Did you feel emotional about selling your house?

[PaperDoves]

Just wondering how other people feel about selling their home, really.

We sold our flat when we bought this house and I felt absolutely nothing except excitement about moving into our new home (to be fair, we were very crowded in our old flat). I didn't love this house then, it was missing all the period features and interesting architecture of our previous place. I didn't love the neighbourhood, either, which looked (and still looks) a bit shabby. But this house was big enough for us all and I figured it would be comfortable for five years until we found our "forever home".

Eight years later, I think this is my forever home. 😅 I can't explain why, but I love this house so much, and my husband is ready to upgrade and I'm completely resistant. It still lacks interesting period features, but it's cosy. The neighbourhood is still shabby, but we have the best neighbours. Maybe it's because I moved a lot throughout my childhood and early adulthood (these eight years are the longest I've ever lived in one place), but my attachment to this house is powerful and possibly irrational. My husband doesn't understand.

Do you love your current house, or is it just a place to live? Have you ever sold a house you absolutely loved? Is it weird to have a deep and abiding passion for brick walls and a roof?

For me it's the memories in holds.

My children grew up here, 30 plus years of Christmas, birthdays, all of it.

Plus plants in the garden given to me by late parents, for birthdays, cuttings dad did for me.

I'd love to move. Not sure I can though

I'm the same but I'm generally a very sentimental, nostalgic person. When things end I always find it very emotional (like leaving a job, even if I didn't like the job much!).
Anyway, we moved last year and I was very emotional about leaving the house. So much emotional stuff had happened in the old house (move to a new city, birth of my son, cancer diagnosis). However, moving was definitely the right thing for us. I'm very happy in our new home, no regrets!
Good luck with your move.

I couldn't leave my last place quick enough but was really wobbly lipped on the day.

At the same stage now, would leave here in a heartbeat if I could find something affordable and suitable (but would be sad to leave the memories, mostly).

We moved last year from a house that sounds very similar your yours, OP, down to the DH wanting to move on and me not being keen. I still miss it!

Whenever there is a little mishap here I can't help but think, this would not have happened in the old house. To top it all, we have a twat for a neighbour. No way can we afford to move ever again (and certainly not for a moron next door) so I hope I will come to terms with it and come to like it.

It does have the extra room we needed and it's in a supposedly 'nicer' neighbourhood. I even prefer the not so nice old one! I am naturally very, very slow to adapt to change so I am still hopeful... It's that or winning the lottery - that we never play.

I felt a bit nostalgic moving out of my old house but excited to move on as was buying with partner.

less than 2 years and we are in the process of moving again. Moving date can’t come soon enough. I have no attachment to this house. I hate the area and I’ve been unhappy here. It’s never felt like home.

The house we are moving to felt more like home on the first viewing than this one ever did.

I hope it feels like home for you soon. Now that I know what it's like to adore a house, I feel very sorry for anyone who hates theirs!

Historically I've never been slow to adapt to change, I used to always be on the lookout for the next exciting adventure. I never had roots. But it feels like now that my roots were given just enough time to grow, they grew in fast and strong.

I know this is more about me than the house. Ever since I was a child I used to have dreams that I'd find a big, beautiful room in my house that we never knew was there. It was always grand and unusual, such as an enormous victorian conservatory three storeys tall and filled with exotic plants, or it would have a massive central staircase leading up to even more rooms. Those dreams stopped completely when we moved here (despite the fact this house lacks all interesting details -- but to me, it's perfect).

Good luck to my husband getting me to move. 😅

I think I’m going to feel emotional although I’ve moaned about our house - don’t like it’s 1960’s exterior, flat large boring windows, costs a lot to heat and maintain, rooms are small and not 1 bathroom but we’ve made it our family home for the last 19 years. We’ve had our 2 children here and plenty of good and bad times.
the new house will tick so many more boxes for us as a family now but I’m sure it will take a while for it to feel like “home”

No, I don’t get this, I get nostalgic like everyone else. But about the event and the people. The location is not relevant. So it’s oh that was a wonderful Xmas but not oh that was a wonderful Xmas and it was about that house

I have great memories too but that's not why I love my house. I'm not even sure why I love my house so much, but that's definitely not why!

Similar to you, we didn't expect to stay more than five years but here we still are 20+ years later. It's my kids' home (one of them was born in the front room) and we all love the sense of security we have here. It's not perfect (wouldn't mind another bedroom and definitely another bathroom) but I feel a big attachment. We've also spent a lot of money and time getting previous owners' bodges re-done - with each one we've sorted, I feel like the house and I know each other better.

My parents have also been in their house for over 50 years (since before I was born) so I also have a huge attachment to that house. DP on the other hand moved regularly throughout his childhood; he's lived here twice as long as he's lived anywhere else.

I hated my last house and I still miss it

It is a primal thing, where we live, feeling safe, how we change/grow in a home.

Question for those who feel no affection for their house / place of residence (unless it's been an unhappy home for other reasons, obviously):

Did you move regularly in your childhood? Do you think that contributes to a lack of sentimentality about four walls, knowing that life goes on wherever you are?

My parents and both sets of grandparents all lived in their homes for 50 years or more and I've been in mine for 20 with no intention of moving. No itchy feet here, but perhaps an innate sense (superstition?)?that steady home = happy family - and not wanting to jinx things by moving.

Thanks PaperDoves, I hope so! Good luck to you with the non-move! 😁

It is a primal thing, where we live, feeling safe, how we change/grow in a home . That is exactly it for me, I think.

We moved this summer after 20 years in last house . I thought I would get emotional leaving but after a very long, hot day I couldn’t wait to get off the drive.

DD has left home now but comes back more frequently to new house due to location and this is home now. She rang this morning as having trouble with mouldy flat and said she might come home for a few days which was lovely to hear as was worried she may never feel that way about it.

We moved 3 years ago and I couldn’t wait to move. I loved our old house until the day I didn’t - then I couldn’t wait to get out!

our old house was good to us. We got engaged there, left for our wedding there, had our DC there & my (late) grandparents both visited there.

I must go back and take some cuttings.

It is a primal thing, where we live, feeling safe, how we change/grow in a home.

Yes, exactly this. It runs deep.

@OldFloweryCardigan I was one of those who moved constantly throughout childhood. I didn't realise until much later how chaotic it was, and it definitely contributed to me having itchy feet about every place I've lived previous to this one. Maybe my need for stability finally kicked in when we moved here.

We'd lived in our lovely cottage for about twenty five years - we'd done a lot to it and it had a beautiful garden with an orchard. But our daughter was keen for us to be nearer, we were getting older and realised it made sense to get a house nearer to all the amenities we needed and slightly downshift in terms of a more manageable garden. So we did it and it's been an adventure. While I was very happy in our old house, I love it here too. We've made our modern detached house homely and I've loved developing the garden. We're now a bus ride from a lovely city but most of all near our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. I have our grandson twice a week, so for me while I look back with happy memories, these memories of time with my little toddler grandson are priceless.

Once your stuff is out it is amazing how quickly the emotional attachment fades.

It's the stuff and people/pets you live with that make a place home.

I really really miss the house we sold a year ago. I think it's partly because we're in limbo - moved into rented for work relocation, took ages to buy and now doing an increasingly expensive house renovation before we can move into our proper home.

I know logically that moving was the right thing to do. The lockdowns showed we'd grown out of our old house and I was getting increasingly frustrated with it. But it was a lovely house and a great place to have small children. Our new location is better for bigger children and quality of life for us, it just feels like we haven't been able to do it 'properly' yet! We also loathe the rental house we're in and can't wait to get out of it.

I've sold a house before but didn't live in it for very long and didn't have the same attachment to our most recent house.

Yes - especially as I knew it would be unlikely that wed be able to buy again for a while. Renting sucks.

We've recently moved. I didn't love our old house for a variety of reasons. By the end I was desperate to leave, but then I felt sad when we left - we had great neighbours on one side, who I miss, and it was our first "proper" family home, the first home we bought, the place we brought our little boy home to after he was born, DH had painted a mural for him on the nursery wall etc. It just held a lot of memories and it was home, however imperfect, for us for a time, so I was surprisingly choked up when we left, despite not expecting to be.

It's too early to say as we've only been here a couple of weeks, but I think our new house is my "forever" home. I feel very, very contented here, which was a feeling I haven't had in any of our old houses (and we've had lots as DH is military so we moved frequently until we bought).