I can imagine having to sell your folks’ home is definitely a trip down memory lane, everywhere you look. It’s hard view the houses as just what they’re made of and not the memories attached to them (at least in our minds they’re attached to the houses). On my way home from work the other day I decided I needed to swing by my PO Box that’s near my folks’ home they just moved out of and thought since I was in the neighborhood I’d do a drive by and see if how it looks with the new owners in it. Not much different from how it looked two weeks ago when my folks were packing up and moving out.

Ryan

I can relate…I am in the process of selling the house I grew up in and that had all of my parents’ belongings, and no matter how greener the new pastures, it is still difficult to say good-bye, especially with so much nostalgia involved/attached to it. I do hope the new owners of both of our houses make them as much of a home as our families did!

-Lara

Yes, I agree its the people aspect that makes a home a home. Really a house is nothing more than shelter and a place to store stuff. The memories aren’t attached to the building, but the memories of the experiences in the building. The memories come with us, they aren’t locked in the physical building. And I’m sure if I really feel a need, I can always drive by the old neighborhood.

In a way I kind of prepped for it mentally about a week earlier I had driven by the first neighborhood my family lived in here in San Diego (as it’s less than 5 miles away from where I’m presently living, literally just on the other side of the highway) and reminisced about the memories from that neighborhood even though we were only there our first two years in California. I didn’t intentionally do so, it just happened because traffic didn’t allow me an opportunity to get into the lane I needed to be in to get on the highway so I ended up crossing the bridge over to the other side and on a spur of a moment decided to just check out the old neighborhood. Although it’s not likely to be a “spur of the moment” decision to drive by the old neighborhood as its about 20 miles away, it’s still reasonably close and I do have a PO Box in the area.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the moment I’m able to purchase my first house.

Ryan

Strangely my folks aren’t downsizing, the new place is actually bigger. They’re going from a home with 4 bedrooms to one with 5 bedrooms and a bonus room on top of it. But my mom especially loves the view of the new place. It’ll be interesting to see when I finally do see the new house for the first time. My brother and I weren’t particularly as keen on keeping the house in the family I guess perhaps because we had been used to short stays in homes prior to this one and my mom has been wanting out of this one for many years.

Ryan

So, once my wife and I decide what we are going to do, my daughter has insisted on getting first chance to buy this place.

It was very pleasing as a parent that the 3 of them have such feelings about this home.