You Can Go Home Again, Sometimes

Jane Porricelli sits on the porch of her childhood home in Barrington, R.I., which was bought in 1998 by Margaret Vatter, right. (By Stew Milne -- Associated Press)

When Jane Porricelli's parents sold their house in Barrington, R.I., around the time she went away to college, she didn't think much about it. But years later, when she moved to a neighboring town, she found herself driving past her childhood home.

"The memories came back," said Porricelli, 27. "The nostalgia was there."

Dating an old family friend who had spent countless hours in the house added to her sentimental feelings. In a nod to their histories, Porricelli's then-boyfriend got permission from the owners to bring her to the house for a tour.

At the end, he asked her to marry him.

"I thought it was great," said Margaret Vatter, who had bought the house from Porricelli's parents in 1998.

One of the things that had appealed to Vatter about the house was that a family had lived there. "We looked at a bunch of homes here," she said. "When I walked in, I said, 'I'm home.' There were pictures of kids everywhere."

Although the Vatters extensively remodeled the house's interior, they did little to Jane Porricelli's bedroom. That pleased her.

"It's really beautifully done," said Porricelli, who bought her first home, in Cranston, R.I., two years ago.

Porricelli sometimes wonders what that house's former owners, Lenore and Joel Cerel, think of the changes she has made. The Cerels, who lived in the four-bedroom Colonial for 34 years, moved into a nearby apartment building.

"We chopped down a ton of trees," said Porricelli, who sends the Cerels a Christmas card every year. "I'm a little bit scared to invite them in."

Lenore Cerel said she would pass on a tour anyway. "I just want to remember it the way I had it," she said. "I was very happy to hand over the love of my life to Jane and Steve. They're a lovely couple."

That's not to say she approves of the landscaping changes.

"I could sit and cry," said Cerel, 70. "We liked the look of the house, but it's not our house any more."

Jessica Walliser, a professional horticulturist, had a similar reaction in September when she drove past a house she had sold in 2001.

"Now I'm upset I even looked!" Walliser, of Sewickley, Pa., wrote in her online journal. "They hacked out my garden to put up an eight-foot-high retaining wall that is topped with lots of weedy sumac, ragweed, horseweed and other assorted junk."

Such feelings are natural, said psychologist James Quick, who teaches at the University of Texas at Arlington.

"It's part of our human DNA to connect and attach to places and people," he said. "So when somebody takes out those bushes, it tears our heart out."