What Do You Remember About Your Grandparents House?

[RabbitsRock]

This popped up on Facebook & I thought it was rather lovely - I have wonderful memories of my maternal grandparents house & my paternal.
When DBro & I were little, we were lucky enough to live close to both sets of Grandparents. I remember the garden at my paternal Grandparents house the most. Beautiful flowers including a bed of stunning cornflowers. And at the end of the garden, over the low wall, was the most beautiful meadow. It really was like something out of an American movie, complete with a white picket fence & horses. I also remember sitting on the stairs & being so thrilled that I could hear my brother talking to me from a little cupboard in the outside passage. Oh & I remember the bureau where Grandpa kept his big bar of Dairy Milk. I also found some Pan books of horror stories & gave myself nightmares!
My maternal Grandparents first house was lovely, with high ceilings & big windows. I remember the old fashioned radiogram in the dining room where we spent most of our time. We would have those mini Kellogg’s cereals whilst listening to radio 4. I remember the comforting sound the pantry door made & I could see Sally’s lead & bags of biscuits inside. Sally was a very cute fox terrier. I remember all the bedrooms, especially the cosy one at the back of the house with the airing cupboard. The biggest bedroom at the front had a magical cupboard full of dressing up clothes & hats. My Grandma used to be in old tyme music hall so I could try on all her costumes. I get my love of music from her. I remember practising my scales on her piano & my Aunty got fed up & asked me to play something else! I also remember a beautiful music box inlaid with pearls, from Israel I think. That was one of the things I wish I could have had after my Grandparents died.

*hot Ribena

I loved staying at my grandparents' house :) I remember the lovely soft, snuggly bed with a big dip in the middle that my sister and I shared. Later we learned it had been our father's. There was a wonderful wardrobe with little wooden/glass compartments, smelling of mothballs. I loved to play shop in that. I actually bought a small Mock Orange bush two weekends ago from the local nursery because it smelled exactly the same as that wardrobe with its mothballs :) Nana had a yummy sweet tin filled with toffees of various sorts. I inherited it when she died. The garden was great, with a lovely apple tree and a greenhouse full of tomatoes. There was a pantry too, and Papa had a well-organised shed with his tools and gardening stuff. I don't actually remember it ever raining there ❤️

Oh, and how did I forget the gramophone and piano! Nana's house was my favourite place.

Maternal grandparents, the smell of polish…..proper old fashioned tinned solid polish I think.

My mum and I lived with her parents for a while. Sundays I would sit and watch The Waltons, with tears pouring down my face every week, why my Granny cooked lunch.

The woodblock floor in the hall was slightly loose, and would click-clack as I ran along it.

The wallpaper in my bedroom was the textured stuff that you paint, and looked like lots of bubbles, or maybe frogspawn. I used to wake up early, put on the Phantom of the Opera cast recording in my Walkman, and lie in bed pushing the air out of the bubbles.

I was reminiscing about this with one of my sisters and cousins at the w/e.

I only knew my paternal granny and she died in 1976 when I was 12. She lived in a two up two down Victorian cottage although it was detached. It sold about ten years ago and was so unrecognisable I had to check the floor plan!

• front room had shelves and shelves of books and a stuffed parrot in a cage (obvs)
• back room had another wall of books
• a clock like a cathedral with a distinctive tick
• open fire with a toasting fork which we were allowed to use
• round dining table next to the window with a bottomless teapot
• homemade fruit cake
• a pantry off the back room
• a kitchen (of sorts) with a big copper, a small range cooker, a bath with a board over it as a work top
• outside toilet - my dad was a scenic artist and at some point he'd painted a scene of a winding lane on the inside of the door
• gorgeous cottage garden with different "rooms"

Mostly I remember the smell of my Grandmother's house and my Grandmother. She had the most wonderful pheremones (sp?) of anyone I ever met and if I could bottle that scent I would. And then there was her greenhouse - the smell of tomato plants in the heat and rows up rows of cactus plants. Ah, bless her.

Last year I visited the village where one of my grandparents lived until her death, around 25 years ago. Much of the main street and indeed her street looked the same, apart from her house which the current owners had butchered and looked just awful.

I try to remember it as it was.

Maternal grandparents lived a long way from us so we only saw them a couple of times a year. I remember the house smelling of my grandfather's cigars and they had an old Roses chocolate tin full of pencil crayons that they would bring out and we'd draw and colour for ages. Granny would give us tiny glasses of orange juice to drink which felt so sophisticated!

Their bathroom suite was bright pink and they had lavender scented hand soap.

My grandfather loved his garden and had lots of (hideous) garden gnomes that we used to look at for ages.

My paternal grandparents lived about a 40 minute drive from us so we saw them more often. They had a rocking chair in the living room that my brother and sister and I took turns sitting in and rocking back and forth. They had an aquarium with tropical fish that we would sit and watch for what felt like hours. Like my maternal grandparents, they also smoked so the house smelled of stale smoke which is horrible looking back but felt totally normal and almost comforting at the time!

Going for walks with my grandad to see his pigs in The garden. My gran feeding the guard dogs all the scraps.

climbing the tamarind trees and eating on the roof until I threw up and my sick was purple.

digging holes with sticks by the fences with my cousins.

cooking breakfast outside on the bbq and baked dumplings. I miss them

This thread is pure nostalgia and wonderful memories, I adored all my grandparents and can take myself back to each room in their homes and conjure up the feeling of being there, this thread is making me very emotional, thank you op, happy times never forgotten

I moved a lot as a child and my paternal grandparents’ home was my safe haven and visited during the holidays.They lived on Epsom Downs with racing stables backing onto their property and I remember peering through the trees to see the horses being exercised.
Going to the fairground on the Downs and the excitement of the Derby.
The Bernie Inn serving prawn cocktail or a glass of orange juice as a starter.
Standing on the ‘nosey Parker’ step to talk to their neighbours over the fence, who I called Auntie and Uncle.
Home made clothes as Grandma had been a streamstress.
Being taken to a toy shop up the road where the owner wore brown overalls and always remembered me.
the sound of their clocks chiming.
Such happy memories- I felt really loved 🥰

I don't remember much about the house itself except that it was a small council house. My Granny had 10 children and the boys slept in one bedroom and the girls slept in the other. My grandparents slept in the parlour, although my grandfather died before my parents got married, so I never met him. There was a sitting room with a tiny kitchenette and they eventually built a proper kitchen onto the back of the house. They had a dog called Rover. The toilet had a chain for flushing. My youngest aunt and uncle still lived at home, so we'd chat to them as well as my Granny when we called in. We'd get a soft drink and biscuits or a bar which was a lovely treat. At Christmas we'd play games with them. Sometimes my aunt would get ready to go out with her boyfriend (now my uncle) and I thought she looked ever so glamorous. I never stayed overnight with them.

Maternal GPs had a large semi with a big garden whereGC would be sent to pick beans and raspberries. The dogs slept outside but were always fed first and if it was cold could be found in front of the Aga. There was a mangle in the scullery and no central heating but always a roaring fire and upstairs a huge hot press where baby GC were set to sleep. Beds were made to military standards with all the GC helping in the morning including emptying the pots!
Paternal GPs had a small typical 1920s semi on a long street in a midlands city. The front door was never used to my knowledge and nor was the 'front room'. The back door opened into the kitchen which had a cooker, sink and little table. There was also a pantry but no fridge. The only warmth was the open fire on the back room which was where all indoor activities took place. The stairs were very steep and at night I slept with my GM under a huge pile of eiderdowns. The other bedroom had been my DDad's with his DB and was somewhat Spartan . They had an inside bathroom upstairs with one of those electric wall heaters.the rectangular garden had a narrow path down the middle, a small shed and narrow tidy borders.

Never went there, it's four and a half hours' drive from where I was born and my grandmother died when I was three. After that it was my grandfather and drunken uncle living there, so I doubt my mother would have wanted to go, let alone persuade my father to drive (this was in the 60s).

Paternal gran ~ tenement 2 bed flat where she raised 9 kids when her dh died young from cancer. I remember a high cistern and chain in the loo, a huge glass fronted side board displaying all her beloved mismatched nik nacs that we carefully played with. Huge sash windows we used to hang out of (3 floors up!). Everything was old and very worn, mended but loved and immaculately clean. Electric stove she used to light her cigarettes on. She always wore a tabard apron and played silly games with us.

Maternal gran - posh house (not really, council house but nicely and fashionably furnished compared to us). A cordless phone with big aerial you had to pull up when you answered it. Big hall cupboard with lots of crates of ginger from the Alpine man and we were allowed as much as we wanted which was a huge treat for us. Constantly offered M&S cakes and sweets. Big obsese labrador and the biggest obese cat I have ever seen (gran was skinny!). Not allowed to play with or touch anything and always bored.

It would have been my granny’s birthday today, it’s 21 years since she died, this thread has had me reminiscing about every inch of her house. I remember it so well and have some of her furniture here in my house now. One of the reasons we bought our house was that it reminded me of the house my grandparents lived in when I was young. I still miss her! Thanks for prompting some bittersweet memories OP 🥲

My paternal grandparents lived in a beautiful white cottage in South Wales.
I remember the creak of the black wrought iron gate and running to the front door through a sea of pansies.
There was a magical path winding up the steep garden. My gran made it from pebbles and seashells. At the top of the garden there was a hidden bit containing a bird bath, a sundial and a wee white bench where I would laze away the summer afternoons listening to the buzz of the bees on the lavender plants.
I remember that the stairs inside had pink carpet and beautiful gold metal stair rods. There were always Mr Kipling's apple pies to eat and my grandpa made me fried bacon and fried potatoes with cocoa to drink.
My bed was very high and creaky and there were many Agatha Christie books in my bedroom, all of which I read.
The internal doors were white and had black old fashioned handles, the type with a latch that you pushed down.
There was an outside toilet and a big coal shed. Wonderful memories but it feels really poignant thinking back to those happy times, particularly as my parents are now extremely elderly and won't be around for much longer either.

The "best" room.
We were never allowrd in it!

My grandparents had a bungalow and a cold room with a marble slab in it always lovely to stand in there on a hot day. Their kitchen weighing scales had interchangeable multi sizes old brass weights one end and a flat end you could put dry food on and try and balance it, I would play at being an old style shop keeper and weigh things out. They saved lots of empty packets I could fill up then twizzle up the corners and ‘charge’ my ‘ customers’. My mum had an adding machine that served as a till . Happy, innocent days. That will be 5p 😊

Same. I miss her everyday.

Nothing but happy happy memories. My granddad died six months before I was born but my nan was the most incredible woman, in fact she has been dead 49 years now and I still call her the only person that never let me down.

She had a lovely home with a large garden split into 3 sections one with a swing in one part was vegetables and another a lawn with a rose garden. The house didnt have a bathroom just a downstairs toilet. There was what she called a scullery and a kitchen where most of the living was done and two best rooms. I never saw a mess it was always clean and tidy.

I always said I would love to buy that house if I could but I have now seen interior pictures and it is nothing like it was it has been knocked about and remodelled and the garden is just strange that too has been remodelled and a mock bridge and stream built into it amongst other things. So I wouldnt want it now but I still look at and think my beloved nan lived behind those walls, walked through that gateway / window etc

Both my granddads died before I was born,and my maternal GM died when I was barely 4 years old so I only have very hazy memories of her. My paternal GM died when I was nearly 8,(this was in 1971) so she's the one I remember most about. My dad used to go and visit her most Sundays,and would usually take me with him. It was a short tube train ride away,and I can remember she lived in a tiny terraced house. You literally walked in from the pavement into the lounge,or 'best room' as my gran called it. I remember there being a piano in there,which I was never allowed to touch (much to my frustration!),a dark red fluffy rug which I seemed to sink into up to my ankles and a rocking chair. We'd sit in the back room,or 'parlour' as it was known. I can remember she had a little green budgie called Dinky,which got on my dad's nerves because it never stopped twittering 😂 The parlour led directly onto a narrow flight of stairs which led up to a tiny landing,with a box room and the master bedroom leading off it.

Downstairs,the kitchen was absolutely tiny,like a galley kitchen,long and narrow, leading out into a small garden. There was no inside bathroom,baths were taken in a tin tub in the kitchen,and the toilet was just outside the back door. 😯 I remember that I liked my gran a lot,she was a kindly soul and always bought me nice presents back from when she went on holiday. She seemed incredibly old to me though. Bearing in mind she was 68 when she died,when I was visiting her she would have been in her mid 60s,but in all honesty,seemed more like someone in their 80s.

The smell of lavender pledge and roast dinner when I opened the porch door. The sound of my grandma's slippers on the carpet as she came up the hall to open the door. Always being warm, clean and cosy.

My maternal grandfather died in 1968 when my older brother was two months old, leaving our Nan who lived until 1997. She lived in a two up (i.e. two bedrooms) two down (parlour ((front room)) and back room) terraced house, although one of her two sons had later had a kitchen and bathroom built on. I used to visit often, remember the small porch with the bottles of Alpine soft drinks, that would be delivered by a van. Cream soda, lemon and lime, dandelion and burdock.

The front room had cupboard doors painted in orange and white, and I remember a blue/white portable record player, the sort that folded up like a carry case, like a Dansette, though not necessarily that make. Plus a photo of my grandad with his banjo, as well as photos of Nan and Grandad at their wedding in 1937.

The front room wasn't used much in everyday life, though, we mainly sat in the back room when visiting. I used to marvel at how Nan, Grandad, my mum and her two elder brothers all used to fit around this little drop leaf table, in this small room, for meal times, but they did.

As I've said, the kitchen was built on later, before that any cooking was done on the range in the back room. It opened out onto a tiny backyard, now of course even smaller since the kitchen had been built out into it. This was the days when there was a back door opening onto the entry, where you still put your (round, metal) bin out for the binmen to collect on bin days.

The stairs were fully enclosed, and very steep. I remember having to virtually haul myself up them as a little girl. I also remember my Nan had a pulley to hang clothes on (I have two myself now, such space savers). Also one of those old fashioned wooden radio/wireless set ups on the sideboard; I've no idea if it still worked.

I remember that in the bathroom there was this old, rusting tin, that was labelled "Genuine Mother of Pearl". It had some liquid plus whatever, presumably the "pearl" in it. My uncle, who had worked at sea as a ship radio officer, had brought it back, god knows when. I never knew it to be opened to see if there really were a pearl inside it! 🤷‍♀️

Upstairs I remember my Nan's bedroom had this electric fire with surround that included bookshelves with her Mills and Boon books on them. Plus the Sacred Heart and Our Lady pictures on the wall, and the odd copy of the Catholic Herald lying about.

Next door was the room were my uncles slept when they were boys (my mum slept in a curtained off corner in her parents' bedroom). By the time I was visiting, it just had a big, old fashioned wardrobe and a spring bed in, which I used to sleep in when I visited Nan overnight. It overlooked the back yard, whereas Nan's bedroom overlooked the street.

As a teenager, when I argued with my parents, I'd often fling a few things in a bag and storm out to get the train to my Nan's, five stations down the line, where I'd stay overnight. It gave me some breathing space, my parents knew I was safe, and Nan was calm, wise, and reassuring. We bonded over cups of tea, Consulate Menthol cigarettes that I cadged from her, and Jimmy Cagney films shown on BBC2 in the afternoons. I still miss her.