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Our last house we built from scratch in a developing gated community. It was the perfect size for us and in a good school district. We failed to see the big picture of the neighborhood since our street was pretty much empty with only a few (nice) houses built. Once the community was all built up, the houses were so close together, we had absolutely no privacy. The couple across the street had two dogs who would constantly get loose and terrorize the neighbors, the guy always parked his ugly work truck in front of our house cause their garage was full of crap and they always had get-togethers with their friends cars lining the street. We couldn't sit on our back porch and have a conversation cause neighbors on all 3 sides could hear every word (we heard every word of the neighbor behind us conversations on her porch). We also bought a nice hot-tub and had an outdoor kitchen built which we rarely used because of privacy issues. We finally decided to move somewhere with at least 1 acre of land and more privacy. If we could've picked up the house and move it elsewhere, that would've been perfect cause we invested a lot in it. We only lived there a couple of years but made a nice profit when we sold it. We have plenty of pictures of it.
Our new house is outside the city limits, on 1 acre with a 25 acre horse farm behind us which is nice to look at. Heavily tree'd. Also built from the ground up. Quiet neighbors. No barking dogs (all neighbors have indoor pets). Planning on building an in-ground pool next year. We have lost all emotional attachment to our previous home.
my memories of good times and features in my former houses are just that ... memories which I get to keep.
but once I needed (or wanted) to sell, I'd mentally already moved on.
I've looked at a couple of my former houses from years ago and have no desire to live in any of them again. They served their purpose but I've moved on. The alterations/modifications/upgrades that subsequent owners have done is all theirs to enjoy.
Now living in an 1880's farmhouse for now, it's home and I intend to stay here a long time. OTOH, if somebody made me the "right offer", I'd be out of here in days and looking for another farm/ranch to call home. I'd find another just as nice or possibly even nicer, or even another project property. Home will be where we're at.
It's weird... After all my stuff was moved out of my old house, it seemed so plain and generic. I just didn't love it any more. When I moved my stuff into my new house, it immediately felt like home.
I still drive by my old place every month or two, mostly to see what they are doing with landscaping problems that I battled. Not much.
The first house I bought, I wound up living in for fifteen years (which hadn't been the plan, but life had other ideas.) And I did cry, despite the fact I was *way* ready to move and was done with several things that weren't going to change--the HOA, a bitchy next door neighbor, the fact that the space of the house was now too small for my needs. I think it's hard to live someplace for that long and not have *some* attachments.
But now that I'm nine months into my new place and can step back, I think a lot of it was the memories--plus, all three of my dogs and one of my cats died in that house. I think it felt more like I was leaving *them*, somehow.
But I came to realize something--I never felt like that was *my* house. I always felt more like I was just there. I didn't neglect it, I took care of things as needed, but I also never took particular joy in it--I didn't really go out of my way to do something for the house unless it feel into the 'needs to be done' category. My new house, I've done a *lot*--some needed, but quite a bit more because I want to do it. In nine months, this feels like my house in a way that the old one never really did.
I do go by the old neighborhood often (friends there plus my hairdresser is there), but since it's a townhouse, the new owner can't change the exterior, and I can't see into the interior, so I don't know what changes she may or may not have made. Every so often I have a smidge of curiosity, but not enough to bother trying to find out. I figure like me, there's only going to be so much she could do with the place anyway.
I feel sad.
But everyone needs to be practical. I left NH quite a time ago, because I became disgusted with the infiltration from the state due south, (MA) to literally (IMHO) destroy the quality of life there.
I will never forget.... I used to play baseball in the upstairs hallway with my dog (as it was 100 ft long), and loved it, but other than police, fire protection and road maintenance, staying there would not justify $2K a month in property tax, considering I used none of the other services. The mass influx from the south kept pushing me north, and ultimately I ended up living close to the equator, as numerous of my former neighbors had already done.
So, yes, I miss it, I enjoyed it, but the other places more than make up for it. The water temperature here is incredibly warm ;-)
I loved the last house we owned, but after retirement, it was too big and the large lawn required a lot of work. But once we signed the papers, we left it all behind. It was time to move on to the next phase of our lives.
I have an emotional attachment to the times I spent in my houses. I still get weepy when I go back to the neighborhood where all my kids grew up, and we had such fun times with the neighbors. The house itself, no.
The big dream house we built was everything DH and I wanted, and we have good memories of raising our youngest son and having big family gatherings, but the overwhelming task of purging stuff and downsizing, as well as the fact it held us hostage for over 3 years, and the huge burden of maintaining 16 acres, makes me not miss it at all.
Now, I have reached the same point as OP. I have no emotional attachment to my house, and will go on to the next one without looking back.
As fate would have it, my daughter and her husband bought the house my ex and I lived in so I see it constantly. I don't agree with everything she's done, but I remind myself that it is her house so I just smile.
I still drive-by sometimes to look at the house I bought after the divorce. I saw pictures of the inside when it went into foreclosure. I liked the changes the buyer made. It was a cute little house. Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake selling it.
I presently live in a money pit. Our joke is that we have been improving it one screw at a time. I think the person we bought it from would be startled. It's all stuff that should have been done--like putting a/c into the sunroom and ripping up the indoor/outdoor carpet and putting in tile. But you never know what some people prefer.
Nope, our house is up for sale now and the day we find a buyer, will be a happy one! I don't attach to a house, it's an investment, a place to sleep, a place to improve. Of course, it's a great place to be, when coming home from vacation and sleeping in your own bed. That's about as sentimental as I get.
The house is a thing, it doesn't care if I love it or not. My dogs love me and are glad to see me, but the house? Friends, family and animals matter, but the house is just four walls and a roof. I'd hate to think all the pretty flowers, trees and shrubs I worked so hard on, might be torn up, but when selling something, you never know what peoples' plans are. Maybe best not to ask. They don't need to know I'll be sneaking a few favorite bulbs up, to plant at the next place.
But, I think for a lot of us, we get closer to loving a house when we first buy it. All the excitement , anticipation and looking forward to starting a new life is a heady feeling, a lot like love!
Nope, I always say goodbye to my old home and move on. I don't know how I will feel when my father passes away and we sell the home I grew up in, but I think I will be fine, especially when I see the money.
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