Has anyone been back to see their old house after they moved?

[good96]

Just that above question- was it much different to how you left it?

Teen has walked past our old one recently and there have been a few changes. They’ve removed the porch & the hedge between them & next door & put a short fence in, had one of those stamped concrete driveways done & painted the garage battleship grey. It was just brick with a green door when we lived there & the drive was flags.

We drove past our house previous to that one but there were no changes apart from the hedge being ridiculously high.

Yes! We only moved round the corner so I walk past it every day. The new owners have managed to replace the hideous front door that we didn’t choose but couldn’t afford to replace with an even worse one! They also replaced the roof. No idea why, the old one was perfectly adequate. It’s recently been on the market again and I was interested to see that all my lovely f&b paints had been painted over with a horrible shade of grey. All my cream carpets had been replaced with grey ones. All the furniture was grey. It looked awful. Needless to say it was on the market for a long time before it sold. I sometimes go back to see how my childhood house is getting on. It hasn’t changed much from the outside but it sold again recently someone sent me the details and the new owners had done an amazing job on the interior. It was almost unrecognisable.

Oh yes! Our buyer said she loved the garden and various features in the house. We thought therefore that apart from changing paint colours or basically keeping the garden tidy there wouldn't be too many changes in six months. How wrong we were. I know it's her house now, but things she had shed happy tears over when she saw the garden, she had totally changed. It taught us one thing - don't go back.

Yes I do occasionally and it confirms that we made the right decision.The actual area more upmarket with detached houses but absolutely soulless. We now live in a village and in a semi so we did downsize but absolutely no regrets TBH !

I'd love to go and see my grandparents house again, it was a big old place that needed modernising and I heard the people who bought it did a lot of work to it, I can imagine it must be amazing now. drive past our old house every so often but it's down a long driveway and all you can see is that they don't weed the driveway garden beds!

Yes. Our friends still lived next door. New owners invited us in for a coffee. Still looked pretty good!

Yes! Old house in London still has my kitchen and bathroom installed , but gutted to see they ripped up the beautiful garden and paved it 🥲

Another house In London is awful
As I remember! They've done it up and added an extension but it still has a weird vibe I can see it in the photos! Glad I left

My first apartment came on the market recently. Nothing had changed - just the furniture. Odd to see the same kitchen and bathrooms twenty years on!

I moved out of my last house two years ago. There was a long shared driveway - I was the only person who weeded it, picked up rubbish and maintained the fences. It is shocking how much damage can be done in two years. I hope the other neighbours appreciate me now (I didn’t get a word of thanks while I lived there!).

I live in the same street I grew up in. Lovely street and I know most of the neighbours so was good to move back and for a time still had my parents nearby. Parents moved away about 5 years ago as the house was too big for the two of them. I drive / walk past my old house every day and it makes me sad to see what they've done to it now. The garden was lovely, now all the plants/bushes have been dug up and its just grass and mud. They've put up a monstrous summer house in the back garden (not against them, we have one ourselves but there's is huge, a horrible colour and in the wrong position). They have bins overflowing and in full view of everyone with birds and flies all over them (where most people normally put them somewhere discreet at the side of the house). They don't have blinds so everyone can see in. They've apparently fallen out with the neighbours on either side due to mess, numerous cars parked in the road making it hard to park etc. It just makes me very sad (and my DM says they were nice when she sold to them too!)

The first house we wives is only 3 streets away. I see it all the time! It has been completely stripped out and redone since we lived there. I was a a bit gutted when the bathroom was replaced, including the beautiful tiles I put up! But the current owner has done a cracking job on the garden!

Yes, drive past occasionally as we still live nearby. Have also bumped into the owners a few times.
They've extended and knocked through in the way we always discussed doing but never actually did! Looks the same from the front though.

I went back to a city where I had lived as a student and the house I had lived in had been demolished! The only house on the street to have been demolished too. Just a rather small looking bit of waste ground left. That made me feel very old.

My aunty lived in London in the 1950’s while her husband was working in an embassy, when they came to visit in the 80’s she went to visit her old house, the people showed her round made her tea and she was delighted!

I’ve vowed to keep an eye on the house I grew up in. If it ever comes up for sale I’m going to try my best to view it, just so I can see it again. I still have dreams about that house and could draw every room. Spent 18 years of my life there and was gutted when my parents sold up for a new build.

We recently moved back to the UK after 11 years in Australia, before we left I walked past our old houses. 10 years ago when pregnant with DS I planted jasmine under a pergola, it had just started to climb when we moved. When I went back it had completely covered the pergola and the scent was amazing. In the second house I planted bougainvillea along the garden fence with guide wires, again moved just as it started to climb. It was a lovely wall of pink flowers (you could see via side access) when I went back. Pleased to have left something, annoyed that I never stayed long enough to enjoy it though!

I grew up in Uganda and loved the house and garden I grew up in, this was in the fifties.
About 8 years ago we went back and I walked up the road I lived in. Most of the houses had gone and in their place were various foreign embassies. My house was still there - I couldn't believe it. It was owned by some chinese people and they had opened it as a tea garden.
We went in and I explained to the owner this was the house I had grown up in and could we walk round the garden. That was more or less the same. She then showed me round the house. It was EXACTLY the same, nothing had changed in 60 years. Even the bathroom suites were the same.
It was fantastic to see it again and it laid a ghost.
It did seem a lot smaller though.

I nearly cried when I saw the people that bought one of our old houses has replaced the beautiful Victorian sashes which had gorgeous stained glass with swallows and bluebells with hideous upvc. Absolute vandalism.

We sold 9 years ago to a family who had came to UK for work so they also bought some of our furniture.
They moved back home last year and sold the house, it hadn't changed at all!
We did leave paint etc for touch up's and it had been totally renovated when we sold.

My elderly father and my uncle had a nostalgic trip around the city when my uncle was back for a visit. They knocked on the door of the small semi they grew up in and the owner invited them in and was really lovely, even gave them her phone number if they ever wanted to look again. It had been done up of course. Dad said did I want to go and look, she wouldn't mind? But I said no, I didn't want to put on her, and also I have a mental picture of how the house was, room by room, tied in with memories of my grandma who died over 30 years ago. I would be afraid that if I visited and saw it as it is now, those memories might be destroyed.

The same with my other grandparents' house, which is not far from me. I drove a while ago down the road with my daughter and looked at the front, which has not changed much, but I know that at the back they have extended massively and it will be completely different. It made me feel a bit tearful really, missing my grandparents.

Can other people mentally 'walk' through a former house?

Our previous house has been turned into a holiday let (before someone accuses us of selling to the enemy, it was on the market for 8 years, no local family wanted it because it is very remote, no school bus, and very old and listed, so high maintenance costs, and we needed desperately to move for work and easier access to schools), so it has its own website with loads of recent photographs for me to snoop. The buyers bought a lot of our furniture and curtains with the house, so it still very much looks the same. I often think I would like to go on holiday there, but it's well above our holiday budget.

We’ve just bought a house with original windows throughout. The vendors were kicking out any viewers who mentioned replacing them with UPVC 😂 We will definitely be maintaining the originals as they are stunning!

We drive past ours. No clue what’s done inside but outside they have done a good job, replaced the front garden fence with a brick wall, new soft landscaping etc, it looks nice, I can still see my curtains though in the windows , so they kept them, which I think is understandable as they are silk and plain cream so I suspect they have just lasted with no need to change.

DH actually got to go into ours a couple of months ago. We moved less than a year ago, and DH had accidentally managed to get a parcel delivered there. The new owner showed him around the work they had done. New kitchen and bathroom, both of which were desperately needed. Wish I'd gone with him.

I went back to my childhood home after some years and there it was or should I say wasn't! The whole street was now full of mews type properties - I was hardly sure where our house had even been. Upsetting to say the least.

We moved locally two years ago so we walk/drive past. Not much change to the front. Less weeding of the drive and path to front door. I obsessively never allowed weeds to get a look in. They seem to have installed new outside lights. I could just about see that they installed blinds or curtains to the conservatory; much needed especially after the hot summer last year.

One thing that I noticed was actually on google maps satellite view. they installed a paved path to the two sheds at the bottom of the garden. I rally wanted a path to go the sheds but we couldn't figure it out where it wouldn't split the lovely lawn into to. They solved it by following the property boundary. I am envious of this as I would have enjoyed the garden more. It is the perfect solution but it never occurred to us.