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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:
AdoraBell · 14/01/2019 11:47

Council flat where I was born is rented to council tenants.House that my parents bought then I was in secondary school was sold during their divorce before I finished secondary school.

Family home doesn’t really apply to me, if that makes sense.

Justamemory · 14/01/2019 11:47

My parents sold their house to the next-door neighbour who have since knocked it through to create one big house. Other than rebuilding a shed it looks well-looked after.
They have even kept wooden house sign my grandad made. I was so pleased they kept it although slightly modified to reflect the fact its now one house and no longer two.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 14/01/2019 11:48

Didn't really have a long-term one. My folks moved a lot, including twice after retirement. Longest they stayed anywhere was 9 years but moved again - not just house, but area - when I was 18.
We had to clear the final house for selling after my mother had to move to a dementia care home - money needed to pay the fees.

It's not nice - a lot of stuff you'd like to keep, but nobody has room for it all - so you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it.

During her last years my mother often wanted to go to her old family home to see her parents. There was no earthly point in telling her they'd been dead 30 and 50 years and the house had long been demolished for 6 new ones on the plot.
I'd just tell her I couldn't take her today (for x,y,z reason), but 'Maybe we could go tomorrow?'
Always kept her reasonably happy for the moment.

HRTpatch · 14/01/2019 11:49

Still there...have been back to have a look round as I know the people who bought it when dad died. I was born there in 1960.
It now has central heating and a modern bathroom Smile

MaverickSnoopy · 14/01/2019 11:49

My parents still live there. I am very attached to the house and it looks just the same as when I grew up there, which is probably why I'm so attached to it. Equally it needs quite a bit of work doing to it.

I want to buy my sibling out of the house when my parents die. She wants the money and not the house. I would look after my parents in their old age to avoid care home fees. However, it might all be a pipe dream and actually I do wonder if it would be very hard to live there with my parents deceased. My aunt and uncle moved into my aunts parents house and completely renovated it. It's stunning.

Severide08 · 14/01/2019 11:50

totallyzonkedout Flowers sorry for the loss of your dad. It is a emotional experience clearing your family home out .Me and my DS did ours and it was heartbreaking.

Jaxhog · 14/01/2019 11:50

Mine was sold years ago. The current owners have modernised the kitchen drastically. It so needed it, but I still remember my dad starting to remove a beam only to discover it was structural! He had us standing on chairs holding it up while he found a large wooden prop. It's gone now.

We had glass all around the stairs, which was absolutely amazing. That's gone too. Shame.

Sarahlou63 · 14/01/2019 11:50

My parents built their house when they married, 60+ years ago. When they go (and when I've cleared 60+ years of -junk- treasures it will be demolished as the land is much more valuable as building plots. I really like the idea that no one else will live in that house.

DustyMaiden · 14/01/2019 11:52

I own my Mils house, I let it, I was going to modernise it but the lady I let it to loved it as it was. Reminded her of her family home.
There are things around the garden that my D.C. loved. The lady looks after them and gives us updates. I love to visit and see her DCs wellingtons lined up at the back door like my DDs used to.

WhatHaveIFound · 14/01/2019 11:53

My parents moved to a bigger house in a better area when my sister and i moved out Confused

I have just checked on Google and our former family home is still there though the front garden has been tarmaced (for parking) and the back garden is fully block paved. Obviously the current owners don't like gardening. And they seem to have converted the garage to a garden room too.

StillMe1 · 14/01/2019 11:53

I live in the family home. In some ways it is nice and continuing the family history. Other times I feel crowded by the memories of those who are no longer here.

scarbados · 14/01/2019 11:55

The last 2 homes my parents lived in were never my home so I lost 'my' family home in 1979. The 2 homes I lived in are still there - the one I moved into at 10 still looks the same apart from the 'new' dormer window in the back badroom. The first one hadn't changed at all when I last saw it.

TheSconeOfStone · 14/01/2019 11:55

Didn't have one. Army brat. Was in house number 4 by the time I started reception. So envious of people with a home to return to.

RB68 · 14/01/2019 11:55

the first home (till age of 8) is still very much the same although I suspect inside it has at least had proper central heating installed (lets hope) but looks much the same

The second home went about 8 yrs ago and has been remodeled inside and a conservatory I think will have to check but last time I looked it was a try hard 60s conversion to 2010 fashion...didn't work well in my view

cragfastsheep · 14/01/2019 11:55

Our family home was sold when my parents divorced when we were all in our teens. Didn't think anything of it until I saw it for sale about 10 years ago, looked it up and saw that the new people had done all the things my parents would have loved to do but could never afford (beautiful new kitchen, extension and restoring some of the really old bits which were 300 years old). Made me feel quite sad that it never looked like that when we lived there - it was pretty big which meant it was freezing all the time and when things went wrong like the roof being replaced it cost a fortune and stressed my parents out no end.
The new people ripped down our old treehouse though, so they obviously had no taste!

TheOrigFV45 · 14/01/2019 11:56

It got re-possessed but thankfully got bought by someone who has given it a huge amount of love. I haven't been back since the sad days, but I've looked at it on goggle earth, and in fact the owner runs a business from home there which makes use of the land and it's been featured in a newspaper.

Subtlecheese · 14/01/2019 11:56

Don't know don't care.

whatstheplanphil · 14/01/2019 11:57

I bought mine when my lovely Dad died in 2010. It was left to my brother and I so I got a mortgage and bought my brother out.

We are now in the process of selling up (hopefully moving within the next few weeks) as we need to move nearer school/work etc. It's been a happy home but time to move on, it'll be sad on the day as so many happy memories attached to this house but it's the right time for us.

MelanieCheeks · 14/01/2019 12:00

Gosh, I have no real emotional attachment to any of the houses I grew up in! But fond memories nonetheless.

House 1: No longer there. I loved my triangular shaped bedroom (end of terrace)
House 2: No idea what it's like now, but it was a Victorian terrace.
House 3: Been turned into flats
House 4: still there, garden looks good.
House 5: where parents now live, and which they inherited from grandparents. It's really not fit for purpose. We are trying to persuade them to move to somewhere with no stairs. It'll be a job to clear all the stuff that's in the house, but I don't really have a strong attachment to it. It's in a University catchment, so will probably be turned into flats.

RB68 · 14/01/2019 12:01

Just had a look at no 1 house and whilst house hasn't changed donkey field out back now has "executive homes" which is sad

InTheseShoesIDontThinkSo · 14/01/2019 12:04

Currently living in my family home with my DD and soon to be ex-H. Our Mum and departed Dad bought it 52 years ago...

Looks very much like my family will lose it as part of the separation, which is heartbreaking. Any tips on how to move on and start anew, anyone???

Zinnia · 14/01/2019 12:04

15 years ago my mum sold the house she and my dad bought when they married after he died, she remarried and moved areas. The people who bought it pretended they were going to bring up their family there but in fact redeveloped it and sold it on. Last month I finally plucked up the courage to look it up on Rightmove and it's absolutely hideous (ripped out original 1920s parquet floor, put down laminate. Downlighters everywhere etc etc). They extended it considerably and removed every iota of charm in the process. It did need updating but the way they did it was awful. Still a bit traumatised and thankful my mum doesn't use the internet as she'd be devastated! Glad I took loads of photos before my mum left so can satisfy my own kids' curiosity as they weren't born when it was sold.

RB68 · 14/01/2019 12:06

house no2 def extended out the back but front has stayed the same

MrsJayy · 14/01/2019 12:06

I grew up in a council house which my parents still live in so it will be handed back to the LA when the time comes

BigDamnHero · 14/01/2019 12:07

It burnt down!

Luckily, all of the family who were living there at the time made it out safely (the fire started at night when they were all in bed).

I'm back in the same area now and keep meaning to drive there to see what's been built in its place...

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