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?

I know they gutted the inside but the outside now looks very shabby. When we sold the inside was a tad tired but the outside was immaculate.

Yes, quite recently. 3 previous houses on a trip down memory lane. They all looked a bit run down and the gardens were overgrown. A bit sad really...

Oh my goodness- I had to go back to the first house I bought back in 1981 to drop something around the same evening and it seemed weird to see all my walnut furniture , tasteful prints and dralon suite ( older folks on here will know what I mean) replaced with white plastic coffee tables and pictures of Elvis on the walls plus plastic vases etc )! I'm afraid the snob in me couldn't help but think how shitty it looked.

I went back to see my grandmother's house and it upset me that they'd bricked over the beautiful front garden - I can't even bear to think about the back garden, which was spectacular. It's a beautiful Victorian house, but it would have needed a lot of updating inside (immaculately kept, just not modernized), I think seeing the inside wouldn't upset me as much - but I guess I'll never know!

I went past my parents old house (lived there in the 60s), a terraced ex-farm workers cottage. It has been made to look more real cottagey by changing windows and doors rather than working man cottage, with a zen garden in the front. Really weird to see it like that.

I was at a beer festival a couple of weeks ago, and got talking to a couple who turned out to live in our old cottage. We left 14 years ago, and they've lived there for 10 years. They haven't done a lot to it, but admitted to replacing the bathroom recently - I told them it pre-dated us, so must have been at least 25 years old; they didn't feel so bad after that! They did a lovely job. They still have the same kitchen. They don't have kids, so I can't see them moving out for a long time, and I know they will look after the place, because it was very special.

Went for a drive past our first marital home after 25 years. Same front door, same planters either side of the door, same external paint job and perhaps most surprisingly, the same net curtains that we had left up! The people we sold it to still own it, but they rent it out.

I have looked our second home up online a few times (I loved that house) and for the first 6 years pretty much nothing changed. They kept our stone planters in the front garden and very little was done to the house or garden, which was lovely because it means they meant it when they said how perfect it was when they viewed it and how we had it just as they would if it was theirs. Then, sadly, the husband died (he was a well known locally, so it was in the local papers) and the wife sold up and moved on. Next owners completely ruined it. Huge conservatory that took up almost the whole garden, knocked through to make the ground floor completely open plan. Smashed out the fireplace and replaced it with a giant wall-mounted tv and replaced the bathroom suite with an ultra modern one with all manner of lights/tech that didn’t suit the house at all. They have put it on the market three times since then, at vastly inflated prices each time, but have never been able to sell it.

We now live in my childhood home and are in the process of making the first significant changes to it (extension and full renovation) since it was built just shy of 100 years ago. My parents/family were only the second family to live here, so it feels like a big responsibility.

My childhood home that my parents purchased in 1965 (they lived there until they sold up in 2002) was sold again in 2021 - same people my parents had sold to! Didn’t get to go back as was COVID but they did virtual viewings where videos were pre-recorded and it was exactly the same layout albeit refurbished. It was over 4 floors so very spacious! The people who brought it in 2021 have since converted the property into 4 x flats. They are all tiny and overpriced!! It’s the common theme on that street now though!

I’ve been back to see our first marital home, a 3 bed terraced - we brought in 1993 and sold in 2004. A (now) work colleague purchased it back in 2012 and they’ve done a bloody good job on it!! Loft conversion, knocked through the lounge and dining room to make one large lounge and extended the kitchen and created a kitchen diner! It’s now a 5 bed and worth more than double the amount we sold it for! Crazy!

I looked up my old house on Rightmove - the old family home that was built by my great-great-grandfather in the 1820s and had been home to every generation since. We had to sell it to cover my dad's nursing home fees. It broke my heart but the buyer promised me he'd treasure it. He has ripped out all the beautiful original features and carved it up into horrible poky little flats. I was absolutely heartbroken and I wish I'd never looked.

No but i want to, want to know if they've done anything with the garden and the gorgeous hydrangeas we planted. But it's on a cul-de-sac so would look odd driving past.
Occasionally check right move for any sale listings out of curiosity.

They're going to miss having a well-maintained shared driveway when they try to sell their houses! Makes a big difference to the "kerb appeal"....

We used to rent a house that the landlord wanted to sell (they were in a different country, so I did all the viewings etc & got to know the new buyers quite well)
The new buyer invited me to see the house after they had done all the improvements they wanted, and they had even taken my advice on knocking down walls and opening up rooms.
It was beautiful, although I did wonder where all their 'crap' was, as it looked like a hotel rather than a home...

@Pemba I definitely can do a mental walkthrough of my previous homes!

I looked up our old house on Google maps satellite. The outside looks neglected and the big garden, which was beautiful, was so full of rubbish it looked like a council tip. So sad.

There's a trend for lovely living gardens to be replaced with paving or that foul plastic grass. Chances are that when my current home is eventually sold the garden will be "tidied up" and the best I can hope for is an expanse of plain grass. I hate to think about the loss of the beautiful shrubs and trees and perfumed plants, and the wildlife habitat and food they provide.

One of my old flats was sold on Inigo recently. It made me feel very old to see the fireplace and sash windows I'd put in referred to as 'original'. (I'm not actually 150 years old - it was converted in the 1980s, and my 1990s contribution was to restore the features ripped out by the developers!)

My friend went past our old house and sent me a photo of the front garden, horrified that they had “dug up and chucked” a big plant from outside the house.

I sent a photo of the same plant in our garden, and let her know that we had taken it with us (as agreed with buyers). Outside looked the same, but I know they’ve done stuff inside.

I'm currently living in house no 5. 1 (childhood home) and 3 have been demolished - flats and houses respectively in their place. House 1 they also took out another house and half a (very large) garden so a small estate in its place. 2 looks identical from outside and appears to be unchanged no extension other than a smallish infill conservatory at the back and garden (quite a big one is unchanged in layout but looks overgrown (Google Earth). House 4 they've done the fencing at the front, otherwise looks the same. Was for sale a while ago - 2 or 3 owners since me, and really hadn't changed much other than back patio & bifolds replace the French windows.

I was in the area of my childhood home for the first time in 15 years so I went and had a look. Wish I hadn't! They have gravelled over the beautiful front garden entirely, not a blade of greenery - not even a pot plant. Including the beautiful, mature magnolia and cherry trees, all the mature shrubs and lovingly tended flower beds, some of the plants were rare and ££££. There was already a newish block-paved driveway with enough room for 2/3 cars so they can't have been doing for space, there's masses of off-road parking opposite and beside the house as well. It was a nasty grey gravel they'd replaced the lawn with and then- bizarrely- a corner patch of white gravel with windmills and statues dotted over it.
They replaced the wooden front door with navy blue paint and brass detail with a grey plastic front door that looked really industrial and odd.. it had five mini windows going down from top to bottom. They had painted the garage door black. Wheelie bins and overflow rubbish all cluttering the side of the house. It just looked so cheap and sad, it was actually unrecognisable. There was a lovely little original porch also where clematis grew up the pole but that was gone. It looked bleak.

I have seen my childhood home on rightmove twice... its weird because its so different yet so the same.

My childhood bedroom furniture is still in it despite having 2 other owners (not built in or anything, just 90s Argos wardrobes lol) and a piece of my childhood art is still in the garden.

I looks so much smaller than I remember and the wooden widows are now bright white UPVC and they added a bay window, new different layout kitchen and redecorated etc... so things have changed.

Its like a house version of the uncanny valley where its so familiar but just wrong and 'off'.

I’ve not been to any of my previous homes, I wouldn’t want to as they’d bring back memories but recently my late parents house had gone back on the market 5 years after we had sold it (as the new owner died) - my parents purchased the house in 1949 and we sold it in 2018 after my mum died the year before. The house looked exactly the same to how we sold it. Same curtains, same carpets, same kitchen and bathroom…. It was bizarre!! The last time my parents refurbished that house was the late 70s/early 80s. We are still friendly with the neighbours - the people who have purchased it last year have completely gutted the property back to brick and from planning permission docs online it looks like they’re extending out into the back garden with a large open plan kitchen and loft…
Glad it’s finally getting some love again!

I saw some photos of my old flat on RightMove. The people I sold it to painted the wooden kitchen units white and it looks really good actually - light and fresh. They’ve also improved the garden.

I don’t like what they’ve done to the living room though. It didn’t have a huge amount of natural light, so I left the walls a pale colour and hung a big mirror over the fireplace. The subsequent owners painted the fireplace wall a bright poster paint blue and changed the layout of the room, shoving a tiny desk and chair in front of the patio doors.

I was gutted when I looked at one of my childhood homes on google earth.
It has sold a few times since the early 80’s, now has a loft extension and been fully modernised over the years which is fine.
But current owners have now removed the garden shed which was an Anderson shelter from WW2 ! And dug up all the bushes that had been there for decades.

DH and I first house sold again recently, we lived there over 20 years ago.
The bathroom was described as being recently upgraded by current owner. (lived there about 3years)
We had actually put the bathroom in and it was the cheapest Wickes bathroom suite you could take away with you !

Surely this thread is an argument for taking as many key plants as possible when moving?

This actually happened to one of my friend’s house too! They fitted a top end kitchen into their home in about 2000/2001, sold the house in 2006 and it sold again last year and the advert said ‘brand new kitchen facilities’ even though it was the exact same kitchen 🤣🤣

The bullshit some of these estate agents write just to sell a house!! You could tell that it wasn’t brand new too…

We didn't move far from our old home so we've driven past a couple of times for a nosey. It was stood empty first time we went and second time it looks like it's being ripped apart - massive pile of bricks out the front, could see front door open with carpets ripped out.

It was strange - felt a little sad as it was the home we had our babies in and we got engaged in the kitchen, so it's weird to think of those spaces being physically ripped apart. But I'm happy that the couple who are buying it are making it their own and hopefully they'll have a happy time living there.

(bit miffed the buyers kicked up a fuss about paying £1000 for a new bathroom fan when they were planning to knock the shit out the whole house though)