Thread: Adventures in Downsizing

Originally Posted by rbbert

Patently untrue, as Mark pointed out.

I guess you didn't read what I wrote. Anyway I really don't care..


Some other FYI; I retired in 2010 13 years before we sold our beach home. I'm over 70. We paid cash for our 3250 sq ft beach home. We sold our beach home in 2023 and yes downsized. Paid cash for the home we moved into and re-invested the rest. We downsized, due to health,(Mark knows that) plus, we just got tired of F&^king sandbags and storm surge and having your home surrounded by water during hurricanes, but that's the risk one takes and now its the ever raising maintenance cost and HIGH ever raising insurance cost of living at the beach,. When your insurance ( if you can get it) cost goes from $2135 a year to $9821 a year in 13 years, not counting flood insurance cost there is a big problem, not to mention the counties failure to maintain the dunes protecting your home. And insurance companies continue with threats if you don't replace a freaking roof or they will cancel your coverage. Total Fla Insurance Co BS. Not sure how many here have compared prices to replace a 3000 sqft+ concrete barrel tile roof lately, its northwards of over $70K in parts of Fla these days. And rather or not its involuntary is baseless. PS: Breathing and circulation are involuntary processes. So you do what you do to either protect your investment, your health you change it and if its downsizing, so be it.

So until people think they can criticize someone whom downsizes, or think they really know, get in their shoes then make a choice. And in my case, it has F@&king zip to do with a WAF, or freaking audio.

well said Chris !

Originally Posted by CPP

I guess you didn't read what I wrote. Anyway I really don't care..


Some other FYI; I retired in 2010 13 years before we sold our beach home. I'm over 70. We paid cash for our 3250 sq ft beach home. We sold our beach home in 2023 and yes downsized. Paid cash for the home we moved into and re-invested the rest. We downsized, due to health,(Mark knows that) plus, we just got tired of F&^king sandbags and storm surge and having your home surrounded by water during hurricanes, but that's the risk one takes and now its the ever raising maintenance cost and HIGH ever raising insurance cost of living at the beach,. When your insurance ( if you can get it) cost goes from $2135 a year to $9821 a year in 13 years, not counting flood insurance cost there is a big problem, not to mention the counties failure to maintain the dunes protecting your home. And insurance companies continue with threats if you don't replace a freaking roof or they will cancel your coverage. Total Fla Insurance Co BS. Not sure how many here have compared prices to replace a 3000 sqft+ concrete barrel tile roof lately, its northwards of over $70K in parts of Fla these days. And rather or not its involuntary is baseless. PS: Breathing and circulation are involuntary processes. So you do what you do to either protect your investment, your health you change it and if its downsizing, so be it.

So until people think they can criticize someone whom downsizes, or think they really know, get in their shoes then make a choice. And in my case, it has F@&king zip to do with a WAF, or freaking audio.

I don’t think anyone disagrees with this. It is the expectation of much of society that downsizing is a necessary part of retirement and/or all children leaving the nest that some of us are referring to. And whether you believe that or not, or whether or not you have encountered that attitude, it is common.

We did our first downsizing 11 years ago. The kids have all moved on with their lives, out of town, and the big house (4,400 sf) needed a big makeover, and was taking a lot of effort to keep going. Looked into building a custom home, but that was way too expensive. We ended up finding a newly renovated house 3,400 sf) a mile away. We are both still working full time. My room went from a basic 12x13 untreated wood floor room to a 9.5x14 room with carpet, and room treatments. Some work put in there, providing for great listening.

Our plan is to retire from work at the end of this year (I turned 65 in Feb, she does on Dec) and move to Seattle, to support our daughter who had a daughter last year.

Seattle is a tough housing market. And houses are not big (Zillow is showing 2-3k sq homes in our price range). I have been concentrating on my digital source components this year in anticipation of this move. I’m certain I can get a room to accommodate my speakers, and a headphone setup. I might have to liquidate my vinyl rig though. Vinyl for me includes turntable, phono amp, pre-amp, record cleaning machine with fluids, and vinyl storage.

Being from the Gulf Coast pretty much all of my life, I’ve never had a basement. One of the possibilities in Seattle is to get an unfinished basement to create a room in, with a separate area for RCM, record storage, and work bench.

Originally Posted by CPP

I guess you didn't read what I wrote. Anyway I really don't care..


Some other FYI; I retired in 2010 13 years before we sold our beach home. I'm over 70. We paid cash for our 3250 sq ft beach home. We sold our beach home in 2023 and yes downsized. Paid cash for the home we moved into and re-invested the rest. We downsized, due to health,(Mark knows that) plus, we just got tired of F&^king sandbags and storm surge and having your home surrounded by water during hurricanes, but that's the risk one takes and now its the ever raising maintenance cost and HIGH ever raising insurance cost of living at the beach,. When your insurance ( if you can get it) cost goes from $2135 a year to $9821 a year in 13 years, not counting flood insurance cost there is a big problem, not to mention the counties failure to maintain the dunes protecting your home. And insurance companies continue with threats if you don't replace a freaking roof or they will cancel your coverage. Total Fla Insurance Co BS. Not sure how many here have compared prices to replace a 3000 sqft+ concrete barrel tile roof lately, its northwards of over $70K in parts of Fla these days. And rather or not its involuntary is baseless. PS: Breathing and circulation are involuntary processes. So you do what you do to either protect your investment, your health you change it and if its downsizing, so be it.

So until people think they can criticize someone whom downsizes, or think they really know, get in their shoes then make a choice. And in my case, it has F@&king zip to do with a WAF, or freaking audio.

Chris-You had lots of reasons why moving/downsizing was the right thing for you to do and I completely understand the decisions you made. What I was addressing was the automatic script that when you retire you should automatically sell your house and downsize.

Originally Posted by Bones13

We did our first downsizing 11 years ago. The kids have all moved on with their lives, out of town, and the big house (4,400 sf) needed a big makeover, and was taking a lot of effort to keep going. Looked into building a custom home, but that was way too expensive. We ended up finding a newly renovated house 3,400 sf) a mile away. We are both still working full time. My room went from a basic 12x13 untreated wood floor room to a 9.5x14 room with carpet, and room treatments. Some work put in there, providing for great listening.

Our plan is to retire from work at the end of this year (I turned 65 in Feb, she does on Dec) and move to Seattle, to support our daughter who had a daughter last year.

Seattle is a tough housing market. And houses are not big (Zillow is showing 2-3k sq homes in our price range). I have been concentrating on my digital source components this year in anticipation of this move. I’m certain I can get a room to accommodate my speakers, and a headphone setup. I might have to liquidate my vinyl rig though. Vinyl for me includes turntable, phono amp, pre-amp, record cleaning machine with fluids, and vinyl storage.

Being from the Gulf Coast pretty much all of my life, I’ve never had a basement. One of the possibilities in Seattle is to get an unfinished basement to create a room in, with a separate area for RCM, record storage, and work bench.

Good luck with your move Bones.

In an example of synchronicity there is an article in today's WSJ tangentially discussing the desire (or lack of) to downsize

Originally Posted by mep

Sounds like your dermatologist is in love with Botox! You can't win the war against wrinkles because time and gravity are a bitch. And people who love them some facelifts only get a couple shots at it before they get the joker face with a permanent smile because your skin has been pulled up so much.

I don't fight the war on wrinkles. That is a losing battle. I only go to have her look at funny spots and scrape off the bad ones.

We have a friend that got a full face lift at 68. The first time we saw her 4 months later she looked like she could have starred in a Martian movie. It was freaky. A year later she looked 25 years younger. It just looks out of place in my opinion. Kind of like teeth that are much to white for your age.
Sorry, I am going to piss a number of people off but, just my old, wrinkly and off white appearance.

Originally Posted by mep

Chris-You had lots of reasons why moving/downsizing was the right thing for you to do and I completely understand the decisions you made. What I was addressing was the automatic script that when you retire you should automatically sell your house and downsize.

Oh I agree with the automatic assumptions that when you retire you need to shrink your house along with everything else. .Must be in some retirement planning script the investment counselors are using these days.

on my fourth year of retirement, we never 'upsized', 2100 sq ft is perfect for momma and I ! I'll take my acre and a half with woods and privacy any day !

Originally Posted by CPP

I guess you didn't read what I wrote. Anyway I really don't care..


Some other FYI; I retired in 2010 13 years before we sold our beach home. I'm over 70. We paid cash for our 3250 sq ft beach home. We sold our beach home in 2023 and yes downsized. Paid cash for the home we moved into and re-invested the rest. We downsized, due to health,(Mark knows that) plus, we just got tired of F&^king sandbags and storm surge and having your home surrounded by water during hurricanes, but that's the risk one takes and now its the ever raising maintenance cost and HIGH ever raising insurance cost of living at the beach,. When your insurance ( if you can get it) cost goes from $2135 a year to $9821 a year in 13 years, not counting flood insurance cost there is a big problem, not to mention the counties failure to maintain the dunes protecting your home. And insurance companies continue with threats if you don't replace a freaking roof or they will cancel your coverage. Total Fla Insurance Co BS. Not sure how many here have compared prices to replace a 3000 sqft+ concrete barrel tile roof lately, its northwards of over $70K in parts of Fla these days. And rather or not its involuntary is baseless. PS: Breathing and circulation are involuntary processes. So you do what you do to either protect your investment, your health you change it and if its downsizing, so be it.

So until people think they can criticize someone whom downsizes, or think they really know, get in their shoes then make a choice. And in my case, it has F@&king zip to do with a WAF, or freaking audio.

Well said Chris, we moved from California for similar reasons. Mainly so we could afford to retire keeping similar lifestyle. We were able to purchase our new home for cash. It is not smaller than our California home, but it is a whole lot less expensive. It is also single story (which seems to be unusual around here) so it will be easier for my wife and me.

My music room got downsized but I made do with smaller speakers and over all smaller space. But that is just fine. If I had to go to just headphones that would not bother me too much, but so far, the speakers are fine since the music room is a bit separated from the rest of the house, in a room that sort of hangs off the back of the house.

Anyway, people's reasons for downsizing are real and sometimes the absolutely best decision for them.