Pretty cool! But I find that the initial view is of the house across the street. So you have to give it about three clicks to the right and you'll see the actual house -- in this case the cream-colored two-story. This is the first house DH and I bought together when we were getting married. It was a cute stucco storybook house. We were there from 2003-2005. I miss it sometimes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Storybook House

http://www.vpike.com?e=32.823622,-97.248444:225:

No way! Did you know there is software that can predict what your SSN is based on publicly available data? I sure wouldn't post an old address!

Well, if GW wants to remove this thread - fine by me. I don't know about any SSN-predicting software. I certainly meant no harm by starting this thread ...
:-/

If that software is used, why wouldn't someone driving by your house and looking up your name on the auditor's website give them access to your social security number? Why would an old address belong to someone whose name we don't know lead to a social security number? I'd like to know more about this software. I'm assuming one would have to cross-reference several addresses belonging to the same individual to match corresponding social security numbers for something like that to work.

Hey, auntjen, I'm not trying to be mean. In ten seconds, the first address can be traced back to the owners in 1985 (Centennial Homes, eh?). The internet is NOT safe. ANYONE can read ANYTHING on this forum. Please be careful with your personal info, that's all I'm pointing out.

deeinohio, it's just an old article that I read. Basically, don't post your birthdate anywhere! Again, my only point is, please, please be careful about the personal and identifying information you share on the internet. Who knows what weirdo is out there "plotting" financial or physical harm? I know, I sound totally paranoid, but I am shocked at how much personal info people share sometimes. Maybe it's the ex-auditor in me?

Here is a link that might be useful: Guessing Your SSN

auntjen, thanks for giving out this link, I looked up the houses I could remember our addresses, it's incredible to get an instant picture view.

It certainly doesn't hurt to post pictures without the addresses - I'd love to see more homes that you all have lived in.

Jakabedy you lived on the south side? Have you ever been to five points, ask a silly question. One of my favorite restaurants is in downtown B'ham, The Hot and Hot, ever hear of it?

I don't have a picture of my old house at the moment. I lived in Center Point, Alabama in a fabulous house. Now you have to take a helicoper to get in there, sad.

.....Jane

Don't worry Jen - how could you know? I like Catt's idea of just posting pictures that we have without the particulars on address. Any Realtor or Google pictures that come up for my old homes are such poor quality and taken through trees that you really can't make out the house at all. Have to see what I can dig out - nothing on computer.

Well, having lived in the boonies or very small towns all of my life, not a single addy I've called my domicile has any pics, bummer, but thanks for the link, auntjen, it's very cool, I did get to peek at some places I've visited.

sandyponder

Yep, thanks for the vpike link. My homes don't show up either.

Here, we can look up the county tax accessor site online. If you enter a persons name, all the homes they currently own in that county show up. All the previous owners, points they paid on their loan, the rate of their loan, the amount they put down on the homes loan....if they still have a loan, material grade used, type of roof....a picture of their home....

I hardly think "this" site is invasive....:0)

Along the lines of posting without using an address. If you don't have an old pic, you can easily snag it from Jen's link and tweak it for privacy.

So:
-Open any photo edit software (works even in Microsoft Paint)
-Find your old address at Jen's link
hit Alt+ PrtScr keys on your keyboard at the same time. (This gets you a 'print screen' snapshot and it's automatically put on your computer's clipboard.)
-Go back to your photo edit software and paste as new image. (Generally commands are Edit>Paste or Edit>Paste as New Image or something quite similar)
-Then crop it down to just the house image itself (removing map on right, address at top of photo too). If you leave the street name on the bottom, no one's going to know the address or the town. But if you want to crop that off too it can be done and still leave an image of the house. Depending on how far in/out you zoomed at time screenshot was taken you might need to crop out part of the driveway to get the street off the bottom. (Takes less than a minute, if you try it you'll see what I mean.)

There you have it, a pic of your old place to upload and share, and no identifiable info. ;) A few extra steps, but safe and fun. (I didn't know about the SS# methods used per that article, pretty creepy. Ticks me off when DH was going to night school both the University and Fed Student Loan used SS# as ID to log in. And it wasn't changeable. That was as recently as a few years ago.)

This is a house we owned & loved in New Orleans in the late 80s/early 90s. It was a fixer upper that we renovated with much TLC:

Ten years later, this is what it looked like post-Katrina. The owner had abandoned it:

My son was in NOLA recently, and went back to the house. Happily, it has new owners who gutted it & made it beautiful again. The new owners were kind enough to let my son inside & take pictures even.

When I punched in the address of the house I grew up in, it showed the house across the street. I rotated the camera view and was surprised to see the pic of my old house because it was such an old image of it. A few years ago, my parents replaced the muddy colored wood siding with grey vinyl siding. New dark grey shutters, new roof, new windows, new front door. It was a bit of a shock to see the house as I remembered it.

The satellite shot is blurry, but if it were crisper, you'd see those black iron scrolly things holding up the overhang on either side of the garage door and either side of the front door. Each of the scrolls is flat topped from years of my DB and I sneaking in and out, scampering across the garage roof and into our bedroom windows. Still makes me smile.

I'm with Catnap that I think it will be fun to see photos of homes we all lived in in the past.
Here's the home our children grew up in. The neighborhood was awesome on the outskirts of a somewhat large city with lots to do and plenty of kids their age.
Area view showing our garage under the trees and the basket ball court that seemed to always have some fun going on. Before the garage was built the kids played baseball there. It was a great gathering place.
Oh and I can't forget about the clubhouse my Daddy and I built the summer my Mom passed away.

I had posted photos at the beginning of this thread, but the Garden Web was kind enough to delete them for me when I feared for my privacy. Here, above, they are without any info attached.

Oh Awm - how sad to see your lovely home so devastated!

Here is our California cottage that we lived in for 24 years (until we retired to Kentucky)...I have heard that the new owners have really let the garden go - so sad

Oh cattknap, I will never tire of looking at your prior home's garden. It is just lovely. Is the exterior painted? If so, do you know the color? Love the trees. Ginkos?

catnap, I remember your front yard now, it's always been a favorite of mine.

Cattknap, how beautiful!!

Oh thank you ladies - I do miss that yard, although our new yards have lots of potential - we worked on them all last spring and summer. I hope to post pictures - things are starting to green up - we have had the coldest winter!

Here is a couple of little videos that my husband took of the back last year - we planted tons of new things, pruned things that had never been pruned, took a large stagnant pond out, installed a fountain, restored some old steps (once hidden) to an upper garden), pulled more weeds that you want to know, LOL - it looked better that is for sure. Scroll down to the 2nd and 3rd posts...this is my husband's blog. Turn up the volume and you will hear the birds.

Here is a link that might be useful: New Backyard Video

Someone started a similar thread last year about homes from our childhood. That was fun to read.

cattknap - I have also enjoyed seeing your yard throughout the last few years. Your new yard looks like it's on it's way to being just as beautiful! Lucky you to have that "free" and maintained back yard. Beautiful! I can tell your DH takes pride in his yard, and what the projects!

moonshadow - Thank you for that copying tip. Took me a while, but I was able to find a few of my past homes. I couldn't recall the addresses. lol Some of the others were so grown up with foliage in the front, that you could barely see the house. I didn't bother to copy those.

This is the home I was raised in. The yard is also overgrown from how it used to look. It's sad. :(

The shutters and balcony trim were once painted a really pretty celery/olive green. When I was in grammar school, I jumped off the balcony with an umbrella after having seen Mary Poppins. :) A few years later, I "ran away" and hid on the roof outside my balcony doors (far right.) My parents couldn't find me. The yard backed up to the woods where I would spend hours playing. There was a running stream, complete with salamanders. In later years, my parents added a wing in the back for my grandmother, a large rec room and a pool - just about the time I was leaving for college. My children were able to enjoy them before my parents sold the house.
{{!gwi}}

The first home DH and I bought when moving to our area. Talk about a storybook house! This house had the charm and a yard to go with it. The back slope was full of purple iris. A large red maple next to the stone is gone.
{{!gwi}}

The house was deceivingly large, with the master, two bedrooms and a huge bonus room being on the second floor. Two additional bedrooms were on the main.
{{!gwi}}

After selling the above home, we built the following in the same neighborhood. It's the house where my children did most of their growing up. We lived here the longest - 7 years. The house just recently sold again after the family that bought it from us, lived in it for 7 more years. They finished the basement out, but not much else. Not sure who lives there now, but I hear it looks good.
{{!gwi}}

Our last two homes, y'all have seen. Thanks for letting me share.

Thanks for the link AuntJen, that was fun.

My former house doesn't show up on this site, which is strange because nearby streets do. I like www.zillow.com because, not only can you see your former house, but you can see what it's valued at now. Our former house, which we paid $53,000 for in 1976 (and sold for $132,000 in 1983) is now valued at almost $500,000. Zillow lets you look at all views of the home also. Unfortunatley I can't find a way to copy/paste my house into here.

Casey, please tell me where that beautiful mansion was located?

bonnieann925 - I looked up my childhood home on that site, but the information is way off. It says the home had around 2,100 square feet, where it actually had more than twice that amount, not counting the basement. Also, the selling cost is way off. However, I did get a good birds-eye view.

{{!gwi}}

Hi,
It's in Jefferson County, WV. The largest Washington Family estate of the seven that were in this county. The original builder, Bushrod Corbin Washington held 56 slaves when he died in 1851. You won't find this house on zillow; it's on google earth, aerial, no street view, and it's pretty fuzzy.
Casey

My heart sank when I looked at my old house. It was a stately home on Main Street. When the picture was taken on the website, it was the aftermath of an ice storm with tree limbs everywhere.

Not only that, the owners put in a concrete driveway in the large side yard leading to nowhere, because the garage is in the back yard, with it's own parking area! That's where we used to play touch football all the time. sniff.

AND...they painted the house an ugly brown color, when it was white.

I need to go have a talk with them, and invite the owners to come to this board for "curb appeal" advice. :(

Please post the house, anyway!

sombreuil_mongrel - It's just beautiful. Thank you for the history. I am currently doing research on my family after finding a slave book. I'd like to find a place to list the information for the slave descendants.