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I was just thinking about this house we lived in DURING THE 80s and the crawl space under the stairs.. I used to go in and had a fort kinda like in there.... I wonder if I left maybe a cassette tape in there! (In the ceiling there are spaces where stuff can go in there)
I havent ever seen that house FOR SALE!!!!!!! -- Although its been thru a couple different owners it must not have been on the market long!!
I WOULD LOVE TO GET IN THERE and check the heating duct where my room was and the crawl space downstairs!!
Its sad,the house doesnt look as good AT ALL as when we lived there..... Plastic Windows,PLASTIC SIDING!! (That new crap everyone gets now) -- Totally ugly...............
I found the house my grandfather build in Buffalo, NY about 1916 on a realtors site. The exterior is new siding, which was not as nice as the previous exterior. But what amazed me was that no one in all these years had trashed the inside by tearing out all the decorative details of that era. The inside is beautiful still!
I lived in Ohio 20 years ago and spent an entire summer planting fruit trees. I carried bucket after bucket of water for them all summer long as they were far out in the yard and my hoses didn't reach. We also spent several months building an attached 2 1/2 car garage.
I moved to another state four years later. My trees were all growing well and looked beautiful.
I drove by that house the next time I went back to visit friends and the new owner had cut down all my trees.
Then a year later that house was on the front page of the newspapers because the new owners had a marijuana growing operation in our garage. My friends in the area sent me the newspapers with pictures of a police raid on the garage we had built.
It was quite shocking to see photos of a marijuana operation in the garage we had worked on every evening and weekend for a few months.
My sister and I went to look at two houses we lived in when we were kids. Both houses look really nice and so do the neighborhoods. I keep checking realtor.com to see if they go on sale, so I can see pictures of the inside.
Even more interesting is to obtain address of ancestors from censuses, and google earth the houses where they lived.
My parents had a hundred year old house that was full of large oriental rugs, wooden antique pieces, grandfather clock, chandeliers, brass farm bell, and wooden countertops in the kitchen. All of them had stayed with the house for generations one owner to the next. I went back to see it and the people that bought it had taken out and sold every last piece that made the place elegant. They even went so far as to replace the gorgeous countertops with plastic sparkle ones. It was sickening.
After I sold the Salem designed period house I had designed the new owner had the roof replaced and completely amended so it would look like any other suburban non-entity. It turned what was an art work into just another blah. Some people have no taste. Couldn't bring myself to go inside.
My parents had a hundred year old house that was full of large oriental rugs, wooden antique pieces, grandfather clock, chandeliers, brass farm bell, and wooden countertops in the kitchen. All of them had stayed with the house for generations one owner to the next. I went back to see it and the people that bought it had taken out and sold every last piece that made the place elegant. They even went so far as to replace the gorgeous countertops with plastic sparkle ones. It was sickening.
After I sold the Salem designed period house I had designed the new owner had the roof replaced and completely amended so it would look like any other suburban non-entity. It turned what was an art work into just another blah. Some people have no taste. Couldn't bring myself to go inside.
how did you see the sparkle tops if you didnt go inside.... only joking.. wish I could go back and see where I used to live.. although nothing like how yours sounds... mine was just a small tenement flat.. and was demolished along with my grans and aunties houses in the early 70s... sad thing about being poor is you dont own your house so have no say in what happens to it when they want to build a road or whatever.... where they pulled down our building they put up a down and out hostel that turned into a nightmare and is also gone now....
I went back to visit my home town 57 years after I left. It is a small town in the mid west, and we moved to the west coast just before I started High school.
My two sisters and brother gathered there a few years ago, for a special occasion, so we drove by the old homestead. When we lived there the home was on the edge of town with corn fields all around, now it is in the middle of town, as the town grew considerably since we left. Even with the growth, it is still quite small, with the current population is just under 15,000.
The home was on a large lot with a barn in back and fruit trees all around. Today the barn is long gone and the land with the fruit trees has another home on it. The home was huge when we lived there, today it is quite tiny, or perhaps my perception of size has changed after a lifetime away??
We parked in front of the home and called the owner on the phone and explained to her that it was our childhood home and that we would love to see what it looks like today. The lady was very friendly and we spoke at length, but she wouldn't let us come inside. She said she had not been well and the house was a terrible mess and she was embarrassed to allow us to see it.
Being unable to change her mind, we were left with no choice but to leave and not see the home. That was very disappointing as it was the home I was brought home from the hospital to, and lived there through the eight grade. Lots of memories, as you might imagine.....
Last edited by Grumpy ol' Man; 05-22-2016 at 08:09 AM..
That just made me remember that I buried a glass canning jar (!) in the alley behind our house with "treasures" in it when I was around eight years old. I can't remember what was in the jar and I can't imagine that it would still be there after all these decades.
I avert my eyes the few times when I visit my home town and pass my childhood home. My mother wanted it to go to a couple with children as it was a large house with a lovely, spacious yard. I actually think the people who bought it from us borrowed children to bring along with them the day we met.
They weren't the people who moved in. A very tall fence went up immediately and I heard rumors that the inside of the house was being trashed. Within a year or two the bank foreclosed. Whatever was happening there was not my mother's hope of a wholesome home with happy children.
It had been so well kept up and now it's in ruins. I still have a key and sometimes think about having a peek inside but I doubt that it's anything I'd want to see.
This is what happens though when a house is sold on.....its not your house anymore although it has all those memories.. I remember going up to my old flat as we had moved round the corner when I was about 10.. I didnt want to move but soon got used to the new flat.... One day I had to go to my old house and the lovely young mother invited me in..... I was devastated as it had changed so much... much more modern with fitted carpets.. this was back in the 50s and not many of us had fitted carpets then... the furniture was all modern and she had put in a new sink and fittings... I looked around hoping to see something from my past as a young child but could see nothing.. only the view from the window was the same.. felt so sad.
Grew up in a house in the 60s. Parents sold it in 70s, and it's changed hands a couple times since then. Sister calls me a couple years ago, says she noticed it was for sale, did I want to go look at it. We waited for an open house (didn't want to waste a realtor's time for a lookie), and walked thru.
My bedroom had a built-in desk with drawers. I had taken one drawer, and made it into a "pot" drawer (hey, this was the sixties, ok ). I lined it with mirrors, built in an ashtray, etc. It was still there! The entire setup was still in place!! Couldn't imagine what each successive buyer must have thought. But they all left it there.
And this was fifty years later!
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). I lined it with mirrors, built in an ashtray, etc. It was still there! The entire setup was still in place!! Couldn't imagine what each successive buyer must have thought. But they all left it there. 
