstairs. I don’t feel sad, that house cost about 5k when my Mother bought it and those flats are now around 200k each.

I know MIL is devastated with what happened to her family home. It was for sale a couple of years ago so she looked online and all the oak lined rooms were gone and the place looked like someone with too much money but really horrible taste had been let loose.

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RatherBeInBed · 30/10/2020 09:36

Yes I miss mine now, although when I lived there I didn't think much of it!

My parents sold it very hastily when they divorced (I had moved out but only just). The person who bought it has given it a complete makeover and it was listed again for sale recently so I could see the interior. They have totally changed the layout so I couldn't even tell which room used to be which.

It feels a bit sad that the house I grew up in has been 'erased' - I don't think I would mind so much if it was the same house redecorated, but it's the fact that you literally couldn't tell it was the same house, garden, driveway, everything! I feel sad about the garden too because it's huge and was a bit overgrown with a lot of trees, but we loved playing hide and seek and all sorts of games there, and now it is just a plain soulless lawn with no plants at all.

I also find it sad that there is no family home anymore, so my siblings and I can't all stay with either of my parents as they live individually in small houses. Obviously divorce happens but I am a bit jealous of friends who can still go and stay at their family home e.g at Christmas time.

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FraughtwithGin · 30/10/2020 09:40

No. We sold our family home last year after our last parent died. I spent some time there before and after the funeral, including dealing with estate agent and making sure things were tidy and clean for viewing etc. Even though I was sleeping in "my" room I felt no huge ties.
The house appeared much smaller than I remembered and felt "empty" now that everyone was gone, so it was easy to dispose of it.
It is a shame that I no longer have any reason to visit that location any more, but if I did there are friends or hotels.

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elQuintoConyo · 30/10/2020 09:52

We moved around A LOT, so for me it was both sets of grandparents' houses and an aunt's house. They were the constants of my childhood and I clinged to the familiarity. The GPs houses were both council, my aunt's tied to her husband's job, so they'll never be on Rightmove, which I'm glad about as I'd only sneak a look and be sad!

Our 9yo is on his third house! He doesn't seem to be too attached so far to any of them. We're in the same town, same school, same friends so I think that makes a difference. I was a forces child so when we moved, everything changed.

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Kolo · 30/10/2020 09:55

I inherited my old family home, along with my brother, recently. I don't know what to do with it. It's a terrible investment, is 80miles from where I now live, but I feel like I can't part with it. Similar to PPs, my parents bought this house off plan when there were married ('71) and I lived in it for my entire childhood. It feels like there's too much of this house wrapped up in my childhood to let it go.

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mylittleyumyum · 30/10/2020 09:57

I sold the home that belonged to my Gran, then my mum, then was passed to me. My youngest daughter was born in the room my gran passed away in.

I lived in the house from 6 til I moved out, and then visited to stay with my mum for many years after that until she died. I moved back in, but due to my husband's work commitments it wasn't feasible to stay.

I regret selling it with every fibre of my being. Whenever we are in the area we drive past, glad to see the lovely family who bought it are clearly loving it.

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CMOTDibbler · 30/10/2020 10:04

I sold my parents house (bought in 1967 before they married) last month after their deaths.
I'm so happy that it will be a family home again, and the people who have bought it will be doing a massive amount of work to it, and making it into an amazing house which is great.
Its not somewhere I've lived full time for 30 years, and not for more than a couple of nights for 25, so I don't have any attachment to it

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caringcarer · 30/10/2020 10:11

When my Mum died we had to.hibe notice on the house she rented from council since my older sister was born. I lived in that house all of my life until I went to uni and later married. I still thought of it as home even after I bought my own house. My Mum spend years making the prettiest garden. I live 150 miles away but my sister told me new tenants have ripped out garden and put horrible concrete slabs down. I can't bare to go back and see. My sister said she wishes she had never walked past that way as it depressed her.

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Dogsaresomucheasier · 30/10/2020 10:22

My in-laws occasionally talk about downsizing, and everyone makes polite, encouraging noises about doing whatever is right for them, but, in private, many members of the family are very upset by the prospect.

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Sewsosew · 30/10/2020 10:24

DH wanted to keep the family home when his mother died. He had this great idea we could keep it as a holiday home. It was a terrible idea. It’s in the middle of the city, it had multiple issues (including mould because MIL didn’t believe in opening windows). Honestly I hated it. It smelled. Luckily he saw sense (especially as it’s in a really high council tax band).
Unfortunately it also meant he brought lots of stuff from it into our small home, which we don’t need or want and clutters the place up instead.

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Emmapeeler2 · 30/10/2020 10:40

I will feel the same about my family home but in truth it aleady has a different feel since my Dad died. My parents bought in in 77.

There is a good book about this theme by Tessa Hadley, I think it's called The Past.

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Toddlerteaplease · 30/10/2020 10:43

@Ghosts2020 no. It's far to big and in the wrong city!

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SingleHandSue · 30/10/2020 11:05

My childhood home was lovely. A large council house with a huge garden my parents were able to buy after an inheritance. It most definitely wasn’t perfect (think The Royle Family in style) but it was homely and welcoming.

Shortly after my dad died my mum was diagnosed with cancer. She struggled to afford the bills on such a large house so decided to sell up and rent somewhere with the profits so she’d have peace of mind if anything went wrong on the house.

It was most definitely the right decision for her but we were all so sad to say goodbye to that house. We drive past regularly and I get choked up every time I look at it.

I wish we’d have been in a position to help her keep it.

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Dinosauratemydaffodils · 30/10/2020 11:06

My grandmother's house. My dad was in the military so I spent my childhood being dragged around Europe. Her house was the stability and sense of home I didn't have anywhere else. I was heartbroken when she downsized.

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