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What you really want is a small lot where all your neighbors have much larger lots.
I used to own an acre in a high end inner Boston suburb with a big 100+ year old house on it. Never again. All I ever did was project manage that house. These days, I own 0.21 acres on a private gravel lane I share with two other houses. I can mow the lawn with a gasoline push mower in 20 minutes. I have the seclusion of being way off the street without needing a huge house lot to get the privacy.
How do you get privacy, if you share the lane with two other houses and your lot is small? .21 is pretty small.
Get the place that fits your needs and wallet. Do not count on the fact you will be able to take care of it by yourself as you get older. Be prepared to pay to maintain it all. But do what you can yourself while you can. Until six years ago I did it all and expected to continue. But a couple of medical things have left me unable to walk safely off smooth hard surfaces. I can in a pinch but it is difficult and I am in that position where a significant fall will end most mobility.
And there are many things that can put you in this position. So plan ahead. Do it yourself but be prepared for plan B.
And actually we probably could not stay in this house but that my wife of similar age moves perfectly well and can cover for and protect me in troubling sitluations. If she were to fail we would have to leave to something more compatible. Hope for another 5 or 10 years...but it is just a matter of the fates.
Thanks. I think you're right. My dad has been fortunate with his health. Anything can happen. I should be able to afford to pay to have it all done and do that, if I want. There's also time. I do have interests and hobbies.
How do you get privacy, if you share the lane with two other houses and your lot is small? .21 is pretty small.
Everybody else has much bigger lots. The house on the other side of the lane has a bit more than 1/2 acre. I look across the lane at their back yard. I can see their garage that's on the lane and a bit of their back deck but I can't see the house at all. My garage acts as a buffer between me and my other neighbor on the lane. There are 20+ acres of green space with a church on it abutting my two neighbors on the private lane. 0.21 acres would only be a problem if I were on the street. I'm not. I'm 150 feet down a private gravel lane from the street. You can't see my house at all from the street. You couldn't subdivide that way today because the town would require a real street a fire truck can navigate instead of a narrow gravel lane but this was done 70 years ago before there were zoning boards and all the regulations.
The house was a horror show when I bought it 7+ years ago but the privacy of the lot made it worth sinking huge money into remodeling what should have been a tear down. My remodeling cost was more than $200 per square foot.
We bought a house in the mountains that's on 3.5 acres. Only about .75-1 acre is grass. My husband bought a riding lawn mower (he has bad feet and muscular dystrophy, so he can't do a push mower) and loves to mow. If something happened to him, I would sell the riding lawn mower because we have some steep areas on our lot and I am not comfortable using it. I purchased a push mower for the times he is out of town and the lawn needs to be mowed. It may take me a couple of hours, but I am okay with that. It's good exercise for me.
We haven't done any real landscaping, so there isn't much to care for in that way. I do have a cordless weed eater, too, so I can do that part by myself and it's not as heavy as the gas one my husband uses.
I think you'll be fine. It sounds like you enjoy working in the yard (based on your previous posts). My mom was 84 when she died of a massive heart attack. Up until that point she was walking her dog 3 miles a day and working in the yard for at least an hour a day, some days much longer when she was doing some pruning or weeding.
We bought a house in the mountains that's on 3.5 acres. Only about .75-1 acre is grass. My husband bought a riding lawn mower (he has bad feet and muscular dystrophy, so he can't do a push mower) and loves to mow. If something happened to him, I would sell the riding lawn mower because we have some steep areas on our lot and I am not comfortable using it. I purchased a push mower for the times he is out of town and the lawn needs to be mowed. It may take me a couple of hours, but I am okay with that. It's good exercise for me.
We haven't done any real landscaping, so there isn't much to care for in that way. I do have a cordless weed eater, too, so I can do that part by myself and it's not as heavy as the gas one my husband uses.
I think you'll be fine. It sounds like you enjoy working in the yard (based on your previous posts). My mom was 84 when she died of a massive heart attack. Up until that point she was walking her dog 3 miles a day and working in the yard for at least an hour a day, some days much longer when she was doing some pruning or weeding.
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if you have between a .75 and one acre of grass, it will take you longer than " a couple hours" to mow that with a push mower.
Most push mowers have a mowing width that is about half the width of a riding mower.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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A lot of it depends on your health, and how it holds up. My parents have 5 acres, bought 14 years ago and are now 82 and 84. besides a riding mower, they have a Yanmar tractor with tiller, loader and trencher, and a log splitter. They buy logs, cut them to length with a chainsaw and split them, starting about June and will have enough to heat the house all winter by about October. The last couple of years, my siblings and I have gone up and stacked it for them, and I go up to plant their vegetable gardens every spring, but they are able to handle the rest. In fact, for my father, the tractor, splitter and even riding mower are his way of having fun. They are just recently talking about moving to a less demanding home in the next few years.
if you have between a .75 and one acre of grass, it will take you longer than " a couple hours" to mow that with a push mower.
Most push mowers have a mowing width that is about half the width of a riding mower.
I haven't done it all at one time yet, but I have mowed half of it by hand and it took about 90 minutes.
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