Re: Returning 'Home'

I only live a mile from the house I spent >35 years in and often look at it if I change buses along that route. I did walk past it probably last year and a group of young adults were by the front door. On hearing them speak I didn't ask to be allowed in to take a look. I think they were EE.

The house I'd love to look at is the one that belonged to my maternal grandparents. I remember it as being dark, full of furs and sewing machines. It had a long hallway. My aunt and uncle and cousin lived in the middle bit, with steps down to a cellar, and Nan lived in the back room. Though they did of course have a rarely used front room and bedrooms. There was also an Anderson shelter in the garden. (My grandfather bought the house.)

Re: Returning 'Home'

I'd like to look inside my grandparents' last two homes too, instead of just the outside on Google Maps. (Just looking at the current prices is frightening enough.)

Re: Returning 'Home'

My daughter sent us a photo last year of the first home my husband and I owned in Derbyshire, when we married in 1969. She happened to be in the area and thought we would be interested to see it. I looked on Rightmove and discovered it had been up for sale fairly recently, there were some internal photos of it, which were interesting.

The eternal photo showed the rockery my husband had created all those years ago was still there.

Re: Returning 'Home'

I never look at any of my previous homes except the one mum still lives in. It just doesn't interest me. Past is past. I have great memories but bricks and mortar hold nothing special.

Re: Returning 'Home'

Sad to see on Google Maps that my parents' garden was destroyed (to make parking space for how many cars?) I wish I had asked the people who came for the funeral to take as many plants as they wanted.

Re: Returning 'Home'

I wonder if someone is looking at my present house in real life or on Google Maps and thinking "that was home, I used to live there".

Re: Returning 'Home'

I've walked past my growing up home quite a few times, it's now a holiday cottage at extortionate rates.

Likewise my grandparents house in Dartmouth, also a holiday cottage these days.

Re: Returning 'Home'

I would love to go back and visit our old house in Bethnal Green, East London, just to see the crack in the wall stuffed with newspaper and the outside loo but unfortunately the whole street was demolished many years ago.

Re: Returning 'Home'

Mups, not sure if you meant 'old house' as in the family home or any house we've lived in.

Anyway....where I was born... yes. It was in Surrey and my bestest husband took me back there and had me stand outside while he took a picture. Nice to see the design and it was in a nice street. Other than that, it meant nothing as I don't remember it.

Been back to the 'real' family home 3 times after I'd sold it.
Nice to see what they had done to it. (They invited me back and I got cake and coffee (yuk was that nasty). Had a good old natter to the old neighbours too

Other than those, I've moved so many times and been back inside two of them.
One hadn't changed at all. Seeing that house again sadden me a bit as that was a goal I wanted to achieve, and I did. I was so proud of all I'd done to it too. I made the mistake of selling it because of circumstances and in retrospect I could have stayed if I'd waited another month. Such is life
The new owners are still there, lovely family so that makes me feel better.

The other one had changed and what they'd done was lovely.

It's nice when folk invite you back in.

Re: Returning 'Home'

The place where I was born had been a "stately home". Declared unfit for human habitation by the MoD, so they put mothers and babies in there. I don't remember that as my mother was only there a few weeks, only remember being shown the building up on the hill years later. Now it has been converted into very expensive retirement flats.

The place I think of as "home" was where I lived for the next nearly 6 years, a house of multiple occupancy. That's the one that's now been converted into 3 (very expensive) flats.

After that there was the thirties semi where my parents lived for 46-53 years. I wouldn't go there now as there's no-one left in the area whom I knew, though it's interesting to google. Then various bedsits. Then a flat, then a house, and now this one. Again interesting to google to see what has changed.