I like hearing these stories and the successful ones, I’m not TOO jealous about. 
I do think COVID is part of the reason - or maybe has INTENSIFIED this feeling. I have seen more what life is just staying home and nice or not, I’ve seen that my H and I have a lot of opposite ways that become even more apparent and perhaps a roadblock to changes when I’ve been home more (when I was WFH).
Also I recognize that “fresh start” means different things to different people.
I was thinking this would be the year of the fresh start. My husband retired in December and I WFH part-time (so I can be anywhere). We were hoping to start looking for a new home closer to my daughter. We are currently over four hours away and were hoping to move less than an hour from her. We also wanted to do some more travel this year. Nothing big - visit my daughter more, see some friends who moved, and do some driving trips.
Due to the pandemic, none of this has happened. The pandemic has made my desire to live near my daughter even stronger (since I haven’t seen her in person now for over 4 months).
Another important part of a move would be to live somewhere with lower taxes so we can stretch our money farther. I hope we can do all of this next year and this year will prove to be just a bump in the road on the way to our fresh start.
I would like to add that H and I have been thinking about/discussing retirement/moving/what next for a few years now. Plans are basically unchanged with Covid.
Pending retirement is a scary and exciting time. It’s like when you finally graduated and had to start being an adult!
Same boat here. H is/was planning on retiring this year. He already WFH due to health issue so retirement is going to be spending all his time in den with TV instead of just after work hours. I was already thinking I needed a reason to get out of house and would love a part-time job. But now COVID - most of jobs i was looking at involved child care and with H pre-existing medical issues that’s now not a smart idea. Haven’t worked outside of home since girls were babies and it is unlikely to find something in my old field.
I had plans of getting out more in community to find something of interest, but now on hold. I also want to downsize although large house has been a blessing now with one D home since March as well as my brother who was overseas. It has allowed us to be spread out when needed. Still want a smaller, less expensive to maintain house for retirement - very tired of stairs. I can’t see us leaving the town we are in. Would love to have mountain place - H can’t breath in mountains so that’ll never happen.
My fresh start will be to start studying piano again seriously in September. I played all the way through high school and was encouraged to major in performance. But in my heart I knew I wasn’t good enough to be a soloist and I didn’t want to be a teacher. I took lessons for a few years in my late 20s but dropped playing after that. So it’s been 30 years but I’m ready to give it a go! An excellent teacher agreed to take me on. We will start online. I am so excited!
@MaineLonghorn I’m taking piano lessons. I love them. Unlike you, I’m a horrible piano player, but I try. I can sight sing the music well?
DH is still working full time. We talk about “where next” because we just don’t need this big house. But the location is terrific, and we do have a nice lake at our corner.
Re: keeping busy…I retired in 2011 and frankly i can be as busy now as I was working if I choose to be. I’m on a volunteer commission that I enjoy. I’m an election poll worker. I volunteer at a charity thrift shop (on hold because of Covid right now). I’ve done nine long term positions in my field since retiring. That’s nice too.
For me, a fresh start would be a one floor house with about 1800 sq ft. That would be fine. But the where is a huge question.
I agree with @abasket. I think most of us are bored; frustrated with the limited things we can do, itching to get out to do the things we normally did that kept our lies varied and interesting.
I am tired- tired of cooking and doing laundry and discovering when I thought I was telling DH something that he was listening to a podcast in his ears and didn’t hear a word I’d said. Tired of cancelling travel plans (we would have been returning from trip # 2 that we cancelled) and not being able to schedule new ones. Tired of not being able to go to the gym or play cards with friends in person. Its boring. IMO, the OP has lots of things on her plate. She’s looking for variety, for options, not the same old, same old. It does sound very triggered by the Covid limits on our lives.
I want to sell two of the 3 houses we own in the town we currently live in and keep the smallest one with the lowest taxes for my life long dream of snow birding. My H hates Florida but has finally agreed to consider other places. I am still working and MIL is 95 and housebound 20 minutes from us, so we aren’t going anywhere soon . I won’t begin to think of retiring while she is alive since we couldn’t move away anyway for the time being.
I hate my current town but we have been living in our little house crosstown for the past two months and I prefer this neighborhood, so I think I can deal with it during the summers. It’s walking distance of the town pool (for nonpandemic years), near that water and is pretty. The neighbors are nicer, too. Fixing this house up now is sort of a fresh start until I retire.
I am WFH and hope to do so for as long as possible. I don’t want to go back to Manhattan.
At 62, I’ve been semi-retired for nearly 13 years, at that time I made a full career change and went to 3 days a week. Heaven!
Now that I’ve been fully working from home since mid-March, I 150% feel like I could do my job anywhere in the world. In fact, in reality, I could be in Bali working right now, and not one person in my firm would even know (this is fact, in fact I just learned that one of San Francisco directors had moved to Ohio 8 weeks ago - I see him daily on zoom meetings. I hadn’t heard, nor could I tell). That appeals to me. I would love to move someplace tropical, with unique things to explore, and being able to kayak and snorkel are tops on my list of “must haves”. Colorful fabrics and the ability to get my hands on watercolor supplies top the list as well. So yes, Bali, Thailand, even parts of the Caribbean are appealing. I love my adult D more than ever these days as she said “just do it!”
I have no fear, I just don’t think that right now is the right time to plan and make a major change. For me.
I do fantasize about having the owner of my firm calling for an in person meeting and me saying, “Oh, didn’t you hear, I’ve been in Bali for x period of time”.
Fresh Start to me = something BIG.
Not adding a hobby, not choosing a new volunteer opportunity. Those have always been a part of my lifestyle.
Big = new house or new town or new job or a big house reno. Going back to school (not what I want to do). Something that puts a spin spin on your life.
I suppose a partner change would be a fresh start too but I’m not looking for that!!
Staying at home due to the virus has intensified the need a fresh start. I feel stuck living where we are due to my husband’s health, not that it is healthier here or anything! just the inertia of dealing with chronic illness makes it hard to imagine moving. He never wanted to move even before he got sick. I would love a different house around here or even in a different area. I would love to move near my daughter if she has kids, or even think spending part of the year near her.
Not being able to travel makes it harder.
I had been trying to freshen things up with learning new things but the classes I wanted to take are not happening due to the virus.
Overall, things are OK, but I am ready for a change.
@JustaMom - the one downside to working from Bali would be the time difference!
Pre Covid I used to travel 2 - 3 weeks each month, sometimes overseas. Now that I’m doing everything over Zoom or similar tools, the hardest part of working with international clients is the time difference. My poor dogs were very confused when I was getting up in the middle of the night to “go” to work.
I went back to school for another degree. I enjoy the intellectual stimulation and the challenge of the material, but also meeting new people of different ages and backgrounds. Why didn’t I do this years ago?
When the kids are older and more settled, I suspect we will move to be closer to them. H wants to move to his home country. I am not in favor. I hope we will compromise on a move to the kids.
A good friend moved to a new, one story house in the same town. For her and her H, it was a great change. He loves his work and now is closer. She enjoyed getting rid of twenty-five years of clutter and starting over in a space that made more sense for their child free life. They can easily walk or bike to stores and entertainment now. They are still near old friends (like me) but have made new ones in their new neighborhood.
Fascinating how we each view new opportunities so differently. The thought of moving/fixing up this house to sell/shopping for/buying/updating or fixing up a new house gives me a massive headache!
I helped a friend with that recently and it was massively stressful for her. All sorts of issues fixing up her old house, having estate sales, the sale of her house falling through at the last minute but her new place wasn’t ready yet so she had to live with her dau/sil and grandkids in an upstairs bedroom (with pending knee replacement surgery that was postponed due to getting the house on the market), etc. none of this process was in the least bit fun. She ended up taking a serious bath on her old home just to get it sold. Not my idea of a new adventure.
^^^ Well, way to put a damper on the idea of a fresh start! Not every moving experience has to be that way! Maybe she picked a bad time to move.
I think if you want it enough, the time and a few headaches is what it takes to get the prize. A new home would be motivating to me.
So sorry for your friend to have such an experience though.
Oh @abasket I am right there with you. I’ve felt this way for several years, but Covid has definitely exacerbated my feelings. I’m younger than most here I guess, early 50s, as is DH. So we’re not near retirement yet, but I don’t want to wait until then for a big change. I’m very unhappy with my job and would like to find a new one, but I have no idea what I want to do. I’ve always had a job within a certain industry and want something completely different. DH is stuck in his job probably until retirement (great salary) so moving is out of the question (I mean we could, but we don’t want to retire here, so we’d be moving again once that happens.) I hate feeling so unsettled.
My fresh start was just making small changes to my life. I joined a gym and made a commitment to try new things. I first tried a Nia dance class which was fun and different. Next was a strength training class where I struggled mightily. I eventually added Pilates. I took the advise I had always given my kids to try new things. I made new friends and my exercise classes became important to my life. I miss them!
I have a volunteer commitment one full day a week that gives me satisfaction. It’s been another place that I’ve made new friends. Both my exercise friends and my volunteer friends are people who know me as myself, an adult individual not as someone’s Mom or wife.
I also made a decision to say “yes” more.
I want to travel and I can’t wait for the day we can begin doing that again.
I love where I live and I enjoy my house. While I dream of a cute cottage with beautiful flower gardens I’m happy where I am. I’m lucky I live in a place that many love to visit and retire with great weather.
It’s on for everyone but I have friends who are retiring next year and plan to be campground hosts. I have another friend who travels with her husband in their motor home several months a year doing Habitat for Humanity work.
For 3 days a week work I’d make the accommodation…if it means I get to live in Bali! 
I wish we knew what we wanted to do. I would love to live in a more interesting town, especially one more liberal. But, I don’t want to be farther away from my grandson. Right now, we are three hours away and that’s about as far as I want to be. I do think as he gets older (he is ten), we will be able to fly him to us. We like our yard and our neighbors so there is no real push to move yet. So for now, we are here.
Our big new start has been to get a puppy! He is very sweet! However, our old dog (10 years) is not thrilled so it has been a bit stressful. The pup has certainly liven us all up.