Broke into the old apartment...

[tvp2003]

... this is where we used to live.

Not sure where I’m going with this but bear with me...

I just found out today that the house we lived in for about 5 years — and sold about 5 years ago — recently went up for sale and in fact sold. Looking at the (now cached) photos from the listing, i can’t help but look back at the old “crib” and think about all the memories... I can see exactly what they renovated and what they didn’t renovate, and all the other little quirks that only I (and perhaps those who lived there) ever knew.

Gotta say, it’s weird to think a place like that has such a place in my heart. I have to think it’s like seeing an old GF/BF 10 years later, or perhaps a city you lived in long ago that maybe looks the same but also doesn’t.

Anyone else have that kind of experience? My parents still live in the house I grew up in, so this was somewhat of a first for me (not counting the actual “old apartmemt” back in my uni days). The joys of getting old...

[topfiverecords]

When I was young we moved the summer before high school started and then I ended up becoming friends with the kid who’s family moved into our old house. It was closer to the high school so we went there every lunch and often after school. Was kinda weird seeing other people living in the only house you’d ever known.

[RichieRich]

At least a couple times yearly on some bike ride I'll roll by a couple of prior homes I'd lived in within the NW Calgary area. Some going back as far as early 1980's. Interesting to see how landscaping rarely changes, same trees just bigger, often same facade/finishings including color. Somewhat surprising more people don't do more with their yards.

[Fuzz]

Last year I looked up our old university house. It's totally renovated and now a group air BnB type place, with as many rooms crammed in as they could. Some of it is recognizable, a lot of the basement isn't. I do wonder if the incredibly loud crack we heard while to many people were partying upstairs ever caused a problem, or if they managed to get the urine out of the closet floor. Did they find scorched wood in the ceiling from the Christmas tree afterburner?

The house I lived in for the first year of my life got blown up in that gas explosion in Canmore, so can't really look at that one anymore.

[81MC]

A couple years ago I was feeling nostalgic and drove past my old place in Kingsland, which was renovated and sold shortly after I moved out. For only being there several years, that house was like the representation of my past life; my ex and her little touches here and there, the unused nursery, fire pit where we’d always have friends around who were like ghosts after the divorce. Cathartic experience.

[Jiri Hrdina]

My first apartment in Calgary was in Garden Towers above Crack Mac's.
Just a terrible area. But I have so many wonderful memories of that place and that time in my life.

[jwslam]

Similar but different experience.
My parents still live in my childhood home. (bungalow)
During my own house search last year came across a house in a completely different community, front attached garage that was dug out, and we ended up entering from the back of the home. A few minutes in before I realized that this is the exact same layout as my childhood home just with different walls knocked out and a front extension for that garage. Was super trippy.

[Monahammer]

I feel this way about the entire city of Calgary whenever I visit.

[Buff]

I feel a connections with all the houses I have lived in and would love to go back and checkout all three previous houses.

The first one isn't really possible as it burned down about 15 years ago. Though I wouldn't mind seeing how it was rebuilt and how similar the new building is to the old house.

The next house I have missed seeing on a couple of occasions when it was up for sale. Both times they didn't put much for pics up on realtor.ca (or mls.ca at the time), and I missed out on an open house.

Then the first house that my wife and I owned obviously holds a lot of good memories too.

For most people the places we live are our homes and safe places. Places where we create cherished memories. I would love to break into my old apartment(s).

[CliffFletcher]

In our 20s my friends and I lived in several old houses in Sunalta and Connaught just off 17th Ave. We all worked in the neighbourhood as well, so we spent our days and nights hanging out in that neighbourhood - I would go weeks on end without getting in a car. No one ever called - we just swung by each other’s places whenever with a six-pack or bottle of cheap red.

I get powerful blasts of nostalgia when I walk through that part of town, and always detour to check out the old places. The area has been gentrified, so the houses we lived in have either been knocked down or refurbished. I’ve had to fight off the urge to walk up onto the front porch of one house a bunch of us lived at - the site of many bacchanalias in the 90s, with acoustic jams and an endlessly replenished motherlode of empties that we left for a homeless guy. The place is a law office now.

[Swift]

Love this topic. I'm a nostalgic person and often will revisit places on Google Streetview where I lived or worked.

Coincidentally though, I went for a walk yesterday in Glamorgan, the first neighbourhood I lived in when I moved to Canada. Actually kind of a powerful nostalgic experience as I retraced steps I took almost 20 years ago walking to the park or to Westhills.

My mam still lives in the house we grew up in back in Dublin. I only get to go back every few years and it's always a strange experience. The house always felt bigger when I was growing up there, but then I had nothing else to compare it to. Now it feels cramped. My wife and I sleep in the bedroom I shared with my brother as young kids and I have no idea how we had two beds in there and what felt like lots of space to play. It'll be very strange when my mam dies (besides the obvious reasons) and the house will be lived in by complete strangers (we were the first occupants when it was built 40 years ago)

[getbak]

A couple of years ago, I needed to have work done to my place and my insurance covered me to rent a place while the work was being done. I looked for places on Airbnb and saw the house I grew up in on there.

I lived there for 16 years from the age of 6 to 22, and by this time, it had been over 20 years since my parents sold it. Looking at the photos, it has been extensively renovated and some parts were completely unrecognizable. Other parts were exactly the same.

The weird thing was some of the things that weren't changed. In the family room, there was ugly wood paneling on the wall. In the basement, the carpet was bright red and there was rough-hewn wood on the walls. Those would have been the first things I removed if I had bought the place, but they're still exactly them same as they were when we moved in over 40 years ago.



If the work on my place would have only taken a few days, I probably would have gone ahead and rented it, but it would have been a good 25-30 minute drive each way to check on my place and it ended up taking more than 2 weeks, so it wasn't practical.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Swift

Love this topic. I'm a nostalgic person and often will revisit places on Google Streetview where I lived or worked.

Coincidentally though, I went for a walk yesterday in Glamorgan, the first neighbourhood I lived in when I moved to Canada. Actually kind of a powerful nostalgic experience as I retraced steps I took almost 20 years ago walking to the park or to Westhills.

My mam still lives in the house we grew up in back in Dublin. I only get to go back every few years and it's always a strange experience. The house always felt bigger when I was growing up there, but then I had nothing else to compare it to. Now it feels cramped. My wife and I sleep in the bedroom I shared with my brother as young kids and I have no idea how we had two beds in there and what felt like lots of space to play. It'll be very strange when my mam dies (besides the obvious reasons) and the house will be lived in by complete strangers (we were the first occupants when it was built 40 years ago)

Yeah, I think my "getting old" comment was in reference to nostalgia in general -- maybe it's because we've been stuck in a pandemic for the past 15 months but I've found myself looking back at old memories quite a bit.

My parents also live in the same house that they built in the late 70's -- it's funny because they haven't renovated it at all so very little has changed over the years and it feels very familiar when I go visit (although that hasn't happened in awhile). If/when my parents do move it would be prime for renovation -- new carpet, new paint, new trim, etc -- but for now I'll enjoy it for what it (still) is.

[activeStick]

My first trip back to Calgary where I was raised and grew up for 17 years, was 6 years after I had moved away, during a short business trip.

I extended that trip to have Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday morning for myself. I visited all the places I remembered. The house I grew up in, my elementary, junior high and high schools, the restaurants and grocery stores we went to in Chinatown. The Chinese school I went to growing up, Village Square Leisure Center, Sunridge, Marlborough and Franklin malls. Rode the C-train. Went to the Calgary Zoo. Went to the dome.

Was one of my best trips, ever.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

My dad sold the house I grew up in 7 or 8 years ago.

It was immediately torn down to make room for two new "cookie cutter" style suburban houses on the lot. Which is not surprising, but... yeah. Oof. No looking back.

[DoubleF]

What happens when you guys look at the old place? Do you remember both the old memories/updated memories? Or do you toss away the updated one after you look at it to avoid "tainting" the original memory?

I occasionally drive by where I lived before and look at the outside/back yard. I usually delete the updated memory of it afterwards though. It's weird enough seeing other people's stuff and the trees much bigger than I remember it. I think it would be absolutely jarring to wander into a home and see things completely different with completely different furnishings inside. I wonder if that's a glimpse into the mind frame of someone with Alzheimers.

[Swift]

These days the newer memory tends to clear itself out of my head by itself.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I occasionally drive by where I lived before and look at the outside/back yard. I usually delete the updated memory of it afterwards though.

Uh, okay skinjob. I wasn't aware we had toasters among us already.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Uh, okay skinjob. I wasn't aware we had toasters among us already.

I think he means "chug tequila". That usually does it for me.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Uh, okay skinjob. I wasn't aware we had toasters among us already.

I moreso meant that I won't let the new experience of the old place replace my old memories as the dominant memories of that place/space and kinda bury it afterwards.

I've done the same thing at my old schools.