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Original poster

What happened to your old family home?

153 replies

MissCromwellatKingscote · 14/01/2019 11:00

My mum still lives in mine, but a few friends have had the sad job in recent years of having to sell the house they grew up in.

I'm just wondering what happened to your old family home? Has it been sold on a few times? Has it been changed drastically from how your parents used to have it etc.

OP posts:
PenCreed · 14/01/2019 11:24

Sold ten years ago because my parents couldn’t manage the stairs any more. Outside it’s mostly unchanged but they took out the rose bushes in the front garden that were there when my parents bought the house in 1970. That made me a bit sad. No idea what they’ve done inside - I don’t imagine there was much that could be done apart from cosmetically.

JoeLycettsSparklyArmSling · 14/01/2019 11:24

My mum and I moved to a 2 flat when I was 18 after my siblings all moved out and the house we grew up in was bought as a doer upper (it was a mess) and from previously having a nosey on rightmove looks nice and totally unrecognisable from the house I remember.

I was sadder about my grandparents houses being emptied out and sold.

Osirus · 14/01/2019 11:25

I own mine. I bought it from my mum, who bought a smaller property not far away in the same village. I’ve never lived anywhere else.

It’s boring but the house is perfect, in the perfect location.

Merryoldgoat · 14/01/2019 11:25

Never really had one.

Echobelly · 14/01/2019 11:26

My parents were in the same house from when I was 3 until when I was 31. I pass it quite a lot, as they moved just 5 mins away from it, I think sold to a family. From what I can tell from glimpses of inside as I pass by they've had a mid-market interior designer in as it looks all white, silver, grey and symmetrical lamps on fireplace (that latter I think is a sure sign of a mid-market interior designer)

I don't think they've changed the layout, as I've not seen evidence of building work. You could extend into the loft or out to the back in theory but it is a very big house already (my parents added an extension that added about 25% more floorspace), so not really necessary unless you had a massive family.

haggisaggis · 14/01/2019 11:30

Mine is now a funeral home. The saddest bit is that the garden which my parents loved and tended well is now very overgrown.

Satsumaeater · 14/01/2019 11:30

We moved a lot too although all in the same area after returning from living overseas when I was 3, so all the local house moves were between when I was 3 and 16. My mum still lives in the area but in a different village. One of the houses we lived in was sold about 3 years ago and the details were on rightmove - quite a lot hadn't changed including the pampas bathroom!

The house I lived in from 11-16 has never been sold so I assume the same people live in it unless they rented it out. It is down a small close of houses so I never drive past it but have driven past a couple of the others.

But my MIL still lives in the same house she has lived in for virtually all her married life, DH didn't live anywhere else until he went to university.

Friendsupport · 14/01/2019 11:31

My mother still lives there. It was in fact my dad's childhood home so has been in the family for a long time

BadlyAgedMemes · 14/01/2019 11:31

DP sold the house when they retired, and had inherited another, smaller house from my DGP, into which they moved.

The person now living my childhood house happens to be an eager gardener and keeps a gardening blog, which I stumbled upon a while ago. They have young kids, and from the blog is sounds like they really love the house and garden, and have done a lot to keep it up and make it even nicer. I like thinking that there's a new family there, and new kids growing up under the same big trees I used to climb. :)

Whitney168 · 14/01/2019 11:33

Same as Osirus, I bought mine when Mum (eventually!) agreed to downsize after years of fighting with far too big a house and garden.

AnnabelleLecter · 14/01/2019 11:33

It's a listed building so restrictions on what can be done. Dps are still there but it's not practical for old people and they seem to love clutter. I have no attachment to the place, it always felt too small and my DPS taste in decor is miles away from mine.

tilder · 14/01/2019 11:34

It's weird revisiting a house with so many memories. My childhood home was sold in the 90s. Will never go back as it's too far. A friend who still lives there sent me estate agent details a while ago. There was absolutely nothing familiar about it. Changed beyond recognition.

I have no sadness over lost plants as dm dug up half the garden before she left!

DontCallMeCharlotte · 14/01/2019 11:36

After my dad died, my mum had to sell and move into sheltered accommodation. She sold it to a very dear family friend (and it was less of a wrench) but at a ridiculously low price. Not sure whose fault that was...

They did a lot of work on it and it looked pretty smart but I go past it occasionally and I presume it's been sold on a couple of times since then as it's looking a bit scruffy now.

Actually I've just looked on Rightmove at the details from when it was last sold and they'd done a lovely job of it and the garden looks beautiful.

On Rightmove (again), the ground floor of my grandmother's tiny cottage has been remodelled so comprehensively, I can't actually figure out which end is which!

CatWhisker · 14/01/2019 11:38

My parents still live in it. I don't think I'd feel sad if they moved as I have a lot of unhappy memories growing up there.

gogogoforit · 14/01/2019 11:39

I grew up in an old Edwardian house that was very affordable when my parents bought it, because houses like that were seen as undesirable and old fashioned. When they sold it fairly recently old houses were hugely popular again and it was worth crazy money.

A couple with more money than taste bought it and have apparently ripped out most of the original features, and made the entire ground floor open plan with an extremely modern white and steel kitchen. They have replaced the lovely old front door with one that is completely out of keeping with the other houses on the road and turned the lovely old rambling garden into a large barbecue space and patio at one end and a very manicured lawn with a wishing well at the other.
I know it's their house now and they can do what they like, but I can't understand why they didn't just buy a big modern house Sad

SuziQ10 · 14/01/2019 11:40

Not my parents' home but my grandparent's lovely home, which we all got together at regularly for celebrations / Xmas etc. It's a big house so when all my cousins and I were little we'd have big sleep overs and lots of fun there. Lots of memories.

The house has been rented out over the last few years, to families and more recently to Masters students studying at the London unis. Just recently though, the renters turned out to be friends of the family (by chance!) and the young family that had moved in grew up as next door neighbours to my auntie and cousins in another city. My two cousins were invited round for a NYE party a few weeks ago. They reported back that the house looked very nice, very nice atmosphere and children living there. It's so nice to hear it's a happy family home again. As it should be.

It will be sold in a few years time, until then I hope these renters will stay.

steppemum · 14/01/2019 11:42

wow, I don't have a 'family home' liek you describe.

We moved house frequently, and my parents have moved on a couple of times since I left home.
Where they are is home, always has been.

Fortunately, each time they move they have a masisve clear out, and last time they downsized, so got rid of an attic and a barn full!

I don't have an attachment ot one house, or even one town/village.

Busybusybust · 14/01/2019 11:43

Mine downsized and moved to a small house in the same village,

The people who bought it (40-odd years ago) atill live there.

diddl · 14/01/2019 11:44

Sold to pay care home fees.

But bought by a family to live in after bringing it up to date, so that's nice.
(It was wanted by buiders to turn into 4 flatsSad)

MrsBandersnatch · 14/01/2019 11:44

My family lived in 4 different houses before I got married and left.
All council houses. The first one was knocked down years ago in a slum clearance program. I've driven past one of them since, when I've been back in my home city. It looks different, smaller.
I feel no real connection to it. Well, maybe a bit but nothing that tugs the heartstrings.
I live 200 miles south of it now.

Sparklesocks · 14/01/2019 11:45

My parents divorced when I was 20 and my dad bought out mum’s half of the house, she moved out. I was at university, my brother and sister still lived at home with him.
They moved out a few years later and my dad was alone in a 4 bed detached house. It was too big for him, too much work to clean and do upkeep etc and he worked long hours so it felt like all his free time was spent on chores.
We (myself and my siblings) kept telling him to sell and downsize but he didn’t for years. I think he felt very attached to it, and the memories it held as his kids grew up there, and I think partly hadn’t really dealt with his divorce from my mum. He said something once about this was ‘not meant’ to be how his life went.

Eventually he realised the memories were his whether he lived there or not, and his life was different now and life means things change. He sold up, downsized to a small terraced house and met a new woman. He’s now very happy.

I’m glad he let go. Also seeing him clinging to the house for so long meant I didn’t really feel sad when he sold it, even though it was my childhood home. I didn’t feel attached to it anymore because I was relieved and happy my dad was able to move on.

totallyzonkedout · 14/01/2019 11:46

I'm clearing out my old family home as my lovely dad has passed away.

Totally distressing for lots of reasons, upset over my dad being one of them but also of bad memories as I had a totally unhappy childhood there due to my abusive mother.

Neighbours keep asking me if we will move in - nope not a hope but impossible to explain to them why!

DarlingNikita · 14/01/2019 11:47

We moved three or four times when I was a child, and my parents are now divorced, so no one lives in a house I spent any time in growing up. I've therefore got zero emotional attachment to either of their houses. I still feel very nostalgic for our first house, which I remember only vaguely as we moved when I was about four; but it was a Victorian schoolhouse and I clearly remember a lovely walled garden and some kind of stove in the kitchen that was always warm. I always wish we'd stayed there actually.

Severide08 · 14/01/2019 11:47

My DF sold his just before he passed away after an illness .Had been in the family for a long time but it had got too much for him and he moved to a smaller ,rented property. It was brought as a modernisation project.I see it regulary so whilst i was gutted to see it go it will also be nice to see possibly another family grow up in it .Once done up it will make a lovely home .

oh4forkssake · 14/01/2019 11:47

We had two family homes. The first my parents sold in 1988 and still has the same family living in it.They updated it about 25 years ago but I don't think it's changed much since.

Our real family home, which is where I lived all through my teenage years was sold about 10 years ago. The family who bought it updated it, moved out and let it, and are now back in it. A friend has been in it, as her kids were at a birthday party there when it was let, and said it isn't as nice as it was when it was our house Grin.

My father's family home was bought and gutted (in fairness, my grandparents had done no updating since it was built in 1950 and it was sold in 1998), but it's changed beyond all recognition and that makes me sad. Particularly, as a PP said, the garden. It was my grandmother's pride and joy....and beautiful.

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