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I don't understand; you say this as if it were a bad thing.
It is a good thing. It is not a problem of affluence, it is a feature.
It's a matter of perspective. If you're a 5%er, "it's a feature". If you live in Eastern Nowhere, TN where the median household income is $25K and most people you know are a physical wreck by age 60, your point of view is incredibly insensitive.
Yes, we have a home gym. And a home theater set to host sports viewing events - several screens, and the main screen can be fed through a video processor so it is segmented into 4 smaller screens, each with its own game on.
We have a dining room large enough to comfortably seat 16 (custom furniture).
We do like to entertain; 3 or 4 times a year we throw a party for a hundred or so guests, or host a fundraiser for our favorite charity, so we have ample cooking & prep space for the catering staff, and full bar setup for the bartenders both upstairs and downstairs.
You are running neck and neck with another on city data forum as the richest poster. Be right back, I am going to check the Vegas line to see who I am betting on.
Understood, and I think many people share your opinion. I just find it more enjoyable when everybody has someplace to retreat. It makes for much more pleasant visits in our family. We do the traveling, btw, so the hotel expense is on us, not the other way around.
When kids visit they stay with us and we love it. But when we visit our daughter in the west coat they have a smaller place and we stay in a hotel near by. Once we rented a place for a month walking distance from her. I loved it actually to get away at night to our own quiet place. We also stay for a shorter time and it is ideal because we then travel the coast, visit friends.
Yes, we have a home gym. And a home theater set to host sports viewing events - several screens, and the main screen can be fed through a video processor so it is segmented into 4 smaller screens, each with its own game on.
We have a dining room large enough to comfortably seat 16 (custom furniture).
We do like to entertain; 3 or 4 times a year we throw a party for a hundred or so guests, or host a fundraiser for our favorite charity, so we have ample cooking & prep space for the catering staff, and full bar setup for the bartenders both upstairs and downstairs.
Ahhhhh....hopefully you do realize the enviable position you're in, even relative to cd-ers, much less most retired folks.
The key question is not if you planned home size appropriately when you are beginning retirement but whether 5-10 years into retirement you look back and decide then if you did it right.
I reject the idea that Grandma & Grandpa's house necessarily has to be the center of family gatherings. We stay in a hotel when we travel to see family. It's better for everyone's health and sanity.
I agree. When people visit us even now, they stay at a hotel. When we are moving to retire, I'm only be concerned about the amount of space and bedrooms we need for our daily lives. No reason people can't stay in a hotel near by and it saves us from having to turn our home into a temporary hotel.
not us . we looked forward to the times all the kids and grandkids come and we are all together . all our kids are either in co-op apartments or small houses so get together's can be tight .
not all the holidays and vists were at the house but we certainly had our share
we would not think of forcing everyone to stay in motels . i would never make the move if that was the case.
I have a lot of cousins to visit, and they have huge homes with 5 bedrooms and I never stay there, we stay in a hotel, because we are more comfortable that way and don't like the idea of them having to be burdened with taking care of us. Also, when you stay in someone else's home you have to be on their schedule. One cousin's home, they usually go to sleep at 9 PM and are up very early at 5AM, which is not us. They always pressure us to stay in their home, which they are very proud of but it would ruin the trip for us. On vacation I want to wake up at 8 AM, not be woken up my cousins walking around the house and making noise in the kitchen at 5 AM. Followed by this huge breakfast, we usually have a very light breakfast of cereal.
Last edited by eastcoastguyz; 11-03-2016 at 08:30 PM..
We raised our family in a 5300 sf 4 bedroom home with an 1800sf garage/shop on a couple acres. We designed the home with an architect and had it custom built.
In retirement, we "downsized" to a custom 7500 sf 3 bedroom home with an 1100sf garage. We designed the home with an architect, incorporating many custom features, and had it custom built. If we had to do it over again, we would probably have gone up to 8500 sf 3 bedroom with an 1600 sf garage/shop. Yes, we use every room & every square foot - it is our lifestyle, which of course is unique to us.
Our vacation home is 3800 sf 4 bedroom home -- and we'll probably upsize & design & build a custom home in the 6K sf range, as that suits our lifestyle.
Many pre-retirees plan on relocating to a home where the master bedroom is downstairs, or where the entire house is on a single floor. We prefer the multi-story homes, as they give us more exercise - we go up & down the stairs quite a bit and that helps with muscle tone and conditioning. We "future proofed" by installing an elevator designed to accept a wheelchair with the legs extended. We do use the elevator every now and then; in fact, our 18 year old cat will go to the elevator door & let us know he wants a ride.
Lol.....blah blah blah....only the insecure feel the need to write three brag filled paragraphs when only one paragraph (or less) is needed to answer the question.
Well I have now a perfect size house for my needs...
Not too big, not too small (easy to heat and not too expensive). What I love is a huge outdoor living space.
But my Mother in law has my father in law build a house that is too big really for their age.. instead of downsizing, they up sized!!! Yikes!!!
So not doing what they did very not green.
We retiring to our RV with the world as our backyard!!!
👍👍👍
In retrospect I am SO glad my ex left and I had to downsize sixteen years ago! We did get back together and rented an apartment but his mental illness put an end to that. But I got to downsize again when he totally walked out!
So our house had been about 2000 sq ft? Lots of storage and we accumulated way too much because the more basement/attic/garage/oversized closets you have, the more stuff you keep.
When I met current dh back around 2008 we got an apartment and then we moved to a little rental house of 800 sq ft plus basement. This is all on one floor living with a small front porch, a cute back deck, and a manageable yard with garden space. We're steps away from the beach--but of course it's New England so that's "interesting" in winter.
Now, in our 70s, we're about done with beach living. It's been great but it's also lost some of its novelty. I am still intrigued by the sea. Mostly, the idea of being semi-isolated out here in our beach side home is getting a little scary. Also dh is very sociable and isn't the type who can curl up and read a book by the fire for five winter months. We have no family here and we can't afford to/wouldn't want to travel all the time either.
So our next move (hopefully) will be to an age restricted apartment complex. I do have relatives near that town and even though the apartments are small, they meet all my requirements: allow a pet, have your own washer and dryer, a private patio, your own front door, a place to have a few garden plants, a dishwasher. There's a clubhouse with a fireplace. No organized activities but that also means practically no rules!
The town has everything we would need like golf courses, art league, restaurants, fancy shops and ordinary shops, woods, fields, river...we need nature.
This is probably the last place we'll ever move to so we've also made sure it's very close to hospitals. We may have to buy a few things like a chair or a full length mirror but I think/hope we've done a smart job of downsizing so that what fits in this small house should be sufficient for that apartment. It took A LOT of research. Now we are just waiting for a vacancy.
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