Have you ever visited an old home you used to live in?
Posted by jppambo@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 98 comments
I went past my old home the other day and it got me thinking, have you ever visited an old home of yours that you used to rent/own but have moved on from? How was it?
Part of me wants to see it again, but part of me would be terrified that the new owners have done things to my old house that I don't like and it would make me sad....
Let me know if you've ever visited an old place, how it came about, and how it was for you!
Particular-Quit-630@reddit
I met with an old friend for a beer once and he messaged me his address to take a look at his house beforehand.
It was the same place I rented for around 3 years!
The study had been turned into a bathroom which was a little weird.
cooky561@reddit
I drove past the home I grew up in, it's gone from a wonderful home to something that will need work to be sellable in future. Really upsetting to see the new owners treat it that way.
Princes_Slayer@reddit
My husband occasionally likes to drive past my old house if we are around the area (I owned it for 9 years and he moved in maybe 2 years before we left). It doesn’t occur to me to drive past it, even when I have to pop into the hospital at the top of its road. I regularly drive past the house we rented for a few years after selling, as it’s on a main thoroughfare to our current home.
Other than that, my parents still live in the house they bought in 1976 so I do visit that one
Glad_Feeling_4030@reddit
I had a single mother and we lived in the same house with my sisters for all of my life. We never moved or lived anywhere else, and I spent almost 16 years living there. I was about to turn 16 when she died, and so we had to sell the house and move in with our relatives. I've never visited, but I've walked past a few times. I don't really want to visit, it makes me sad to even just walk past it and I think I'd like to leave it to the people that live there now... I just hope they love my home as much as I did and that they're taking good care of it
MD564@reddit
Yes. Sadly the owners of my old childhood home have tarmacked over the beautiful front garden, which included fruit trees, changed the old door to something super modern and ugly. I don't think I'd want to ask to look inside because I'm sure all the well crafted banisters are gone and everything painted in an awful off white.
Existing-Rhubarb-972@reddit
The same happened to my grandparents old place. I drove past a few years ago and the new owners had ripped up the mature rose garden out front and tarmacked the whole thing. Worst thing was, there was already space for two cars WITH the garden, so unless these people had a fleet of trucks I can’t see why they needed all that extra space. Soul destroying, I sobbed all the way home :(
jppambo@reddit (OP)
This is my biggest fear! I turned our old garden (both front and back) from building sites to beautiful spaces with fruit trees and flowers and a veg patch. I would be absolutely devasted if they turned it into paving + fake grass.
durkbot@reddit
I had a school friend's parents buy our house when I was younger, and I went round one time to hang with him and it was too weird, I never went back.
Educational_Worth906@reddit
I’ve been past my old family home that my parents moved out of 25 years ago and nothing much has changed to the outside at all.
A weirder experience was going to see a friend of mine in his new home a few years back. The minute I walked in I realised it was a friend’s house that I went to in the early eighties.
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
About 2 years ago I drove past the home I grew up in 25 years ago. I parked up and went for a walk round the hilly grassy bit where I learnt to ride my bike. I didn't hang around, thought it would look a bit suspicious! Plus I only stopped because I happened to be passing.
Necessary-Nobody8138@reddit
I agree, it makes you feel suspicious, doesn’t it? I had a walk around where my grandparents lived. Felt very strange as they are both passed now, but it was nice and i automatically felt like a kid again. However, I did feel like a weirdo and was careful not to stare too much through the windows as I went by several times!
AndrewHinds67@reddit
Yes, several. When my girlfriend was over from the USA last summer, I took her past houses I lived in, including Bury, Ramsey, Hunstanton, and King's Lynn. On a previous visit, I showed her where I lived in London. The sad thing is that the tower blocks in Brent Cross where I lived as a baby and where my nan lived are earmarked for demolition as part of the regeneration project.
beeurd@reddit
My childhood home is still in the family, but my grandparents old house recently came on the market, so we had to have a look at the photos... It was very odd to see all the changes that had been made over the last 25 years or so.
Jezbod@reddit
There is only one is still standing. My parents used the process of buying their council house in the 80's (?) and paid off the mortgage a long time ago, thanks to the discount they received due to long term occupation.
I'm about to buy from my late parents estate so my siblings get their share.
I'm back there most weekends.
Baby8227@reddit
Lady who now owns our old council house let me in for a look when my sibling died and I was in the area. I really appreciated it, especially since it was a really rough time for me xx
jppambo@reddit (OP)
That's really nice!
Baby8227@reddit
I thought so. They had renovated and it looked so different (in a good way). Was just nice to see the old place one last time x
shaneo632@reddit
No, once I'm gone I'm gone, I don't really get nostalgic about places like that.
jppambo@reddit (OP)
Fair enough! Maybe I'm just nosy 😂
Usual-Journalist-292@reddit
Walked past my childhood home for the first time in about 17 years not too long ago, it's been completely renovated. Just took a look on rightmove at photos from when it last sold two years ago and it's unrecognizable.
Me and my dad dug a pond in the garden together when I was 7 years old, that's been filled in and there's just a tree there now...
I say we dug it together, the reality is that he did the hard work and I played with a spade, but it felt like I was helping at the time.
jppambo@reddit (OP)
As a dad to a 3, 6 and 8 year old, I can confirm you definitely didn't help at all, you were probably more of a hindrance, yet your dad 100% wanted to do it with you regardless!
20127010603170562316@reddit
My grandads old house came up for rent.
I looked around it. It kinda sucked to be honest, it was just cold and empty. After the estate agent left, I checked if my key still worked. It did.
jppambo@reddit (OP)
Amazing, lesson to us all to change the locks when you buy a new place!
Outside-Resist4688@reddit
I still live in it for this reason...I couldn't walk past it and not go inside cos it's not my home. 40 years under the same roof 🏡
travelingwhilestupid@reddit
yes!
they were selling and had an Open Day. I remember this massive house... it was tiny! even dad commented on how tiny it was. we used to have adventures in that backyard... not enough space to swing a cat!
another house, yeah, disappointed with how it was kept.
danddersson@reddit
The house in which I was brought up (a council owned semi in an estate) was vacant when I went past one day. Ii had a good look in the windows and at the back garden.
My goodness, it was TINY! How mum and dad brought up four children in that place, I don't know. Well, I do, as I was there, but it never seemed small, as that was all I knew. I think the entire ground floor area was smaller than our current kitche-diner.
whodunnit20@reddit
My mum and dad lived in the upstairs part of a house owned by this lady, they rented a few rooms. They went on to have my sister then me and we lived in this upstairs part. Then into a tiny terrace house but we thought it was great after living in a couple of rooms.
jppambo@reddit (OP)
This is what I want to happen to my old place! If they sold I would definitely book a viewing 😂
travelingwhilestupid@reddit
funny you say that, because I just googled it, and it hasn't been on the market for 15+ years!
Latte-Addict@reddit
Not any homes I myself lived in but I sometimes think about going up to Scotland and visiting the places where my Mum & Dad grew up (Lanark & Forth) My aunt even gave me the exact address to my Dad's place but it's kinda outta the way & I don't drive. God, can you imagine someone outside your home looking in for some strange reason lol I don't want to be that person :)
TrainingDragonfly248@reddit
I live around the corner from the house I grew up in. When my mum and dad died and the house was sold I thought it’d be so difficult but the new owners have made it look like an eyesore so it’s easy not to associate it with happy times.
nibor@reddit
yes, of the 7 places I've lived I still own 4 of them and rent 3 of them out;.
UnnecessaryRoughness@reddit
We bought our first house in 1997. It was really run down and we spent 5 years renovating it before selling it and moving away to another town. It looked great when we moved out. I remember being so proud that the estate agent marketed it as an "executive home".
Last year it was for sale, so we took a peek at the photos.
It was really run down again. Some of the rooms were still unchanged from how we decorated them back in the early 2000s. Everything was overgrown, stained, and rusty.
It genuinely brought a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat. I wish I'd never seen it.
smellyfeet25@reddit
it would give me such s weird feeling going back to my childhood home. it would be kind of eeerie. i think i might feel sad . it would really affect me i think. i suppose if you moved back there it would wear off and you would make new memories. my cousin went back to teach at her old school and said at first it made her feel funny but after a while it did not.
Ok-Middle8656@reddit
My last home just went up on Rightmove for sale again. Mixed feelings seeing the changes that were (and weren’t) made.
trying_her_best_@reddit
I lived in a flat growing up and we moved out when I was around 10. Fast forward around 6/7 years I get invited to a random house party in none other than my childhood home, friend of a friend kind of thing. it really took me back haha. was such a weird coincidence.
snarkycrumpet@reddit
yes, left in late 80s, went back to see it in 2011. very cool, not at all sad
FitSolution2882@reddit
I go past it now and then but wouldn't want to go in
renlok@reddit
My brother visited our childhood home not long ago as they were getting rid of some free wood which turned out to to be the tree house our dad made us as kids. He was given a tour of the place and shown all the changes. It sounded pretty cool and I was a bit jealous. We probably left there about 20 years ago.
HorrorAccomplished78@reddit
I lived in the English Castle where I was born, Hazlewood Castle. It’s now a posh hotel and because I was born there when it was a maternity home I get cheap accommodation. I lived there during the war as we were evacuated from London. So now I go back to the room I was born in and can walk around the castle where we played hide and seek. My parents stopped me going in the dungeon though as it was damp and mouldy. My favourite place to hide was through the fake library shelf into a side room. My brothers sooner or later found me though. We had tennis courts with changing rooms which was another place to hide but that was made into a helicopter landing pad.
BoomalakkaWee@reddit
The Victorian terraced house that I was born in and lived at until I was 7 (in 1970) recently became a branch office for a well-known national charity - I won't say exactly which one, but it's along the lines of Citizens Advice.
I briefly considered paying a visit to my hometown and dropping in there on the pretext of asking for their advice on some minor problem, just to see how much it's changed or remained the same.
But then, by chance, I discovered the house next-door was on the market. Its layout was the mirror-image of ours, so I clicked through the floor-plans and photos in the estate agent's listing in excitement, feeling sure I'd be able to flip them in my head.
Everything had been changed beyond recognition - fireplaces blocked off, one bedroom converted into a bathroom, the kitchen re-orientated when it was renovated... Even photos from the bottom of the back garden, which showed the rear of our old house as well as the one for sale, looked unfamiliar. I could see what must once have been my old bedroom window but with a different window-frame in it and venetian blinds instead of red curtains.
Nothing was the same. It was a very unsettling experience.
double-happiness@reddit
A couple of years ago I visited the commune I was brought up on in the early '80s. It had hardly changed at all.
loveyouronions@reddit
I haven’t but I grew up in an old village schoolhouse, which was converted into a house in the 90’s after the village grew too much and they build a purpose-built school down the road.
We used to have people turning up every month on average wanting to have a look around. We always let them in, it was lovely to hear about what they had got up to in primary school, particularly if it was in the 30’s or something.
Dead_Bones001@reddit
Put your old street name rightmove.com and you may be able to see the photos of the house from when it last sold. I can see all the rooms from my last house when it sold a few years ago.
Repulsive_Dig_133@reddit
Yeah, have done this with several past houses. One has had an extremely good high end re model and looks amazing. Childhood home was a grim as ever ( even grimmer ! ) with the same sink over the bath setup we had in the early 70s but now even more rust stained. Its interesting.
MrPogoUK@reddit
Strangely my childhood home is last listed as sold when we moved out in 1999, but the furniture shown inside definitely isn’t what we had! Perhaps someone listed it and then changed their minds or something.
joshii87@reddit
Or it didn’t sell.
Munchkinpea@reddit
During our divorce my first husband and I sold our house to my parents who wanted to downsize.
Second husband and I ended up moving in with my Dad after my Mum died.
Years ago my Mum took me on a tour of the area where she grew up. The owner of her childhood home was in the front garden and Mum started talking to him. He invited us in for a poke around and a cup of tea. At 15 I was mortified but I now think this was such a lovely thing for him to do.
Isgortio@reddit
Yes, I ended up being best friends for a few years with the girl that moved there. It was really weird spending the first few years of secondary school regularly in my old house, but it wasn't my house anymore and it didn't feel like my house, I just knew the house, if that makes sense? It had only been 6 or 7 years since I moved out of the house but we moved out when I was 5. It may have felt different if I moved at an older age.
I've gone to visit my old housemate in the house I lodged in, that felt a bit odd but I'd only lived in that house for a month (they had to sell the house we lived in prior to buy this one, and they finally completed in July and I moved for uni at the end of August). The house hadn't changed at all in the year since I'd left lol.
Ok-Acanthaceae-8646@reddit
We had the daughter of our houses previous owner knock on the door one day out of the blue. It was her childhood home, but her dad had a lot of alcohol addiction issues and they had become estranged enough that when he passed, he spread the house inheritance across 3 family members instead of just to her.
The house was in a pretty bad state when we bought it and needed alot of work. She said every month or so she would drive down our road when doing errands and saw we always had various things been done to transform it. Then one day she decided to just knock and say ‘hi’.
Thankfully the day she came, I had another friend coming that eve, so the house was in a rate state of being super clean! I invited her in and we gave her a tour. She was so happy as she said she wanted to buy it herself, but couldn’t afford to buy out the other parties who were given a share of the house, so her only wish was the house remained a family house rather than be carved up into flats etc. I was pretty pregnant at the time, so she was able to see the nursery set up and ready for our first baby. She was really emotional at the fact her dad had plans to do up the house, but didn’t get around to it before he passed, so to see it restored was special for her.
We’ve since done a big extension on the back/garage conversion and redone the whole footprint of the ground floor. I often wonder if she drives past and wonders about the changes that have happened since. Would actually be really nice if she knocked again to see it now it’s really properly finished.
banana_bear_918@reddit
So I have been viewing houses and flats to buy , and yesterday I viewed 2 flats in the tenement I used to live in 10 years ago with my ex husband. One of the flats was beside my old one, and the other was above. I didnt get to see inside my old flat, but i was right outside the door, and was in the common close, and it felt..... wrong. Just wrong. Won't be buying either flat!
tiny-brit@reddit
I have two previous homes and both have been demolished. So... nah.
OneNormalBloke@reddit
Most owners will not allow you to set a foot into their home due to security and privacy concernsbas they don't know you from Adam.
richyfreeway@reddit
How do you know?
QueefInMyKisser@reddit
I actually did this, found myself in my old home town where I lived till I was 8, and knocked on my old door. I asked if I could go inside and see what it looked like now but the owner said no. Fair enough I suppose.
Serious_Badger_4145@reddit
Theres plenty reasons you'd go back to a old place. Not everyone owns their homes lol
1968Bladerunner@reddit
I've managed to revisit 2! The first was my family home from 13 to 17 & was bought by clients who became friends, so I visited numerous times to do work for, or just have a cuppa with, them. It remained quite a similar layout, so not too jarring for me in my late 30s.
The other was an even older house I'd lived in from ~10 to 13, & I got a call to sort their printer. They'd remodelled the house majorly since we'd lived in it, so it was quite a shock seeing the changes as it had been about 30 years since my last visit.
LadyInAllPower@reddit
By sheer coincidence a friend moved into my old house. I had a mix of happy and sad memories so it wasn’t exactly nostalgic. But I enjoyed having a snoop to see what they’d done with the place 😂
Dutch_Slim@reddit
Yes, it’s next door 😂
JabbaTheHuttsCock@reddit
Yes! And it was crazy as fuck. I was at my Auntie’s 50th birthday party and there was a woman who I immediately was attracted too and I could tell she was into me. We ended up getting drunk and went back to her place which was the house I grew up in! Couldn’t believe it. We had sex in my old room where I slept from 0-15 years old. It was the smallest bedroom in the house but I wanted to do it in that room as I thought younger me would have been proud lol. Made me happy for ages
pickindim_kmet@reddit
I went back to my grandparents place where I spent a lot of time growing up. Was very surreal. It was a typical old person's house when I knew it, could do with a renovation, new kitchen, new bathroom, etc. The area went downhill a lot since they died so in my family we always hoped it was taken over by a nice family that looked after the place.
We went back and honestly it was probably the best house in the street. The owners really cared about it, renovated every single thing for the better, inside and out. Not that it matters much because it's just a house but it's nice to know it's been looked after.
Key_Plum_99a@reddit
My parents sold my early childhood home when I was 12, saw it in right move recently and it hasn’t changed a bit! They even kept the plaster fire surround (My Mum painted the plaster roses in so I know it’s the same one). It was amazing seeing it, just with different furniture.
danddersson@reddit
Not the question, but the people that live opposite us in the road lived in this house about 40 years ago. They moved out for work, and moved back when they were able to. They raised their children in this house, and are always interested to see what we have done with it (we moved in 10 years ago)
We often visit the area where our previous house is, as we have relatives there. The house has not changed much from the outside. The buyers wanted to extend out the back (-something I had considered) but were refused permission, as the house had already been extended to the limit then in force. However, many of the houses around have since doubled in size, as they all had hpgenrous plots.
lavender_cookie_@reddit
Great, now the song "smile like you mean it" is in my head...
I still don't go to the part of my hometown where the family home was, it's too painful after my mother died.
Deep_Banana_6521@reddit
Yes. I visited my first university house 18 years after I lived there recently. It made me nostalgic and I welled up a bit, mainly because the house was abandoned as the university campus in the town I was in had closed down. But it was nice to see. I probably looked like a total weirdo as I was just up at the front windows peering in and looking through the letter box.
LittleRebelbunny@reddit
I drive past it every day as it is on my route home from town. I did also see it on Rightmove a few months after me and my husband left and it had the same IKEA furniture the Landlord left us. Of course the rent was higher.
koala1125@reddit
I bought a place and the seller came unannounced to the flat. It was really uncomfortable at first as I hadn’t prepared for a visitor etc but I soon realised how special the flat was to him after he cried explaining why he popped in again.
Single-Aardvark9330@reddit
Yes as my sister was friends with their daughter, I was only 3 when we moved out though so I didn't exactly remember much
LazyEmu5073@reddit
Yes. My parents still live there!
DanS1993@reddit
Was about to post the same thing.
El_John_Nada@reddit
Yeah, I took a detour to see the village and the house I grew up in between the age of 5 and 11, nearly 25 years after I left it.
It was weird because I thought I knew the streets by heart but it felt like someone just rearranged them in the wrong order. The garden of the house looked way smaller than I remembered as well. It was nice to be able to show it to my wife, but because it is also linked to some pretty tough memories, it was a bit sour. Still, no regrets: it was an interesting trip down memory lane.
Speedbird223@reddit
Small world story on this front…
When I was 11yrs old I went to look around different boarding schools. At one (around 30 miles from where I lived) we were introduced to a pupil that had a very unusual and distinctive name, one that matched a box my father found in the attic when we moved in 6yrs beforehand. I joined that boarding school and my father’s curiousity got the better of him and he wanted me to ask this kid if he had any relationship to our house. It turned out he used to live there and we even had the same bedroom!
To answer the question the owners in between us had changed the name of the house and he didn’t like the new name 😂
jppambo@reddit (OP)
That is a small world story indeed!
snakeoildriller@reddit
Yes, went to show family where I grew up. Nothing much had changed except they'd changed the windows to white plastic double glazing and invested in loads of CCTV cameras - also in white - which made it look like a secure unit. Oh, and the most awful net curtains I'd ever seen. 🤮
290Richy@reddit
I frequently check if my first home goes up for sale or rent. When it does, I'm going to arrange a viewing, I've no intention of going for it, I just want the nostalgic feel to return and to see how it looks.
jppambo@reddit (OP)
Absolutely, me too.
Serious_Badger_4145@reddit
Yeah when I was a kid I went round to play in my old flat 😂 I'd moved out of there when I was like 4 visited probably about 8
I'd known my room was small but not how small. My parents must have had to sidestep to get round my bed. And yet... they had a bloody trampoline in there 😂😂😂😂
Imagine a thin room that just about fits a single bed with room for a chest of drawers at the end. Instead of the drawers they had a trampoline 😂
We also lived in a relatives house while they were abroad for a bit (longterm so we decorated it and had our own furniture) and later when they came back they lived in it so saw it decorated for them pretty regularly
Tbh both times had me questioning their use of space 😂😂😂
jppambo@reddit (OP)
Love the trampoline. Priorities in order!
bloodgutsandpunkrock@reddit
I haven't, but I did notice my childhood home on Rightmove the other day, and unless I didn't know otherwise I couldn't have told you it was the house I spent the first 14 years of my life in.
No-Locksmith6662@reddit
My parents still live in the house I grew up in so, yes, every couple of months or so I go back. I feel like that's cheating though.
I've lived in 4 other houses apart from that, occasionally I'll walk or drive past one of them just for old times sake if I'm in the area but have never gone inside any after leaving.
BasildonBond-Now56@reddit
Visited my childhood home when I was 50. It had changed!
Funky_Owl_Turnip@reddit
Went and stood outside my childhood home last year. It is the site of almost every bad thing that has ever happened to me. I felt almost nothing. Really weird.
I would love, however, to nosey round the now-gentrified houses me and my mates lived in at uni 2006-08!
GeggingIn@reddit
I have. Went to a party and it was at my old flat.
Didn’t feel the same as they’d completely ripped everything out and it was ultra modern.
Strange looking out at the same view and knowing where the boiler cupboard was though.
Ashamed-Assumption12@reddit
We did at the weekend. Went to the Ideal Home Show so went to look at husband's home he grew up in and where I lived with his family until we got out own place. His family moved out 23 years ago.
It looked like sad & tired rental accommodation. Door steps, windows, curtains all grimy. He was quite upset.
HazelnutLatte_88@reddit
I’ve not done it, but I would give anything to go inside my nan and grandads house again. I always drive past it anyway. I know if it ever goes up for sale again me or my sister would snap it up 🩵
a-liquid-sky@reddit
I don't want to. To be honest I find it a bit upsetting even now going back to my dad's house as it's so different from the home I grew up in (he now has several lodgers and the house is crammed with stuff and tatty).
jppambo@reddit (OP)
I can totally understand this.... Honestly don't know how I would feel.
whodunnit20@reddit
I have driven past one of our previous houses a few times, it’s weird imagining I lived there. I was born and raised in London but sadly haven’t been back to look at the houses as not been in that area. I have looked at Google maps and it’s all changed. The house we live in now, our previous house to it is round the corner in our village so see it loads. I love the house we live in now so don’t miss any previous ones, I miss being a child and growing up in London but don’t miss the houses really just the life.
DirkwasaMerc@reddit
We are moving back into a house we moved out of in 2009. It’s odd. But cheap rent. 👍
jppambo@reddit (OP)
Ah that must be nice! Wonder if you will put everything back where you had it originally or if you will move things round?
DameKumquat@reddit
I've gone past a fair few - my main childhood home, they cut out the top two panels of the front door and put glass bull's-eyes in, instead. Hideous.
Others look unchanged, or have been blown up like the one in Kuwait, and been replaced by something totally different.
winkywoo75@reddit
I ended up by chance visting my grandparents old house it was heartbreaking they were so house proud and it was an absolutely filthy tip .
Aela_Nox@reddit
I haven’t done this but we had a lady who lived in my house from the 60s to the early 90s (she was the owner before our previous owners) come by with some family a couple of summers ago, we’ve done a lot of work to it and she was really pleased with how it all looked!
I’d love to see my childhood house (lived there til I was 10) and especially my grandma’s old house again if I could, she passed away 18 years ago and I have so many good memories there
No-Department-4561@reddit
The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there…
when_music_hits@reddit
My social worker thought it a good idea to revisit the places I'd existed through and photograph them so that I could put them in a scrapbook. Didn't work, the scrapbook went in the bin and the memories live on. Nice one Cheryl!
travelingwhilestupid@reddit
lol, loved this.
NarrowOwl4151@reddit
I have. It was a little odd, knowing where all the rooms were and some fittings were the same. But lots had also changed. I wasn't really attached to the place, so I didn't really feel much about it.
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