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Along the lines of my thread "explain your screen name" thread, I thought it might be nice to discuss what type of housing we all live in...and if possible, WHY that particular abode!
I live in a 894 sq ft bungalow or ranch.
2 bedroom 1 bath.
The porch behind the garage was loosely enclosed, I got it insulated, sealed the concrete, carpeted it, added electric heat strip, added wiring, and put up the ceiling-then because it's a low ceiling and wanted to give it a coffered look..I used premade moldings (three types) and carved wood medallions at each intersection so I didn't have to miter all the joints/intersections. I'm quite pleased with the results.
Because it has a pair of 3' x 4' tall windows on the south side and another pair facing west, it gets a lot of sun...so I call it either the bonus room or the sun room, and is where I spend most of my time. The TV is in it too. It's my favorite room. The walls are light sunny yellow, and the ceiling is light blue..like the sky. The coffering is stained in 3 flavors to give interest and depth to it.
I might add a half bath, but that might make it too small.
The basement stairs are VERY steep, so with a space in the corner of the kitchen, I had it plumbed and wired for a stackable washer/dryer.
Pretty much don't need to go to the basement, except for storage.
I wanted single floor living. Because of my bad back hips and knees, stairs are a Problem, so it had to be one level.
It's small, and although I sometimes wish it had a 3rd bedroom to be a dedicated guest room (have only had one overnight guest in 5 years, the second bedroom has too much going on (defunct computer room, office, storage, guest room, etc) to really be useful for any one purpose!?
There is a big square deep closet in the master bedroom (guess we can't call it that any more because someone MIGHT be offended??) That I'm thinking of turning into a half bath. That's the only real shortcoming of the house...one bath.
I'm awaiting the divorce decree disposition on the house ( naturally both of us want it, but my ex moved out of it), I hope to get the house (I can afford it on my income easily, my ex cannot). If I'm awarded, there are a few improvement s I want to make.
So, ultimately it's really the right size, especially for just me, it's one level, it's kind of cute, it's well built.
So...what type of housing do you live in...why did you choose it... What does it consist of??
2300 sq foot 1959 ranch (including the basement) The main level has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. We wanted 3 bedrooms to accommodate my son and his family when they visit. We live in the same town with my daughter and her family, so my grandchildren spend the night a lot. We gutted and redid the kitchen and master bath before we moved in. Thankfully the previous owner had already carved out a place for main floor laundry. The house is not open concept at all, which I love. It’s nice to have different places to go. The finished part of the basement is set up as a playroom/craft room in one of the rooms and my sewing room is in the other. We also have a separate 3 car garage that my husband has his model railroad in. We have a huge yard, which we really didn’t want. But oh well, we can hire someone to mow when my husband can’t. We also have to come up stairs to get to the main part. I’ve already looked into those lift chair things for stairs for when we need it.
We rent a 2 bedroom ,2 bath apartment in a high rise building .
We have on premise tennis courts and pool and on premise handy men .
We want no chores in retirement....zero maintenance I have to do or zero repairs I have to do .
Being a multi family high rise the apartments fall under nyc rent stabilization laws ...so rent increases are pretty small ..in fact 2021 was voted zero increases on a one year lease .
To buy an equivalent apartment as a coop is 450k plus maintenance of about 1500 a month ...we are looking at a condo in westchester ...but they too are 450k plus hoa fees and real estate taxes costing even more than a coop in nyc.
We have little desire to own at this stage ....
If life as we knew it resumes we may even be snow birds with total flexibility
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-26-2021 at 04:10 AM..
2br, 2ba, ground floor, 1250 sq ft condo in nw suburban Chicago. No mortgage, low HOA fee, no exterior maintenance. Our Saturday morning house cleaning takes us about an hour, maybe two, to complete. Overall we're very comfortable and gives us freedom to do other things in retirement. Well, maybe not in the Covid era, but.......
We downsized 11 years ago to a brick ranch. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom at one end and a master at the other. Since we are near I95, we get visits from family and friends on their way to FL, and can host them comfortably. We went from 16 acres to a nice sized suburban yard. From a well and septic, to city water/sewer and weekly trash collection. We went from a 2 story house to a house with no stairs.
Our only reason for landing here was that we were looking for at least a 3 car garage, in the Savannah area, and this house has 2 @ 2 car garages. As it turns out, we couldn’t be happier with the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to us, the neighborhood is considered highly desirable, so we lucked out. Our city is growing fast, but our neighborhood remains quietly tucked away from the fray, yet we have all the conveniences close by. Almost everyone in the neighborhood is retired, and keeps their homes nice. There is no HOA. Once they took a survey to see if anyone wanted to form one, and nobody did. All we do is pay $35. a year to take care of the landscaping at the entrance to the neighborhood.
We have a small mortgage, so the cost of keeping this house is cheaper than any other nice housing option would be. Unlike some retirees, we both would be lost without yard work and projects around the house. So until one of us dies, or we can no longer keep things up physically, we will stay here.
We downsized 11 years ago to a brick ranch. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom at one end and a master at the other. Since we are near I95, we get visits from family and friends on their way to FL, and can host them comfortably. We went from 16 acres to a nice sized suburban yard. From a well and septic, to city water/sewer and weekly trash collection. We went from a 2 story house to a house with no stairs.
Our only reason for landing here was that we were looking for at least a 3 car garage, in the Savannah area, and this house has 2 @ 2 car garages. As it turns out, we couldn’t be happier with the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to us, the neighborhood is considered highly desirable, so we lucked out. Our city is growing fast, but our neighborhood remains quietly tucked away from the fray, yet we have all the conveniences close by. Almost everyone in the neighborhood is retired, and keeps their homes nice. There is no HOA. Once they took a survey to see if anyone wanted to form one, and nobody did. All we do is pay $35. a year to take care of the landscaping at the entrance to the neighborhood.
What a great set up you have! We are eyeballing that same area as a possible retirement site in a few years.
We've made some trips to Pooler to snoop around and we liked it. But even that area seems to be quickly developing and getting clogged up on the roads, etc. Started looking outwards at Rincon, Effingham, etc.
But we still have time before we get serious about relocation.
My current residence is a 50 sq meter (520 sq ft) one BR furnished apartment in Chemnitz. This a medium sized (pop 250K) city in the eastern part of Germany, about 30 miles north of the Czech border. 10 minutes walk to downtown and to a variety of shopping destinations. This is the nicest neighborhood in town, a mix of classic 18th & 19th century villas and row houses and apartments, with square concrete apartment buildings (like mine) built in the post WW2 communist era. I don't have a car here, so I carry groceries home in a knapsack. The refrigerator is small, so I only buy food in small quantities, usually every other day. It's good exercise.
The apartment is a walk up (no elevator) on the second level of a 40 unit, 4 story building built 50 years ago. It was completely refurbished 9 years ago, so it is immaculate inside with a nice kitchen & bath, everything excellent quality. The walls, floor and ceiling are poured concrete, with additional sound deadening insulation. Outer walls are over 1 foot thick, also heavily insulated. The heating system is very hot water that goes into wall panels or wall radiators. This is what has made this cold and snowy winter easy to tolerate - the apartment temperature is rarely below 20C/68F at night, and usually around 22C/73F during the day. The heavy walls and insulation make this the quietest apartment that I have ever lived in. I rarely hear anything at all from the apartments that surround me above, below and on both sides.
This is also the most inexpensive place I have lived in the past 20+ years. I pay just under 700 Euro ($840 usd) all inclusive with all utilities, heat, fast internet, cable TV, water, common building fees (stairway cleaning, snow removal) in the fully furnished and equipped apartment. I'm going to stay here likely until around September. Hoping the Covid pandemia will be more under control in the US. The strict lockdown and mask rules have made a big dent in the Covid rate here in Chemnitz - currently under 100 new cases per week per 100,000 persons, which is a small fraction of the current Covid rate of where I was living before in Tucson.
We actually upsized. Our home is just under 4,000 sq ft. 2 stories on 3 acres. Like many mountain homes, we have an entrance on the top floor and one on the bottom floor because of slope. We also have our main kitchen on the top floor- but also a small but usable one downstairs. We could live on either floor. Before COVID we had many house guests and will again so space for them to be comfortable was important to us.
Our home is 37 years old- was a custom build contemporary- which we extensively remodeled.
Our property is mostly forested. We have blueberries, blackberries and a lots of beautiful flowering plants. Our first spring here was an adventure. We have a yard service.
The attached garage is oversized- with a small workshop. I also have a separate art studio building on our property. We have two small ponds and a recirculating stream into one of them.
We are so fortunate to live in this beautiful place- it has made staying home - staying safe easy.
5300 sq ft Santa Fe/Territorial style main house and guest house, 5 bd 4.5 baths total on just under an acre. Big semicircular driveway out front. I like that the house is set back from the street for privacy and that there's a shaded courtyard in front. Main house has a home theater with leather power recliners and a small stage for performances by children, complete with a stage door for grand entrances. There are two kitchens in the main house. Each kitchen has a Sub-Zero, electric cooktop, dishwasher and more cabinet space than I will ever use. Two guest suites and a library/den comprise one wing of the house. There's a walled morning patio off the master bedroom suite. It has attachment points for a shade sail. 4 car garage with Swisstrax flooring. It looks cool but to tell the truth I've never really understood the point of Swisstrax.
The stand-alone guest house/casita is currently outfitted as offices but has a Murphy bed, kitchenette and bathroom with rain shower, as well as a board room with a table that seats 12 and teleconferencing equipment. The guest house was built with exterior doors opening out from each office so one could have multiple guests or do Airbnb. There's a semicircular showcase office at one end.
There's a pool and spa. An outdoor shower is on my wish list. The koi pond affords some amusement every day. Koi are basically brightly-colored pigs with fins. They'll eat anything.
Home values in our zip increased 13% over the last year. Probably due to the influx of Californians. Oh, wait...
We moved from Fairfax Co to Culpeper Co after we retired. Cut our RE taxes in half, but basically same size house. Four bed, three baths, about 3200 SF. Half of that is the living space on the main floor, other half below that is a man/dog cave. We also upgraded our lot size from a quarter acre to five and a half acres, with roughly two acres cleared land. The views from the house changed as well. From looking at five to six houses out our old back windows, we now look out back and have the Blue Ridge Mountains and spectacular sunsets.
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