When I retire, I want to live in...

Wow, this is a first!
I chose other, because I want to live in a smaller house/cottage, (still with pretty garden) but I want to spend 6 months of the year travelling in a motorhome around Australia, going to cooler parts if it's summer, and warmer parts in the winter!
All I have to do now is wait for retirement, meanwhile, I'll keep getting up in the morning and go to work! Bugga!

I picked smaller house.... would love a small house with lots of property

I voted the same house I have now. I've done too much work around here to want to give it up to someone who's not a garden fanatic like me!

Doug

I would love to retire here but the economics of it are a bit daunting. We'll see.....

Retire ? What is that word ? I am working harder, (putting in time), now that I have reached that magic age.
I will not be moving! We have been here since 1982 & now are getting this place exactly as we want it.
Smaller house ? We are going to build on next summer, enlarge the living room & master bedroom. Also add a four season's porch/office & an open porch where I can sit and watch the fish in my pond surrounded by flowers.
Bernie

Would you leave this ?

We both retired this year!! Don't plan on moving anywhere! Like Doug above...too much work into this one!

Oh yeah, like Bernie said , retire what's that?

I picked other, it's a 175 acre farm. Does that sound like retirement? LOL

I picked smaller house. Then I realized that I don't really mean smaller than the house I live in now. Just smaller than the size of house I wish I had now (and hopefully will have in a couple of years). We'd like to have our regular house and build a cottage close by, then retire to the cottage. I love the rv idea too though.

I'll probably have to work until I'm dead, but I said smaller house, mostly because my current house is 2-story and I'd like to retire in a one-story.

other- farmette :)

Retirement for us is hopefully only 12 more years, though we may continue to work "selectively" in retirement. But I know for sure we are staying here. We just paid off our mortgage. Oh, happy day!! It's small, 1/2 acre, but it is just the right size for the two of us.

Looks like I'm the only one who voted "Boat"! When my husband retires in another 6 or 7 years a boat will be our home for awhile, traveling the waterways. No more mowing the lawn and no gardens to tend but I will definitely have to have one or two hanging basket plants on board!

Although I would really like to move to a smaller house & yard, we will stay right here. It is paid for and we have spent 10 years renovating the house and working on the yard. Next year we are adding a large sunroom and covered deck across the back of the house so that we can enjoy the yard and the critters that pass through. When that is paid for, DH will retire. I am already "retired" although most days I put in more hours than I did when I worked. The house is two story and we have a
2 1/2 acre yard with lots of flower beds and trees. I'm just wondering how I'm going to take care of all this when I'm older. At 57, I have a hard time keeping up now!

I voted RV!!!! We quit work in 2003 and lived on and off the road for 2 years. It was wonderful!!!! Now I'm staying home and raising grandchildren for the next 7-8 years!!!!

We live in a small rural village and commute about 60 miles to work in the city each day. What we're doing is looking to the future - when we retire we're right where we want to be. All of the landscaping and renovations should be done by then and it will be our little piece of heaven on earth :-)

Move to a smaller home. Mine is much too big for just two people. And move to warmer weather (FL) on a fresh water canal leading to a river/lake. With citrus trees. Actually went househunting in 2005 in FL but I was a bit overwhelmed. I hate the winter and the ice and snow that comes with it!!!! GM

I voted other. My dream is to live in a small, red, barn-like structure on a bit of woodsy acreage where I could do whatever form of gardening strikes my fancy.
I will most likely work until I go toes-up, but I can still dream.....

I don't really care about the size of the house, but I want something with several acres of land and lots of privacy

right here on our centennial farm! but whats retire??? there is always something to do here........keeps me alive!

Other - because I want the house I live in now (unless my health gets in the way) but I'd also like a condo somewhere tropical for the winters. I think that is every New Englanders dream, that is why so many of us retire in Florida! : )

Until they take my keys away from me, or until gas becomes completely out of reach - I will stay where I am - rural 5 acres. I have been retired for 9 years already - how the heck did THAT happen??

I voted "Other". Those who know me won't be surprised.

We've done the big house thing with a big garden.

Then we moved into a very small condo with what amounts to squatter's rights to 2 small garden plots that ended up causing everyone concerned more grief than good. Cute as it was, we quickly outgrew the condo.

We have just moved into a nice-sized villa where I am able to garden up 3 feet around the outside walls. That will be enough for me and we won't outgrow this place so quickly as the condo.

Now, if I really had my way, I would live full time on a cruise ship - nothing under 80,000 tons gross tonnage. Odd as it may sound, many cruise ships have a few full-time residents on board. If you can afford it, it sounds great to me. When you get sick on that ship, you choose another one, pack your suitcases and switch. It doesn't even have to be with the same cruise line. One can dream, can't one?

Sylvain.

I voted the house I have now. I have moved into a very small house on the farm where I grew up. Resisted the move at first but happier than I have ever been! Sometimes the yard is overwhelming out in the country but who cares? No one! But me!

I chose smaller house though I'd like to have about the same amount square footage. I'd like a smaller house on acreage and only need 1 living area not 3 and 2 bedrooms not 3. But I'd also like a guest cottage or maybe a separate wing with a few bedrooms for visitors.

It's either that or just one small cottage in the woods for the summer and a condo or something in the tropics for the winter since my dh hates the cold.

No "retirement" for me! I have no job!!! At 47, I'm going to have to go back to school and finish my degree in order to have something (besides gardening) to do for the rest of my life. I can't see me stopping until Nature sees fit to stop me!

BUT I chose "bigger house" b/c my dream is to have a more formal garden near or on the ocean. I have a small house with 2 acres. The property here is very wooded and rocky, making it difficult to garden, and VERY hard to maintain (tree trimming costs). I'd rather have a bigger house and better land for flowers. I'd choose raised beds made out of fieldstone lining a path leading down to the ocean and a private beach.... hey, I can dream! ;0)

After 18 years in our house, it's finally been remodeled and repaired to the way we want it. I'm not moving! And a quarter acre is about all I can take care of.

This poll shows that retirement planning is much more than having enough financially. . My vote is other, because the economy, the housing market, and health care availability and affordability have changed my dream retirement.

I still hold out hope for a little farm. Of course, that means I have to find a farmer... hmmm...

We're still in our 20's but already our final house plans have changed. We both have always envisioned living on some acreage (20 or less), surrounded by green screening from the rest of the world, a house a tad larger than what we have now perhaps (2,400') with most of the living built on the main level and only a couple bedrooms and bath up for the kids who will return home to visit. Even with kids now I wish I could afford this size home on ONE level. It is so hard to go up and down up and down all day with kids on hips.

We'll groom one acre of land around the house with gardens.

jeri: would you adopt us? lol. we could use some grandparents who even care a % of what you do.

I voted the house I have now because this will be our summer home forever. Brrrrrrrrrrr I'm not doing Cowtown in winter when we retire. Winter plan still to be decided.

I want to live on a lake when I retire.

We bought our first home last year. It's tiny, but with big gardens. I want to stay there till the last of my days! : )

We always live by the rule---fix your current house like you WILL live there forever. Because with unforeseen circumstances you may. But we also plan for the house we want to build someday.

So we'll fix up our house in the burbs yet hoping to move to the country.

I retired in December and DH has been retired 5 years. We are planning to stay here, on 3 acres with his workshop and my gardening shed. Can't imagine leaving all this.

We built our single level smaller house 4-1/2 years ago and are getting it ready for when DH retires. We're trying to make it lower maintenance and cost, nice wide paths, upgrading what we can so it's really comfy. We love it here and wouldn't move if we could.

Cute pic, Roberta!

Kathleen

Thanks Kathleen!

The thing is---we are retired. We moved here not too long before retirement and have been here 12 years. There are SO many wonderful things about living in the country and SO many frustrating things, too. The biggest frustration for us right now is water. Guess we are going to have to drill for a new well because we are so tired of running out.
The joys are the garden and fruit trees, the views, the serenity, and the privacy. The scariness is, will we grow too old to maintain it all? We think about that more and more.
In the meantime, our cottage in the country is perfect for us and we love it.l

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

Henry Ford

I love that quote and seek to live by it in all I do. Yes, I may have youth on my side now but I've seen plenty of elderly friends still living quite abundant and active lives. And then you see those who don't. I've seen people I'd still consider "young" who already talk about they can't do this, can't do that, they are just "to old." Phooey.

I voted to stay where we are. It's paid for! I did quit earning a living for someone else. Now I just take care of ourselves. Raise a good sized garden, to carry us through the winter.
We might take a trip to some place warmer some time. but for now, this ain't too bad.
The snow comes, the skeeters vanish. LOL