OT Going back

[Sailorsong]

Have any of your that have owed more than one house ever gone back to see it many years later? I did that with the first house I ever owned on my way back to TN this time. The house is just 5 miles off of I-495 in Merrimac MA so it wasn't much of a detour.

It was 30 years old when I bought it 40 years ago. A small 560 sq ft place on less than 1/4 acre. As I looked at it I wondered how I could have ever could stand to live there. I was feeling claustrophobic just being in the neighborhood with all those houses right next to each other. Especially since even the one area of woods that were near the house now had houses on it. Those woods I had spent many hours riding and walking in while I lived there when I felt things closing in on me.

On the bright side the current owners have done everything I wanted to do with the place (Fence, plants, etc) and it looked just like I had envisioned it back then. Never could get my wife to let me to those things back then.  I had paid $25K for it and sold it 5 years later for $47K to a couple with 3 kids. I looked up the value for it today and it is now worth $186K.

Dennis

[Guitar_grrrl]

I just got back from a drive through the southern Sierras with my Dad.  We looked at his old cabin that he sold about 5 years ago.  He still has a parcel up there that he's considering selling.  Nothing had changed from the last time he'd seen it, but we had a good time saying hi to the locals he knew there.

[Sailorsong]

Lulu,

Actually my love for large amounts of nature started long before then. When I was 9 my father was stationed at Ft. Lewis in Washington. The back yard of your house on the base was right next to American Lake. "American Lake appears more as a scenic wilderness lake with majestic Mount Rainier as a backdrop to the southeast". So with that for a view from my back yard  it help cement my life long love of nature.

But I think what cinched the deal was when we took a drive up Mt Rainier the first July we lived there. When we got to the highest point of the road in the park there was a visitors center and a large parking lot. But to get to the actual shopping building you had to walk through a tunnel through the snow pack.  To this day I can still remember my amazement at that experience as if it was just yesterday.

Every chance I got while we lived there I spent at the bottom of a small incline that led to the shoreline of American lake. I would sit there (or lay there) just looking at that view and listening to the music coming across the lake from the EM club/beach about 1/2 mile away. If you go on-line and look up American lake you can find some pictures of what my daily view was from my home there. Since then I've never really been happy unless I had easy and quick access to large expanses of nature.

When I was 17 and we were living in CA my father took us on a trip to Northern CA to look at a 300 acre place in the middle of nowhere that he was thinking of buying. Of course I fell in love with it immediately especially with the small brook running through the property. Even though I understood why my dad decided against the place (No work to be had) I was still mad at him for many months. The last time I was out in OR on the way back I drove past that property and the town still consists of just a combination gas station, post office, convenience store.  and no work around for at least 50 miles.

Dennis

[Lulu54]

PD - boy do I remember those porcelain-on-steel cabinets.  That's sure a blast from the past....

Dennis, this now explains the rest of the story as to why you wanted to buy a house in Maine.  Those trips down memory lane are something to take when we're in the right frame of mind.  The first house we owned and lived in for 16 years, had just under 900 sq ft of living space on the first floor and now I can't imagine living in that small space.  But the yard was large and we had a church parking lot as the back neighbor so the kids always had a great place to ride their bikes.    Unfortunately, revisiting the place is sad because it was sold as a foreclosure a year or so ago.

We recently drove past the home my grandparents lived in - it was a beautiful place full of all types of architectural details, wooden floors, leaded glass windows,  and of course decades of great memories.  It brought me to tears to see it had boarded up windows and was abandoned.  This was a case where I should have never driven past and left the memories be different.  I haven't the heart to mention it to my mother - she would be even sadder.  

[PastorDan]

I just wonder if they still have those white porcelain-on-steel cabinets or the 1"x1" ceramic bathroom tile.

[doublevision1]

We just moved from the first home we owned earlier this year, so I'm not feeling nostalgic enough to return.....and may not ever return to that town, as its up north and not on the way to anything but perhaps Santa's workshop. ;). However my parents bought and sold many houses when I was growing up  as we moved all over the country, and I do swing by those houses whenever I return to those cities to visit. I know what you mean about looking small and claustrophobic. I always think that when I pass by the first house they ever bought. I lived there age 4-7. I remember it seeming so big, with a large yard, but it's probably no more than 700 square feet, with a tiny yard, not very large for 2 kids and 3 adults.  As for value today I don't know, but I think my parents got it for $15K. Hard to imagine!