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Great thread. We've been slimming down possessions for years, went from 2100 SF to 1250 not long ago. Gave away a lot of stuff to kids if they wanted it, charity thrift stores otherwise. Now it is hard to hoard if you don't have the space.
I get the idea of a big house for old-fashioned holidays, but really? 5 days a year have to be balanced against the other 360 days.
The whole yard thing is all personal preference, not age--as many posters attest. I got out of the yard maintenance business and could not be happier about that. The sweetest sound in all of nature is somebody else mowing the grass.
Great thread. We've been slimming down possessions for years, went from 2100 SF to 1250 not long ago. Gave away a lot of stuff to kids if they wanted it, charity thrift stores otherwise. Now it is hard to hoard if you don't have the space.
I get the idea of a big house for old-fashioned holidays, but really? 5 days a year have to be balanced against the other 360 days.
The whole yard thing is all personal preference, not age--as many posters attest. I got out of the yard maintenance business and could not be happier about that. The sweetest sound in all of nature is somebody else mowing the grass.
haha, love your post! Right about the holidays...and I'm leaning toward holiday brunches out....at a restaurant. Or, for summer birthdays and the Fourth, a cookout...at a park or the kids' homes.
The yard thing is a tough one, because if you want a SFH, a large yard usually comes with it. If not, you're right on top of your neighbors.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marcopolo
,,, The sweetest sound in all of nature is somebody else mowing the grass.
I personally prefer to hear sheep bleating and grazing. I have a distant neighbor that mows every time the grass grows 1/2" (That is a few times / day in the drizzle of the PNW.)
She makes me go postal, cuz she mows each time I desire to take a nap! (And I take lots of naps!). Nothing irritates me quite as much as the noise of a useless lawnmower (except really useless leaf blowers )
I'm thinking that a smaller collectible (Stamps?) than cars and tractors might help me to downsize.
or... I could buy one of many empty Dairy Farms with thousands of square footage under cover. I have a friend that did that to house his WWII collectibles (Armored Tanks and Trucks including many Weasels).
I have a Master Plan to mount my various shops into insulated Shipping Containers. Then I can just 'hook-lift' which ever shop I need onto the Truck and one onto the pup, and 'hit-the-road' http://img.ecplaza.com/my/eos/44.jpg
haha, love your post! Right about the holidays...and I'm leaning toward holiday brunches out....at a restaurant. Or, for summer birthdays and the Fourth, a cookout...at a park or the kids' homes.
The yard thing is a tough one, because if you want a SFH, a large yard usually comes with it. If not, you're right on top of your neighbors.
Did you move to a condo?
Thanks, Ms. Girl. The condo thing? Yes and no. We have a place in the sunshine for snowbirding that is a condo--and it gets most of our time. No yard, but a balcony from which we can watch the birds fish and the fish jump and spot a dolphin every once in a while. And it is in a beautiful park-like setting that we enjoy. Up north we have a freestanding SFH but it is in an association that handles all yard maintenance.
We used to have big family gatherings at our lake home on the 4th of July, then found out the family loves to get together even if there is no lake, after we moved away from the lake.
I have a mix of antique and regular furniture but have stayed away from oak as I don't like it. If I get rid of the junkier non-antiques when I downsize (including those "brown leather sofas" mentioned in the article), I think the rest will fit in a smaller home. The problem will be relocating with the two large corner cupboards ca. 1800 that are very heavy. I don't have collections except for enough old blue and white china to fit in my corner cupboards and some tea boxes. My brother and SIL raised their two kids in a 1900 house and my niece loves the house and old stuff. So I plan to leave the antiques to her in my will as I suspect she might eventually inherit her parent's home.
I recently heard about and join nextdoor dot com for my beighborhood. I just love it. Many people message that they have a free XXXX in their driveway and to pick it up - it's gone in a flash. They also list things for sale.
It's also good for finding good handymen, electricians, doctors, etc... - anything you need and you get good references. I highly recommend it.
Clearly some neighborhood's nextdoor have gone over to the dark side. You can join and then judge your own neighborhood's site for yourself. Mine is wonderful.
We moved from the Midwest to the PNW, and we got rid of a lot of stuff. We left a home in the woods, for a home in a subdivision. We have really close neighbors now, for the first time in almost 30 years. It has been eye opening. But we like our current house.
We lived halfway down a hill, and so we had decided where we lived had to be level. And we didn't want to drive down a hill to get anywhere. We wanted to be close to a hospital. We wanted to live on one level. And I wanted a small garden. (It is very hard to grow flowers in the woods.) (Wegot those things.) We didn't downsize that much, and we were able to fit almost everything we brought into our house. I wouldn't say that we downsized, except in the size of the property and the obligations that we had toward maintaining the systems of the house. And, like others, we wanted storage and closets. And a bigger garage.
Perhaps we boomers want the things we weren't able to have before, so we are trying to have what we want for a few years before our dotage.
A lot of us move around the country, looking for that best place to live. Maybe we are looking for that best house as well.
A lot of us move around the country, looking for that best place to live. Maybe we are looking for that best house as well.
For me, finding that best house is beginning to edge out as priority. We do not want a condo. I rarely see a listed home online that meets our needs at this stage and going forward. Online photos show a house on way too much property (for us), large front yards, lots of hedges and long driveways, too many windows, second stories, wooden porches and huge decks, backyard pools, situated in the burbs miles from stores, etc. This all means maintenance challenges and transportation considerations in old age. Or, if the location is perfect, a major thing like one of the above, or interior layout or fixer-upper. NO on all these drawbacks.
nah, I would rather live on my ranch than live in some retirement home. living in one of those places just strikes me as someplace that people go to die.
Same here - the trick is to not be in contact with your family then they can't keep an eye on you and swoop in with the lawyers and physicians to declare you inept and take all your money. The only retirement community I would consider is the one mentioned on here: Rock On. They are trying to pull it together - it's for old musicians but it sounds like the sort of place I could enjoy.
Same here - the trick is to not be in contact with your family then they can't keep an eye on you and swoop in with the lawyers and physicians to declare you inept and take all your money. The only retirement community I would consider is the one mentioned on here: Rock On. They are trying to pull it together - it's for old musicians but it sounds like the sort of place I could enjoy.
nah, I have daughters that all love me, and 1 that lives on the ranch and manages it too. she also has her name on all the paperwork so that if something happens to me, then she gets it all.
I also put in my will that if any daughter gets an judge or doctor to declare me invalid or a mental case, they are cut out of my entire will completely, and if all 3 did it, then my entire property and holdings of my will goes to a charity that I have already chosen.
you just have to know how to word your will and show it to your kids in order for them not to get any stupid notions in their head.
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