Totally. I anthropomorphize houses all the time.

Both here and in our last house, we have had PO's (sometimes from many years ago) drop by and they are always so happy the houses are being well taken care of.

I am always particularly happy to see old homes get a nice cash infusion and a lot of work, because I figure that keeps them going another few decades even with changing tastes and fortunes.

I feel bad for my surrounding property values! There is one house round the corner that sold about 2 years ago, we've been here 6 years. I make the same comment every time DH and I go for a walk, about how the current owners have let it go. Previous owners kept immaculate gardens and had pretty patio furnishings. The house is on a corner so you can see the back of it through the fence plantings. Current owners seem to be barely keeping up the place.

On the other hand, we have run down 1950's ranches that get torn down and brand new $2 mill+ houses get built and many of the resale homes do get some cash infusions, so overall more of the homes end up looking better.

Grapefruit, we did a lot of improvement when we bought our house and we had some neighbors/locals who made the effort to stop by and tell us how much they liked our projects. It was nice to hear, so I'm sure your neighbors appreciate hearing it too.

I was back in my hometown this summer and drove past the house in which I grew up. My father and his tradesman friends built the house themselves from plans he got through the newspaper. There have been unsuitable additions and it's just hideous. It has a big, ugly garage out front now; my father hated prominent garages. I felt so bad for the house!

Thank you for your responses. Aok, that is great that the house has been Maintained. I love that!

Sealavender......I am trying to be optimistic. The blanket was hanging on the living room wall. Ugly white blinds were going up at the beautiful window.

Maybe the house is now a rental? Or it's a young guy who this is his first home and he doesn't have much after buying the house.

There are people who don't know anything other than cheap plastic blinds are an option.

It's the opposite for me, during the recession I was doing property appraisal type work for the banks. I was alway so happy when I would drive by later and see the property occupied, cleaned up and on it's way to being a home again. Some of them were in such horrible horrible condition.

Yes, with houses and also gardens. The house across from us had the best curb appeal on the block. The owner was one of those naturally talented gardeners who also had an eye for design. Her husband was handy and kept the 100 year old house in great shape. She took me under her wing and helped me to make my front yard garden special. The kids moved away to college and they followed selling the house to a couple who were not bad but only ordinary. The gardens are just barely maintained and nothing special now and the house has peeling paint and rotten balustrades. It used to make me so happy to look out and see it - esp. in the spring.

I hope the house in your area is only temporarily taken over by bad management. Could always be worse. One house on our block was bought by someone from the other side of the country who rented it out to drug dealers. The rest of us on the block (a very friendly family block) spent a couple of years calling police weekly and having bikes, etc. stolen on a regular basis. It finally turned into a squatting situation (the new owner only became concerned when it started to cost him money) and the police eventually shut it down. It was just bought by a family who have fixed it up and we are all very grateful.

A little diff observation from me. There is a lovely house in our sub. The 3 owners that have owned it have divorced. What are the odds? I met all 3 couples, liked their families and they appeared content w/their lives. House is presently vacant, in the market for over a year. Luckily it is well maintained but perhaps overpriced, IDK

DD recently bought her first home and several neighbors have told her how happy they are to have a young couple move onto the street. In this case DD hasn't even done much to the exterior since they're focusing on getting the interior put together. But the previous owners bought it when their son was a freshman at the local university and he rented out the extra bedrooms to fellow students. Everyone commented on the 'frat boys' atmosphere and are thrilled that it' s now owner occupied.

My cousin posted photos of a house she rented for 6 years. She'd done some lovely landscaping and took meticulous care of the yard. The house was sold and the new owners have not done a thing in the past 3 years. The vegetation has overgrown and even the light fixture on the drive is broken.

We get loads of comments from neighbors about the updates we've done to our house in the 12 years we've lived here. The yard was meticulously maintined, but the shrubs had all gotten too big and overgrown so they were no longer flowering or looked good. And it looked like the 1960's! We've done some simple updates (pulled out the dutch shutters, replaced ugly porch supports with fashionable columns, ripped out old concrete and took out all the old, over grown shrubs and replaced them with wildlife friendly flowers & shrubs.

I was recently in the neighborhood I grew up in and while there have been changes, they are definitely for the better. Mid-century builds-not MCM-but boxy subdivisions are tired looking, the improvements I saw up and down the block were wonderful. I was a little sad looking at our old house, because some of the changes my Dad had made were changed again, but my grandparents house, across the street, had been updated and looked fresh and beautiful.

This hits a nerve with me. We bought 10 years ago on a lovely little dead end street with the homes all looking pretty good. The sweet little family next to us moved to another part of the city & have chosen to rent out the house which has become very neglected....it actually irritates the heck out of me. Also, the house around the corner from us which is what I look at from the kitchen window, is completely overgrown....so much so that foliage is growing up over their roof. Not sure what has happened because he used to keep it up. I actually have a pet peeve about people who rent/buy a home with a yard & don't take care of it.....why do that??? Stick to a condo, townhouse or apt. if you don't want a yard.

Mtn, boy did that hit a nerve! I had a gay couple move in across the street and we became instant friends, as well as them becoming a big part of our family. When they decided to relocate, of course we were happy for them, but sad to loose such a close friendship. A few months later the house was sold, and I walked over one day as the new neighbor was pulling into the driveway to introduce myself~he was 'sloshed'. I now only wave out of politeness, but the house and landscsping has certainly suffered. Last Christmas a UPS package with their address was delivered to my house by mistake, and I walked across the street to give it to them. When the door was opened it reeked of cigarette smoke. I remembered what impeccable housekeepers the guys were and felt a sudden pang of sadness, and how they might feel. I'm thankful I never became friends with the 'new neighbors' because I probably might have let my feelings be known.

I do feel sorry for neglected houses, and happy when a tattered home gets refreshed. Our last two houses, the neighbors were thrilled we were there and taking are of the house and garden as previous owners hadn't.

In this house...well, I could be Lizzie_grow's neighbor.

We bought our house for the big yard. I was a SAHM whose hobby was gardening, and I spent most of my free time, energy, and money on improving and maintaining the garden and yard. It looked very nice for a few years.Then life happened. College tuition, medical bills, back to work, working two jobs, painful back injury from a bad fall, you name it. My house looks worn down and the weeds, vines and drought-y areas are out of control. New paint, new windows, etc are not in the budget.

After a few years in denial and thinking I could single-handedly bring it all back to looking nice, I have officially admitted defeat this year and we've started transitioning the house back from a "garden" to a "yard" that can be mowed by a kid and hedge trimmed 2x a year, and doesn't require the time or expense we once put into it. At this point, boring and neat is the best I can hope for. I hate to think of people feeling sorry for my house, but honestly, my neighbors just might :(