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Old 06-09-2013, 06:05 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C.
36,499 posts, read 53,871,772 times
Reputation: 47912

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I don't recommend this for the faint of heart but we just used Google Maps, Street View to check up on the three homes we lived in and landscaped over our 37 year marriage.

Our first home was a nice little starter home in Yukon, Oklahoma we bought as newly weds and while I was getting my horticulture degree and landscape design training.It was brand new and we even had to put in lawn, fence, etc. Boy has the neighborhood deteriorated since we left. We only lived in it 2 years.
All the major trees and shrubs I planted are still there but gone is the beautiful hedge which separate our lot from the neighbors. It was about 6 feet from the edge of the driveway and somebody over the years cut out the hedge and had that land paved so now there is not one inch of ground between our old driveway and the driveway of the people next door. In the picture there are five cars or pick up trucks parked side by side on the two driveways and 7 cars all together. It looks like a used car lot. I can see a group of 5 dogs running free down the street! Across the street there is a car on blocks in the front yard! Lord I wish I hadn't looked.

The next house in GA we lived in 8+ years and I can hardly see anything cause the house and whole neighborhood are surrounded by trees. It's just as well.

The house we lived in in GA for 23 years was our nicest one and the one I put the most into. From the street it looks well kept and I can even identify some flowers in bloom. That makes me happy. I would love to see the back yard where the real gardens are.

Have you ever visited an old garden or yard? Were you disappointed or pleased. You really can't go home again.
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:01 PM
 
Location: southwestern PA
22,340 posts, read 47,314,292 times
Reputation: 47409
Never saw the point to doing that... I moved on.
The house(s) and garden(s) were no longer mine when the property got listed. The new owner gets to do what they want....
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:09 PM
 
Location: Southern New Hampshire
10,032 posts, read 17,966,656 times
Reputation: 35737
Out of curiosity I looked up a house I lived in as a child ... I was very young when I lived there (2-8) but remember the house well.

It looked OK but there were lots of chain-link fences around the neighborhood. I hate those kinds of fences.

Most of the time that I was growing up, I lived on Air Force bases, and most of those are closed now.

I have to say, though, that when I looked up my old house (which I still own but rent out) on Google Maps, I could figure out almost the exact date that the image was taken -- it was when we were in the midst of remodeling the kitchen/hall/bathrooms and there's a huge pile of junk in the front yard ready to be taken to the dump. And THAT is when they took the image!! Aaaagggghh!!
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:23 PM
 
2,063 posts, read 7,746,232 times
Reputation: 2755
Quote:
I have to say, though, that when I looked up my old house (which I still own but rent out) on Google Maps, I could figure out almost the exact date that the image was taken -- it was when we were in the midst of remodeling the kitchen/hall/bathrooms and there's a huge pile of junk in the front yard ready to be taken to the dump. And THAT is when they took the image!! Aaaagggghh!!
You have my sympathy. I remember reading an article a while back where people were actively looking for weird and ugly shots caught by the google street view camera, I hope your house isn't one of them.

I looked briefly and have mixed feelings. None of the homes I lived in since childhood have gone downhill, the neighborhoods are still all well kept. Some paint color and siding changes, a circular drive where there once was lawn but otherwise fairly similar to the last time we saw them. Of the ones where I actively gardened as the homeowner, well let's say it doesn't look like it did when it was mine. Lots of uninspired bunch of landscape bushes wedged between existing ones where there were once perennials in the front yards and no way to know what was left in the back. No color, no interesting foliage. I did notice that many of the divisions and transplants given to a very young neighbor are surviving and some were blooming so in a way my garden has survived in a new form.
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:29 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,244 posts, read 80,460,275 times
Reputation: 57148
Despite moving to another state, we have driven by every house we have ever lived in, including the one I came home to as a baby. It's kind of fun, to see the changes, or in some cases the place looking exactly the same after 30-40 years, but trees we planted being huge.
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:46 PM
 
9,418 posts, read 13,441,099 times
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I have checked out my childhood home on Google. Can't tell a lot of difference except my favorite climbing tree is gone. It was old even then, so I assume it died a natural death. Also noted that a peach and a plum tree, that we planted when I was about 12, are no longer there. I drive by the house sometimes to see what they've done with the front. Not too much has changed except they took out a big yucca. They also put in a raised vegi garden by the garage, exactly where I would put one if I still lived there.
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Old 06-09-2013, 07:53 PM
 
Location: oregon
899 posts, read 2,934,307 times
Reputation: 678
Oh my we were just in Fairfield Ca where we lived for over 20 years and drove past our house out in Suisun..Its gone to pot
the whole street has , a whole range of emotions there..Then drove over to Napa for my class reunion and past the house
my folks bought back in 1942 when it was new and lived my whole life there till I married..so sad..Just shows that you
really can't go home again..Both Napa and Fairfield have changed a lot too..So glad we are spending our retirement years
in Oregon.Love it up here.
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Old 06-10-2013, 09:08 AM
 
3,339 posts, read 9,315,034 times
Reputation: 4309
I haven't been back to our old house. I just can't. Our old next door neighbor has told me the new people just wrecked the garden. They also added a huge addition, even extending the basement, and that took out a lot of the garden. It's their place now, they can do what they want. It was painful to think about for awhile, but now that I finally have created a nice garden here, I'm not bothered.
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Old 06-10-2013, 10:26 AM
 
Location: Niagara Region
1,376 posts, read 2,154,027 times
Reputation: 4847
I've tried to learn to not carry emotional ties to what I used to have. Every garden I have left has been completely left to find its own way. And then finally dug up and replaced with, yes, grass. Even the last house I sold to a family member who I visit frequently - the garden isn't anything you could remotely call a garden. The annoying thing is, when I moved I wanted to dig up some of my favorites and wasn't really encouraged to do that by the family member who bought the place. She said she loved them so I left everything for her, along with a map of what was where and when it would bloom, lol. %$#@!

I was there this past weekend and worked for 3 hours pulling out weeds and pruning shrubs. Three beds are completely thistle and grass, and my lovely chocolate eupatorium is among them so next week I'm going back with gloves, shovel, shears and some plant pots to reclaim my some of my babies! Oh well, I'll get over it! I just haven't told the hubster yet that "we" have to create three new garden beds for all the stuff I'm bringing home...
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Old 06-10-2013, 10:56 AM
 
8,076 posts, read 10,017,178 times
Reputation: 22648
My SO and i worked hard to install very nice gardens around the house which we sold last year. It was the first house as you entered the sub-division, and really set the tone for great lawn, wonderful gardens, and a 'we care about our neighborhood' statement.

The buyer 'wanted the house because of the lovely gardens'. We labelled everything, left a plan of where everything was located, and suggestions for care and up keep.

To date, the buyer has not lifted a single finger to pull a weed, deadhead the flowers, or mow the lawn more than once a month. The neighbors are beside themselves thinking about how the property which anchored the neighborhood has now become an eyesore.

We went back to look one time; won't ever do it again. Feel bad for the old neighbors, but there is nothing we can do. They can burn it down, rent it to students, open a brothel, or pave over the entire place, and it is their choice. Best not to look in the rear view mirror.

BTW, the check cleared, and not a single home in the neighborhood has sold since we moved. Old neighbors are dying from the economic pain as they watch prices erode, and still no buyers. Amazing what a little TLC of the yard can do, or not do.....
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