I apologize for being ‘off the radar’ for the past few months… I have been missing my time spent researching and writing about life with a retired spouse! But in all honesty, it is exactly that life that has kept me away from tapping the computer keys for The Retirement Wives!
Buddy and I innocently began down a slippery slope a couple of months ago when we visited a new housing development in our community to get some decorating ideas. We have lived in our current home for 16 years and have slowly been completing remodel projects – the last one being our ‘forever home’ complete back yard remodel!
Well, that ‘forever home’ plan was challenged recently after embarking on our decorating ideas adventure. We began to look at all the pros and cons of our home versus the new build and even went as far as getting housing comps in our neighborhood!!
Instead of moving, we are now in the throes of a remodel project that has displaced our sleeping and is causing major noise anxiety for our beloved pets. This latest project is giving Buddy and I yet another opportunity to practice teamwork and compromise. In all honesty, I don’t think we will ever get enough practice!
There is a reality in evaluating our home environments as we grow older and is partly what motivated our recent but brief home relocation consideration. How much house it too much for a couple with children no longer living at home? At what point do stairs become a mountain to climb or a scary flight of steps leading to the ground floor of life’s daily activities?
And we haven’t even begun to consider… the grandkids!! Although we have not yet been blessed with grandchildren, we have witnessed friends experiencing the joys of being close to their own children’s families or the heartaches of living far away.
So for now, we will stay put in our larger than needed abode, finish the last of our remodeling list, and ‘refresh’ our home’s décor- all on retirement income! But I do have to say that the door has been cracked open as to where we might next plant our feet. Maybe it will be moving to a town where we can be pedestrians more often than drivers or relocating to an area closer to the next generation of our gene pool…
My son may have had the best idea: take the RV and go travelling around the U.S. And I don’t think it would be the first time a retired couple has packed it up and hit the road!
