<p>Interestingly, only 45% of polled said a home on one level was extremely/very important. Only 5% said they thought living near a beach was a “must”.</p>
<p>Our house is mainly one level, plus basement ( we never did expand into the attic- first private school tuition & then college tuition!)
I would love to be able to stay put- H & I walk to the grocery store almost everyday & we can easily walk to the library & other shopping.
We see lots of people who are retired walking as well & if we really needed to, we could take the bus.
We live within a short bike ride to the beach- but I am assuming they are referring to someplace warmer than Puget Sound?
:)</p>
<p>We downsized 10 years ago to a smaller home and much smaller yard . Now that its fall , I really appreciate a smaller yard to rake leaves . We used to have lawn maintenance for 2/3 of an acre property . Now I AM the maintenance ! We could easily stay here for awhile ,although laundry area is in basement .</p>
<p>I think Dr. Oz suggested that multi-story houses were good for retirees since the stair climbing is good exercise and they shouldn’t start out their retirement by getting a single story home unless they truly need one. I think his point may have been to not slow down too quickly since it can be detrimental. This makes sense up until someone loses that level of mobility.</p>
<p>Our neighbor just redid his house so it is very disability friendly- only bedrooms in the upstairs
His bedroom is on main floor & has a wheelchair accessible shower.
( he has spinal cancer & is expecting his mobility to decrease )
But our house is small & I redid our yard so that our main maintenance is pulling up the squirrel planted oak seedlings!
( & a little bit of pruning)
[The</a> Hobby That Leads to a Longer Life - Health Tip - RealAge](<a href=“How It Works - Health Resources & Solutions - Sharecare”>How It Works - Health Resources & Solutions - Sharecare)
Since I don’t think we will be able to afford much time in residential care, I am hoping that if we stay active, we will be able to stay in our home till we die. ( being that we just replaced our roof, I want to get my money’s worth!)</p>
<p>I like the Dr. Oz suggestion. I remember hearing Dr. Koop say that he bought a three level house for the stair walking. I believe in use it or lose it.</p>
<p>“Our house is mainly one level, plus basement ( we never did expand into the attic- first private school tuition & then college tuition!)
I would love to be able to stay put- H & I walk to the grocery store almost everyday & we can easily walk to the library & other shopping.
We see lots of people who are retired walking as well & if we really needed to, we could take the bus.
We live within a short bike ride to the beach- but I am assuming they are referring to someplace warmer than Puget Sound’”</p>
<p>This is us, minus being anywhere close to a beach. We plan on staying - even my laundry room is on the first floor so no need to go downstairs for anything once we get to feeble. </p>
<p>We never upgraded to a bigger house - just did a remodel & a small addition so our mortgage is ridiculously inexpensive. There would be nowhere we could move for what our cost is now even with outrageous prop. taxes. </p>
<p>My parents own a condo in Florida so we will always have a place to go and get out of the winter cold & snow. </p>
<p>I can see the part about stairs as exercise but there are other alternatives. My parents have to walk their dog at least twice a day, for instance. Or just getting out of the house and walking because it’s good for you!</p>
<p>I expect to work into my late 60’s. Would like to downsize and live in an area with lower cost of living. Neither of my kids wants to live in this area (DC suburbs), so we’ll see where they go. Neither H nor I want a hot climate and we are not beach people.</p>
<p>Our “second home” is two story, and our bedroom, bathroom, and study are upstairs, but it has a full bath and two bedrooms downstairs, so we could move down there if needed (and could move mom there before then if she loses mobility, though she’s still happily living alone at almost 82). It is near the beach. We’d move there today if we could find a job there, and expect it to be our forever home eventually. And it’s only 2 1/2 hours from where we are now, so we woudln’t totally be leaving everything/one behind. It’s very walkable and bikable–hoping those things will keep us healthy and hale.</p>
<p>I remember reading something about a study of 100 year old people where they found that many of them lived on upper floors of buildings where they had to walk up and down the stairs daily. Perhaps the extra exercise helps.</p>
<p>My second wife insisted we buy an expensive house, and now, I am forced to live beyond my financial needs. If you are a baby boomer, I suggest that you drive a less fancy car, and live in a smaller house, or even an apartment. The time has long passed since I have been trying to impress anyone.</p>
<p>I live in a nice house, but most of the time, I spend in a room the size of 1/2 a studio apartment.</p>
<p>Good advice, Fladad. We could afford the temporarily second home just because we’ve always had the small house ,cheap cars, cheap everything. Definitely worth it in terms of piece of mind, especially because both of us have been able to downsize our salaries without putting us in financial peril.</p>
<p>Floridadad: I can’t tell by your post if you are still with that second wife, but it sounds like downsizing that would have worked as well…(tell her I’m just kidding if you’re still together)</p>
<p>Now that I’ve been back in Manhattan for over a year, after 23 years of suburban exile in New Jersey, I never want to live anywhere else again, so long as I can afford to stay. Selling my car was an immense relief. And elevators are a useful invention.</p>
<p>The idea of moving to Florida in old age horrifies me, and it’s never been a tradition in my family anyway. My father is 91, and still lives with his wife in the same apartment where I grew up, which he and my mother bought in July 1959 – a 3-bedroom co-op in a 1908 building on Lexington Avenue in the 60’s, for which they paid the princely sum of exactly $20,000! He still goes to work every day, too (he’s a lawyer), although his wife made him stop taking the subway a few years ago.</p>
<p>One of my great-aunts, who was obese, lived alone for decades until her late 80s with zero health problems. She had a three story townhouse. I’ve often wondered if all that walking up and down the stairs (despite being overweight) contributed to her longevity.</p>
<p>My grandmother lived to be 99 1/2, born in 1900 and died in 2000. Her bedroom was on the second floor. She lived alone on her own until 3 months before she passed away. She did everything herself except drive. When she was 95 she fell and broke a hip, but recovered fine. The doctor told her she had the bones of a 70 year old. He did recommend against the stair climbing after the fall, but she was very stubborn and ignored his recommendation.</p>
<p>Why did the doctor recommend against climbing the stairs? Weight bearing exercise, including climbing the stairs, is generally considered protective against osteoporosis.</p>
<p>We’d like to stay in our home, which is 2-story (with laundry upstairs near bedrooms - I like that!). Our downstairs den/guestroom has an adjoining 3/4 bath, so we could use as a bedroom it if we ever had surgery/illness that prevented stair climbing. </p>
<p>With that in mind, we will probably make the phone booth sized shower a little bigger when we remodel. There’s room to do so, we just missed that detail when the builder adjusted the plans to make the bathroom larger. We also want to add grab bars. The plan is on hold…bathroom remodeling is even more expensive than we had imagined.</p>
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