<p>We plan to downsize in next few years. I think it will be as much about a location change as a size change. We are in the outer burbs of a hub we love, but nothing is walking distance and we would love greater proximity to the ocean as well. How we work out the compromises remains to be seen. Our location was superb for raising kids, but now I would trade our acre lot and higher square footage for a lower maintenance option, with a more vibrant location and easy access. In the meantime, it’s purge, purge purge, with a bit of updating.</p>
<p>I think we are confused…HHI=Hilton Head Island!</p>
<p>Although HI sounds fun too.</p>
<p>My parents when building their house at the coast lived in an RV on their property for almost two years (actually they have done that twice). Except for the bath situation, my mother swears that RV was the perfect size. Nothing to clean. Dis-incentive to shopping (no storage)…basically just read all day.</p>
<p>We ended up downsizing only in terms of lot size. We have lost a bedroom, but the rooms we do have are quite large. Additionally, due to a huge space over a 3 car garage, DH was able to move out of his expensive office space and relocate it to our house. Our square footage remains the same, but we are on a zero lot overlooking a beautiful golf course, so we have no yard to speak of (just a little patch of grass big enough for the dogs to do their “business”), and having ditched the office rent, we have downsized financially. I absolutely love our new house. With the golf course, we have the illusion of property, but we don’t have to take care of it. And because we are by a tee box, we never get any golf balls either.</p>
<p>My girlfriend’s grandmother (90) is in assisted living and we have been talking a bunch about aging. We have spent more than one evening dreaming that her architect husband would build a grouping of small buildings where our 4 family/bffs would live as we age. In our heads it’s almost like camp. Each couple has their own small cabin sized unit with one big central kitchen/living area with a huge porch and rockers and tables for crafts/puzzles and a spare cabin for who’s ever kids/grands were visiting and maybe one for a student/caretaker/nurse. Between all of us, we could watch out for each other while having communal space and private space.</p>
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<p>I’ve known a bunch of people who have moved to HI… loved it for a while… and then moved back. I think it would be a great place to have a vacation condo or timeshare and visit for a few weeks to a month every year, but I don’t know about living there full time. A think a lot of people end up with island fever.</p>
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<p>Check the zoning!! That would not work where I live. You are limited to one residence and one small guest house / “granny unit” per parcel. I suppose you could build a large residence with separate wings for each family, but you would still be limited to one kitchen.</p>
<p>When the kids graduated from HS my husband and I relocated to a new area. I think we have the perfect empty nester house. It’s not big, around 2400 sf. We have a first floor master and 3 additional bedrooms upstairs. In the winter we close these bedrooms off so we are not really heating them. We have an open kitchen with a great room and a dining room which doubles as an office. It’s a great size for the 2 of us but also allows us to entertain guests. It’s also on a golf course which gives us a great view, a short commute to something we enjoy and we’ve met many couples this way. </p>
<p>One thing I do want to say is that while working, yard work is a pain. Only so much down time to do everything we want and yard work is a chore. Many of my neighbors are retired and they have a lot more time than we do to devote to yard work. Once you retire you have lots of time and I know my neighbors enjoy doing yard work. I have neighbors in their 80’s who have the best yard and I am positive that working in the yard is some of what makes them young and in great shape. We have noticed that those neighbors who are more active and exercise and watch their weight are aging so much better than those who do not. JMO.</p>
<p>I thought we would downsize, but we pretty much upsized with our 2012 house build. However, we downsized living space a slight bit and have the capability for one level living. H has too much stuff to really downsize and needs a 3 car garage that will accommodate his tools, bicycles, repair equipment etc. We have about 3200 square feet on our main level and a full walkout basement (unusual in TN). In the basement is a large guest quarters and TV room, lots of storage space and a room that will eventually be a home gym. The lot is not small, but is manageable from a mowing standpoint. H and I each have an office (I work outside the home) in the house and we have 2 guest rooms. I really would have liked downsizing more, but it’s hard to do.</p>
<p>There are always trade-offs.</p>
<p>I’ve seen some economically-motivated downsizing turn out to be not-so-much cheaper when all is said and done, recently. Although going from a 2-4 acre zone to a close-to-town 1/3 acre lot will save you some yard costs and snowplowing costs, often the overall taxes aren’t that much different. Heating costs are roughly proportionate to sq. footage, so you can count on savings there if you actually go smaller. </p>
<p>But to really save money, you usually need to move to an area that is very different from where you’ve been living. When you do that, other things change in addition to the costs, and you may not like all of them.</p>
<p>I think its good to spend time studying these options before you list your house for sale. :)</p>
<p>I think one of the main concerns when downsizing, isnt necessarily to reduce costs although thats always a bonus, but to a more managable residence in the case of health problems/ lack of mobility.</p>
<p>I landscaped my yard with an eye to low maintenance native plants, but a condo with potted plants would be even lower maintenance. ( but not as much fun)</p>
<p>Our “downsizing” actually does save us thousands of dollars per year. We had extensive and expensive landscaping bills every month. The pool and all its costs was also very pricey. And my husband’s office rent disappearing is a huge bonus. Our new home cost 1/3 less than we got for our other home, giving us a large chunk of money to put back into the bank/investments. It was a win for us.</p>
<p>We downsized to a small farm. 
I didn’t set out to buy a farm, just an antique house in our price range with less than half the square footage in which we raised our kids. And unrenovated. My empty nest project. When I found the dream house, it just happened to be on a small farm in the middle of nowhere. With lots of outbuildings. I imagine we will just renovate buildings as we need them and, depending how many siblings and friends decide to retire with us, may end up with a compound. No zoning requirements to worry about out here. As I type I’m watching a crew restore a 19th c barn. I deacessioned all the game tables when we moved but will soon be prepared to house a pony, goats, chickens for the future grandchildren. I am not getting animals until there are grandchildren.</p>
<p>very low taxes
we believe in natural reforestation 
very small garden, can be weeded in a couple of hours</p>
<p>“Not getting farm animals until there are grandchildren”. Wise. </p>
<p>An older friend of mine moved to a farm with his second wife. They both had lots of children and have tons of grand kids. Every year they hire college kids to come and run camp grandparents for the summer. They have bunk houses and its just amazing. I haven’t been envious of many things in my life, but that is one of three. </p>
<p>We aren’t downsizing. But we are having a lot of fun with new projects and moving to a new place. It’s been very invigorating, with the added bonus of not having to walk by the kids empty rooms. I really like my kids and miss them as they go off adventuring in the world. </p>
<p>We have moved much further from “town” than I envisioned. But H fancies himself a gentleman farmer now. ;)</p>
<p>Wish me luck</p>
<p>Good luck poetgrl! I have been wondering about your project and thought about bumping up your “dream house” thread.</p>
<p>I had envisioned this as the weekend place but love it so much out here that I don’t really want to be in town. So we entertain a lot out here. We do spend at least a part of the year in a major urban center and my husband really needs that. I don’t anymore, though I enjoy it when I’m there.</p>
<p>Well it’s ended up a “restoration” project. Unsurprisingly. I’m sentimental about architecture. I can never bring myself to tear things down.</p>
<p>oh oh oh </p>
<p>Barn or house? date?</p>
<p>In retirement my parents moved from a busy large city to a small home in an equally small coastal town. Two years later they sold that lovely ocean view house because you can only live on so much scenery and they found themselves driving long distances to eat out, shop, golf,or go to cultural events. The lesson of this is never retire where you like to vacation. Retirement and vacation are two different mindsets.
We will more than likely stay in our current town. Only 10,000 people, shops and restaurants a few short blocks away, close to the metro rail, only a 15-20 minute trip to downtown and still set in the foothills where we are a short hike to state parkland. We remodeled our house 22 years ago with retirement in mind, two stories but it includes a downstairs bedroom suite. Next year we are replanting our yard with California drought resistant native plants. No more mowing. Whether 2500 sq feet will be too much for us in another 5 years remains to be seen. If we do sell… I have a feeling that we will stay in the same town as they are just now breaking ground on an assisted living facility.</p>
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<p>This is so true. I enjoy doing the yard work so much that I think we will finally downsize when I get too old to move around.</p>
<p>It depends on the building Ahl. Some of it is older than Sherman, some not. </p>
<p>When we get going I will start a thread. I will probably entitle it “poetgrl’s folly”</p>
<p>We downsized from about 4,050 s.f. to 2,600 when we moved from south orange county CA to northern CA about a year ago (CA homes with no basements). Not really less work or money OVERALL… our yard is twice as big! With 5 different lawn areas that were designed and installed about 2 months ago with new soft scape (and hard scape), our water bill last month was $565.00. The most we had ever paid for water before this latest 2-month billing period was around $150.00. I was hoping that we had a water leak, but no such luck! Ironically, we had NO lawn in our larger orange county CA home. </p>
<p>Aside from the big yard, we really love having a smaller home on the inside. So much easier/cheaper to clean, furnish, find missing items, cheaper gas and electric, etc.</p>