My grandfather's house

You're not bonkers to think about it, but you just might be bonkers to actually do it!

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, but sometimes those memories are best left in the past. Only my opinion, of course.

Hardly! I hope you can manage it as long as you don't go into it only with the rosy coloured goggles on!

Were you thinking of moving anyway? Do you like the area enough to spend more than a holiday two weeks? Do you have family living near you now? Just don't let your heart rule your head.Good luck.

If I were in your shoes; and had time and money and energy, it's the sort of thing I would want to do.

The only thing that would make me hesitant would be if the area had changed a lot. Why does the house need so much work?

I must be bonkers as well, mrsmopp. A year ago my family home on the Isle of Wight, which has now been divided into two large flats, popped up on Right Move. The top flat looked very inviting having been tastefully decorated and I could imagine living there again.

A lot of our friends have moved back to the Island now they are retired and the temptation to sell up and join them was overwhelming because Mum had just died so there was nothing to tie me here.

My brother knocked some sense into me by saying, 'Don't even think about it. We had the good times and they sure as hell ain't coming back.'

DH would have backed me in a heartbeat but it would have been the wrong thing to do.......I suppose.

Is it possible to go and see it and look round the area to see if it's still as appealing as it used to be?

I would think of a short term rent in the area first to see how the area suits the 'older me' annsixty makes a good point when she asks, were you thinking of moving anyway?

There's the OP's DH to consider as well, let's not forget...he doesn't sound very keen at the moment.

The area is as lovely as ever. Nothing has been done to the house for many years so new kitchen, bathrooms, heating system and redecorating all necessary so the house could be made lovely again. It would be hard due to distance. As for Dh, he has always picked where we live due to his work. We are retired & could live anywhere. I would never get this chance again. I keep looking online to see if it's been sold.

Investigate - no need to make any major decisions but definitely sound it out properly. That's my advice. Why not?

Your memories of your grandfather's house is wrapped up in your memories of him and how it was furnished, smelt and how your grandfather occupied it.

Living in the house yourself with your belongings and family will not be the same. The neighbours will be different, the shops, the amosphere, the life. More than anything memories are of people and then their settings, not the other way round.

When my children were young we spent a week every summer staying with my aunt and uncle, my children adored it there and adored their aunt and uncle and the special things they did together. They also loved the house, which was old and quirky.

When I was sorting out the estate after my DU's death my son was applying for a job in the area and had he got it wanted to buy the house and live there himself. Thankfully he didn't get the job. As we all admit now, we all wanted to keep the house in the family because of all the happy memories of its occupants.

This summer, DH and I revisited the area, some 10 years after DU's death. It was lovely revisiting an area we had got to know well over the 35 years our relations lived there. It was almost unchanged and we will go back again, drive past the house - and at the end of the holiday go home. The area is 100s of miles from family and friends, difficult to access, and a long way from amenities we want in our lives.

We are very glad now that DS didn't get the job, or buy the house, it was an unsuitable house for him. We have realised the truth of the saying; 'The past is another country, they do things differently there'.

Buy it. Move. Be happy.

I wouldn't want to move back to any of my old homes but I would really love to pretend to be a potential buyer and look round some of them.

The past is indeed another country and there is one house which was so dear to me that I just couldn't look around it for fear of crying.

Falconbird Try the 'house prices' section of Right Move. If the house has sold in the last few years and been advertised on Right Move the Land Registry record on RM will usually have the photographs from the estate agent details attached.

After my grandmother, whom I adored, died, it was more than 30 years before I even bear to go down the road she lived in and see the house from the outside, although though I had many opportunities to do so. Nearly 60 years after her death, I recently found details of my grandmother's house and internal photos on RM, and it was an emotional experience to see them, but I have saved them and added them to my family history file and the section on my mother's family.

I agree with jingle; reckon it's an age thing but I seem to be emotionally moving back towards my roots [probably why I keep going back to Birmingham] and think I would be more than happy to live there again if my children weren't living near to me. However, the S.O. is trying o sell his holiday flat at the moment and buy another and each time I start planning how to decorate any new property the sale falls through, so mrsmopp must be prepared to be disappointed. Not sure that it's worth looking at any other properties as the one with the memories needs to be the one to move to.

I don't think you are bonkers at all. I would love to move to where my grandfather lived, but the house is no longer there, and I don't think I would get planning permission to rebuild it. The house my other grandfather lived in was demolished years ago, and a Co-op store stands on the site.

I would love to live in my childhood home again. If they hadn't pulled it down years ago. And built two singularly unattractive semis where our little block of four used to be.

I just go back in my mind. Usually at night before I go to sleep.

I really appreciate all these replies, that have shown such understanding of the situation. The emotional pull has been huge. The property has not been sold for quite some time.
There are a few issues though- the fact that a lot of work is needed which would be very costly, and stressfull now at our age; the distance is considerable; and DH definitely is not really interested; he is hoping I will forget the idea. I am letting my heart rule my head, I think, and not being logical.
I am sure it will be snapped up by a property developer who will see the potential.
Ah, well, it was a lovely dream but sadly not to be.

I may not be alone here in saying that my present life is light years away to both my childhood and the life my GP's lived and it would be ten retrograde steps back to go back. By hard work and some good luck we have a lifestyle and a house my GP's could never even thought about never mind aspired to. I would thank my lucky stars most days if DH had the health to appreciate it also.

My DGP had a lovely big old Victorian terrace. With running cold water only and outside loo, of course, but I would love to have lived in its updated self.

Sadly the whole terrace was flattened years ago to make way for an industrial estate.

I completely understand how you feel, I'm always checking on Right Move to see whether there is a house for sale in the road I lived in for the first 9 years of my life. It's pure nostalgia I guess, I have many memories of the duck pond beyond the fence at the back of the garden of this house, which was surrounded by Weeping Willows and where I have so many memories of early childhood, I only realised in retrospect what a lovely place it was.

MOnica Thanks for the tip about Rightmove. One of my new hobbies will be searching to see if any of my old homes are on the Market. Can't help wondering what new owners have done to my old properties.

Falconbird When on Right Move, click on 'House Prices' on the bar at the top, then 'Find Sold House Prices'. You will find out whether the house that interests you has been sold in the last 20 years and for how much. And as I said if the sale was in the last five years there should be pictures available as well.