One of our favorite posts in our entire archive is this one about hearing from our first house’s original owners. It was so much fun to see photos of their family in our house back in the 60’s, and we studied every inch of each picture and relished every detail that they shared in their letter.
We were also friendly with the people who sold us our second house, so although we never heard from the original owners, it was really great to know the sellers who had lived there for 22 years! So we always hoped to hear from the original owners of our current house. For a while… nothing. And then it happened! We actually met their daughter-in-law Chris at an event here in Richmond a few months back and big hugs ensued. There’s nothing better than hearing how special a house that you love is to another family, and she gave us permission to share some snippets from a letter that she sent us along with some old photos, so here it goes!
The house you are currently in has had a wonderful history of family memories. My husband’s parents bought it when his dad was transferred to Richmond from Cleveland, Ohio over 30 years ago. They had just become “empty nesters” so they searched for the right house in a perfect location for their future grandchildren to come visit. As a matter of fact, the first of their grandchildren was on the way during their move! It was a crazy time for them, buying the house under construction and moving from 500 miles away. They somehow fit in traveling to Texas for the birth of the first grandson, and saw the births of nine more grandchildren, and one great-grandchild while living there! They were dog lovers and brought their beloved dog, Chelsea, an English Foxhound, with them to Richmond. Sometime after she literally disappeared into the woods one day, another dog (Lady) followed my mother-in-law home. She was well loved and stayed with them a long time.
My husband and I lived in Richmond during the births of all four of our children. Before they were born we acquired our first “child,” a dog from the Richmond SPCA. We took her directly to the house to visit “grandma and grandpa” before even taking her to our own home!
All of our children remember the house as a place we celebrated Christmas Eve every year, plus multiple birthdays and other holidays (this photo was taken in the back porch, which you call the converted sunroom, around 20 years ago).
My father-in-law used to put a Christmas tree in almost every room of the house, and they were always decorated to perfection. He used to play a game with our kids, “find the ornament.” He would spy an ornament on the tree, and the kids would see who could be the first to find it. It wasn’t easy! He had hundreds on one tree alone!
My mother-in-law was a fantastic cook and had us over not only for celebrations but just because she felt like cooking. The kitchen was extremely well used and well loved by all. She would spend days baking cookies to take to Virginia Beach every year, when some years all three of her children and ten grandchildren would also be there.
There was an antique chandelier hanging in the kitchen that was precious to my mother-in-law. It belonged to her grandmother. She loved it, but it hung so low everyone knocked their head into it at least once in their visits there! It was removed before the house was sold.
The outside deck and back porch were added by them after moving in. They used the porch on a daily basis, him reading the newspaper and her doing her needlepoint pillows (this is a photo of my mother-in-law presenting one of her pillows to my daughter in the living room).
The tree in the middle of the deck (that you have removed) was just a small thing when they decided to build the deck around it. They wanted to keep it for the shade it provided. It really got huge!
It is really nice to be able to see what you are doing to make the house your own. I love the hardwood floors you have put in upstairs and really like the stenciling you did on the bathroom floor. Your daughter’s room is where my mother-in-law slept during her later years. She would be so happy to see new life there, with the fun girly room you have put together! I also really love how you transformed the half bath downstairs. It is so much brighter and clean looking! I’m looking forward to seeing more improvements in the future. I wish you many years of happiness in your home! – Chris
We’re so grateful to Chris for reaching out and sharing those details and photos with us! It was amazing to hear that the tree on the deck was tiny once. Remember how big it was when we had it taken down?
We realize this letter may not be as touching for you guys, but it was so heartwarming to us. To have a better sense of the life this house has lived and how it has been loved by so many people (filled with grandchildren, home cooking, and Christmas trees) makes us feel so grateful to be here. As a total bonus, we also heard from Erin, one of the grandkids who grew up visiting this house. Here’s her letter:
I’m one of the 10 grandchildren of the original owners of your current house. My mom shared your blog and I am blown away. The house looks wonderful! I have so many fond memories from that house. I am so thankful that you two have moved in and have posted pictures of your updates to the house. Thank you for providing a way for me to still feel connected to the house and for bringing new life to its foundation. – Erin
Amazing, right? It really is awesome to hear from others who are essentially strangers, yet you share something so personal with them: the love of a home.
Have you ever heard from your home’s original owners? Or uncovered anything cool in the house (like this stuff that we found buried under the original cabinets in our first house’s kitchen)? I can’t wait to see if we’ll discover anything when we open up some walls and redo the kitchen! So far all that has turned up is an old water bill from ten years ago in the bottom of the trash compactor.
Whitney says
Love the love ya’ll share! :) My parents are going to sell my childhood home (which was my grandmother’s childhood home as well and I am not taking it well!)
We bought our house a year ago on the 14th. The first weekend when we were painting everything out a girl stopped from out of state and said her parents had built the house and asked to show her fiance around. It all seemed a little weird since what she was saying about the house didn’t match up to what the previous owner told us about it. Our imaginations went wild with robbers, etc. after they figured out the layout f our house. Fast forward a few months and we were having a yard sale, and a woman stopped and told us she had been good friends of the original owners. Everything she told us matched up with the daughter (the last owner apparently liked to make up storied) and she told us all about the holiday parties thrown, how the wife had been the contractor and all sorts of stories. I hope the original owners (who now live in Hawai’i) someday come back to see it!
mp says
I love this letter! The original owner/builders of my house are both dead, but wrote their initials in the wet cement when the porch was poured. I’m going to save it when I have the porch epoxied.
Paula says
Our house dates back to at least 1883, and when some of the garden was dug up for a small extension, we found a china doll’s arm and hand, that would have been attached to a cloth body. It was nice, especially for my daughter, knowing another little girl had grown up in the house. We also found a glass ointment bottle, which was in German, but made in Milwaukee! Really interesting considering our house is in Sydney Australia.
S says
I know the daughter of the woman who lived in our house for 30 years. She’s been in and given ME the tour. ;) Also, her mom has been here once and walked me around, and I ran into the woman we bought the house from just 2 weeks ago. I love hearing about the history of my home and reading this post today put a big smile on my face. I think that is super exciting and I love to think of good memories in my home (and yours too!)
Amy says
I had someone leave me an envelope with two old black and white pictures of my 1925 house in the mailbox. At first it freaked me out because there was no note but once I realized they were pictures of my house it was fun to see! I have them hanging now on a corkboard.
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!
xo
s
Dawn says
How cool! I have seen houses we left under new owners (including our most recent, which the new owners really made fantastic), but we’ve never heard from old owners. It must be really heartwarming to see photos of another family enjoying it, too.
Our current house has a colorful history (including use by someone in the world’s oldest profession-really), so maybe it’s best we don’t have those pics. :D
Chantelle says
We are the second owners of our 66 year old house. The previous owners raised 5 children here. When they sold to us, they said that they were happy to have another young family live here.
We found trinkets everywhere that they had purposefully left for us- a dinky car with a note for our little guy, a running medal with a note written on it wishing us a long and happy life in the home and various other little things. It was really special!
I love that you’ve been able to make contact with the family. Such an awesome story!
Kelly says
We are currently doing renos to our house (in Brisbane, Australia) which we know only had 2 previous owners (although the second owner didn’t have the house for long). Our renos have been quite extensive and have included raising our 1 storey 1950s house (quite common in Brisbane) to build in underneath to make a 2 storey house, doing quite a significant extension, and building a large deck. Thankfully my husband is handy so we are saving money that way but it has also taken over a year and we are still going. Anyway my husband was working at home one day and a lady came to speak to him saying that she was the daughter of the original owner, had been watching our renos and really liked what we’d done and how we’ve honoured the original look of the house. It was so lovely to hear and we did tell her we’d love to show her through when it’s done. It does mean a lot to know that family like what you’ve done, especially when you’ve done quite extensive changes to what was their family home and in what no doubt held a lot of memories for them.
Natalie says
When we moved into our home the previous owners left us a letter telling us a bit about themselves and about the house. They were in the same poistion as us, first home buyers and then got engaged and married shortly after, they also had 2 kids one born in the master bedroom (I’m not sure I wanted to know that bit of information).
And recently my Brother-In-Law was under the house doing some electrical work when he came accross some old newspapers from August 4th 1971, the year our house was built. My whole family was over and we had a great time reading the old advertisments and articles from that era. There’s a great sequence in the wanted adds, The first one says ” Cats wanted, Monash University will collect unwanted cats free of charge” and the add that follows says “Cats, Don’t send cats to universities. They can be used in experiments. Ring cat protection society.”
Grace says
So fun! I have only heard crazy stories about the previous owners on my house, but last year I made a Craigslist purchase from a lady that was living in the house I lived in until I was 4 years old! She showed me around and it was amazing how familiar (but oh so much smaller) it felt! I also had an email from my dad to give her with some information on the house. I got to take a picture of my girls sitting on the front steps- just like a picture we had of me!
Camille says
In 2012 the National Archives released the 1940 census records online. For those that live in a house/apartment built prior to that date, you can look up the former occupants. It takes a bit of time and persistence to sift through the records, but I think it’s worth it! We just bought a house built in 1925. After looking up the census records, we found out that a widow (WWII?) and her young children lived here in 1940. She was a school teacher and as I make dinner in the same kitchen and bathe my little ones in the same tub, I think about all the nights she had to perform those tasks alone after working all day. Also interesting to note that a single teacher could manage a mortgage on a house that takes the equivalent of three teacher’s salaries to afford today!
Haley Green says
My story is a little bit in the reverse. The house I grew up in, my parents were the third or forth owners, but they transformed it from a little cottage into a family home. I was four years old when they had a new concrete driveway laid, and despite my outright refusal my Dad placed my hand in the wet concrete and wrote my name and the year, 1989. Several years later we moved to Australia, but every time we go back to New Zealand we drive past our old house and sometime we stop and knock on the door and ask if my hand print is still there. Last time, the new owners were so excited to meet me and said that they often wondered who the little girl with the hand print was and and what she was like. They really appreciated being able to know the full story of the little hand in the concrete.
In 2011 when I built my first home, I took the opportunity to once again put my hand in the wet concrete of my new drive way…with my name and the year. It’s nice to think that not only do i have wonderful memories in both home, but I’ve also left a little mark to say I was there!
Emily @ Life on Food says
I would love to meet the original home owners of our 1963 house. We are currently the third owners. Knowing how they used the space and what was their inspiration would be so meaningful to me.
Jessica @ Decor Adventures says
What a lovely story, glad you heard from them! And now they get to see the home whenever they want. People have such memories tied to homes, it’s really nice.
Our home was build in 1900 and one family that lived here for 40 years is still well known. So much that when we call the plumbers and give the address and they say “Oh, you live in the Mancini house.” Well, no… it’s our house now! :-)
Tania says
Wow, this is amazing!
My parents bought our house in 2000, so although I didn’t entirely grow up there, it has seen my most formative years (ages 11 to 22). I once met the daughter of the pre-previous owners while renewing my library card. She looked at the address on the card and exclaimed… that used to be my home!! She then told me how it was her dad who transformed the garage into a family room, painted the cement out front red (now almost gone) and used the leftovers to paint the floor in the laundry/ furnace room. Sadly, although I invited her to visit, she never did. But it was such a great encounter!
And then when we lived in our first apartment in Montreal with my husband, we found a crate filled with plates and mugs under our floor, where the plumbing was. Someone was probably too lazy to take it with them when moving. Nothing special, but quirky. We donated most of it, but kept a couple of plates to remind ourselves of it.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Destiny says
This sweet post made my face rain…
Mary Reynolds says
The original owner of our first house knew Ernest Hemingway. In fact, he was a frequent visitor to her home. She had a spot where he always sat. The neighbors showed us that spot so we kept a comfy chair there with a copy of The Old Man and the Sea. She was a real character. She would drop bottles with messages in them all over the world while traveling. Somehow ( and sadly I don’t remember the whole story), two of the people who found her bottles ending up getting married! This story landed her a spot on David Letterman many, many years ago. The video of this appearance and the story stays with the house. The house was 100 years old in 2008 and my babies were the first ones to be born in the house just before it turned 100!
Allison B. says
We bought our home 3 years ago as a short sale from a family that was behind on their mortgage. They had only lived there for 3 years but the family before them had lived there for 40ish years. The house was in pretty bad condition when we bought it. We had to gut the kitchen and replace a lot of the flooring because there had been a leak and significant water damage that led to mildew on the walls and a soggy floor. The house had been remodeled in the late 70’s or early ’80’s and had not been updated since so we had a lot of work to do. Oh and the backyard had not been touched in who knows how long so everything was either dead or waaaaay overgrown. We gutted the backyard and landscaped it and updated the entire house except for a bathroom(ran out of money and energy – ha!)and painted the exterior. About a year ago, the daughter who had grown up in the house knocked on our door. She had heard through her mom from neighbors on our street that we had remodeled the house. We invited her in to show her what we had done and showed her pictures of what the house looked like when we bought it. She couldn’t believe the condition that it had been in. She told me that my son’s bedroom used to be her room and that from her window she could see the Disneyland fireworks show. Too bad after 40-50 years of tree growth in the neighborhood we definitely do NOT have that view! Then about 6 months later, another knock on the door, and there she was again with her mom. The house was a mess (*cringe*) but we invited them in and showed her around. I’m sure she hated our landscaping because we removed most of the trees that she had planted way back when. Oops! Unfortunately our remodel is too boring to be internet worthy otherwise I would have sent you before and after pictures. :)
Melissa says
The original owners of my house and their only child passed away, the people I purchased it from gave me their picture, her garden club book, and a few other little things. It’s weird but i framed their photo and display, I like to think they are watching over the house.
I also uncovered the original architecture plans, which I want to get framed one day.
c says
We have never tried to reach out directly to any of our home’s previous owners. Neighbors have told us about two of them, though. The most recent was a property company, which purchased it as a foreclosure and flipped it. Before that were a few fairly young adults who apparently got in trouble with the feds for selling drugs. Neighbors don’t speak fondly of them. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t sound like the house was kept well under their care.
My favorite, though, is the elderly woman who lived here for many years. We don’t know a lot about her except that she had an energetic dog and employed a lawn care company to handle her landscaping. There is a beautiful, hardy rose bush on the side of the house that we like to imagine her admiring years ago.
Also, our county did a tax assessment in the 1930s or 1940s, taking photos of just about every home in the process. I found the picture of our house through the public library, blew it up and have it hanging in our entryway. Such a great reminder of our house’s history!
Alison says
This was adorable! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed this blog post.
Sarah says
We have information from two previous families that once lived in our 1894 Queen Anne Victorian. One shared a ledger that the original owner/builder kept. The home was completed for $968.00. He listed every nail, board, bucket of paint and included the excavation of the basement for $5.00!
Another previous resident spoke of the Victory Garden they had in the back yard during WWII . He spoke of his mothers peony beds that had long since been depleted . You could tell he loved the house because it had been home…where he lived good and difficult days of life. If walls could talk!
Kelly says
Totally crying over here. Thanks for sharing!
Kim says
Teared up while reading this. What a gift to live in a home so rich in history of love and life and family for a new family so rich in love and life and family.
Thanks to all my fellow YHL fans for sharing their endearing stories as well.
Natalie / Half Asleep Studio says
I would LOVE to speak with the people who lived in my house before me. While sanding & repainting the living room, I discovered that they had blood red walls with forest green trim at one point… must have been insane!
Sherri says
Loved this post. What a blessing to know the history of your home and how much love was generated over the years. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And the legacy of love and family shall live on. Amen!
Kathy F says
We just bought our second home, built in the 40’s. The previous owners lived here over thirty years. They left us an incredibly sweet welcome note. They raised their daughters here and renovated the attic into a huge bedroom shared by two girls. In the closet I found a hand written note – “painted by selves”. I don’t think I will ever be able to paint over it.
They told us the original owners elderly daughters had stopped by and asked to see the house. They provided a lot iof details of what the house had originally looked like.
I feel so lucky to have a little history of the house we are loving and making our own
Susan says
We were selling lemonade out front one day last summer and a lady stopped and said she was the original owner of our house. She was one of only three people that stopped! Anyway, we let her walk through. She saw mostly the updates from the people before us, but we had redone one of the bathrooms ourself. I imagine it was quite a mess. She seemed happy though. I know I would love to walk through the house I grew up in. It’s about 10 minutes from my current house. It was bought by my sixth grade reading teacher, and I think she still lives there. I don’t think I could ever knock though.
I have great memories of my grandparents’ houses, too. One is rented out, so there’s a chance I could go through it one day, but the other was sold. Even my little kids say they wish they could go to great-grandma’s house again.
I wonder what my kids will remember of this house that they’re growing up in?
Sarah Spain says
This post brought tears to my eyes!
When I was 12 the family who owned my parent’s home previously stopped by randomly one day. They asked if they could see the house and my mom was delighted to show them around. I remember one of the daughters was with them and she went into my sister’s room and was excited to see that the paint they had used was still in her room. It was really sweet and I always remember them coming by.
Because of them I felt emboldened to stop by our old house in Seattle when I was visiting. The exterior was exactly the same (they had kept the same paint and shutters) but no one was home. Oh, well :)
Kari says
One of my favorite blog posts of all-time. Since I have on more than one occasion had dreams about hanging out with you guys in your house, I apparently feel pretty (unhealthily? ;)) enmeshed in your house as though it were my own. Reading about its former owners, then, makes me feel rather connected to them personally, too. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah says
What a neat post! Our first house we bought was a foreclosure. And we awkwardly ran into the old owners at our yearly 4th of July block party. What do you say to the people that lost the foreclosed house you bought??? Our current house, built in 1955 only had one owner when we came along to buy it. It was through connections that we were able to have this opportunity. My mom in law cleaned this house for 25+ years. The elderly lady was done with having a big house and decided to move into a retirement facility. She had a wonderful taste for everything popular in the seventies… I am currently working on removing grass cloth wallpaper in the room my girls are currently living in. Which was also the room of her 2 girls’. I love old house stories.
MG says
Sure we did, we heard from the previous owners anyway. The people that painted almost the entire interior pink and then left the house for dead when it foreclosed stopped by to ask my husband for the swing-set in the backyard. It was winter when they left (soon before the pipes froze and burst) and they weren’t able to take it with them then. Thankfully, taking all their appliances and garbage disposal was a cinch! Heartwarming. So…..there’s that.
Laura says
Funny story: the trim in our 1941 colonial is white (and was when we bought the house last year). But, i’s starting to chip and it’s COLONIAL BLUE underneath! I’m actually not bothered by the small blue spots showing through because it intrigues me…. who lived here back then? what were they like? Amazing that you got to find out!
YoungHouseLove says
So sweet, I love that!
xo
s
Sophie says
Our house was built in the early 50s and my parents moved in around 1991 (just before they found out they were expecting me)
When they moved in, and until I was about 10 or 11, we had this horrible kitchen, with firetruck red tiles on the floor and slightly orangey red plastic-coated cabinets. Don’t forget two solid walls of brick like your first sunroom!
When we renovated our kitchen, we found some super old-looking pieces of paper tucked between one of the upper cabinets and the wall behind it. Took us a while to work out what it was, but it was a receipt for the kitchen, which had actually been commissioned and bought from Italy! I guess back in the 50s it was the interior design trend of its day – so weird to think anyone could really want that in their home!
Heather says
Oh man, I totally cried reading those letters and the ones from your first house. I really thought it was touching to read that Clara’s room is where the mother-in-law slept in her later years and now there’s a young, vibrant life in there now.
So wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
Be cs says
Our house was built in 1928, and we don’t know much about the original owners, but we did find a checkbook ledger from the 20’s, which I treasure.
Melissa says
Our house is in Brisbane Australia and was built in 1948. When we bought it 17 years ago it was in largely original condition, except for a really dreadful pretend wood Laminex kitchen and a old beige bathroom.
However, the elderly lady next door was full of stories which I think are really interesting.
Her house was the display home for our area and she lived there until she was almost 90 years old. She bought it herself with money she had saved during the War when married women were allowed to work. She and her husband had been childhood sweethearts growing up on neighboring farms a few suburbs away. They got married on the Saturday and he shipped out for the war on the Monday. He was immediately captured by the Japanese and spent the next 4.5 years in the notorious Changi Prison Camp in Singapore. In all that time, she didn’t know if he was alive or dead, but she kept working and saving and bought the house as a surprise for him. She always said that when he came home, he was not the same man she had known. Her whole back yard was kept as a vegetable patch, as he could never face the thought of not having food again. They went on to have 2 children, but he spent a lot of time away from home as he couldn’t cope with the children crying.
In the 1950s they won the Golden Casket – like the lottery – about $2 million
In today’s money. They put in a telephone and bought a car. The first and only of both in our area – which was very working class- for many years. She told me she was always the first to know of any births or deaths because people would ask to use the phone or the car to get to the hospital. She always laughed that no one else they know had a phone, so she could never ring anyone anyway!
She could tell us the whole history of our house as she had lived there from before our house was even built. In typical post war style, she explained how our house was built with materials from the local tip- and then apologized profusely for calling our house rubbish! When we completely gutted it to renovate it 6 years ago, our builder said the only thing holding it together was a few nails in the roof. He had to put in beams and studs and heaps of other structural stuff so it didn’t fall down. We told him it had lasted 60 years in that state, so he better fix it so it was good for at least another 60!
She told us about the Russian couple with the twin daughters who couldn’t speak English but were very friendly, the cranky English couple with the abusive husband and then the family who had it before us that largely kept to themselves and weren’t at all friendly. I could go on and on with heaps more, but I think I should stop! Sorry for rambling so much, but I just love it. We will never sell this house.
Maura says
What a sweet post. I LOVE hearing people’s house stories… You inspired me to write down our house’s story. It’s here:
http://ourwoodstoneprairie.blogspot.com/2014/06/annies-story-our-houses-original-owners.html
What fun to look back at the stories our homes tell.
Stacy says
We don’t talk to the previous owners, but the husband does creepily park across the street from time to time to check the house and yard out.
Nothing really changes outside, but he does it anyway. The house and yard were a huge mess when we bought the house from them, so maybe they are in awe that we have a lawn with just one yucca plant instead of them growing all over the yard. Ewww! Yuccas!
Lindsey says
So neat! And you know what else I think is neat?… I just noticed something and maybe it’s intentional but, you guys use a bright blue, yellow and red/orange a lot in your decorating. Case in point – The doors of your houses match the colors in your logo. Blue for your current house, yellow for your second house and red for your first house. Again, probably intentional, but I think it it’s cool to see how you guys have such a defined style and have really stuck to it throughout the years. If you buy a fourth house you’re going to have to add a word to the name of the blog so you can incorporate the color of the front door! :)
YoungHouseLove says
So funny! We do love those colors!
xo
s
Casey says
We bought our 1951 home 3 years ago and I have been on a mad quest since then to piece together its history. The four sets of previous owners have all passed away, so this has meant a lot of time researching deeds and obituaries. I was finally able to pinpoint who built the house, and two days ago mailed a letter to their daughter (who wasn’t born when it was built, so it’s a pretty long shot).
As with many mid century homes, it’s undergone many changes and I would love to have photos of its various states as well as previous owners. The quirks I can’t concretely explain (such as steps that have no business existing, remnants of a doorway that no longer exists, and rooms that don’t have a matching footprint in the crawl space) both intrigue me and drive me crazy. The home has obviously known a lot of love, and I think one of the best parts of owning an older home is being able to somehow acknowledge that.
This post gave me hope that at least one of the descendants I’ve contacted will someday write me back. I’m glad you were able to rebuild some of your home’s history! I’ve made peace with knowing I may never have all the answers but, largely thanks to Google, I’ve got a pretty good start for designing some renderings from each owner’s era to honor mine.
jennyf says
I love the history of a house! Our current home, which we moved into just over a year ago and are doing the same thing you are, is rich with history! We bought it from the Mormon church (let anyone in the area know that we live in the “Mormon house” and they know exactly where we are). The house was used as a home for missionaries and also as classrooms and offices for high school seminary. Apparently this home was FULL of life, teens in and out of it. Our oldest heads to high school in August so being the house closest to the school is so precious (and also an evil plan to keep my eyes on those kiddos at all times). You’d better believe we will have the best after school snacks drawing them all over every day! Creating more history :)
Amy E. says
i love all these house stories! i wanted to share one, too. except mine is about a house we DIDN’T buy.
we had entered a contract to have a new home built and laid out all the details and plans. we’re engineers so we were VERY thorough with the little details. we lived nearby, too, so we’d stop by often during the construction process; the building company didn’t like that because we cost them a lot of money making them redo things they didn’t get right the first time or things that they tried to cut corners on.
examples of shortcuts we caught and made them redo: instead of our tiled shower, they tried to put in a prefab fiberglass insert; instead of insulating the entire wall between the living room and bedrooms, they added insulation only at the bottom where the inspector would look (but they had not yet mudded the drywall, so i could look through a seam halfway up the wall and see light shining through from the other side!); the contractors they’d hired to do door/trim installation SMOKED INSIDE the house after the drywall was already up, mudded, textured, and painted! (we knew because they left their cigarette butts on the floor! thank goodness the carpet wasn’t down yet!); the list goes on. we were on a first-name basis with the work site manager and had his cell # on speed dial.
in the end, the house appraised for $40k less than our contracted price and that gave us the opportunity to walk away (per the contract which we’d read repeatedly in detail). we wrote up a nice letter informing them that we would be exercising our right to walk away rather than flush money down the toilet. we watched while they tried to put it on the market and ended up selling 6 months later for another $40k less than what it appraised for when we were ready to buy. with all the bad stuff we had to put up with from them through the entire process, NOT getting that house was definitely a BLESSING!
it’s not only who lived there, but also who BUILT the house that makes a big difference in the house’s vibes.
Kris says
Love this!
We write to the original owners of our house as well. At least a couple times a year and show them what we have done.
The last few years the original owners lived in the house were very sad years, as the husband’s health was fading and the wife eventually learned to live as a widow.
She loves seeing new life in the house and especially loves birthday party pictures (we do the kids’ birthday parties in the backyard).
We love reading her stories about what happened in the house and the celebrations that took place.
We are so proud to call our house home.
Marie White says
Sherry & John,
I have often thought about the previous owners as I watch all the changes you make and wonder what they would think about them. I was so happy to see this post this morning. I can totally understand the bond between you and them and think it’s wonderful that the family is now following your blog to see what you do. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
Best,
Marie
Jeanne says
I loved reading this post! My husband and I have been in our current (and first, and likely, forever) home for over 10 years. We live about 20 feet from my in-law’s in the house that was my mother-in-law’s as a child. My husband tells me stories all the time about how he would spend every day sitting with his grandfather in what is now our dining room, watching Benny Hill, or playing cards in what is now our master bedroom but used to be a screened front porch. The house/cottage was built in the late 1880s as a fishing lodge, we live on a river. I have seen old photos, which is beyond neat. We have 3 girls under 7 and they are growing, will all grow up in this house, next door to their grandparents. It’s small, less than 1,200 sq feet with one bathroom, but we are making it work for us. You can’t beat the location! Thank you for sharing these letters from your homes previous owners. As a history major in college, it always peaks my curiosity!
Ter'e Lindsay says
I love stories like this. This truly gives the house heart…..and turns it into a home.
Thanks for sharing.
Emily Jane says
I love having an old house with a history! We bought ours a year ago. I actually met the little lady who lived here. She raised SEVEN kids in our rambler.
Remodeling the basement we found a bong hidden in the rafters. Made us laugh because Mary was such a sweet churchy girl:)
Wwww.eastofvanwinkle.com
Nikki H says
This was so emotional for me. We moved in November all the way across Texas to be near our children and grandkids after living in our house in El Paso for 33 years. I wonder if the new owners, who have 2 small boys, love the house the way we did…It was built in 1950 and has seen a lot of love and even had a bomb shelter!! The realtor told us (jokingly) we should market that as a wine cellar or man cave! Oh the memories!!
Jenny says
After my husband and I bought our house my grandparents came to visit. My grandfather came running in and said this used to be J.H.’s house! (His best friend of many years). He said that his first disagreement with my grandmother was the day he stayed too late to help J.H. cut an arch in an exterior wall on a new room addition. He talked of all the times they sat on the back porch for bbq’s and how enjoyable it was to spend time again back in the house. I love that my house has history with my own family!