Seniors: did you build your retirement home? (55, moving, community)

[galaxyhi]

We are looking at plans to build our "custom" retirement home.

Did you build it bigger or smaller than your " primary" home?

We will probably buy a house in our retirement locale to live in while we are building our house, then it will be a rental after we move into our new house. We expect it to take 2 years, assuming we finalize "THE" one to build.
We'd like to build bigger than our primary house now, which is a starter ranch. It will still be one level. The only way we'd have more stories is if it had an elevette in it too, highly unlikely.

I have family members who bought bigger houses in retirement than they raised their families in, but are one level instead of multiple levels.
They didn't have the patience to build their own "custom" retirement homes.

I'm asking for those who built ( or had built for them, lol) their retirement home as opposed to just buying one. Even if it was built in a development from pre-selected plans by the builder/developer.

How much of a pain was it, and how long did it take to build what square footage?
Problems along the way?
Problems after it was complete and how well did the builder take care of said problems?
How long was your new home warranty?
What challenges did you face?
Did it turn out exactly like you imagined from drawings and plans?
How long did the whole process take from beginning to end?
Were you ultimately satisfied with the results? Or disappointed?
Did you buy the land before selecting the house plans? Or vice versa?
And lastly ( i think) was the whole process FUN ?

[Tn_eddy]

Apparently so....but it was 34 years ago, and we didn't know it at the time.

[StealthRabbit]

Build with the future in mind...

Smaller / easy access / ez maint

and... my mandatory thing... multiple living spaces! (each with a view and separate from each other. )

I will be in my 'Carriage House' as I age, and my caregiver likely will enjoy (and clean) the BIG house.

I have built many homes and will do many more.

I like really custom / craftsman stuff (interior stone and wood / natural finishes).

My next home I hope to be Rammed Earth ('sand painting-like' walls inside and out).
I have done passive solar / low energy since 1970's

I also build very inexpensively, (<$80/sf including land) as contractors cannot / will not do the designs I prefer. (Basements / 2 story garages (cars on each level) lots of build-ins...)

I have a shop, so I accumulate my supplies THEN design and build my home. (based on most optimal view / use of property)

a Shop with apartment and RV hookups is built first. I have my own bulldozer and excavator, so I can get creative

[Q44]

Sort of. We had our current home built 15 years ago and we've decided we're staying here in retirement so in essence we built our retirement home.

It is a fairly large house at approximately 3200sf on almost 1 1/2 acres but it really clicks all the buttons for what we enjoy doing and where we want to be.

[MI-Roger]

We have college friends who built their pre-retirement/retirement/dream home as a place their grown children will want to return to. Unfortunately the children never lived in the home, and two of the three consider Milwaukee, where they spent much of their childhood, as their "home". Not the town where their parents now live and where the children completed their final 2 or 3 years of High School.

4500+ square feet, three levels connected with open stairs and no residential elevator, a Heating/Cooling system so complicated that only HVAC engineers or Technicians can understand & operate it (a ground source heat pump system fed from 17 wells, with 30+ zones of in floor coils for heating and cooling- each with its own circulating pump, and three 5 ton water chillers).

Caring for the home, inside and out, is the full time job of the wife.

So much for having leisure time in retirement.

[rjm1cc]

Originally Posted by galaxyhi

We are looking at plans to build our "custom" retirement home.

Did you build it bigger or smaller than your " primary" home?

We will probably buy a house in our retirement locale to live in while we are building our house, then it will be a rental after we move into our new house. We expect it to take 2 years, assuming we finalize "THE" one to build.
We'd like to build bigger than our primary house now, which is a starter ranch. It will still be one level. The only way we'd have more stories is if it had an elevette in it too, highly unlikely.

I have family members who bought bigger houses in retirement than they raised their families in, but are one level instead of multiple levels.
They didn't have the patience to build their own "custom" retirement homes.

I'm asking for those who built ( or had built for them, lol) their retirement home as opposed to just buying one. Even if it was built in a development from pre-selected plans by the builder/developer.

How much of a pain was it, and how long did it take to build what square footage?
Problems along the way?
Problems after it was complete and how well did the builder take care of said problems?
How long was your new home warranty?
What challenges did you face?
Did it turn out exactly like you imagined from drawings and plans?
How long did the whole process take from beginning to end?
Were you ultimately satisfied with the results? Or disappointed?
Did you buy the land before selecting the house plans? Or vice versa?
And lastly ( i think) was the whole process FUN ?

Part of an over 55 community so building was easy. 6 months. About same size but one level. Consider storage if no basement. Consider larger garage. Walk In shower and tub. Higher toilets.

Omitted electric line to stove and dryer. Saw in pre dry wall inspection. No problem or cost in fixing.
Turned out as expected. The key is to figure out what you want to do in each room and work area.
Land and house together. Lot resulted in some building restrictions
Our only work was picking the options and minor modifications to walls. No problem. If you are hiring a contractor and responsible for supervising then I can see your concern.

[k7baixo]

Closing on 10 acres soon, house plan selected. Single story (except for my bonus room), a sewing room for my wife (misidentified on the plans as “office”), designed with that sewing room near the laundry and kitchen but far enough away from the master as to not disturb me, and guest bedrooms on the opposite side of the house where they can be closed off when not in use. The sewing room’s windows will look out the front of the home....at pines and hardwoods. Think “tall pines at Augusta National”.... that’s my vision. Our current home is 1500 sq ft, this one will be 2200 sq ft.

Man plans, God laughs....we don’t plan to start building for 5 years. Lots of time to change our minds or have them changed. That’s fine, we’ll roll with the punches.

[GeoffD]

I bought a much smaller house that was in very rough shape and remodeled. It would have been cheaper to tear it down.

[davebarnes]

No.
Building in our current neighborhood is stupidly expensive.
It is cheaper to buy and remodel.

[Pat Answers]

We didn't expect to be in this big house forever. However, DH got real comfortable here, did a lot of things to make it just right and now he's not real interested in moving. We do talk about downsizing and building a smaller retirement home in this same area... have not talked him into it yet.



What I suspect will be happening is when we get too infirm to take care of it all, we'll be too old to put up with the aggravation of building and we will end up in a condo or apartment and I'm not happy about that at all. We didn't vacation when we could / should have; now I fear we're making the same mistake not getting set up in time. At least we don't have steps here and can manage.