Discussion » Questions » Outside the Mug » Is it justified to knock on the door of the old house you used to live in and ask to take a look around?

Is it justified to knock on the door of the old house you used to live in and ask to take a look around?

Posted - October 16, 2018

Responses


  • 23576
    I've actually done that.

    The couple was very nice and invited me in. I had shared that I had traveled a good distance to visit my old neighborhood.

    And I have an acquaintance/friend, not really close but pretty close - - where I lived, his grandmother lived. He asked if he and his dad could come in. I had them in and we had a good time visiting.
      October 16, 2018 8:10 PM MDT
    5

  • 189
    That‘s something I’d love to do but fear it would not be looked on favorably.
      October 16, 2018 11:25 PM MDT
    6

  • 4624
    Twice, a former owner has come and asked to look around - two different places.
    With the first, I didn't mind. He was a cool kind of guy and I was proud of the changes I'd made and happy to show them off.
    With the first second, I did show the bloke around but didn't like it. I didn't like him. Something felt slightly off. Fortunately, he never came back.

    I've never done that to someone else.
    I'd quite like to return to the house where I grew up to see how it's changed - but I'd never do so.
    I think it would be too much of an invasion of another person's privacy - even if I only got as far as the front door.
    In general, I don't like door-knockers of any sort.
    I think the only people with a right to visit are invited friends or people with a legitimate task such as reading the electricity meter.

    Odd, when I think about it - that behaviours I allow from others are not what I would do to them.
    I think that suggests I ought to take a closer look at my boundaries. This post was edited by inky at October 17, 2018 7:53 AM MDT
      October 16, 2018 11:49 PM MDT
    6

  • 14795
    Yes....my parents still live there and still like me and I still have my own keys so I'm free to wander about willie nilliy ...   :)
      October 17, 2018 1:27 AM MDT
    4

  • 53505

      Wow, how did you trick them into still liking you? (After all the things you've done, I mean.)

    ~


      October 17, 2018 5:36 AM MDT
    1

  • 53505

      I thought I was the only one who harbored that secret urge!  It's sooooooooo difficult to resist, lol!  The only thing that holds me back is that I think I'd be carted off to the looney bin.  

    ~
      October 17, 2018 5:31 AM MDT
    4

  • 6098
    I think its natural. Of course would depend on the current owners - you wouldn't want to intrude upon them but if everyone was agreeable something can often be arranged.  Just walking up on them and knocking on the door - not a good idea.  Several years ago my brothers and I showed my husband where we grew up and we had a great time with the owners.  Actually we had sold the house to them after our mother died several years before that. We were not the first family to occupy that house - another couple were the first owners but my parents enlarged it and it was in our family for 50 years.  I understand it has been sold again since. 
      October 17, 2018 6:37 AM MDT
    4

  • 44604
    My brother and I did so. The woman was very gracious and let us in. They had really fixed the inside very nicely.
      October 17, 2018 7:20 AM MDT
    4

  • My brother has been to our childhood home.   I don't have the guts to do that, but I would like to see what it looks like in there now.   Until then, I just keep checking Zillow to see if the house is for sale, and if so, perhaps they will post some interior photos.    I have been to my dad's childhood home in Deadwood, South Dakota, and that was very cool.   No one was living in the home at the time, so we were able to peek in the windows and look around.
      October 17, 2018 7:53 AM MDT
    4

  • 23576
    The responses to this question have been interesting for me to read.
    :)

    Hey, there, Gladys.
    :)
      October 17, 2018 7:57 AM MDT
    3

  • Hahah   Hey there, Artie.  :p
      October 17, 2018 8:05 AM MDT
    2

  • 23576
    Ha! That was good!
    :)

    Relatively recently I came across these 14 seconds of Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson. After liking Buzzi for so long, her reaction to Johnson is so dam* funny to me! Who wouldn't laugh at Johnson here? The audience surely is joining in, too.
    :)





      October 17, 2018 8:22 AM MDT
    3

  • aw, haha.   I love it when actors lose their composure and have a hard time holding their laugh.   That is how Conway and Korman were on Carol Burnette.    Another classic pairing.
      October 17, 2018 8:41 AM MDT
    3

  • 23576
    Yup!

    :)


      October 17, 2018 9:56 AM MDT
    2

  • 22891
    i dont see anything wrong with asking but its up to thenn
      October 17, 2018 9:57 AM MDT
    2

  • 6023
    I've driven by houses I used to live in, just to see the neighborhood and if the outside has changed.
    I'd never ask to see the inside, though. 
    I wouldn't want a stranger asking me personal questions, and I don't see asking to go in their house as any different.
      October 17, 2018 11:06 AM MDT
    3

  • 628
    Hello CosmicWunderkund
    The house I grew up in is now a bed and breakfast..my dad had to sell the place in 1978. For my 50th birthday I stayed there for the weekend, in my old room. The woman who owns it has had some work done on the old place, some things I liked, other things I did not care for...I expect that when she sells the place it will be torn down and replaced with a new home, as is pretty standard for the older homes in that area...
      October 17, 2018 11:19 AM MDT
    2

  • 7280
    Justified---having, done for, or marked by a good or legitimate reason

    I don't think your curiosity needs to be justified---as long as it's simple (or even complex, for that matter)---curiosity; and as long as you do not intend to force your way in.

    We often deny ourselves legitimate satisfaction for fear of disturbing others.

    I always encourage children to ask for what they want 100%---and let the person who can grant their requests the option to say yes or no.
      October 17, 2018 12:07 PM MDT
    1

  • 448
    Actually did that with my brother and sister and they let us look around..
      October 17, 2018 3:12 PM MDT
    1