We don't have an off-topic section anywhere in these threads, but I had a curiosity (a very frivolous one) and wanted to put it where I thought the most appropriate people would see it.

Those of you who've seen your first home come and go - how is it now, looking back? You know, things like your reason for leaving, whether you prefer your current home to your first home, what the best thing was about that first place, whatever about it made you happiest/made you decide to buy. You know, story time!

Because it's not giving anyone important information, I understand if the thread disappears, and apologize if I'm cluttering up the section with something silly. :P That having been said, I think it could be a pretty nice discussion/recollection.

I owned by previous home for over 18 years. It is a huge mistake to go back and see how it looks now. It was my dream and now it is someone else's , too many memories.

I'm in my 7th home now, each time my hubby was transfered, we'd have to say bye bye to whatever dreams we had in that home and memories became just memories. We'd have fun making more memories in each new home.

There were absolutely wonderful things about each and every home and it varied by stage of life we were in. If I look back at our first home, I wonder what in the world I ever saw in it. Other then the fact that it was building equity for our future, it really was a pretty basic tract house. We went back to look at it a few years ago when my son moved to that area of the country and couldn't believe how small it was, at the time to us it seemed huge. Perceptions change.

We still have relationships with neighbors from three of the homes we've owned. At first when a neighbor would say the new family tore out our rose bushes, or got rid of the slate roof, or carpeted over the hardwoods we painstakingly restored, it would hurt. But as time passed, we'd just realize that our memories had already been made in those homes and it was now time for the new owners to make their own memories.

Now in my 7th home which we at one time had hoped would be our forever home, but now realize that with all the kids grown and gone a 5 bedroom 3 bath house is too much. So when the market turns around, we'll downsize and make more memories, but never will we forget the memories we made in this home or any of our past homes.

Mrs. Stogs, Nice idea for a new topic thread. My husband and I bought the "old farmhouse" from his parents shortly after we were married.

Lived there for more than 20 some years with only one bathroom and we were happy. The furnace didn't work as well as it should have and A/C was opening doors/windows and putting fans where they would do the most good.

Bought our "dream house" four years ago and they will probably have to carry us both out feet first before we'll leave this place but the "farmhouse" will always be special.

Not much according to most people but it was full of love and happiness --- not to mention code violations too many to detail! Somehow we all survived; when we sell, it's a scraper...

That's so sad, Delysia. I can -kind- of relate; though I've never owned a home, when my mom and us kids relocated from Alaska to Wyoming, we moved into this horrible little apartment, and even though it was always pretty structurally horrid, my mother used creative decorative techniques and gorgeous wallpaper to make it look as nice as she could for us on our very limited budget. When I checked back on it after getting married, I discovered that all of the beautiful things she'd done had been stripped down, the walls bare white, the pine tree in the front sawed down, the fruit trees in the back no longer visible. I knew in my heart it belonged to someone else now, but I still felt like they'd changed my house.

Cordovamom, I love your contribution! I'm with you in thinking that each place you live leaves as much of a little footprint in you as you did in it, and growing up military, I know what it's like to just. keep. moving. It's funny how a mansion can become a shoe box as time goes by, that's for sure!
It's sad to know that the love you put into something is being redone or undone, but I agree, those new families have their own story to tell. Do you think it's maintenance or cost that has you considering a smaller place? If it's just the emptiness, you might consider keeping it and making it part of your estate, for your children's families many years in the future.

Thanks, Idaho! I love that you stayed so long in one place, with so many flaws, and still love what you had. It must have been -so- hard to pack up and say goodbye. Haha, when I live in a place for a year or two, I get teary knowing I'll never see all its little specific corners and oddities again. I'm a bit idealistic about homeownership, I'm hoping to find something with a good structure and a lot of repairs needed, so I can get a deal on a house that's big enough for us, then just make it our dream home over the years and never leave. I realize a lot of people don't do that anymore, but it's a fantasy I'll probably never let go of.

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Mrs. Stogs -- we'll be downsizing more for health reasons then anything else. Too much house to take care of with my mobility being challenged more and more so each day. 4 of our 5 bedrooms are on the upper level, and only used when children come home for a visit. Those visits are becoming less frequent as their own families grow and become busy. It's time for a 3 bedroom ranch when the market turns around !!

This is long sorry. I'm in the second home that I have OWNED.

I Love the show "Moving Up" because it shows old and new owners talking about what they love and hate. And of course, for drama and conflict, it contrasts the old owner saying "I love this countertop, floor, etc" and the new owner saying "This will be the first thing to go."

First, let me say, maybe it's me and I'm burned out on remodeling and construction. But even though I've loved what I've done here, I DO NOT want to do any remodeling in any next home I buy. I want to do exactly what I THOUGHT I would do here. Buy a place that was move in ready, needed no work, drop my bags and keep on rolling.

Right. I got caught up in remodeling the kitchen and painting and redoing the flooring, etc. I can't believe how many houses need work. I HOPE to be able to just move in and LIVE.

But here's more history:

1) childhood home - birth to 7 - rowhouse in philly that my mom an aunt rented. I drive through the neighborhood, which is regentrified now with the same old row houses now positioned as "townhouses." But it's city and not for this suburbanite me anymore.

2) 7-grad school: family home was another row house in a more 'suburban-like area of the city. with grassy back yard and small front yard.

It's 3BR 1 1/2 BA that's still in the family and my mom lives there now. I think it will always be the family home, my brother lives in the rec room area downstairs. (He's 46 years old so don't get me started on that I'm kidding. It is nice to have him there. He can fix stuff and check on her). My other brother lives across the street, which is nice too.

I remodeled the house top to bottom for her last year. It had the orginal kitchen and baths from 40 years ago. Now, I LOVE going home. Before the remodel it really was so cluttered and needed such repair that I hated going home. So I really remodeled it for ME not her. SHE, at 82, was perfectly happy. I"M he one who couldn't stand it.

3) In 1985, at at 25 I got lucky and was able to get a 2BR SMALL 600 sq ft. (plus cellar) inner city rowhouse through a low income sheriff sale program. The city remodeled it from a shell to completely brand new. I lived there 10 years and was able to buy it for 10-thousand dollars. I sold it in 1996 when I moved to the DC area. Sometimes I 2nd-guess selling it. It could be a money-maker RENTAL for me now if I'd kept it...That are is also hot right now.....but oh well.

4) Lived in an apartment 7 years because I didn't think I could afford a house in the DC metro area.

5) Finally bought where I AM NOW in 2003, what I can a 'real money' house for 220-th SFH suburban 3BR 2 1/2 BA that's I've remodeled quite a bit and still want to do more. This is an investment. And too much money to play around with.

Love the house and my neighbors and neighborhood. I'm here to stay until.....

Interesting topic. My family home was the one my parents bought and Dad lived in for 58 years before he sold it. Each of us kids thought about buying it but for vasriuous reasons, didn't. It was very old last century(1900's) house that really needed a lot of updating.
The neighborhood had changed since we were growing up and was more a college aged area, not a great place for families. Parking was a problem, etc.
Most of us pwned our own homes at the time and were not willing to give them up.

Eacvh house I lived in subsequently has it's memories.I guess every place I've lived whether it's been apartment, condo or house I've managed to make my home.

I love the place I'm in now because it suits us perfect for being older retired old fa*rts!
We always say they will have to carry us out feet first to leave this place.

It's funny because we never think about resale value or what if a potential buyer won't like this or that. We do exactly what we want with all the freedom that comes with knowing you are staying here forever or as forever pertains to us.

I am on my third home that I bought, however, I now live in the same city I grew up in until my family moved back to Canada in 1986 (they came back here though in 1989, and have stayed!)

My first house was a townhome in the kansas City area- I was single and 26 years old- so I wanted maintenance free living that was convenient to my office and all my hangouts! That was pretty much my only requirements back then- my how times have changed! Anyhow, I moved to come and work for my Father in the company he owns.

My second home was bought just after my now husband and I became engaged. We LOVED the yard- it was park-like with all it's gardens and trees. Unfortunately, we did not have our daughter at that point, so all the things we loved about our older home (cozy (translation- SMALL), older neighborhood with older homes/neighbors, etc.) became less endearing when she arrived. Especially the projects- it was harder to manage- we absoluetly could have found a way but we went ahead and gave it a go last summer and sold it twice in 3 weeks! (one buyers finacing fell through a week after she made her offer- second buyer went through fine)
So we found house #3.

THIS time, our main focus was a home that would take us through our daughter's graduation from high school! We picked this home for it's neighborhood (younger neighbours, LOT'S of kids- she has playmates at age 3 in the nighborhood), the floorplan works REALLY well for us. This is just a great fit.
That being said, this home is large (5 bedrooms, 3 baths) and we will probably downsize in the future as we get older and after she moves out- so we may still have one more move left in us! Until then, this is where we are staying- and we are both in jobs that will allow for that.

I HAVE driven by my childhood home and it is SCARY. Makes me sad.

I'm in my third owned home.
My wife and I married in 1996 and rented an apartment for 2 1/2 years before taking the plunge in April 1999 (actually 9 years ago yesterday!).
We bought a SMALL 1936 colonial that needed a LOT of work. The area we were in was quite pricey and we stretched to buy it-I can remember walking out of that closing with about $2500 to our names.
I got handy in a big hurry and figured out how to fix/replace things myself. We would float the materials cost on the Home Depot 12 months same as cash program and I spent pretty much every free moment the first year working on the house-new gutters, windows, siding, kitchen. Along the way we were forced to replace the old gas furnace and in doing so had a $5000 Asbestos remediatiom bill on top of that.
Fast forward 4 years-now we had a perfectly charming and fully updated home that had become too small for us. We looked for a larger home in the area but were priced out of upgrading, so we sold and relocated to North Carolina. We had paid $170 per square foot for the house and got $290 per square foot for it 4 years later-our total materials cost was about $15K. We had flipped a house without even trying.
Our money bought us a brand new home that was 3 times the size of the one we left. We were thrilled with it at first, but after living in a house for a while you discover things that you might change, and in a rapidly growing area there's always a new subdivision popping up.
3 years in and now with a 1 year old we decided to look around. We contracted to build a new home in June 2006.
The abridged story from there goes like this-
The house we are building took WAY too much time to finish mostly due to the poor management of the project by the developer. In the meantime we sold our other house and moved in with my Mom.
The situation in the new subdivision deteriorated to the point where we saw buying the house we had spent over a year speccing out as a dangerous decision. After much deliberation we terminated that contract and went house hunting.
We are still fighting over our deposits with the developer of the first house, but the home we found, bought and closed on within a 10 day period has turned out to be wonderful. It's smaller than the one we sold by about 20% but has a level of detail that's way superior.
It's really strange, but in the end we are far happier in a home that we didn't have anything to do with until it was completed than I think we would have been in one where we obsessed over every detail right down to placement of outlets and light switches.

I'm on my third home, and my first one was a fixer - little 1952 ranch (about 900 square feet) with everything ugly about it. I gutted it - learned how to do everything then (and totally got my aversion to wallpaper in the process). I sold that house and got another house in the same state that I really loved. It was a bit over 2000 sf, and much newer and brighter with big rooms. Loved that house. Transferred to this state, and I really like this house too. My husband and I are serial renovators. We don't seem to be able to not replace everything. Hey, it keeps us off the street!!!!

Between the two of us my DH and I have sold and bought somewhere around 10 homes. We are currently selling our new house that we had built in 2006. Another company transfer for us. This move is the saddest for me. We have great neighbors and friends. I can admit the house is too big for the 3 of us but when we built we got everything we wanted. Hardwood floors, downstairs master bedroom and a kitchen to die for. Maybe some day we will be transferred back here and may even come back to the neighborhood but to a section of homes that are smaller than this one. We had never built a house before but it was a great experience. I love my house and hope whoever buys it will love it like we do and have many happy memories in it. I have already moved on in my mind from this house and now just want to sell this house to get to were my DH is. Pray it will happen soon. I miss my DH so much.

Loves Tx

The first home I owned was a townhouse outside Boston. Good neighborhood. Not overly friendly neightbors. The kitchen had been refaced when I bought. I painted the whole house as well as painted the bathroom cabinets. Due to a flood I had to replace the downstairs carpet. It never really occured to me to gut the kitchen, though I had thought about redoing the bathroom. I guess in some ways I always felt the home was temporary (though I was there for 8 years). Having bought my second home (single family) that had been a foreclosure; I seem to constantly be renovating. When finished I want to invite the original owners to come see what I have done. The people they sold the house to were foreclosed on and left the house a wreck. A neighbor told me the original owners saw the house when it was trashed. I think that is so sad.

Bought my first house thirty years ago next month, and am now in my fifth owned house. First few were fixer uppers, this one is my forever house. We fell in love with the property and layout of the house. Some of the earlier houses appealed to me because of having features the previous house didn't have. First house was nothing more than a foot in the door, a chance to get in on the housing market. I loved the back yard and gardens of my second house, and also the proximity to a beautiful private lake and beach. My first baby was born there too, so I have very fond memories. Third house was special too, really pretty and my second baby was born there. It was the newest house I owned, the builder's own home. My current house is also a builder's own home. We never had to move for job relocation or any other reason. We just moved up when we felt it was time.

edited for typos.

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I'm really loving everybody's stories! Honk in particular, that seems like such a lovely thing to do. You should let us all know, when you get to that point, how they reacted to your updates. Loves Texas, I'll definitely keep a good thought for you selling fast so you can get on to where your hubby is. I really feel for you, you didn't even get to enjoy that house at all! Two years is like nothing.

I have to admit, any home I owned, unless it was newer, I'd always be worried about the older owners cruising by and being dismayed by something I'd done. I like to think my taste is pretty agreeable, though, so hopefully I'll be able to make the place mine without completely destroying the history that house has had with other families.

What a sweet topic!

We just sold our gazillion-th house. I remember them by the things I liked best. Highlights include:

The first (35 years ago in Arizona) was built by hand by some friends of ours & we bought the house from them, a month before DD #2 was born. It was the first house I owned. We lived there 5 years. I loved the unique fireplace of rocks, crystals & geodes.

#2 was near Buffalo, NY, & it had the most marvelous huge utility room with built-in shelves, which I used as a sewing & crafts room. Lived there a year or so, before DE (Dear Ex, as he is now) transferred at work.

#3 was in southern Illinois & had a wonderful walk-in basement, with another big crafts room for me. Lived there 2 years.

#4 was in Reno, Nevada. We had a wonderful yard with huge roses & a mini peach tree that produced one peach a day (the world's best peach, so that everyone tried to be the first to be up in the morning to snatch it off the branch & eat it!). Also it had a great covered deck. 2 years there.

#5 was in Lewiston, NY. We had it built, but moved before it was ever completed & I never saw it finished. 0 years.

#6 was in northern Florida. It was a gorgeous neo-Victorian & brand-new! I loved the spacious bathroom with garden tub, the beautiful fireplace in the living room, & the two big bay windows. 2 years.

#7 was a townhouse in the Houston area. It had lots of arched windows & the best kitchen! 1 year.

#8 was a Creole cottage on the Gulf Coast. We fixed it up cute, but I never really loved it. Well, it was big & did have lots of room & a beautiful dark-stained heart-of-pine floor. Lived there 14 years.

Just sold a lovely modern house in northern Texas. Loved the glorious master suite with 2 closets & big garden tub. Also loved the big kitchen with skylight, and the deck, porch & pond in back. It was the first house I bought without my DE, so I was very proud of it. My DD co-owned it with me & it was the very first house she ever owned, so it was special that way, too. 2 years.

I know I'm leaving something out of the list, but enough is enough!

P.S. The house I'll always remember belonged to my maternal grandparents in South Dakota. Grandpa (whom I adored) built it & when it was sold 50 or so years later, they found records of every nail used in it! It was a sweet,tiny cottage with arched doorways & beautiful wood floors. My parents were married in front of the stone fireplace. (They celebrated their 62nd anniversary last week!) The kitchen always smelled of coffee & sweet rolls. I haven't seen it since I was 19 (I turned 61 last week), but I'll never forget it. I only wish my 2 DDs could have experienced it, as I did. It was HOME.

I'm in my 3rd home.

First Home: House I grew up in and will always be home to me. I loved 99% of everything about the house. 3200 sq ft Philadelphia style, 12' ceilings, gorgeous wide door and window casings, beautiful vertical grade clear cut heart pine floors, claw foot tub, huge double sided farm sink....

Second Home: House was 3 years old when I purchased it 4 years ago. Stayed there for 2 years, the house was nice 2400 sq ft colonial 2.5 baths, 2 car garage, 4 bedrooms. I knew I wasn't staying in that house for the long haul, I never really liked the house from the get go the area was nice, but I missed the charm older houses have. I really don't like new construction.

Third (current) house: 1500 sq ft cape, 15 yrs old, 2 baths, 3 bedrooms. Again I don't like "new" construction. I miss the charm of my first home however I am making this house "charming" by adding things like wainscot in the dining room, beadboard in one of the bathrooms, Replacing the door and window casing with nicer ones, replacing all the interior doors from 6 panel hollow doors to two panel doors. The one thing I really hate about newer construction is the "open" concept with rooms all open to each other perhaps that's because of the growing up in a house that was over 100 years old. So this house I am putting an eyebrow arch between the kitchen and dining room with really nice case moldings I'm doing the same for the doorway from the kitchen to the office. Currently the dining room and kitchen are open to each other so we are going to build out the walls, add a header then add the eyebrow a