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As I’ve talked about recently I’m currently at my holiday home but strangely I’m thinking about my other house. I wanted to share something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, a kind of internal debate, I’m good at them! My wife, Suzie and I are in our late 50s, and we’ve reached a point where we feel it’s starting to feel important to get ahead of the curve and plan for our future living situation, rather than being forced into a decision down the road.
Our current home, in many ways, seems absolutely perfect for “aging in place.” Two of its four bedrooms and a full bathroom are on the ground floor. That’s a huge plus for peace of mind about accessibility later on. We also get to enjoy spacious living spaces including a large sunroom with a log burner, which is a fantastic spot to cozy up in the winter. Location-wise, it’s pretty ideal: we’re just minutes from a regular public transport stop and only a 15-minute walk from a hospital with a primary care facility on the same plot.
But then we have the half-acre garden. This big space, with its lawns, shrub borders, flower beds, and mature trees, was a massive selling point when we bought the place 20 years ago. It was perfect for our young girls and still gets plenty of use from the grandkids. Still, as I look ahead 15 or 20 years, the thought of the sheer maintenance demands of such a large garden is becoming concerning. It’s a lot of work that at the moment I enjoy.
Beyond the garden, there’s the age of the house itself, pushing 75 years now. Even though we’ve put a lot of effort into updating the interior over the last five years, ongoing upkeep is a constant task. And I know, deep down, that major remodeling is probably inevitable at some point. That thought alone makes the idea of a newer, smaller place with a more manageable garden (yard for our Mr Quinn 😉) sound incredibly appealing.
Despite how much we like our current home, the question of when to potentially move to a slightly smaller property with less garden keeps coming up in my head. There’s no right answer, but now feels like a good time to tackle it.
My thinking is it’s better to be proactive rather than reactive. This means we can manage any potential move in a way that suits us, without the stress of finding we need to move at a future time
There’s also the minor, but still welcome, benefit of equity release. Moving to a smaller home would free up a reasonable sum of capital. What’s not to like about extra cash?
So, essentially, I’m caught between the comfort and memories tied to our current home and the practical realities of future maintenance and our long-term lifestyle goals. I don’t envision moving before the next five years but you just never know.
I’m curious to hear from others who have gone through similar decisions. What factors weighed most heavily for you when considering a big change like this?
I sold my ranch house after the passing of my husband. It was the yard. The weeding was breaking my back. I am kind of homeless, renting. My advisor says I have accumulated enough to rent for life if that’s what I want. I love the apartment complex with its club room and swimming pool, the lovely leasing office, the concierge service and the maintenance crew that take care of my orchids when I travel (a lot). But I am getting somewhat tired of the rapid turn-over among my young neighbors. I worry that an older community might also have some turn over (the sad kind). I’d like to hear from some unfortunately single folks about their experience with moving. and with CCRC.
I have been happily single for many years. When I still had a house I employed a yard service (and a cleaner).
I spent a year in an apartment complex between selling my house and moving to a CCRC. It was a nice complex when I moved in, but was soon sold and the new management was terrible. Also, you never know what will happen with rents.
I have written before about choosing a CCRC, and my experience after the first few months. More than a year after writing the second article I am still very happy with my choice. Yes, people do die, sometimes someone you know well. This is a big CCRC, and we seem to lose two to four people a month, although at this stage there have only been a handful I knew well. They are recognized at the monthly Residents Association meeting, and information on funerals, memorial services, etc. is made available.
The advantages of a CCRC far outweigh the inevitable sadness in my view. How will you cope if you can no longer drive? Need assistance with daily living?
We had our “age in place” home built two years ago, and then my husband passed three months after we moved in. The house has plenty of room for daughters, spouses/partners and grand dogs to visit. There is some light yard work. (I pay to have the lawn cut.). But I am not the gardener. My husband was. There are other things I would prefer to do with the time I have left (I am 73) than yard work. I will figure out what to do about the yard work as I go along.
Nearing retirement, we sold our home and moved to a 1100 sq ft apartment as I was still working and needed to be close to new place of work. Big surprise: Never missed the big house and garden! After that, we moved to a 55+ community and are quite happy with the social network and amenities. Plan to live here as long as we can independently manage. We