Driving by your old house

Discussion in 'New Roundtable' started by lsu99, Jun 17, 2014.

  1. lsu99

    lsu99 whashappenin

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    My parents have been driving by old houses that they lived in for my entire life. When I was a kid, it didn't interest me much since I had no connection to most of the houses (except for the one I remembered when I lived there from 2-4 yrs old).

    Now, I do the same thing when convenient. One is the house in Houston (Heights) that we lived in from '01-08. Both of my kids were born when we lived there.

    The other is the house that I grew up in from 4-18 yrs old, which I drove by this weekend. My basketball goal is still up but probably not for much longer. I wanted to get out of the car to do a Shaq dunk to put it out of its misery.

    I'm assuming most people drive by their old houses although don't recall anyone ever talking about it.
     
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  2. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    I still own the house that I grew up in after the age of 8. I see it several times a year. Before Dad retired we moved around a lot and those houses are in cities far away and faint in my mind.
     
  3. locoguano

    locoguano Founding Member

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    I lived in the same house from ages 1-20. It was gutted by a fire but the shell was still there so we sold it and it was rebuilt. What struck me driving past my old house...
    1. How small it is compared to the house I own now.
    2. The trees that we planted when I was 8 years old were nice, small shade trees. Now they take up half the yard.
    3. It is hardly recognizable because of all of the changes (painted brick, changed out doors, closed in carport), yet the little clubhouse my mom built in the backyard for my little sister is still there.
     
  4. KyleK

    KyleK Who, me? Staff Member

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    The house I grew up in has been painted by the present owners. My parents lived there from 61-2005. It was always the same color. The color it is now is so freakin ugly, that I avoid going past it.

    I get a kick out of going past houses that I have bought and sold as investments. Gives me pleasure thinking about the profits I have made from them.

    The two houses that my wife and kids and I lived in always bring back really good memories. It's nice to see them when they are well maintained.
     
  5. StaceyO

    StaceyO Football Turns Me On

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    We moved around a lot when I was a kid, so there was never really one place that I called home. However, the house I lived in during high school is in disgraceful shape these days.

    My daughters have only lived in two houses (and we're likely to stay in the one we're in now because it'll be paid off in 10 or so years.) The first one was our starter home that we had built in the summer of 2000. When we sold it in '07, it became a rental property.

    We worked so hard in that yard on cultivating the lawn, and my flower beds were terrific. These days, the only things still alive in the front flower beds are the holly bushes that are taller than the roof line of the house and the weeds that are just as high. And there is no grass left in the front yard. I'm sure our neighbors from across the street (with whom we had an unofficial yard competition) are still pissed that we moved, and they have to look at that crappy yard now.

    We bought a house that belonged to an Asian family who never did anything with the yard, either. It's been a struggle to get the flower beds in order and to get the grass looking healthy.

    In fact, the only thing growing well in the two tree flower beds in the front were green onions. Wow--what a great aroma to be floating around my front yard...

    I've eradicated those finally. And the next best plants in the beds were three sago palms. But there is a problem with that. Sago palms do NOT like this North Texas climate. Periodically, ice/snow storms have killed all of the greenery on them. Amazingly, one of them that died in the 6-inch ice storm from last December is coming back right now (the other two haven't come back).
     
  6. lsu99

    lsu99 whashappenin

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    Off topic but didn't want to start another thread that doesn't relate to many people:

    The bed that one of my kids sleeps in is the bed that I had from ages 4-18. When I get the rare chance to take a nap, I'll sleep in his bed and it's always the most relaxed and deep sleep I ever get. One of my friends mentioned recently that he does the same thing in his childhood bed (which is now his son's bed).

    It's a different mattress so probably just a mental thing.
     
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  7. KyleK

    KyleK Who, me? Staff Member

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    Cut all the dead crap off of them. They usually come back.
     
  8. StaceyO

    StaceyO Football Turns Me On

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    Yes, I did that, and have done that every time after a snow storm or ice storm. They've never looked very good since the 15 inch snow event in the winter of '10. They should not be planted in this climate; it just gets too cold.
     
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  9. COramprat

    COramprat Simma Da Na

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    We moved around quite a bit when I was young too. Mostly apartments. I have taken the kids buy houses we lived in for longer periods and pointed them out. I always wondered what the families living there now would think if I stopped by and said "Hey, I used to live here."
     

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