Have you ever gone back to a house you lived in 30+ years ago...

No, but I kind of wish I've found more of the previous residents here, other than someone's old razor blades.

One thing I liked is that when we redid the bathroom, we took it more back to the original. Fixtures are new, but used a pedestal sink. When we took off a large mirror, there was wiring from old lighting, so put lighting back there. 1970s era tile was removed and the old 1920s porcelain was underneath, which we kept (except in one area where it was too far gone.

 

I've never been back in the house I lived in during the first seven years of the '80s, but I drive by it frequently and it has changed quite a bit. Lots of good memories left from that little cape cod. I made enough money on it when I sold it to put a large down payment on the house we live in now and I'll always remember that small, two bedroom home fondly.

Rich

 

I was thinking of a trip to look at a house I lived in back in 1963. its in Dublin CA.

 

Except for one house that was torn down for a parking lot for a state beach, I've "driven" by every house I've lived in since I was age 5 via Google Maps Street View. For some reason, it turns out that's good enough for me.

Of course, the house we're living in we moved into in 1988.

 

My mother is 92.
My dad and I built the house she is living in today in 1955. When we were building it we lived just across the street. The house across the street has changed in size and looks over the years but the one dad and I built is exactly the same now as it was then.
Dad wanted a house that would stand forever. We used a concrete slab and then the large cinder blocks for the outside walls and the thinner cinder blocks for the inner walls. Every piece of wood that was a drop that was long enough was turned into a brace for the roof. The neighbors teased us and told us that you could drive a tank over the roof and it would not cave in. We worked on it a little bit every day. When we were ready to quit I climbed up a ladder and poured any remaining concrete / mortar down the holes of the outside walls. You definitely think about it long and hard before deciding to hand anything on the wall. It still has the original natural gas heater in the hall to heat the house.

 

I've driven by 4 of my former homes from 30+ years ago in the past 7 yars. (I've owned 7 homes over the years, in addition to several rentals). I haven't ben in any of them. Externaly,two have changed. The first house I owned (in the 60's) had the garfage changed into a family room, I believe, and a detatched garage built in the back yard. The other,from the 70's has sadly had the original redwood siding replaced by vinyl and the Anderson windows apparently replaced as well.

 

I have been able to check out my former homes (one online) and with one exception not a whole lot has changed. I lived in Phoenix as a kid and we moved to Denver in '71. 2001 was the first time i had a reason to go back to Phoenix and except for a small addition behind the carport the house looked unchanged. The one thing that hit me was the palm trees, by the time we moved I was old enough that all yardwork was my responsibility and trimming those palms took a 6' stepladder. They are now around 50' tall! First house of my own was in Houston and while I have not been back there I could see on Google Earth time lapse that the house was leveled and the property is still vacant. I moved to Denver and that house which I sold 12 years ago looks unchanged the last time I was by there last year.

 

I remember an episode of Frasier where he and Niles went to a house they had lived in and found a skull. They forgot that it was a leftover prop from a school production of Hamlet and were sure that a murder had occurred in the house.

 

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew ye well..."

 

The last house we lived in, four blocks away, was torn down many years ago and replaced by a monster mansion. I've looked at other houses we have lived in using Google's street view. The most interesting old house I actually visited was my grandmother's house in Allentown, Pa. She lived there in the 1930's. We saw the house from the outside. A kindly woman from across the street invited us into her house, which had the exact same layout, so that I could get a good idea of the house that way.

 

On a business trip to the D.C. area in 1967 I tried to find the house I lived in back in 1943 in Chevy Chase, MD. I found the street but couldn't find the address (maybe the numbers had been changed). I vaguely remember what it looked like but couldn't find one which fit my impression from when I was 4 years old. I have driven by several houses I have lived in over the years but never looked inside. I did look inside one house in Pasadena, CA that my wife and I lived in just after we were married in 1958. It was a little one-bedroom place that rented for $75/month. It later had been turned into a bicycle shop.