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In our move to a new house in a new state (66 and 62 years old) we have found in doing some renovations on the house and general landscaping that was ignored bythe prior owner - that the local contractors are SLOW AS MOLASSES.
We have had a landscaping job that could have been done in a week - take 4 weeks. And it's still not done.
So I turn to my spouse and ask him if he will tolerate the same behavior if we decide to build a house........ it's a good question and we don't yet have the answer.
It's not always about your will and energy..... because you have to employ people to help you and they are not always reliable.
Well, getting an apartment in another city/state, especially when that city/state is 1,788 miles away from where we are currently, probably won't be that easy. Like trying to get a job, when not living in the area of the job. Most likely we will have to stay (again) at a Weekly Motel and look for an apartment where we move to in Colorado.
For two moves we've made, we've had to stay in a weekly motel while looking for an apartment to rent. Only time we didn't have to do that was when we moved here to Jacksonville from central NC. We were able to visit Jacksonville, obtain an apartment and move the next month. We did have to stay at the same motel we were at when checking out Jacksonville, as we did when we moved here. Our apartment wouldn't be ready until the Monday after the Thursday we left NC.
So, we definitely know what it's like, cost wise, to stay at a weekly when looking for an apartment. But, had to do it.
We have the opposite situation. We are in our late 60's. We relocated about 250 miles from our prior home to another state to live a few miles away from our daughter's family last year. Our daughter had been suggesting this for years because we had no family left where we were. We do love seeing her family often, but they have busy lives. However, we miss our former location greatly and are contemplating a return back to where we had lived for almost fifty years. The downsizing and move was very stressful and exhausting. We hired movers and packers as it was too overwhelming to do it all ourselves. Selling our home and buying another within 2 days was very intense, but we had realtors and lawyers helping us. We stayed in a motel for two days until we had the basics unpacked.
We are finding it very difficult to make new acquaintances and friends, although we are involved in several activities and are outgoing. Overall, we felt much more comfortable in our former setting in terms of traffic, getting around, having better medical providers, long-lasting friends, a lower cost of living, and a richer quality of life. We knew the area where we relocated, but we had not realized how difficult this would be. Proximity to family and having help when needed is the biggest positive factor, which is very important. Are we crazy to want to move back? Our former home is in a less expensive area so returning would not be much of an issue financially. And we've already done the work of downsizing. Our daughter's family would be very upset if we left, but we would be much more content and happier returning to where we lived for so long. It's quite a dilemma for us. I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with downsizing, relocating, and then returning.
We moved from Florida to Tennessee a couple of years ago, when we were in our late 60s. We were fortunate and everything went like clockwork. A great stroke of luck was that a neighbor wanted to buy our Florida house for their son. So that did away with the hassle of showing the house and we had almost three months after closing to vacate. Closed on our old house in January, came up here and found a house and closed on it the first of March. Went back to Florida and the movers packed up the next week. Got stuff moved to Tennessee and then came back to Florida for a couple of weeks to wrap some things up. On March 31, loaded up last belongings and two cats into our vehicles and drove for 14 hours up here.
After it was all over my wife remarked that she never dreamed it would all go so smoothly. And we experienced no problems at all with adjusting to our new area. Felt right at home from the get-go.
At age 62, we fulfilled a life-long dream and moved from Texas to Colorado. We spent a few months getting rid of stuff and put our long-time house on the market. It sold so quickly that we had to move to a rental for a few months before we could find and purchase the Colorado house. We loaded one large pod, had it shipped, put the cats in the car and took off. We bought the Colorado house and spent a year remodeling it ourselves. The plan now is to spend a bit of time traveling the West, sell the house and move back to Texas to grow old and be near family again. Unfortunately, we can't afford two homes or we would have one in each place. Yes, it is all very stressful at an older age but somehow we managed and plan to do it all over again.
Anyone move at 70 alone and knew no one at destination?
No spouse, no kids, no friends? No job.
Change is very hard and I have anxiety/fear just thinking about it,
especially as I have been living in the same small apt. for decades.
We have our ruts that are so hard to break
I am an introvert anyway.
Was Another thread on this a while back.
I remember that thread. I also remember that many people who responded had moved with a spouse, SO, or a relative. That's not being alone in my opinion.
One thing for sure, it has to be harder, as an older single person, to move than it would be for a couple.
This is our 4th move, since we married in 2001. Not as bad as being a military family, but bad enough (LOL). The saying "you can fall anywhere you live" was very true, as we found out. A fall can happen in the middle of the winter in ice/snow, as it did for me, or in the middle of the summer on a beautiful sunny/warm day, as it did for me again. IOW, two rotator cuff surgeries, one on each shoulder.
I think I've stated this before, but will state again....."We should have never left Colorado in the first place (after moving there from So Calif.)." Selling our house there was fine, but moving to Huntersville, NC and then here to Jacksonville, FL, turned out to be mistakes. Water/boating is what drew us to both, but that was a mistake. To us, the smaller Colorado freshwater lakes, that we used when we lived there, are what's for us.
We have accumulated quite a bit of stuff since moving here in Jan 2009, and have had to really filter thru things. And, not only do we have the expense of a moving company, we also have the expense of transporting the boat we've had since moving here. We've put too much money into it to TRY and sell it here. There are those in Colorado that would buy our boat, when we decide to sell it, but here, people want new-to-almost-new boats...…..not a 1992 one.
So, we continue to plug away at packing things and getting rid of things. The company my wife works for full-time is going to close their office here and move the higher paid "salary" people to their office in Alabama, if they chose to go. This doesn't include my wife. Even if it did include her, she told me "absolutely NO" to Alabama.
What I'm really, really curious about is, for those that are fully retired, just how can a retired couple buy a house or condo? Is SS, Savings and a good Pension accepted to buy? Banks look at SS and Pension as monthly income?
We just won't have the finances to buy, so have to do what we've been doing since we sold our house in Colorado...…...rent. Don't necessarily like the yearly rent increase, but a single electrical or plumbing repair in a house could cost as much as a yearly rent increase.
After it was all over my wife remarked that she never dreamed it would all go so smoothly. And we experienced no problems at all with adjusting to our new area. Felt right at home from the get-go.
I'm going to print that and hang it over my bed!
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