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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I didn't have to research it, I met the new owner who was renovating it!!!!!

 

I was working in Fine Jewelry at a department store and he came in with a repair.  I put his address on the form and knew it immediately!  He was absolutely shocked that I could remember the exact floor plan!  I moved from that house going into second grade.  

 

He had a picture of the architect's signature on a beam they uncovered!!!!!Smiley Happy

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

Based on this thread, I googled the three houses I grew up in,  located in Boston, NJ and metro Atlanta. There were many pictures for the Boston and Atlanta houses. None for the NJ house except the outside. 

 

I got pretty choked up to be honest.   The Atlanta house still looks basically the same inside....tile, cabinets, etc.  The Boston house has had an addition and many changes, but I still recognized all the rooms from my childhood. My parents purchased that house for $14,500 and it shows that it sold last year for just under $500,000.

 

 


Why is it, when I have a 50/50 guess at something, I'm always 100% wrong?
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Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home


@ECBG wrote:

I didn't have to research it, I met the new owner who was renovating it!!!!!

 

I was working in Fine Jewelry at a department store and he came in with a repair.  I put his address on the form and knew it immediately!  He was absolutely shocked that I could remember the exact floor plan!  I moved from that house going into second grade.  

 

He had a picture of the architect's signature on a beam they uncovered!!!!!Smiley Happy


@ECBG , omg! Reading your comment of the uncovered beam reminded me of when my parents had our kitchen renovated.

 

I must’ve been 6 or 7. My older brother, sis and I went to bed and at some point as I was falling asleep I heard my parents downstairs having a get-together with my aunts, uncles and friends. When my sibs and I got up the next morning and went downstairs to get some breakfast we were shocked!  The day before, carpenters had put brown paper all over the walls in preparation for the new drywall. Well, done with markers all over that brown paper were drawings, cartoons, tracings of side profiles, speech bubbles, messages, jokes...you name it, it was there! (G rated, this was the 60s after all) But I remember being so shocked as the realization dawned that our parents, aunts, uncles and their friends, had done all that graffiti! They were ADULTS! How could this happen?! There wasn’t a spot left to put one more mark. 

 

It must’ve been one heck of a party! 🤣🤣🤣

 

I’ve often wondered what subsequent owners thought when they inevitably tore down the drywall to update the kitchen years later and found that paper with all those drawings under the drywall.

 

Such a great memory from a happy childhood. I haven’t thought of this for years but I’m *so* glad you reminded me!

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

@Kalli Those were the happiest years of my childhood.  I hope you loved everything as well.

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home


@shoekitty wrote:

@aubnwa01 wrote:

My folks purchased a brand new home in 1954 in Hermosa Beach, CA for $15K. It was a small 3 bedroom 1¾ bathroom, about 1200 sq. ft. on a  hillside view lot below PCH with a 180° view from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Malibu.  We lived there for 9 years & they sold it in 1963 for $29K, basically doubling their money.  Looking on Zillow, it doesn't look like much has changed with our old house & still the same sq. footage, though most of the other homes built at the same time on the street have become McMansion looking huge homes & it looks like the home just below added a 2nd story, so I'm sure the view is gone, but the current Zillow estimate on our old place is $2.26M.


Shoekitty said,

wow, 29,000 in 1963 was a lot of money. A lot.  I think the up tick in california homes came in the mid 90's.  Prices are dropping a bit now, as who can afford a million dollar starter home?  I know about where your home is!  If it is on lower side of PCH...it is ocean side and most desireable. All  beach property is out of bounds.  Even beach towns like Pismo were fairly reasonable in the mid nineties.  After that, forget it.  We looked at a 1Bed 1 bath about 800 sq feet in pismo about 1994.  It was about 280,000.  Now it os a couple million.f now a 1100 sq ft mobile home in Pismo is about 480,000 plus monthly fees!!!! Most ocean view homes in Pismo today go from 3-5 million.  Who'd  a thunk it???


@shoekitty  Our old house was just up the hill from Ardmore Ave. & back then, there were frieght train tracks that ran in a strip between Ardmore & Valley & we'd go down & play along the tracks.  I don't recall ever seeing any trains on those tracks, but there were interesting things to be found that had apparently dropped off of a train along the tracks.  I guess at some point, they tore out the tracks & it's now got trees planted & looks to be a park or walking trail or some sort.

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I didn't know Zillow did this.  Do you mean they list every home with its current value?  Even if it's not on the market?  How odd; I'd think that was an invasion of privacy.

 

However, good luck to them doing that with my childhood home.  It was knocked down many years ago.

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

[ Edited ]

@Venezia wrote:

I didn't know Zillow did this.  Do you mean they list every home with its current value?  Even if it's not on the market?  How odd; I'd think that was an invasion of privacy.

 

However, good luck to them doing that with my childhood home.  It was knocked down many years ago.


@Venezia.. You don’t have to go to Zillow. Just google the address. (of course not if it’s been torn down). You wouldn’t believe the pictures of my house on line. Cars are in the driveway with license plates showing. Some gardening tools in the front yard! Other sites besides Zillow take pictures of your house.

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

I am blessed to be able to walk out my front door to see my childhood home, and know my mom is still living in it.

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

@proudlyfromNJ- I know that Google Maps has to blur out any license plate numbers.  They also have to remove any people in the photos, if requested.  I don't know if state laws differ but, as far as I know, they can't have anything other than the photo and the address.

 

As for other sites, I suppose nothing should surprise me.  I wonder how they "list" rural homes with just a post office box address?  Woman Frustrated

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Re: I googled on Zillow my childhood home

[ Edited ]

@aubnwa01 wrote:

@shoekitty wrote:

@aubnwa01 wrote:

My folks purchased a brand new home in 1954 in Hermosa Beach, CA for $15K. It was a small 3 bedroom 1¾ bathroom, about 1200 sq. ft. on a  hillside view lot below PCH with a 180° view from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Malibu.  We lived there for 9 years & they sold it in 1963 for $29K, basically doubling their money.  Looking on Zillow, it doesn't look like much has changed with our old house & still the same sq. footage, though most of the other homes built at the same time on the street have become McMansion looking huge homes & it looks like the home just below added a 2nd story, so I'm sure the view is gone, but the current Zillow estimate on our old place is $2.26M.


Shoekitty said,

wow, 29,000 in 1963 was a lot of money. A lot.  I think the up tick in california homes came in the mid 90's.  Prices are dropping a bit now, as who can afford a million dollar starter home?  I know about where your home is!  If it is on lower side of PCH...it is ocean side and most desireable. All  beach property is out of bounds.  Even beach towns like Pismo were fairly reasonable in the mid nineties.  After that, forget it.  We looked at a 1Bed 1 bath about 800 sq feet in pismo about 1994.  It was about 280,000.  Now it os a couple million.f now a 1100 sq ft mobile home in Pismo is about 480,000 plus monthly fees!!!! Most ocean view homes in Pismo today go from 3-5 million.  Who'd  a thunk it???


@shoekitty  Our old house was just up the hill from Ardmore Ave. & back then, there were frieght train tracks that ran in a strip between Ardmore & Valley & we'd go down & play along the tracks.  I don't recall ever seeing any trains on those tracks, but there were interesting things to be found that had apparently dropped off of a train along the tracks.  I guess at some point, they tore out the tracks & it's now got trees planted & looks to be a park or walking trail or some sort.


Shoekitty said

 

i think the tracks were diverted to the other side.  Omg, when I lived in Los altos they had the best train tracks ever!  There were a grove of old eucalyptus trees near by.  Hobos were rumored to live in there. We loved to flatten pennies or slugs on the tracks.  Train came through about 3pm everyday.   We used to scour the area on Saturdays and summers for bottles!  Those days we could get 5 cents for a qt beer bottle.  Sometimes we could go to market and cash them in for 20 cents worth.  That was 2 candy bars and 2 popcicles. Big ones too!  I found a good bike tire, a watch, and a piece of blue glass there.  I tell you I was raking it in, until the parents started worrying about our health, and our moral being hanging around in such places.   best times of summer were held  in the grove of trees collecting bottles and dodging trains, lol