Ever Knocked into the house where you grew up?

ronan45 · 04-03-2011 11:10PM #1

The house I grew up in i i drove by recentle they have gates up now. I half thought should i ring the door and ask to look about?
Would it be ok to knock on someones house and say "can i look about i lived here 20 years ago" or would they think your potty?

My name is URL · 04-03-2011 11:12PM

I'd see it as kind of odd tbh.

Solnskaya · 04-03-2011 11:16PM

I live in an old house with previously posh owners and spend a fair bit of time telling sons/daughters/nephews/nieces/aunts/brothers in law of the past owners to "feck off, no, you can't look around, and yes, I am a rude man*. and no, I don't care who you are. Move on the feck.

Mint Sauce · 04-03-2011 11:18PM

The house I lived in 20 odd years ago was a flat on the top floor of a high rise in south london, i'd be lucky to make it though the car park. So no.

04-03-2011 11:19PM

My grandparents live in the house where I grew up, I see it every week

rannerap · 04-03-2011 11:22PM

I go by my old house every now and again ,I always want to knock in, but as someone said its completely crazy! Id rather remember it as it was anyway

Absurdum · 04-03-2011 11:24PM

I just walk in, I still have my key

galwayrush · 04-03-2011 11:24PM

The house i first got got laid in was replaced by a block of flats...

Jesus Wept · 04-03-2011 11:26PM

It'd be nice if one house came to mind instantly but it doesn't.

Up-n-atom! · 04-03-2011 11:26PM

Wouldn't mind going in just to see what the place looks like now. It was bought by a factory owner to house immigrants who worked for him, so dunno what they'd make of me strolling in to have a nose around at the front garden that's now a vegetable patch and the new extension.

recyclops · 04-03-2011 11:31PM

A good pal of mine grew up in england moved over here when 13, last year we were goin over to england for a visit knew she was gonna head back to her old neighbourhood so unbeknownest to her, i sent the houseowners a letter explaining that she would be going over and asked would it be ok if she called in.
They got back to me said wouldnt mind at all if she knocked in knowing it would mean the world to her, so when there i strolled to door much to her shock and called in, the owner let us in had lunch etc ready and it made her trip, nice story really.

TanG411 · 04-03-2011 11:31PM

About a year ago the council did up a small row of houses, one of them being my childhood home. Moved out when I was 10 -- I was an independant child -- but that's a different story.

I pass it whenever I go to town, which is nearly everyday because I have college. I've always had the urge to knock on the door, see who's living there now, and have a look at how it's done up. Obviously the owner will think I'm crazy and never allow such a thing to happen.

It's also on my mind to buy the house someday, unless the owners are paying a mortgage.

seafood dunleavy · 04-03-2011 11:37PM

Paedophiles will try anything these days.

dazberry · 04-03-2011 11:39PM

After we all left my father put a big extension on the back of the house (why???) and eventually when he went to sell the house - no one wanted it because it then had a tiny back garden. In the end he sold it to "the corporation" who housed a woman and her disabled daughter in it.

A couple of years later, the husband of said woman was released from prison and moved in. As he is well known to the Gardai, they decided to hang around and watch the house and all his friends call in and out.

It even had a slot in the Sunday World - so it all must be true.

... so no, I'm not going to call in.

D.

Turtyturd · 04-03-2011 11:52PM

Mine is all boarded up which is a shame when you think of the amount of time people are on the council waiting list.

It was strange when I first moved out because I still hung around there and my best mate lived next door so I spent a lot of time around it without actually going inside it. Took a long time to get used to strangers being in 'my home'. But as I grew up and my mates moved out we spent less and less time there.

I still purposely drive by it the odd time and it brings back a lot of good memories.

Alter-Ego · 04-03-2011 11:58PM

I actually still have a key for every house I've lived in. I like Keys.

120_Minutes · 04-03-2011 11:59PM

Bono did that once, he made a video about it.

Latchy · 05-03-2011 12:03AM

No but it has crossed my mind many times and I would like to , so not as potty as you think although the present house owner might think otherwise .

phasers · 05-03-2011 12:05AM

yeah, Mam was none too happy that I'd forgotten my key again.

05-03-2011 12:41AM

I passed by the house I grew up in on Ballyfermot Road and the owner was outside. I said hi and said I used to live there but felt a bit strange afterwards, thinking she probably thought I was insane or something.

maglite · 05-03-2011 12:46AM

"Ever Knocked into the house where you grew up?"

I had no idea what this question meant until I read your post.

I had visions of someone strolling along and knocking off thier house. Blind git

CitizenKeane · 05-03-2011 12:50AM

Never mind knocking and asking, we broke in and wandered around the house about a year after we left

(granted, nobody had bought the house in the mean time)

tony1kenobi · 05-03-2011 12:57AM

120_Minutes wrote: »

Bono did that once, he made a video about it.

Bono was in your folks place?

wiger toods · 05-03-2011 01:01AM

Theres a sound out old guy who used to live in our house when he was a child. He now lives in stalybridge. He used to come by every summer when visiting ireland just to see the house.
On his last visit he took a few pics and stuff and wowed us all with his childhood stories growing up in the place.
Apparently we have a well somewhere on the grounds, and a fairy fort too.(better watch where i put my fcuking foot, apparently:pac::pac::pac::pac:)
Hasnt been for a visit in a few years now!

arybvtcw0eolkf · 05-03-2011 01:02AM

Well I grew up in a flat in Balcurris Rd in Ballymun, the flats have long since been knocked down.

However I bought a house in Eas Wall a few years ago and one evening a lady and her daughter knocked in.

She explained that she'd grown up in the house and had moved to England and wondered if she could call back sometime to look inside.. I brought her right in, and honestly it was very moving.

There was still some signs of work her father had carried out in the house.

My chair (don't we all have one) was beside the fire, facing the TV.. Just where her fathers was. She asked could she sit in it awhile, so I left her and her daughter to remember the past while I went off and made tea and a snack.

When I came back she was in floods of tears remembering her dad and growing up.

It was a really nice experience all round.

05-03-2011 01:03AM

recyclops wrote: »

A good pal of mine grew up in england moved over here when 13, last year we were goin over to england for a visit knew she was gonna head back to her old neighbourhood so unbeknownest to her, i sent the houseowners a letter explaining that she would be going over and asked would it be ok if she called in.
They got back to me said wouldnt mind at all if she knocked in knowing it would mean the world to her, so when there i strolled to door much to her shock and called in, the owner let us in had lunch etc ready and it made her trip, nice story really.

That's really nice, thanks for sharing.

The house I grew up in has since been demolished and the land cleared, where now stands about 4 homes in what was once only 1/3 of an acre.

fonecrusher1 · 05-03-2011 01:03AM

~doorbell noise~

Home owner - Yeah?

Me - listen i used to live here, do mind if i have a walk around..?

Home owner - go on so!

Me - can i take your tv? I used to live here?...

Home owner - go on so!

Me - can i take your laptop & car keys & drive off in your car?

Home owner - go on so!

Me - listen girl (the homeowner is a man btw) jeremy kyle is on in half an hour...goodluck!

Home owner - go on so!

...........

Home owner - go on so!

20 minutes of silence pass...

Home owner - go on so!

strange chap^

Jesus Wept · 05-03-2011 01:11AM

Thalia Microscopic Cockatoo wrote: »

Well I grew up in a flat in Balcurris Rd in Ballymun, the flats have long since been knocked down.

However I bought a house in Eas Wall a few years ago and one evening a lady and her daughter knocked in.

She explained that she'd grown up in the house and had moved to England and wondered if she could call back sometime to look inside.. I brought her right in, and honestly it was very moving.

There was still some signs of work her father had carried out in the house.

My chair (don't we all have one) was beside the fire, facing the TV.. Just where her fathers was. She asked could she sit in it awhile, so I left her and her daughter to remember the past while I went off and made tea and a snack.

When I came back she was in floods of tears remembering her dad and growing up.

It was a really nice experience all round.

Smash it?

arybvtcw0eolkf · 05-03-2011 01:12AM

The-Rigger wrote: »

Smash it?

What?.

Seloth · 05-03-2011 01:16AM

Has happened once or twice.

It was the man by himself,around 50 or 60 and told us of how the living room was once two separate rooms and that our house was in fact two separate houses but the second one was bought when the elderly woman who lived here passed away.He said he could still remember his dad knocking the wall through to make a corridor.

face1990 · 05-03-2011 01:18AM

My parents have a little cottage down in Wexford. It's about 120 years old or so, and one time a guy showed up saying it had been his aunt's house and he'd spent a lot of time there as a child.
I'm not sure if they showed him round the house, but he told my parents what the garden was like back then, and how the upstairs of the house was all one big room (it's divided into two now).

It was a nice experience, but I can also see how it could seem a bit odd. I think my mam was a bit wary about actually letting him into the house. I suppose you never know who's genuine and who's a nutcase.

Ever Knocked into the house where you grew up?

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