Forever house

[booklover164]

What age did you buy your 'forever' house? How did you know it was the one?

We inherited our house in 2008 at 24. We didn't think it was our forever home until last year when we decided to do a second renovation rather than move.

That said, it's forever in as much as we have no plans to move for at least 20 years. I suspect we will downsize in the future.

What makes it our long term house is the location. When we looked to move we found nothing else that compared to what our house could be in the location we loved

33, kids already primary age. I'm not entirely sure it's forever because we may want to change location again in future, we haven't stayed anywhere longer than 3 years! But we needed to upsize and knew we didn't want to move the kids again until they're grown so we knew we were looking for the "permanent" family home for them to grow up in if that makes sense.

It was the nicest house we'd seen and due to SDT holiday and incentives we got thrown in it miraculously was in budget for us. Everything aligned perfectly for us to get this house, offer on our old house, developer adding lots of incentives as it was a precarious time with Covid but then the SDT holiday came in as well, then without even seeing the house accidentally ended up picking the best plot on the site in the most beautiful spot (very nearly picked a much less desirable one as it wasn't very clear on the plans!) it all just felt right I guess, we'd had a few failed attempts on other houses and this just worked.

Still not convinced it'll be a forever location for us as we don't have family here and we aren't particularly loyal to any area, but we think we've picked a good spot to raise children; countryside, great schools and good public transport to hopefully get us through the teen years!

I bought a place I loved and thought I could potentially be in long term when I was 24, but life didn’t work out that way and so it wasn’t forever. I’ve since lived in two other places that I could happily have lived in forever but again, life changed and they no longer fitted.

So personally I’m baffled anyone can make such a final plan for 10 or 20 years into the future. Maybe my life is just more changeable than many people’s or I’m unusual in not having a fixed outlook for decades ahead, but I’ve always bought homes that will make me happy for as long as I need and can fairly easily cease to be homes when I need something else (also my approach to jobs and relationships, tbh!)

I don’t really understand the concept of a forever house. We are in one we love, but at some point we will downsize or move closer to wheee our daughter settles.

I’m 42 and about to build my forever house that we’ll stay in until the kids have left home (currently 5, 4 and 2). This is the third country DH and I have lived in together and we’ve decided to stay put now and have found a plot that we love and can see will suit our family’s needs for a good while. Building the house ourselves also means it is easy to make it future proof / adaptable to changing needs.

Bought our first house when I was 27, still here over 20 years later and no plans to move.
It's in a decent area and has (nearly) everything I need or want. I'm sometimes a little bit envious when friends or family buy new houses, but I'm content where I am.
To buy something 'better' would be a substantial price increase and we'd rather have no mortgage than move house.

We bought our house 26 years ago only thinking of it for four to five years.Still here became our forever home by accident really.

Given none of us knows what the future will throw up I struggle with the idea of a forever house.

We've just bought a house that we love and that is big, flexible and will do us until the kids leave home at which point we may want something smaller and lower maintenance. I'm 41, kids 7 and 4 and I feel super lucky to be in this situation.

Unlike when I was renting, I think every house i've bought so far has been a 'forever house' :D

Not sure about forever house either. But last house we decided we didn't want to put any more money into it, it needed new kitchen and bathroom. We were 50 and wanted to move from a terrace, to have a drive and a garden and a dog. We are at maximum earning potential, kids through university, reasonably secure.

Fell in love with a 120 year old money pit - so we probably won't be able to afford to move for about 15 years.

But we'd like to rent it out at some point and travel and will probably downsize to something ultra modern.

But its the first house we have both seen ourselves staying put in for retirement if that's what we decide to do.

Obviously no one can tell the future.
But the idea of 'contented here unless circumstances force a change' isnt a mad ungraspable concept

We bought our current house when I was 26 before we had children with the idea it will be our "forever home". We've spent thousands on extensions to get it how we want and are happy here six years on. We have paid our mortgage off and thought of moving and taking out another mortgage is daunting so definitely happy here for least next decade or so

I think for me, as someone who has moved more times than most (8 times in 8 years but who is counting) for me the concept of a forever house is being in the circumstance of not needing to think about moving, sure life can change at any moment, but to be in a house that could suit us for the next several decades is a real luxury, before that it was thinking about where we needed to be for work, then it was a house that was too small and we desperately needed to upsize.

I can't begin to explain what a luxury it is to not have to be thinking about the next move, I've never moved into a house without knowing we wouldn't be there for long until now, so this house is our forever house...for now!

We bought our current home 21 years ago when DC were both under 5. It was a project and needed a lot of renovation and updating and we reckoned it was ten year project. We didn't set out to stay so long but the house and garden have really worked well for us in the last year so I guess we will stay a while longer!

I was 30 when we bought it - lovely Georgian house in a pretty road fairly central with good transport links and friendly community. Fell in love with it and had to have it even though we were bridging for 6 months to do so.

I’m 42 and about to build my forever house that we’ll stay in until the kids have left home

Without being rude, that’s not forever, hopefully. As hopefully you will live for a good twenty or thirty years after the age of sixty.

Isn’t your forever home your last one?

We’re in ours by accident. We bought it 22 years ago and it was perfect for our needs. It’s too big now but it’s perfectly located for growing old - shops, surgery, dentist all in walking distance, semi rural, the river two minutes walk away. London and beautiful university city easily accessible by public transport. We’ll never beat the location so here we are until the care home beckons.

40. Forever home is definitely the right description. Now mid 50’s. 20 something dses in the stage of coming and going, not having moved out properly yet. We will stay here for at least another 10 years, might downsize after that.

Bought at 39, a 2 bed 125yr old Victorian semi money pit. We have no reason to go bigger or move areas, and we are both very happy to stay in the village forever. Good links to London for my work and Cambridge for shopping and days/evenings out.

We mentioned on a zoom call recently that it was our forever home and one couple were shocked we’ve decided this is the house we love and we never want to move again. That’s not weird at 40 is it?!

Sounds as if you’re very close to us @AmandaHugenkiss.

36. We’ll move again at some point because the garden will probably become too much but till then we’re perfectly happy here.

@VinylDetective

Sounds as if you’re very close to us *@AmandaHugenkiss*.

Sounds like it! It’s a lovely bit of the country, and I can’t believe that 5 years ago I was renting a tiny London flat with no idea places like this were within actual reach. We are lucky.

Well I'm 30 and moving into what is certainly as close to a forever house as we will manage next month. We will raise our family there. DH is 37.

40... I wouldnt say forever, will down size ar some point

I don't think we'll ever have a forever home. We're in our fourth house and all have been the ideal house at the ideal time. I'd imagine we'll stay in our current house for 10-15 years and then move somewhere possibly with more outside space and finally retire into a bungalow.

But who knows.