The house you grew up in

My dad never had a credit card and was proud of it. He and his dad were builders and built our house. If we didn't have money for something we went without. We sold the house about 17 years ago to a nice young couple. Their twin boys are now teenagers and the house has been upgraded. No longer has a dirt driveway and casual landscaping. It has been manicured with a sweeping terrace.
I was allowed a tour on a vist to my sister who lived behind on the next street. The most amazing change was the cellar which once held lots of lumber and all my father's tools. It is now an uncluttered workout space with a pristine floor and walls
 

Born_To_Lose said:
I knew what that was like with parents being here one minute and then gone the next.

My parents, siblings and myself grew up in a mansion.

My father was an Institutional Investor in precious metals and a broker in oil. My mother was a Federal District Judge in the state of Florida. I don’t think my parents saw much of each other. My father spent a lot of time in Europe and Africa. My father bought and sold Krugerrand's. He was also a broker for oil companies. During the summer, I would get to travel with him sometimes. My siblings had no interest in leaving the country. My biggest thrill was traveling to Antwerp (Belgium) and Tel Aviv (Israel) to watch my father trade, buy and sell diamonds. I wasn’t comfortable in Africa. The place gave me the creeps.

My brother, sister and myself had a live-in nanny that for the most part raised us. We went to a private school each day in a limo. We weren’t the only kids that traveled to and from school in that way. My sister and I turned out normal, but my brother is spending a life sentence in prison for killing two drug dealers. He thought he could kill each dealer and steal his stash and make millions. Ha, that didn’t work out very well at all. He’s lucky to even be alive. He’s in a Federal prison dying a slow death with cancer.

The home is still standing. Another large family lives there now or did 5 years ago when I last saw it.


That is fascinating, both the good and the bad.
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Babs2u said:
My dad never had a credit card and was proud of it. He and his dad were builders and built our house. If we didn't have money for something we went without. We sold the house about 17 years ago to a nice young couple. Their twin boys are now teenagers and the house has been upgraded. No longer has a dirt driveway and casual landscaping. It has been manicured with a sweeping terrace.
I was allowed a tour on a vist to my sister who lived behind on the next street. The most amazing change was the cellar which once held lots of lumber and all my father's tools. It is now an uncluttered workout space with a pristine floor and walls
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sounds terrible!!
 
I'm an outlier on this one. We moved so many times that I can't really point to a town much less house that I grew up in. I and my family lived in a trailer house usually parked on the edge of town. The first actual house I semi-called home was a rental when I was sixteen. With that past I made certain that my own family can point to that place called home and know they have roots that are all theirs.
 
I grew up on my grandfather's dairy farm surrounded by 5 other farms, sheep, poultry and eggs, and meat livestock.

The state bought all the farms, leveled the ground, and sold it to developers. It's still mostly just leveled ground.

When I was 15, my dad bought a large family home. After my parents died, my oldest brother sold the house and all "us kids" got a check. It's crazy, in 1970, our parents paid $15.5K for our 4br-2ba house on a quarter-acre. Bro got just under $400K for it.

The family that bought it tore about half of it down and rebuilt it.
 
the first house I was born and brought up in until 8yrs was rather dingy but safe and friendly but next to a pub - the old guys coming out at closing time use to pee on our doorstep conveniently for them but not us - Ma was disgusted. The second house was tonnes better apart from having dads ma and pa there too!! - but they were all safe and happy days - the second house is still standing gets a fresh lick of paint regularly but has been turned into a 6 bedsit home for university students - not sure if I would enjoy walking through it now?
 
smiley said:
looks rather sadly neglected?
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Indeed, I think it is abandoned now. I moved away in 1982, rest of my family shortly there after.

It was located at a dead end street with a big circle to turn around. Oh the street parties we had there when we got old enough to drive.
 
smiley said:
where the tall trees originally there and what is that building to the right of the house if I may enquire?
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This photo is from a fairly recent Google street view, I moved away in 1982 so the trees were not as big. Building to the right is another house. Building on the left is a garage. There was one more house to the left as well.
 
GoodEnuff said:
Torn down and a mansion built on the lot. Other houses in the neighborhood, same thing. It has become an enclave of the rich.
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Ditto. I grew up in a stucco ranch-style house on a canal in Florida in the 60's and 70's. My parents kept it pristine and sold it in the early 90's. I went back to visit in the mid-2000's and it had been torn down and replaced with a McMansion that could barely fit on the lot and stood out like a sore thumb. All the other houses were still intact and well cared for. My parents paid $36k in 1966. Now the minimum home price in the neighborhood is $1.2m!
 
We were always on the move from when we first arrived in Australia. Always rental properties. 7 in all. Eventually my parents
saved enough money to buy a block of land and have a 2-bedroom, I bathroom, dining and kitchen combined and a toilet
and laundry around the back. We thought we were in heaven. We lived in that house, No. 60, for many years until I left home to get married. I went back a couple of times to look at the old place, but it has fallen into disrepair and looked like it was used as
a car spare parts dump. I'll never go back again,
 
Rider77 said:
I'm an outlier on this one. We moved so many times that I can't really point to a town much less house that I grew up in. I and my family lived in a trailer house usually parked on the edge of town. The first actual house I semi-called home was a rental when I was sixteen. With that past I made certain that my own family can point to that place called home and know they have roots that are all theirs.
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I find that interesting because, while I spent my own childhood in only 2 homes until I married, after I divorced and became a single working father of 3, I moved my kids from rental to rental through 4 different states taking better-paying jobs.

Thing is, all my kids bought homes before they hit their mid 30s, raised their kids in one school district from grammar to high school, and are all nearing retirement from companies they've worked for at least 20-some years.

I'm one of those boomers who often feels like I taught my kids more of what not to do than what they should do. 🫤

But they're all doing quite well, so, either way, I get credit.
 
When I lived downtown the neighborhood was turning bad, crime, poverty, houses were not worth much so in the mid 60's we moved to the suburbs. Today that old house is in a very desirable neighborhood and worth at least twice what the suburban one is.
 
I just looked up on Zillow the three houses I lived in growing up.

We lived with my grandparents until I was two and then my parents built a little house that my dad did most of the building of. When I say little, I mean little. Three rooms, one bathroom, one closet. It cost less than $3000 to build, including buying the land. Later they built two more rooms onto it. A few years ago, I drove past it. It had not been taken care of well and was pretty shoddy. It's a pity, because it was a sweet little house. It's no longer a good neighborhood.

Then when I was 10, we moved to what I thought was a mansion! It wasn't but it sure seemed like one. The front of it has been changed (they tore off the enclosed front porch and now the house looks naked) and the inside has been considerably remodeled. The neighborhood has stayed about the same.

My grandparent's old house is still standing and doesn't look much different except that the front and back porches have been changed. The neighborhood has definitely gone downhill.
 
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