Thinking About Moving?

I move about three times a year. Other People. I help them move and watch how hard it is to leave things behind like gardens, neighbors and things they can't take with them. Moving is hard. I have lived in the same home for 30 years. I thought of moving closer to town once, but divorce changed that, and I am still here. I have rented 7 rooms in my home for the past 20 years. My first wife is a room mate, My mother moves into the studio apartment that is attached to the garage in three weeks. Rather than moving it has become the home my family thinks of as the forever home. Two brothers and both sisters have lived here during hard times in their life. I checked out this post because I often think of moving but I have become the caretaker of many so it would be hard to change things. I think of being a snow bird and heading to Costa Rica for the winter though.
 
Macfan said:
It's scary really. We would Love to get out of California but home is paid for here so no longer have a mortgage payment, which is nice. Never mind the stress of going through a move and all that it entails but finding a place to move to that wouldn't be the equivalent of jumping from the frying pan into the fire? So, we stay, better to hate where we are but know what we have than to venture out to the unknown where there may be a deal breaker with no return possible? Don...
Click to expand...
We lived in Riverside until hubby retired in 2001. We've only been back out to CA once since then and have to say we don't miss the hectic lifestyle. We liked Riverside but it's become so crowded and I can't imagine what it's like now. We love our small town here in PA...where it actually rains :)
 
Ahead of retiring we toured all over the states looking at an alternative to living in Pennsylvania. Cold with high taxes, making retiring early in Pa. not going to happen. Property taxes alone in Pa. on what we owned would exceed what we pay here for property taxes, utilities, trash removal, sewage, internet & still have some left over.

We settled on southern Nevada because of low humidity, access to shopping & medical if needed. We wanted no stairs to climb, easy access to cleaning windows when necessary so we bought a 3 bedroom rancher. It has 2 full baths, 2 car garage and decent sized back yard that I knew would be low maintenance. It is well insulated, with stucco exterior & tile roof . Paid cash for it ahead of retiring.

Never going to move, but I expect to croak long before my wife. She will have more than enough money to have things like a failed water heater or HVAC unit replaced, If she decides that living in a 3 bedroom home is more than she wants to the option for my wife to sell & move into an upscale condo is part of our planning.
 
It's not an easy decision to move, especially if you've spent years and money renovating your house, working on your garden, and getting used to the neighbors and the community. Think of the cost and the stress of moving. Yes, it gets more difficult as we age.

I've been at my home 12 years now. When we moved here, my husband and I put much effort/cost into making this house the way we wanted it (new roof, new HVAC, new plumbing, solar panels, kitchen renovation, maintenance, etc). It's a large house. We originally bought it for the three of us (my husband, me, and my son) but now I am one person. Yet I do like the stairs. Many others buy homes to avoid the stairs. I want to keep walking up and down those carpeted stairs until I cannot do it! They have strong wooden rails that I hold on to for support. Walking those stairs is an affirmation that I'm still in shape. If it becomes difficult, I plan to change the den on the first floor to a bedroom. I hope that's a long time down the road.

I love the garden, and growing things, and the chirping of the birds. I love the trees - dogwoods, weeping cherry, apple and pear trees, etc. I love the azaleas, roses, irises and day lilies.

I shudder at the idea of moving into another home and having to do all that work all over again. Having bought and sold several homes over the years, I am sad to say that the previous homeowners who sold us their homes didn't take care of their properties as we expected. Each home we've bought always needed some work to get it to the standard we wanted. And that gets tiring after a while, especially the older we get. We bought our house, fixed it, and now I am staying and enjoying it. That's where I'm at now. I've also lived in a condo and apartment - hated every minute of it. I need my privacy, my garden, and my quiet.
 
palides2021 said:
It's not an easy decision to move, especially if you've spent years and money renovating your house, working on your garden, and getting used to the neighbors and the community. Think of the cost and the stress of moving. Yes, it gets more difficult as we age.

I've been at my home 12 years now. When we moved here, my husband and I put much effort/cost into making this house the way we wanted it (new roof, new HVAC, new plumbing, solar panels, kitchen renovation, maintenance, etc). It's a large house. We originally bought it for the three of us (my husband, me, and my son) but now I am one person. Yet I do like the stairs. Many others buy homes to avoid the stairs. I want to keep walking up and down those carpeted stairs until I cannot do it! They have strong wooden rails that I hold on to for support. Walking those stairs is an affirmation that I'm still in shape. If it becomes difficult, I plan to change the den on the first floor to a bedroom. I hope that's a long time down the road.

I love the garden, and growing things, and the chirping of the birds. I love the trees - dogwoods, weeping cherry, apple and pear trees, etc. I love the azaleas, roses, irises and day lilies.

I shudder at the idea of moving into another home and having to do all that work all over again. Having bought and sold several homes over the years, I am sad to say that the previous homeowners who sold us their homes didn't take care of their properties as we expected. Each home we've bought always needed some work to get it to the standard we wanted. And that gets tiring after a while, especially the older we get. We bought our house, fixed it, and now I am staying and enjoying it. That's where I'm at now. I've also lived in a condo and apartment - hated every minute of it. I need my privacy, my garden, and my quiet.
Click to expand...
Our master bedroom/bath is on the first floor. I have an office (from my work years) on the second floor. I am also happy to have the stairs to climb each day, and I appreciate the routine that going to my office each morning provides during retirement. Unless we find something smaller, when I'm no longer able to climb the stairs I will simply live downstairs.
 
I constantly thought about moving for months, deciding to sell, deciding to stay, back and forth. Staying put would be very much cheaper, but the house would lose value over time (its a manufactured house so only about 30 yr more lifespan) and I'm not doing well at upkeep of the barns (zero effort made!). Also, I have neighbors. I prefer privacy and when I moved here there were no neighbors (just land), if I'd wanted to walk around outside naked I could have. I still love the grass and trees, the birds and the dark starry skies at night. But I have bedrooms I never enter (well now I have been in them to prep to sell and leave) and a second bathroom that is just an unneeded cleaning chore.

I'm going to slow travel, hopefully for a couple years if my health holds and my cat will adjust. No idea where I'll settle down (depressingly probably back to boring Nebraska eventually due to my daughter being here plus it is a relatively inexpensive housing area). I toy with the idea of living overseas also (I like watching the 'Our Freedom Years' Canadian ladies YouTube videos).

The realtor that handled selling my house thinks the prices will be okay in a couple years so that I could buy a condo. I'll need to decide on what is important to me, I'm thinking I'd like a walkable area, high-rise small apartment with a pretty view, adjacent park, and a lot of other old people. Not sure whether I want a balcony, think I'd prefer to have nice plant shelves/stand conveniently inside by a sunny window (or bunch of grow-lights).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top