For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 23, 2021

That was really nice I liked!

I hope the owners of my maternal grandparents’ house in Graham County, Arizona are taking good care of the house too (since my grandparents’ 2007 and 2008 deaths).

I, too, hope the new people in my parents’s house and mine after I inherited it, take good care of it. After I sold it, I learned it was sold to a flipper who did an outstanding job of bringing the house to date – all of which hubby and I envisioned for the house, he did them all. I was dejected for a while after it was sold. It was my childhood home and where I raised my young family.

I wonder if the echoes of all that love and living will ever fade from the old house.

You can be house-less, but if you’re surrounded by good people that care for you, you won’t be home-less.

My parents kicked around a bit before they were able to buy a house. Which they lived in for fifty years, basically the remainders of their lives. They made bits and dribbles improvements over the years. We lived in a nice town to grow up. But for whatever reason I can’t say that I’m nostalgic for the place.

Time marches on, and waits for no one.

My Mom’s house was bought by a man that ended up marrying my daughter. He turned out to be too much like my Dad and they divorced. True story

A bit too much reality here. Wait ‘til it’s your turn, folks.

Just hope that the new owners don’t decide to tear the house down and build something else brand new on the same spot..

A friend of mine recently went through a rather sad time. She had to help her parents move out of her childhood home…that they had built themselves!

Never go back to see what happened to a house that you sold.

In Austin a 60 year old house unless it has had major updates will be sold as a tear down or a tear out. 60 year old wiring and plumbing are well below current building code and the slab is likely cracked It is nice to know I can sell my 1,800 sq ft 60 year old house over the phone to a developer for $650k+ who will tear it down and put up a $1.5 million house. I now have two such houses next door and behind me and they are ugly and clash with the 1960s ranch houses on the street.

It’s usually tears and memories as we see our old homes in the rear view mirror, but it becomes smiles and dreams when we get to the new digs. It is as it always was.

I get it. Mr. pheets is my home :)

Lynn’s Comments:

My parents never did sell their house and move to a smaller place. By the time they were thinking of this, Mom was too sick to move and Dad wanted her to stay in their old, familiar surroundings. What happened in the strip is what should have happened; how their last years should have been. I was able to hold onto both of them just a little longer in my make-believe comic strip world.

I wonder if new owners fed the birds and protected the trees on the homes I’ve sold and moved away from.

I had a family home that was incredibly difficult to leave in middle school. It was perfect; a basement that had a spare bathroom and a backdoor that would lead to the backyard, a side door in the kitchen, and a rock wall in the living room where I pretended to climb. I miss that house and every time I get close to the old road, I like going back and looking at the memories.

My wife and I are in that situation with our extensively landscaped property and talked about moving into a smaller place but we cant bear to part with all the plants, animals and garden fixtures. Instead we have decided to just let it fall down around us or, should I say, with us.

I am so envious. I read the comments and I wish I had those kind of memories and feelings for my childhood home. After my parents died, my brother and I couldn’t sell their house fast enough and be forever rid of it. People ask things like, “do you ever drive by and see how it looks now?” Which makes me think, “Why would I do that?”

“L.A.‘s fine, but it ain’t home; New York’s home, But it ain’t mine no more.”

For my parent’s home, a year after losing our mom, my sister/husband all they did sit in furnished house, I ask what do we want to do, they was not in any hurry, and I told them costing money for utilities, then b-i-l said let’s get busy, We did not sell the house and I found I not in home remodeling and we investigate lease agreement and on our 2nd renter. The house did change some, used to have floor furnace most insurance will not accept, that removed with central air and heat new.

I expect to be in our home for at least another decade, but I still wonder whether future owners would care for the garden or tear it out.

It’s funny – I sold my house not that long ago after living there about 15 years. It was a busy and hectic transition with everything moving really fast. Towards the end before the new owners took possession I realized, just for myself, that I needed to walk though and talk to my house … telling it that it had served me well and I appreciated it. Maybe a little crazy, maybe a little mystic, but it seemed to help me make piece with the change and move to think of my new house as home.

I went back to my hometown for a high school reunion 8 years after selling my childhood home. I drove past and it looked good. I stopped to admire it and saw a woman leaving the driveway. I flagged her down and explained I had grown up in her house. She was on her way to pick up her child at school but asked me to stay until she returned. She invited me into the house. It was interesting the things that had changed, décor mainly, and the things that were still the same. The house had good bones and was in a good neighborhood. They were a young family and loved the house. I was thrilled!

I’ve moved several times over the years, but every apartment or house I lived in felt like home to me. Oh, wait—all except the house with the stairs that tried to kill me. That one never felt like home. Just a way station. :-)

Helps to know family recognizes home as being where ever the family is.

When we sold our home in Henderson, NV, the first thing the new owners did was remove 3 huge shade trees. Those trees really helped to keep the place cool, but they were messy. I hope they were happy with the trade-off. Shade is a necessity in Nevada.

My older brother was in town & he wanted to see what my grandmother’s last house looked like. (she died several years ago but my brother never saw her house)

When it was time for my grandmother to move, my parents lucked out that there was a woman who was very interested in the house. I think she grew up a block or two over (I’m not sure if her parents still lived nearby, or if she just wanted to return to the neighborhood). I was in college at the time, and my best friend from high school called me a few weeks after the sale. Unbeknownst to all of us until then, the buyer was my friend’s aunt! My friend had been visiting her aunt and recognized the house from the times we’d visit my grandmother after school. :)

Dementia is no handicap. Many people have had it. My running mate for example, whom today is President!