<p>A (badly needed) new kitchen was the first thing we did after the tuitions were done. Our kitchen was about 35 years old. The cabinets were warped and the dishwasher, microwave, double oven, and 3 of the burners were on life support. I actually pounded the sledgehammer through the cabinets with reckless abandon. It felt good.</p>
<p>@emilybee - it might be cheaper and less stressful for your dogs to have a house sitter when you are away. Our dogs used to come home from boarding with either coughs or skin problems.</p>
<p>NJ, I had that problem with my big dog at the regular boarding place so now we just rely on the kindness of our neighbors. I am leery of having a stranger in the house because one of my little dogs has issues and out of the blue will bite - even the hand that feeds her. She is better when not in her own space (she has resource guarding issues.)</p>
<p>We had a master bedroom/bathroom addition done a few years ago. I LOVE it! And an office for DH and first floor laundry area. Now our second floor is just for guests. Really nice when our son brings friends home. Once he brought 10 for several days. We can’t even hear them from our room.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Another thing on my bucket list…to retire from my long term “day job” and do things that were different. It has been WONDERFUL to be able to do so…so I can’t identify at all with the above quoted comment. There is so much to do in life besides work.</p>
<p>I am envious of all you parents who are done with tuition! We have many years to go. It’s nice to dream about reaching the end, though!</p>
<p>Save the world! (but a little more intensely). I’m retiring (papers go in tomorrow) so I can do some real work, or at least more of it.</p>
<p>Whoops, just heard from D that she needs to re-take ONE MORE COURSE. Oh well, tuition for just one more (or perhaps two) courses is MUCH cheaper than tuition for a full term or year. I told her to explore when she wants to take it–1st summer term, 2nd summer term of fall. Also said that if she takes it in the fall, she may be able to take advantage of internships available only to students & finally take the equestrian course she wanted. She brightened at the mention of these options. :)</p>
<p>I can’t say that I really put my goals on hold. We have been scraping and saving to afford hobbies, home remodels and travel every year all along(–alternating years–international one year and camping in the US the next). I’m no longer paying tuition which is nice after private school --elementary, middle and HS…then college. The only “goal” I have is to retire comfortably and maybe travel longer than two to three weeks at a time.
This year is our domestic travel year and we have decided to continue to discover hiking our western states on long weekends. Next year I want to putter around the Adriatic coast (Italy and Croatia).</p>
<p>We have also made the last tuition payment, though the apartment rental will go on through August (hopefully without S2 in it). It has been a long road. We opened the college savings accounts when the boys were wee; that $200 a month seemed like a fortune at the time. Then we decided to send them to Quaker elementary which took all the savings and more. Started again when that was finished, playing catch-up. One private and one public (though he completed a Master’s and did a pricey study abroad along the way). </p>
<p>My two agenda items are–</p>
<p>Sell this big house and build the not so big house we’ve been dreaming of OR if we can’t sell this house, knock down the wall between the kitchen and family room and bring our ca. 1961 house into the 21st century. </p>
<p>Accompany DH more on his work-related travel. (He is currently in Hawaii, the one state I’ve never visited :(.)</p>
<p>Wow, you’ve already visited 49 states! That’s great! I have visited a lot of the West Coast and some of the East Coast, as well as a few states in the middle but large gaps in between. :)</p>
<p>Many great road trips in the minivan; usually National Parks were involved. I have to admit, Kansas is the one state we just drove in and out of (and then, of course, said “We’re not in Kansas anymore”).</p>
<p>If I were to travel to Hawaii purely for pleasure, where would you recommend? (We are outdoorsy types, usually travelling on a budget.)</p>
<p>I am just now re-discovering my state, as we visit to many of the neighbor islands for work, doing lung health clinics. I am discovering more and more lovely spots throughout our state. There is a lot of outdoors gorgeous spots on Oahu (Hanauma Bay & other nice areas), Maui (Haleakala, Hana, Kula), Kauai (Waimea Canyon, Princeville–where much of Jurassic Park & South Pacific were filmed), Molokai (Kalaupapa) and the Big Island (lava from active volcanoes, waterfalls, lots of tropical rain forest). I will be going to Lanai for the first time, so don’t know what we’ll find there, but expect it will also be lovely. Fodors.com has a lot of good information on their forums if you’re interested. I am partial to Oahu, since I’ve lived here most of my life, but do love all the islands.</p>
<p>You can generally find budget accommodations and/or bed & breakfasts if you look around. Most of the hotels we’ve been staying at are budget and have been safe and clean. With the internet, they’re easy to find. Have not tried hostels, but believe that’s another option as well.</p>
<p>Sometimes, it’s just as well NOT to tag along on business trips but go on a separate trip instead where you can see more together. :)</p>
<p>That’s why I didn’t go on this latest trip, DH is giving two papers and the keynote. We have had good luck finding places on VRBO, most recently an apartment last summer on Ile St.-Louis, Paris. I fear I may be too old for hostels; I do not do well when I don’t get enough sleep. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>We have generally lived well under our means (kept cars running forever, fairly low-key vacations) but are splurging on a nuclear family two-week vacation in Italy a few days after our younger (of two kids) graduates from college. During his college years we were unable to take a full family vacation because he worked during vacations and/or had an internship. Both he and D (he 22, she 28 and with grad school under her belt and working in her field in another city) have serious significant others and H and I figure we may never be able to travel as “just us four” again. So we decided on this trip in celebration of our family, and the one rule was that we would go someplace none of us has ever been. It is a real splurge for us but I feel it is a “do it **now **or you will never do it” occasion. </p>
<p>We are fond of our kids’ significant others but realize that in the future they will probably be making vacation plans that may not include us, and their vacation time will be constrained. So we are seizing the moment to do this “grand family trip.”</p>
<p>After that, we will continue saving more for retirement/travel – and perhaps eventual weddings. :)</p>
<p>That sounds wonderful. I am hoping we can orchestrate a similar trip in the next year or two. S2 did his study abroad in Rome and I think it would be great for him to be the one who knows his way around.</p>
<p>That does indeed sound lovely. We are hoping to go to Europe as a family of four as well, before our kids develop serious relationships with others. Not quite sure when it will be, perhaps early 2013? We will have to see how things unfold. Maybe we can get some great last minute deals. There are good deals if you are staying put at one place and rent an apartment or something for a week or two and use it as a home base. We’re thinking maybe Austria & Germany, but will see what we end up with.</p>
<p>I went on an airboat ride in the Everglades in March. Check. We also had a photo taken before the ride and the photographer assured us that we would love her work. She photoshopped us! I had a waist and my friend got boobs. Best five bucks I have spent in a long time.</p>
<p>We paid for private college for both kids, and the part of grad school for older d for which she did not get tuition remission. DH is retired from federal govt and I am not retired, work in educational sales. We have both in the arts, older d a painter who is very underemployed working adjunct teaching jobs and younger aspiring actress/singer. She pretty much supports herself although we partially paid for summer training last year. She is beginning to think about grad school for acting. We do travel a bit and as DH has a conference to attend in Vancouver in June we are adding on a northbound cruise from Vancouver. Will take a week in summer as well to see younger d perform in summer program and later this year, family wedding trip in Scottsdale. Our dream would be to sell our close to NYC suburban home and move back into NYC but the costs of buying an apartment to live in the city too great… so staying put for now. DH wants to buy a warm weather place in Florida but I am not ready to do that.</p>
<p>D2 is graduating next month and I’m looking forward to remodeling the master bath and installing a new gas log fireplace and replacing the 20 year old carpeting in the master bedroom.</p>
<p>Since I’m not completely out from under tuition bills yet, (I’m helping D1 thru medical school and hope to be able to help out D2 thru medical school in a couple of years), I’m not planning on any other major expenditures.</p>