Packratona!
10-20-17, 5:04pm
Hey all, my last update was Oct. 2016 so thought I would drop in...
Biggest news is that we decided to move to a rural location (last estimate was a little over 900 people in this city), 5 hours from previous house, which we fixed up and sold this summer. We have been in new location for a few months now. Moved so we could be driving distance from our first grandchild! Bought a lovely new house which adjoins paved nature trails that go from town to town. Still unpacking and getting acclimated in between babysitting gigs. So far, cost of living seems lower. Property taxes and home insurance are significantly lower here. Home association fee is about a third of what we paid before. However our commuting costs are higher, as we have to drive 9 miles to the next town to shop, no public transportation, and about 40 minutes to baby sit once or twice a week (city where we can shop all the big box stores etc. if we want). It looks like it will all balance out. No ALDIS close by, but there are roadside veggie stands close that have cheap veggies and fruits. Moving costs, of course, took a huge bite out of our bank account. But this is one of those things that you can't put a monetary value on...being part of grandchildren's lives. The one big advantage of moving, is that it does encourage you to declutter. I am still working on it here; gave away a huge amount of stuff before and after the move, and am still purging. So cool! I love being at a place where I control my stuff, not the other way around! I love starting anew, getting rid of things that do not fit my new life and no longer want in it. Space is great! We are in a 1610 square foot house now, but when I am done downsizing I think we could very comfortably fit into a smaller place if and when we move again (no plans for that).
We got rid of most of our old furniture, and just bought new stuff on line. The old stuff would not have fit in here anyway. It has been fun finding relatively inexpensive new pieces, that we have assembled ourselves. Rather time consuming, as it seems more often that not, things arrived damaged and had to be returned. But it is working out and we are happy with our purchases.
Biggest news is that we decided to move to a rural location (last estimate was a little over 900 people in this city), 5 hours from previous house, which we fixed up and sold this summer. We have been in new location for a few months now. Moved so we could be driving distance from our first grandchild! Bought a lovely new house which adjoins paved nature trails that go from town to town. Still unpacking and getting acclimated in between babysitting gigs. So far, cost of living seems lower. Property taxes and home insurance are significantly lower here. Home association fee is about a third of what we paid before. However our commuting costs are higher, as we have to drive 9 miles to the next town to shop, no public transportation, and about 40 minutes to baby sit once or twice a week (city where we can shop all the big box stores etc. if we want). It looks like it will all balance out. No ALDIS close by, but there are roadside veggie stands close that have cheap veggies and fruits. Moving costs, of course, took a huge bite out of our bank account. But this is one of those things that you can't put a monetary value on...being part of grandchildren's lives. The one big advantage of moving, is that it does encourage you to declutter. I am still working on it here; gave away a huge amount of stuff before and after the move, and am still purging. So cool! I love being at a place where I control my stuff, not the other way around! I love starting anew, getting rid of things that do not fit my new life and no longer want in it. Space is great! We are in a 1610 square foot house now, but when I am done downsizing I think we could very comfortably fit into a smaller place if and when we move again (no plans for that).
We got rid of most of our old furniture, and just bought new stuff on line. The old stuff would not have fit in here anyway. It has been fun finding relatively inexpensive new pieces, that we have assembled ourselves. Rather time consuming, as it seems more often that not, things arrived damaged and had to be returned. But it is working out and we are happy with our purchases.