New direction with house hunt

[pinkytoe]

My 73 yo brother lives on 7 acres on the side of a steep mountain barely accessible in the winter. Groceries are 10 miles away. Maintenance is greatly needed and he has trouble keeping up with things. Getting on a rickety ladder to paint a second story is just dumb. His wife now needs oxygen due to the altitude and a lung ailment. I have seen so many older folks in my life that probably should have left the farm a little sooner and moved to town. Maybe it is just procrastination as moving is really hard after so long in one place. Anyway, I guess you follow your dreams until you can't. I am a worrier so I want my next abode to hopefully be for the duration and a place I wouldn't mind living alone. Plan B and C are pending.

[iris lilies]

My 73 yo brother lives on 7 acres on the side of a steep mountain barely accessible in the winter. Groceries are 10 miles away. Maintenance is greatly needed and he has trouble keeping up with things. Getting on a rickety ladder to paint a second story is just dumb. His wife now needs oxygen due to the altitude and a lung ailment. I have seen so many older folks in my life that probably should have left the farm a little sooner and moved to town. Maybe it is just procrastination as moving is really hard after so long in one place. Anyway, I guess you follow your dreams until you can't. I am a worrier so I want my next abode to hopefully be for the duration and a place I wouldn't mind living alone. Plan B and C are pending.

or it’s not even leaving the farm, it’s leaving a giant Victorian house in town.

i know I will have at least one living situation after our house in Hermann, that is, I live a while. I just hope it is not in an ugly new-build assisted living place. I actively look out for non-ugly assisted living places just to keep an eye out for something I might like.

As it is, our condo is in an over-55 building (not required, just works out that way) so I will observe how those senior folks negotiate the spaces.

[iris lilies]

Regarding the idea of owning acres of land when you're older--I'm sure there are situations where the land isn't always something you have to work--it might be wooded or meadow. I think buying a house is like finding Mr./Ms. Right. If you look too hard you don't find what you're looking for. I think you're onto something, Tybee, with the idea of relaxing a little but still keeping your eyes out. You do have a lot on your plate with your mother at this point. You have a house, and you don't have the burden of another right at the moment, so it doesn't seem to me that you have to rush into anything.

DH is big on "meanders"--I'm more the "Google map fastest route" type and he's more of the "Let's just follow the road and see where it takes us." Our best journeys have been when he does it his way.

Yes, those Celts! They don’t have the logic of the Germanic people.

My Germanic DH requires that we take the shortest fastest route everywhere. I say to him “can’t we go THIS way (the non-fastest way) in order to see the scenery? We can see what is going on in this new part of the world.

He is always a little taken back by this idea.

[catherine]

If you were willing to go to NH, this is only an hour from Portland. A little over 2 acres and barn

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...0445266_zpid/?

[Tybee]

We are very aware of what our limitations are, what they will likely be in ten years, and what we need to make us happy in a house and land. So that is unlikely to be the problematic part, it is more that prices have risen so much here that living near the family, we will not have the kind of place we want, or even the kind of place we left behind in Michigan, which was eminently doable for us for the next 15 years.

We would not be happy campers in a small suburban lot, unfortunately, and would be yearning for what we had lost, and depressed. So that option, to go to that kind of house, is not in the cards.

Considering that my husband already shattered his pelvis falling off a ladder while chainsawing, I don't think I'm going to talk him into buying a ocndo somewhere. He wants to die falling off his tractor, like my parent's neighbor did at the age of 86.

[Tybee]

If you were willing to go to NH, this is only an hour from Portland. A little over 2 acres and barn

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...0445266_zpid/?

Wow, that is gorgeous. Off to check out Brentwood and the drive.

[JaneV2.0]

Wow, that is gorgeous. Off to check out Brentwood and the drive.

As a West Coaster, I can't get over the price, and that's a lovely house.

[Teacher Terry]

Jane, that does seem cheap).

[iris lilies]

Wow, that is gorgeous. Off to check out Brentwood and the drive.

It has only 2.33 acres.

it has some great original features. If we trust the listing info it is very old, “1800” which is probably a general estimate. I suspect it needs shit tons of work.

It is too big for me at my stage of life. I look at 1500sq feet as ideal, but definitely under 2,000.

[Tybee]

It has only 2.33 acres.

it has some great original features. If we trust the listing info it is very old, “1800” which is probably a general estimate. I suspect it needs shit tons of work.

It is too big for me at my stage of life. I look at 1500sq feet as ideal, but definitely under 2,000.

I like the 1800-2200 range, but have been in houses a lot less than that over the past 10 years-- 824 and 1200, and current house is about 1600.

Unfortunately, the NH taxes are really high and this one is over 8000, which rules it out for us.