Weirdly sad

No, not weird. The house across the street from my mom is doing a major renovation. Additions are being made to each side of the porch. Me and my sister were a bit sad because they were changing the *Johnson's house* (they adopted all the neighborhood kids as their grandkids). In that case, it really does need some work, but it doesn't look the same.

That would make me sad and mad! I know it's the new owners choice, but still sad. My in-laws had a beautiful home that was amazingly decorated and had the most beautiful gardens that my MIL had spend years planting. We were all so sad when the sold the house, but even more sad when the new owner changed everything to an "Italian" decor. Literally ripped out everything inside and out.

I seriously never understood the idea of fixing up a house to sell.

I would be sad too. We spend a lot of effort fixing up our house for sale and plan to do a lot more (since it hasn't sold and is currently rented). I would be sad if the new owners came in and changed everything.

That is disappointing, and I hope the previous owner doesn't find out! How bad was the house for it to be totally demolished???

I hate seeing houses torn down. I wish more people would find ways to make the older homes work for them. I just love older homes and I love the idea of the history behind them and the stories wrapped up in them.

Wow what a waste.

I've tried to warn my parents about this very thing. They keep saying how they want to sell their house and move closer to us but my mom keeps saying, "This house needs this done or that done". Major stuff. It's one thing to do cosmetic stuff so the house is presentable but it's a total waste of money to do big renovations.

I'll admit... I don't get why you are teary over a house that has never been yours is being demolished. And, I assume, something nicer will be going in. Newer/nicer will raise the property values for your home too.

I know it isn't your house but once you (general you) sell, you no longer have any say over what happens or what the new owner decides to do. Instead of looking at this as a loss, you should consider the fact that a major improvement and upgrade could potentially raise the value for everyone else still in the neighborhood. If the new owner is in the construction business, it should turn out to be a quality re-do and not some weekend warrior hopped up over a marathon run of shows on HGTV.

Are you certain there wasn't some major structural defect with the house? Sometimes houses can be beautifully kept and impeccably decorated and still turn out to be a badly built lemon. Sometimes it's less expensive to demolish and rebuild than it is to fix and change the original structure. And even if there's nothing technically wrong with the house, the new owner gets to do whatever he wants, as long as your locality has signed off on the permits and such. There could likely be something wrong with the house if the local zoning authorities agreed it could be demolished.

Around here, it would take a historical certification on the property to stop a demolition. Our town is on the National Historic Register and some parts of town are extremely restricted (historically beautiful but woefully outdated and impractical for today's times). Once a property is declared historic, it cannot be altered or brought up to today's standards: no air conditioning, no vinyl siding, and the house must have/keep slate roofs, etc. Being historic isn't necessarily a good thing (sometimes it makes it harder to sell) and just because something is old, it isn't always valuable. Sad, but true.

It's hard to watch that sort of thing happen. At least when we bought ours for a knock-down rebuild the previous owners we very happy for us to do it. I must admit, though, that I got a bit cranky that we paid for the window repair for the house next door (my DS kicked a ball though a window) and now they have had all the windows replaced. That was expensive glass!

I agree.  Last year we were trying to decide whether to move or renovate - we decided to renovate.  I actually found some of the projects people did annoying.  Mainly the people who did a major reno of the master bath or the kitchen to get it ready to sell, but their taste was completely different than mine and therefore I hated the new kitchen they put in less than a year before putting the house on the market.  But how do you rip out a brand new kitchen?  I would rather buy the house with the old kitchen in place so that I could do it to my taste.  

This. My sister and her husband bought a starter house back in probably the early 80's that had the most HIDEOUS lime green and yellow shag carpeting in the living room. It was in decent shape, just seriously ugly. The minute they bought that house, I told them I'd be ripping that crap out in a New York minute! Her husband said, "Oh no, we won't be doing that. The carpet is in great shape and we can't afford to replace it so we're just going to live with it."

Fast forward like ten years, and that carpet was STILL IN THERE. They decide to sell the house and move out to the suburbs for a bigger house and more space. What do you think was the very FIRST thing their realtor told them to do to get the house ready to go on the market? You guessed it, "GET RID OF THAT UGLY CARPET!!!" Now the ironic thing was when they finally pulled up the carpet they found beautiful hardwood maple underneath! It didn't even need to be refinished. Here they could have been enjoying that nice hardwood floor for all of those years, but instead they put up with nasty green shag for a decade. 

Moral of the story: Do it for yourself and enjoy it for a while first!