Moving house in your 60‘s kids grown up. What did you do?

[mumma24]

Did you upsize and renovate?
downsize to a bungalow?
move to the seaside or country?
move closer to family and grandchildren?
move to free up money for retirement?
sell your house and go travelling?
would love to know your story and any tips and advice along the way.

<cough> Reading <cough> 24 minutes to Paddington and both the Thames and the Kennet.

Aged 66 and moved to seaside village.

It's a 2 up 2 down terraced cottage .
This frees up a large chunk money to fund retirement.
Moved from 4 acre site , 5 bedroom converted steading ,plus self catering annexe , We had a large orchard, a pond , several hundred trees.
So downsized quite a bit.

Quite happy as the previous place needed grass cutting a lot. Now have manageable garden 60 x 50 feet which is big enough for our needs.

I'm not very happy about it but I'm hoping I can find a 3/4 bedroom with a big garden and double garage he could use as workshop. If I could find that I think he could be persuaded. My DC will encourage him and help him with packing up his workshop and moving contents I know they have already offered. I just think the older he gets the more set in his ways he is becoming. He retired last September and I ready tried to get him to make the move then. I love him and won't leave him over it but he is trying my patience when I see nice smaller and tidy houses only a mile or so from where we are now so he could still walk his dogs around the lake about 600-700 metres from our current house. That's another reason he has come up with the dogs like walking around the lake. Honestly the dogs would be happy walking anywhere with him.

I downsized from the family home in a small village after my husband died. We had lived there for 35 years but it was not practical as I got older. I moved to expensive Surrey, to be nearer my children. Compromises had to be made as my budget was limited to the proceeds of my sale and I ended up buying a 2.5 bed terraced house in one of the less popular parts of a decent town. My criteria were to be near a good bus route to shops, doctors etc, to be able to buy basics within walking distance and an active community. I achieved these, although the bus service has deteriorated, and I have a happy, busy life. Unfortunately I could not stretch to a bungalow - or a downstairs toilet which I do regret, although going up and down stairs is good exercise! My daughter is about 20 minute drive away but works in my town.

We moved back to the UK when we were in our 50s and DS went to university. We left a 5 bed, 4 bath property with swimming pool and land for a 2 bed detached bungalow with a manageable garden. It took a bit of adjusting to but very happy in our little home and know it's pretty future proofed, having carried out a renovation after we bought it.
We're in our late 60s now and sometimes think we might have one more move in us, perhaps to the coast, but neither of us can pluck up the courage or enthusiasm to do it, especially as most places we're interested in are beyond our budget unless we consider a flat.
Our DS also lives in an area we couldn't afford so we'll probably stay here. The lack of proximity to a hospital is the only real downside to staying where we are.

Downsized in mid sixties to a 3 bedroom semi in same town which had potential for downstairs utility room to be converted into shower room with toilet. Room on the ground floor can be used as a bedroom in future if needed. Released equity to go travelling and give daughter sizeable deposit .
Have massively decluttered, updated will and did POA.
Nearer high street, swimming pool , doctors . Close to bus stop. Best is that I still have friends and family close by.

We aren't downsizing yet, but we're agreed that we won't be leaving London and may even move closer to Central London. I want to have loads to do.

I've never been in a position to upsize so I didn't really downsize much. I decided to buy a detached bungalow to future proof myself and it's got lots of amenities and a great bus service if I need it when I'm older. I'm only a few miles from the city but it's so quiet here. It needs a lot of work but I'm hopeful that once it's done that will make things do much easier.

@HundredPercentUnsure I'm late 60s and live alone, no kids. I bought this house in my late twenties and it is just perfect and has been from the day I bought it. (Knock on wood!).

Last year I decided it was time to evaluate the house for the older age (if I make it there...), so instead of moving from my very adequately sized house I reconfigured it so I have a downstairs wet room/bathroom and a spare room for a bedroom if needed in the future. The spare bedroom is the study cum "shove everything in there" room for now lol. I didn't need to extend.

If I need to, I could live downstairs quite independently. I have an idea that I could let out the upstairs to lodgers, and would then have people around if anything happened. I'd have to choose them carefully though!. It's not for the money although that wouldn't go amiss, more for company as I get older.

Great to see your parents had a similar view - minus the lodgers!

We are just about to downsize. Is it very hard to adjust? Is there anything I can do to soften the blow? It’s like having a Big Mac and switching to a plain burger? Or is it a relief? I am very nervous it will be just dreadful, but we are almost without any dc and don’t need the space, the upkeep or the stress.
Hope to have time to have a better quality of life but it will be different…

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks Sounds wonderful 😍

I do find the idea of moving to a bungalow in your 50s or 60s really depressing. DH and I went against the grain here and upsized massively in our late 50s - we wanted to have an adventure and live a completely different life before we got too old. We moved to an old farmhouse in the countryside with 20 acres and moved our horse (now horses) there and got ducks and, for a time, pigs. There’s an orchard, a resident barn owl and lovely (not too close) neighbours. The first year was hard work, masses to do but dh especially loved it. We’d been in London for decades but spent most of our free time heading out of the city - dh was an avid road cyclist and both dd and I rode. When all the children left home we thought about what we wanted to do next. After a year ds2 moved in with us as he wasn’t coping living on his own - he’s autistic and was struggling to cope and getting very depressed. But 36 hours after ds arrived, dh died suddenly and completely unexpectedly. He’d just had his 57th birthday and was unbelievably fit and healthy. If I’d known what was going to happen would I still have wanted to move? Possibly not but it is genuinely comforting to know that the last year of dh’s life was really happy. I’m now living with ds2 and dd who’s brought her horses here and is setting up
as a professional rider. I don’t know what the future holds but I’d rather live the way I want to now and not try to future proof - I could live for another 30+ years and I don’t want to spend 3 decades sensibly living in a bungalow - equally I could drop dead tomorrow..

"One is living downstairs as she can’t make the stairs."

My parents downsized to a bungalow just after my dad retired for exactly this reason. They then spent the next 25 years there and enjoyed their life.
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"Makes me think mid-60’s is the time to get organized."

I'm 60 in two weeks time. (It's come up so fast).

A couple of years ago we bought an old Victorian farm manager's home with a few acres of land. It took us a while to get planning permission (the house is outside of the settlement boundary and the local council weren't very friendly) but we now have planning permission to knock it down and build a very nice, ultra-efficient, modern home (albeit with a mid-century modern look).

One of the things that I insisted on though was a lift that was big enough to take a wheelchair. They are stupidly expensive (they start from about £25k) but I reckon that if it means that we can spend more of our years here in the house and the location that we both want then it will have been money very well spent.

Having said that about the expense though, they're quite a bit cheaper if you're designing it in when the house is being built rather than trying to install one in an existing home.

We moved to an old farmhouse in the countryside with 20 acres and moved our horse (now horses) there and got ducks and, for a time, pigs. There’s an orchard, a resident barn owl and lovely (not too close) neighbours.

I just posted something similar without having read your post.

We only have about half that much land and no horses. Although there is an owl and we do also have bats (that caused no end of expense when it came to getting planning permission).
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"I could live for another 30+ years and I don’t want to spend 3 decades sensibly living in a bungalow"

I totally agree with this sentiment. My mum is still alive and my dad would likely still be as well if he hadn't been knocked over and killed in the street at the age of 89.
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"...and not try to future proof "

Although, in contrast, I am doing that to some extent. We have just spent a stupid amount of money installing a lift into our new build home.

We moved from a 5-storey 4 bed in London zone 2 to a 3 bed 2-storey house in another bit of zone 2, which allowed us to free up house deposit money for the dcs. We always knew we weren't going to manage all those stairs in retirement, but bungalows are rare in London and we didn't want to deal with leasehold and service charges with apartment living. There is enough space for a stairlift and if necessary I could live just on the ground floor. We've never had much garden space and I'm not bothered by that - everything is low maintenance and I'd rather be out walking in the parks. No grandchildren yet but we wanted to have enough space for them to stay.

We've always lived close to amenities and culture as we wanted the dcs growing up surrounded by it, and liked making life easy for ourselves (always had a short walking commute to work/school, and easy access to any essential services like hospitals). Raising a family in the suburbs was not for us, and we wanted that to continue in retirement. We go out to something cultural at least twice a week, and do lots of hobby courses or meetups.

We’re in our sixties and just moved from a 3 bed semi in the Midlands to a 3 bed detached bungalow in the Lake District. Daughter and her family have moved too.
Bungalow life is brilliant. I have a gammy knee and no stairs are a godsend and feel we have future proofed mobility issues. We meant to downsize but now family will be coming to stay we need the space.
Much much smaller garden here but need to make it low maintenance as it wraps around the house. Moved from a city to a village so we do need a car but buses run to the local town fairly frequently so if driving is a no no we can still get around. Excellent local shops so no need for supermarket shopping. Doctors is a vast improvement on what we had before.

That’s such a life affirming post. I’m so sorry about your DH.

I love where we live so have no desire to move! We live in a 4 bed detached house in a quiet area. We already have some mobility issues but we will just put in a stairlift. We currently have all three 20-something children living at home for various reasons, and I want to be able to welcome them home in the future if they ever need it.

I moved to a tree lined cul de sac almost on top of a busy railway station in London.
I really like it for now but when ds is settled I shall be near the sea hopefully.

I’m making a big move in my late 50s this year. I’m in the north and moving into York city centre from the Dales. Setting myself up for retirement. I won’t save any money by moving from a large four bed to a two bed terrace with a courtyard garden. But I want to be able to walk to the theatre, train station and have lots on my doorstep.
I’ll put my name down for an allotment share for now or get involved in community gardening. I can give it up and just focus on my courtyard when I no longer want to garden.

My parents have lived in a bungalow since retirement. Dad is 94 mum 88 and both are active. You don’t have to rely on stairs to keep you mobile, they do exercises every day, walk when weather is okay, and have looked after their health, non smokers, rarely drink and eat healthily. I am 60 and would definitely look to move to a bungalow before I hit 70.

When we restored our derelict house we made our bedroom bathroom on the ground floor. We are only in our 50s but knew if we wanted to stay here for longer this would be necessary.

With 4 kids we have more bedrooms than we now need as only one left at home. DH will never leave here. If he goes first I’ll move into a town near one of the kids. We are very rural and unless self driving cars become a reality we will eventually have to move.

So much to think about.

There was a study that showed that elderly people living in bungalows physically decline more quickly than those living in multi storey houses

Pretty difficult to say what's cause and effect though.

Maybe those that move to a bungalow in their 50's or 60's are those that already have a dodgy knee or feel subtle aches and pains or whatever - so would have probably declined more quickly in their later years anyway, regardless of where they lived.

Really enjoyed this thread. I’m almost 59 and have happily lived in our four bed semi for 26 years and as much as I love it, I’m mentally checking out as I want to buy something more age appropriate in the same area. We are already on good bus routes, have an excellent surgery and five miles either way from our two hospitals.

I don’t want any less space than we have, happy with a small, manageable garden, but I do want at least one bedroom downstairs and a shower room downstairs.

the biggest problem is finding something that meets your expectations when you already live in a home that you love, where your DC grew up that is perfect in every way other than it’s over three floors and doesn’t have a bedroom downstairs or the potential to build one.