We had a not-too-different experience, but discovered one VERY Fundamental rule that you must include: If you are moving to be near your kids/grandkids, you'd better make sure that you get along with them first! Try it out!! We gave up our wonderful home in Tucson, Arizona, and all of our favorite retirement activities to move to Orlando, Florida, to be near my son, daughter-in-law and three-year-old granddaughter last September. It was likely a pandemic panic--we had no relatives in Tucson and they had none in Orlando. We bought a house on Facetime, never having seen it, but because it was near their house. Then we sold our home and gave away most of our furniture for the cross-country move. The Orlando house was far from perfect, in need of some repairs, and was not well-suited to our posessions (no garage for hubby's hobbies, for example). New furniture was backordered for months, but the worst two things were that we hated Orlando, the traffic and crowds, and we didn't get along with our daughter-in-law who limited our access to our granddaughter. We babysat twice in six months and spent most of our days at home alone in the more-or-less empty house.
We have just finished moving back to Tucson, and are building a new home here. We've reengage in our favorite activities and are happily rekindling our friendships here. We're renting now and trying to sell the Orlando home. All the financial markets are making that more difficult, but we are happy to be back! It's been an expensive six months for us, but now we know we are happy here, even if we have no relatives in the area!
Comments
We had a not-too-different experience, but discovered one VERY Fundamental rule that you must include: If you are moving to be near your kids/grandkids, you'd better make sure that you get along with them first! Try it out!! We gave up our wonderful home in Tucson, Arizona, and all of our favorite retirement activities to move to Orlando, Florida, to be near my son, daughter-in-law and three-year-old granddaughter last September. It was likely a pandemic panic--we had no relatives in Tucson and they had none in Orlando. We bought a house on Facetime, never having seen it, but because it was near their house. Then we sold our home and gave away most of our furniture for the cross-country move. The Orlando house was far from perfect, in need of some repairs, and was not well-suited to our posessions (no garage for hubby's hobbies, for example). New furniture was backordered for months, but the worst two things were that we hated Orlando, the traffic and crowds, and we didn't get along with our daughter-in-law who limited our access to our granddaughter. We babysat twice in six months and spent most of our days at home alone in the more-or-less empty house. We have just finished moving back to Tucson, and are building a new home here. We've reengage in our favorite activities and are happily rekindling our friendships here. We're renting now and trying to sell the Orlando home. All the financial markets are making that more difficult, but we are happy to be back! It's been an expensive six months for us, but now we know we are happy here, even if we have no relatives in the area!
Post: Breaking My Rules
Link to comment from May 13, 2023