Question of the Day, Sunday, October 18, 2015

this past summer i've needed to rethink my long term goals, and 'let go' my plans of home improvements for my current house. this was not an easy thing for me, as i love this house now as much as i did when i bought it. but life sometimes has other plans for us, and so i've decided to move -- again......uggghhh, moving. when i bought this house, i thought perhaps we'd never need to move again.........silly me!

so with these thoughts on my mind, for today's Question of the Day.........

Do you think you're now living in your forever home, the last home you'll move to?  (can be a house, condo, apartment, trailer, etc)

i'll start!

as i'd said, we'll be moving to a new house. now that i've 'wrapped my mind around' it, i've moved on to the planning part of the process. my goal has become to have us (myself, and snick and jaspurr) be better off with our new house than we are in our current house, especially in the long term. i'm middle-aged now, but i always try to plan for my senior years. so for our new house, there will be some important features for me as well as for the cats. of course there are location type preferences, some of which are 'musts' for me. but i also am going to be looking at 'single floor living' houses, as well as wooded land with plenty of space between neighboring houses. i've realized and accepted that pretty much any house i buy is not going to have what i'm looking for in both the kitchen and bathroom(s), so i really don't mind having those areas remodeled as long as the 'bones' of the house will accommodate those changes. my strong preference is also for a more 'open concept' type home, preferably with a 'great room' (type of living area) that has a kitchen at one end of it.

i hope our new house will be the one we'll live in for the rest of our lives, but i'll have to wait and see what plans life has for me as time moves along.

how about you?

It's hard to know, as you said, life can throw some curveballs. But my husband and I hope to stay in the house we bought this summer, at least until we need to go into assisted living. 

I don't even know how many times I've moved; when I was getting my first degree I moved 18 times (in 5 years). I'd guess I've moved at least a dozen times since then, but stopped counting a long time ago.

The last two times we moved, we had a moving company pack us up and transport everything. The cost is not that much considering the services provided! It would take me a month to pack the entire household (while living with boxes everywhere), but with a moving company it's all over in one day and all that's left to do is unpack. I went to the BBB site and called 3 companies to come give estimates and the one we went with was about half the price of the top bid. Giving friends pizza and beer to help move was great when we were students with no furniture, but for moving a family household we needed the help of professionals.

Definitely not. I'll move again. Right now I'm staying put until DD is done with school. The plan (at this point) is to go further south. I'd like to live on one of the upper Florida keys (like Key Biscayne) which is close to Miami where I could work. We'll see what happens though. I'll stay in Florida though.I will never deal with a real winter again. I've been there, done that and hated every second.

Our plan is to stay here until we buy our own house in 5-7 years. We rent a 3 bedroom house right now and it's decent for a small family.

DH and I plan to move when he retires.  At least that is what we talk about.  Sometimes the house feels a little small; I could use extra space for the kids school, company and indoor play areas (like a basement).  But i don't see me giving up my kitchen or my yard.  So I doubt we will move.  We have put work into making our house ours and that is hard to give up too.  But DH misses the area he grew up in. And I love it there too.  (Although driving there makes me car sick.)  The only family we have tying us to the area are my mother and stepfather.  They may not stay here forever either.  We briefly talked about moving back to either where I am from; or where DH is from, several years ago.  But mostly I am happy here; so we decided to save for a house and pay off debt instead.  

DH's retirement is way down the road.  So we can't say for sure what will happen by then.  I could see us being very content in this house after our kids are grown.  My Grandparents just sold their house; which they have owned for at least 60 years.  Gram said they always planned to get something bigger; but they just never did.  I think I am like my Grandfather in that I like my roots and my familiarity.  I don't need to travel to be happy and I like building memories.  

I think we will move again at some point. We plan to, but you never know what will happen.

We are talking about moving once we both retire. Rick really wants to go to the Pacific Northwest. You all know by now that I'm a warm-weather lover and I want to move to where I will never even have to think about snow or ice or cold. (Belize. I'm serious.)

Winchester said:

 
We are talking about moving once we both retire. Rick really wants to go to the Pacific Northwest. You all know by now that I'm a warm-weather lover and I want to move to where I will never even have to think about snow or ice or cold. (Belize. I'm serious.)

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I don't think you would care much for the chilly, damp weather, but the incredible beauty all around could really make up for it.

We have NO intention of being in this house when we retire.  It's too much upkeep, and too costly.  NJ taxes are awful, and when you add in all the other maintenance costs it just wouldn't make sense fiscally to stay.

We might even move sooner as my BF is starting to look at secondary colleges to get his B.A. and eventual Masters.  He's contemplating a school in a different part of NJ, and we both need to make sure that we can respectively get to the school and my job with not too much effort.  Depending on where he winds up there's a good chance we'll be moving and worry about the retirement move later on, which is still 10-12 years away.  If we do move inbetween we're probably going to wind up in a condo/townhouse situation.  Both of us just don't have the wherewithall for constant upkeep on a home any longer.  If it is a house, I'll be looking turn key this time.  No more renovations. No way, no how.

I'm hanging onto my place for as long as possible.  I've spent years creating a beautiful garden with lots of trees etc.  My house is worth very little and the land is worth a lot so when I sell it will be bulldozed and they'll put a duplex on the site.  I feel like I need to be my garden's guardian for as long as I possibly can. 

I love our home and we'll be here for some time.  But it is on a hill with stairs everywhere and it's a good-sized place so there's lots of maintenance.  I'm sure at some point we'll want to move into something smaller, more manageable and on flatter ground.      But who knows when that will be.  

LaRussa said:

 
I never,. ever want to move again.  I am very happy where I live now which is a beautiful 2-bedroom mobile home.  My last move to here was tough even tho I had help so I never want to move again. 

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i can definitely understand not wanting to move again!

SwampWitch said:

 
It's hard to know, as you said, life can throw some curveballs. But my husband and I hope to stay in the house we bought this summer, at least until we need to go into assisted living. 

I don't even know how many times I've moved; when I was getting my first degree I moved 18 times (in 5 years). I'd guess I've moved at least a dozen times since then, but stopped counting a long time ago.

The last two times we moved, we had a moving company pack us up and transport everything. The cost is not that much considering the services provided! It would take me a month to pack the entire household (while living with boxes everywhere), but with a moving company it's all over in one day and all that's left to do is unpack. I went to the BBB site and called 3 companies to come give estimates and the one we went with was about half the price of the top bid. Giving friends pizza and beer to help move was great when we were students with no furniture, but for moving a family household we needed the help of professionals.

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i've read that here in the US, the 'trend' now is for seniors to stay in their residences for as long as possible with home (health) care aids and/or senior assistance aids/programs.

if i'm not mistaken, i've moved 10 times as an adult. i'm not looking forward to another 'moving'.

Kat0121 said:

 
Definitely not. I'll move again. Right now I'm staying put until DD is done with school. The plan (at this point) is to go further south. I'd like to live on one of the upper Florida keys (like Key Biscayne) which is close to Miami where I could work. We'll see what happens though. I'll stay in Florida though.I will never deal with a real winter again. I've been there, done that and hated every second.

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that sounds like a good plan! i've traveled through the keys to key west years ago; very pretty there!

i might consider moving to florida, except i wouldn't want the hurricane risk. same with california, with it's earthquake risk.

mickNsnicks2mom said:

 
that sounds like a good plan! i've traveled through the keys to key west years ago; very pretty there!

i might consider moving to florida, except i wouldn't want the hurricane risk. same with california, with it's earthquake risk.

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I can understand that but the reality is that most hurricane seasons are quiet and we usually get by without having any.

The north is definitely getting snow. Every year without fail. I weighed my options. It's worth the risk.

catlover19 said:

Our plan is to stay here until we buy our own house in 5-7 years. We rent a 3 bedroom house right now and it's decent for a small family.

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sounds like a very good plan!

Kat0121 said:

 
I can understand that but the reality is that most hurricane seasons are quiet and we usually get by without having any.

The north is definitely getting snow. Every year without fail. I weighed my options. It's worth the risk.

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good point! and you know, up here in northern New York state we had a couple earthquakes last year. relatively minor, but we could feel them. so there's risk up north these days too.

MoochNNoodles said:

 
DH and I plan to move when he retires.  At least that is what we talk about.  Sometimes the house feels a little small; I could use extra space for the kids school, company and indoor play areas (like a basement).  But i don't see me giving up my kitchen or my yard.  So I doubt we will move.  We have put work into making our house ours and that is hard to give up too.  But DH misses the area he grew up in. And I love it there too.  (Although driving there makes me car sick.)  The only family we have tying us to the area are my mother and stepfather.  They may not stay here forever either.  We briefly talked about moving back to either where I am from; or where DH is from, several years ago.  But mostly I am happy here; so we decided to save for a house and pay off debt instead.  

DH's retirement is way down the road.  So we can't say for sure what will happen by then.  I could see us being very content in this house after our kids are grown.  My Grandparents just sold their house; which they have owned for at least 60 years.  Gram said they always planned to get something bigger; but they just never did.  I think I am like my Grandfather in that I like my roots and my familiarity.  I don't need to travel to be happy and I like building memories.  

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so many people think and talk of moving when they retire. by the time i do move again, i'll be around 60 years old. so my age (and getting into my senior years) will have a definite bearing on the house i choose to buy as well as it's location.

AbbysMom said:

I think we will move again at some point. We plan to, but you never know what will happen.

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i've learned that over time -- that you never know what will happen!