Monday, June 6, 2016

My "childhood" house

I put childhood in quotes because I was 12 when we moved to this house.  Before that, we moved 5 times.  This is the only house I really associate anything with.  My parents sold it in 2007 when they moved for "retirement."

When they sold it, much of it was very dated...remaining the same as it was in 1987 when we moved there (it was a new construction).  I disagreed (no surprise) with their realtor about money they put into the house to make it more marketable.  I thought giving a credit to the new owner made more sense for things like the 20 year old carpet.  But no....mom and dad spent over $6,000 putting brand new wall to wall carpet in....which the new owner ripped out as soon as the papers were signed  (she gave it to the flooring guy).  Mom and dad also installed granite counters....on the dated and cheap builder grade cabinets, along with the dated back splash and almond colored appliances.  Didn't make sense to me.

Well, my good friend decided to take a trip down memory lane yesterday and drove by my old house (and his, and most of our friends...).  It is actually under contract, so the sale is pending. I looked it up on Zillow, because I was curious to see the inside.

Wow!!!  It is the same floor plan...no structural changes.  But that was about it.  Everything was painted (we had wallpaper....lots and lots of dated and invasive wallpaper).  Dark hardwoods.  Kitchen was gutted and replaced with new everything, including an island and wet bar.  She used the front living room as a living room (my parents used it as the dining room which was used maybe 1x a year), and our old sitting room (that had 2 mismatched chairs in it) as the dining room....as it was designed to be.

The master bath and powder room got updated, although the bathroom that my brother and I shared was mostly the same.  My bedroom is a guest room.  My brother's room is the exercise room.  The guest bedroom (which is very small.....my parents had a twin size trundle bed in there) is a sitting room.

She updated alot of the landscaping.  Pool is still there.  She actually used (or at least staged) the gazebo in the backyard (we used it to store pool toys....although it really would have been a nice outdoor eating space).

My parents sold this house at the top of the housing market, just 6 months or so before it busted.  They made a very nice profit...but of course they thought the house should have gone for more.  She had it listed for only 24k more than she paid for it.  Looking at all the updates, paid way more than 24k for those.  No idea what she put down as a down payment back then.

It was kind of fun to peek at my old house, although it almost doesn't resemble it any more.  Anyone else ever have the chance to go back to their childhood house?

19 comments:

  1. Funny you should mention this since I DO drive by my "childhood" house whenever I am in the area. I used quotes since what I think of as my childhood house (although I didn't live there) is really the house my grandparents rented from when I was seven years old until my grandmother died when I was 13. I believe it only sold once since then so no chance in any peaks via the internet BUT I have always dreamed about knocking on their door, explaining the situation, and asking to look around. (I'll never do it of course since I would probably be looked at funny at best or arrested at worse! LOL)

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    1. In CT, I had a lady knock on my door and ask to look around. She lived there in the 60s!

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    2. So, I gotta know...Did you let her in?!?!

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    3. Yes I did! I found out all sorts of neat stuff about my house, like the downstairs bathroom was a butler's pantry, and that the upstairs shower used to be part of the closet.

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  2. My parents sold my childhood home when I was in college. I have driven by it a couple of times and am definitely curious about what it looks like on the inside! I'd love to take a peek at my old bedroom (bet the green shag carpet is gone ... LOL).

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    1. Why would anyone get rid of green shaggy carpet??? Lol

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  3. Don't even want to drive by that house. Took us 8 years to get mom to sell the monstrosity and too many bad memories.

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    1. For you....I totally get not wanting to go back there.

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  4. I am lucky enough to still have my stepmother living in the house I grew up in. The house has had many interior decorating changes, but nothing structural. My father passed away in December of 2014, and it will be weird when and if my stepmom sells it. I would love to buy it just for the yard, we backed up to a golf course, so no one behind us.
    I lived in it from 1968 until 1989...

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    1. I am sorry about the passing of Dad. I am sure you can't imagine anyone else living there since your family has been there so longoing.

      My grandfather built the house my mom grew up in, and we lived there briefly when I was 9-11. It was sold after my grandmother passed away, and it bothered me alot.

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    2. Yes-it will be really weird for that not to be "my" house any longer. I don't want to see anyone else have it, but it's really not my style of house and it would require way too much work to buy it for our family.

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  5. We sold our childhood home after our mother died in 1988. A couple of years ago it was on the market, and my sister and I stopped by an Open House. The people we sold it to had put a jacuzzi in the (unfinished!) basement! Part of the property had been sold off (we had four acres, with the house pretty much sitting in the middle) and there was now a driveway running parallel to our existing driveway, all the way into the way back yard, where there was now another house! It definitely did not feel like our house any more!

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    1. In a way it is good that it doesn't feel like yours, but you still mourn for it a little.

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  6. A couple of years ago I stumbled across my old childhood home on Zillow. Other than the cosmetic changes and the addition of a swimming pool (which was fabulous), nothing had changed much since we had moved from the house over 40 years ago. No major remodeling had been done. My parents had had the kitchen remodeled in the early 60s - the appliances had changed but the cabinets were still the same one we used. The house sold for . . . $2.78 MILLION dollars! It took me a long time to pick my jaw up off the floor when I read that. I have to admit it was interesting looking at all the pictures, and remembering how it looked when we lived there. Sure wish we had had that pool. And that we had stayed in that house a bit longer (I think my parents sold it for less than $100K.)

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  7. im living in my childhood home

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    1. Does it feel like yours...or still feel like your parents' house?

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  8. I had a woman drive up, knock, and excitedly ask to come in because she used to live here. She had her children and grandchildren here from Arkansas. "NO" She acted like I was cutting off her blood and was evil. She begged and begged and then told me how heartless I was. Stupid woman. You just know I want half a dozen people I don't know wandering around my house.

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  9. I lived in military housing growing up. I live near one of the bases and have been by and got to look in the windows as no one lived there at the time. The other houses were in Germany and Manitoba so no driving by for me. I googled the old base in Germany and saw my old apartment. That was so cool to see.

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