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

:OOOO randbponker you said the "s" word on a multi-zonal thread. My friend it could happen to some of us any day :OOOOOO ^_^

I decided to retire and move to a smaller house with not too much garden. SO I DID(n't) I moved to USA, got a much bigger house and a garden 5 times the size I had in UK, so much for downsizing. Now I am slowly getting this garden presentable so will I move again - Heck NO.

I don't care about the house! I want acreage. As long as the house is big enough and not falling apart I don't care that much. But, I want to be able to do gardening until I physically can't, have some forested area, and some type of water (stream to ocean) on me property. I also want to own it. Right now I rent.

Zhinu, that's exaclty how I chose my house! : ) Very small, but I don't care, as long as I have plen-ty of garden! Luckily for you most folks want that huge house that occupies the whole lot. It will make it easier for you to buy your home when time comes!

If we're talking about that squarish thing in the middle of the garden, isn't it just for sleeping and showering in??????

I love my house. Its a 100 year old neoclassic with about 10 rooms plus 12 foot wide hallways one each floor.

Its just the right size for me and my 2 dogs. They love the upstairs balc ony.

Now if I could just find someone to fix the plumbing.

I feel so blessed that after reading the comments, most of the posters want what Nancy and I have. We have ten acres, with about 5 in trees, 3 in prairie restoration and the two around the house and office divided up between veggies, flowers and a little turf. The house is big enough to be comfortable, but not big enough to become a maintenance burden. Our business is run from a building 50 steps away. The building will be my "rec room" when we retire. It's a warehouse now, but will make a dandy shop when the time comes.

I'm going off this place for the last time horizontally.

I am already retired, but my husband is still working, but I want us both to retire to a smaller house on a larger piece of property -- one acre would do, but 5 would be even better. I would like to live somewhere where it rains and where temperatures aren't too extreme. Oregon perhaps? I want to have room for a flower garden, a vegetable garden and a lot of trees and room for my dogs to run. I have a beautiful house on 1/2 acre now, but it is quite arid here. Water is expensive and even if you can pay for it you are under pressure to use as little as possible because so many other people need it. And my soil is almost solid rock. Growing even the simplest plant takes lots and lots of compost.
But my husband has a great job here and family as well, so I am afraid I will just have to keep on composting.

small cottage-- with lots and lots of land - but I don't mean grass to cut. (flowers and woods)

I voted "same house", however I would like to pick this all up (land included, since I've worked so hard on it!) and move it to a place just a tad warmer. I love my long growing season, so I shouldn't really complain, but there are some things that just won't grow!! I don't want HOT, but I'd like warmer..... but all in all, I hope to stay here until I can't. (Hoping to retire anywhere between 1 and 3 years, with "selective working" (I think someone put it) as I see fit.)

Wouldn't have thought someone in CA would say "warmer". We often say of our houses to, could be our forever house, if only it were on some land.

I chose other, because I think I'd be content with a house this size, but not THIS one! Basically, I fell in love with the lot, all the flowers and blackberries and grapes and rhubarb, and figured we could "fix" the house. Six years later, we have more to fix than ever, and I feel so stressed all the time over the condition of our house. It is 104 years old, but without the charm of an "old" house. No nice woodwork, no charming architecture, just a small old house with plumbing problems, a wet, moldy basement, rotting window sills, ugly mildewy siding, central air that went ka-put two years after we moved in, and a roof that desperately needs replaced. It is our first house, and I've learned the floor plan kinda stinks. I've also learned that my DH is NOT the Mr. Fix-it handyman he claimed to be. LOL We still need to do the flooring in almost every room, and have just plain run out of money.

I spend as much time as possible outdoors, and hope it shows in the gardens. Ideally I'd like to magically transport some charming, picturesque old house with no maintenance nightmares onto our pretty lot. I like the town, I love the yard, but the house gives me headaches (sometimes literally).

I think I want to live on the moon, and then when people stop by they can say- jeez, you've really done a lot with the moon - it used to be so plain and boring.

I wanna Bigger House & lots more garden!!
Currently in a trailer ('bout 980 sq ft, and not enough room to put a dining room! I miss that), and the yard ......... well, could almost say "no yard" but I fill in the spots, and I DO have a berm..... and a little bitty cactus garden, with a HUGE deck, but I really want more ground, With the deck of course :-)
Thing is, in a trailer court, you don't own the land - you rent it, and I want to own my own land again........

Greedy, aren't I? lol

I said keep the house I'm in. I love it, but more importantly, I love the land it is on. I have such dreams for this garden. I have 5.5 acres, soon to be 8.5 acres, and I love every inch of it. I'm 39 though, so I don't know what may happen in future - maybe I will need to move or change direction, but for the time being, I am happier than I could even imagine. It's a walkout ranch with master on the main floor, so very accessible as I get older. If I'm not in this house, well, I hope I'm somewhere with a similar landscape and surrounding (rural) and in a house that I can be comfortable in. Big doesn't matter. Green matters. The more environmentally sound, the better.
Claire

I voted to stay where I am now. Retirement is many years away so who knows for sure, but I couldn't imagine leaving after all the work we've put into both house and yard.

Bigcityal, they wouldn't say "jeez" they'd say CHEESE!!!

Doug (full of it again)

Amen Songs!

Doug

Booker, I feel your pain, we moved from a brand new house (aka no problems) to an older house (though far from historic) and our AC went out the first year we were here, original to the house lol. But take it slow and you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

bigcityal ROFL!!!!!!!!!!

Claire, you said on another forum that you wanted a sister. Well, if you marry my brother, would a SIL do? LOL He's in Des Moines, just a hop, skip, and jump from you, and loves to work on his garden. Just seems like you have a similar approach to life. . . He's 39, 40 next month. ;o) 'Course, that's assuming you don't already have a DH in residence. . .

LOL
Angie

I voted to stay right where we are. In our little home with big spaces. ;) I am already retired and DH is planning to retire next Aug. 09. We live in the country and and we garden on part of our 3 acre yard. We run cattle so we have some land. I wish all of you that would love to have land could have it. It's the best living! A lot of work but we love it. Our house is small but we do have a guest house for company. I'm glad my house is small and cozy. It gives me more time to be outside in the gardens. We never run out of something to do here. So actually we will never be 'retired'. lol

Lin

a tree house

Ooh like the Swiss Family Robinson at Disney World. Me too.

Stay where I am till toes up....Built in 1874 with 12 foot ceilings, 5 bedrooms, not including the huge 3rd floor room, living, dining, library, kitchen and huge laundry room...Just us two here....I am eligible to retire, but don't choose to at this point...We have land and outbuildings a plenty...Yep... it's work, but well worth it for the serenity I feel every night when I get home...

Dusty, I am soooo jealous.

My house is fine. I like my house. What I would like to have is more land, like at least 100 acres and the nearest neighbor no closer than a quarter mile away. Actually, it could be any number of acres, big or small, just so that the nearest neighbor is at least a quarter mile and a couple hills away.

Retired from what? I am retired from my former life....no one sets my hours or payscale but me...and i love it right here. I could use some more 'help'...12 acres is getting daunting with all of the stuff to do....but it keeps me young. Rather, it keeps me younger than .... Well...I can hope, can't I?

Right in my present house! - (as long as the property taxes don't go up too much!) ☺

RobCorria.......you have the perfect idea...........small house and big gardens..........!!!

:D Laugh- cute Bigcityal!

I want to have a bigger house AND garden in a village setting, preferably near the Pacific. Mainly, I want to be near at least two of my lifelong friends.

Dusty me too. I miss Ohio.

I put other, because though we might die in the desert somewhere here or near here, maybe even in this house, but I would like to think we would go somewhere prettier and cheaper to live than in Ca. I would like an open kitchen to a great room for the holidays so I am not by myself or tripping over everyone following me around the kitchen.

I want to live in a Craftsman House with stone columns but DH does not want an old home that has not been redone and insulated and all the work is done already, in our price range, not likely.

I said other. Been living in the boonies for 30 years. Want to move to town where a snow plow goes by more than once a storm, paved streets so my car won't get beat up on gravel roads; where I can walk to a store when my car isn't running for three days while it's being fixed because the dusty gravel roads screwed up my brakes, again. Where a trip to town isn't a 25 mile round trip and then you have go back to town because you forgot to return the movies. Where it doesn't take 4 hours to mow the property just to do it again next week. The list goes on. Just complaining, it's been a heck of week so far and it isn't even winter yet!

Pastime - I am originally from the stickes but have been in a small city for a long time now. I'll trade places with you any day!!!!!!! I could handle mowing for four hours rather than the work I'm doing now! When we retire, we are going to the boonies.... oh, and I want an RV so that we can travel some! Anyways, guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence!!! :-)

Looks to me like "Gardening" people want to stay with their current house that they have put so many hours of toil into.
Someone in the Twin Cities lived in a house for 20 some years to raise their family. They had kept it in top condition. Upon retiring, they built a smaller house down the street only a few blocks. They just recently discovered people turned their old house into a marijuana farm. The house is going to be tore down because of all the mold & rot from being so wet all the time. The people who lived there so many years are devastated!
Bernie

Pastime, I'm glad you bring up the fine points of country living.

My grandparents thought they wanted to retire on land to but yes, it became quite the burden for them and they moved.

I have a mobile home that we have been in for 23 years. I would like to stay in my current place, but would also like to have a "newer model". I love where I live and if God blesses us with another home here I would be happy, but as long as it holds together I will also be happy just to have a paid for roof over my head.
Sandra

Probably a nursing home some where considering the age I am at now

This is one of the most interesting threads I've been in. You know how we have plant swaps and seed swaps, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could swap too much shade for a big sunny space, a town house for a country cottage, one floor living for a cool old two story farm house, Arizona for Maine, clay for alluvial. We'd try it out for a couple of weeks and then all magically come to the conclusion that what we have already is best. Then we'd all go back home smiling. Except for you DG'ers who don't want to be anywhere other than where you are now, you'd already be smiling.

Pam you are absolutely right. My wife and I took a drive around the county a couple of years ago looking at other peoples houses, land and landscaping commenting on how beautiful some of them were. After we got home I walked around the yard and walked back to my wife, gave her a big kiss and hug and said "I think this one is the loveliest"!!!

Doug