Selling a Childhood Home
Discussion
Well, we have finally exchanged contracts on the house we grew up in.
For a time there were 5 "people" in there (me, mum, dad, brother and dog). I moved out, then mum died 12 years ago, then the dog died, then my dad died 2 years ago. My brother is still living there and it is the only house he has ever known.
We complete the sale on Friday and I'm not sure if it has really sunk in yet.
I guess it will be locking the door for the last time and handing the keys over to the estate agents. That's when it will hit me. The new owner has said we can go back anytime to have a look round. I doubt that will happen.
Anyone else been through this recently?
For a time there were 5 "people" in there (me, mum, dad, brother and dog). I moved out, then mum died 12 years ago, then the dog died, then my dad died 2 years ago. My brother is still living there and it is the only house he has ever known.
We complete the sale on Friday and I'm not sure if it has really sunk in yet.
I guess it will be locking the door for the last time and handing the keys over to the estate agents. That's when it will hit me. The new owner has said we can go back anytime to have a look round. I doubt that will happen.
Anyone else been through this recently?
cobra kid said:
Anyone else been through this recently?
However recently my thoughts have changed and I am thinking once the time comes just to sell one of my houses and renonvate their old one and move back in. And that is something I never thought I would consider and actually not looking forward to it either way.
Landlord said:
xactly. It's the people that made the memories.
Yes. I pondered the possibility of re-purchasing the house I spent most of my first 25 years in. I always felt, and still do, that it has a certain 'aura', but in reality it would just be a ghost ship. Best to stay with the happy memories I think.In a similar vein I visited the house I grew up in when I went back to the UK a year ago.
From age 5 to 18 (1962 until 1975) I lived on the outskirts of Nottingham. It was fascinating to see what had happened to the house in the last 35 years - and the new owners were very approachable.
No regrets, (at the end of the day it wasn't my house!). A house is only bricks and mortar, leave with the good memories and visit occasionally.
For interests sake I also visited the house I bought in 1986 and sold in 1999 when I moved to NZ (outskirts of Coventry).
Lots of changes - mostly for the better. Still interesting to look around - but no wish to turn the clock back.
Close the door, shed a tear - and move on.
cobra kid said:
I need to tell myself it's just bricks and mortar. Memories don't just vanish after the sale.
That's true.From the day I arrived home from hospital as a newborn until I was a teenager, I lived in the same house.
I was sad when it was sold, but I can still remember the layout and interior decor - some 27 years later!
Just put my late father's house on the market, after spending a few months clearing his stuff.
I guess the fact that I moved out about 10 years ago helps, but I think I will struggle to hand the keys over, especially after finding the mortgage and solicitors sales agreements from 1981. All sorts of images went through my head, their excitement, worries, financial troubles. Similiar to what my wife and I are going through at the moment(sold our flat before he passed away).
We should consider moving there, but it just wouldn't feel right sleeping in my parents bedroom.
Our Estate agent is the chap that originally sold them the house back then...
I guess the fact that I moved out about 10 years ago helps, but I think I will struggle to hand the keys over, especially after finding the mortgage and solicitors sales agreements from 1981. All sorts of images went through my head, their excitement, worries, financial troubles. Similiar to what my wife and I are going through at the moment(sold our flat before he passed away).
We should consider moving there, but it just wouldn't feel right sleeping in my parents bedroom.
Our Estate agent is the chap that originally sold them the house back then...
5potTurbo said:
That's true.
From the day I arrived home from hospital as a newborn until I was a teenager, I lived in the same house.
I was sad when it was sold, but I can still remember the layout and interior decor - some 27 years later!
I can remember the tiniest details and even the noise each door made. I can take a virtual walk round it, including the garden.From the day I arrived home from hospital as a newborn until I was a teenager, I lived in the same house.
I was sad when it was sold, but I can still remember the layout and interior decor - some 27 years later!
Just keep yourself a spare key then you can always pop back as and when..!
I've got this to come though, and not relishing the prospect really.
43 years I've known my 'home', even though I moved out 20 years ago I still think of it as 'my house' and can't imagine anyone else living there really.
My parents are in their mid 60's and still fit and healthy, so hopefully it's a good few years until it happens.
I've got this to come though, and not relishing the prospect really.
43 years I've known my 'home', even though I moved out 20 years ago I still think of it as 'my house' and can't imagine anyone else living there really.
My parents are in their mid 60's and still fit and healthy, so hopefully it's a good few years until it happens.
Almost a year ago to the day, after 28 years there.
Still ache thinking about it.
Whats the worst is that for various reasons we've had cause to see/hear what the new owners have done to it.
Elm staircases x2 - ripped out
Reed and plaster ceilings - ripped down
17th C roof made of bits of wood with the bark still on them - ripped out and replaced with trusses.
Slighlty wobbly brickwork cut back/removed and straightened with concrete blocks
Elm window seats - ripped out.
Perfectly servicable Victorian larch multi paned windows at front of house- replaced with UPVC
Hardwood double glazed windows my Father made himself by hand in the past few years for the rear of the property - replaced with UPVC.
Entire thing rendered and painted, even the chimneys - totally out of character with the area.
400 years of patina destroyed in the fireplaces by having them sandblasted. I doubt there was much of the bricks left either....
Oh, and getting on for 3k's worth of wood burner ripped out and dumped in the garden and used as a chiminea
There's making the place your own, and there's the senseless destruction of hundreds of years of history and heritage when they should have just bought a Barrat home in the first place.
The window seats etc didn't even go to the reclamation yard, they got cut up and presumably went through the rayburn.
We should have contacted English Heritage the day we left and got them to go round there quick, but by the time we realised they weren't going to be responsible custodians it was too late.
I'll probably laugh when they realise the wooden windows at the front were "structural" and everything starts sagging above the stupid f
king plastic st someone sold them.
If you don't have to, don't go back.
Still ache thinking about it.
Whats the worst is that for various reasons we've had cause to see/hear what the new owners have done to it.
Elm staircases x2 - ripped out
Reed and plaster ceilings - ripped down
17th C roof made of bits of wood with the bark still on them - ripped out and replaced with trusses.
Slighlty wobbly brickwork cut back/removed and straightened with concrete blocks
Elm window seats - ripped out.
Perfectly servicable Victorian larch multi paned windows at front of house- replaced with UPVC
Hardwood double glazed windows my Father made himself by hand in the past few years for the rear of the property - replaced with UPVC.
Entire thing rendered and painted, even the chimneys - totally out of character with the area.
400 years of patina destroyed in the fireplaces by having them sandblasted. I doubt there was much of the bricks left either....
Oh, and getting on for 3k's worth of wood burner ripped out and dumped in the garden and used as a chiminea
There's making the place your own, and there's the senseless destruction of hundreds of years of history and heritage when they should have just bought a Barrat home in the first place.
The window seats etc didn't even go to the reclamation yard, they got cut up and presumably went through the rayburn.
We should have contacted English Heritage the day we left and got them to go round there quick, but by the time we realised they weren't going to be responsible custodians it was too late.
I'll probably laugh when they realise the wooden windows at the front were "structural" and everything starts sagging above the stupid f
king plastic st someone sold them.If you don't have to, don't go back.
Simpo Two said:
5potTurbo said:
That's true.
From the day I arrived home from hospital as a newborn until I was a teenager, I lived in the same house.
I was sad when it was sold, but I can still remember the layout and interior decor - some 27 years later!
I can remember the tiniest details and even the noise each door made. I can take a virtual walk round it, including the garden.From the day I arrived home from hospital as a newborn until I was a teenager, I lived in the same house.
I was sad when it was sold, but I can still remember the layout and interior decor - some 27 years later!
From when I was born until I went to uni at 19 I lived in the same bedroom in the same house.
My folks split up and the house was sold whilst I was away, I've never felt properly settled since that time despite owning houses of my own etc.
To this day (the house was sold 15 years ago) I could describe every inch of it, its peculiarities, niceties and I still miss the sense of calm I had there.
I've always said I'd buy it back if it came on the market again but upon reflection it may be better to just have the (rose tinted) memories.
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