Change of Location

My wife and I have lived in the same location for 23 years.  We have an upstairs and a downstairs and if we want to get out to the backyard we have to walk down stairs just like for the basement.  We  have an acre of yard that is mostly in the back and the mowing and weed eating takes 2-3 hours with a riding lawn mower.  

We also have several areas where we have planted flowers that need weeding and other annual maintenance.  Our 26' round pool requires a top cover for the winter that we hold down with landscaping bricks that weigh 10-12 pounds each.  Taking them off is quite a chore each year, especially as the bending over gets harder from one  year to the next.

So, we decided to downsize and found a house, 200 square feet larger but with no stairs and a yard that can be mowed and weed eaten in an hour.  We purchased the house about two weeks ago and on Wednesday of this week, our new appliances and furniture arrive.  I say new because we sold all of our old stuff.  The movers come the next day (Thursday) and except for a few odds and ends, we are MOVED.

We want to put our old house up for sale as close to the end of June as possible.  We are hoping that the improvements we made to it and the areas that we newly painted will attract a buyer quickly.

We had a glitch with Lowes in ordering our flooring so the soonest they they put down the floor is July 24.  We are looking around for another installer and will meet with him this Thursday while the movers are here.  Hopefully, he will be able to do the job in the next several days.

We have the money to stay where we are and have someone tend to the yard and open and close the pool but the sets of stairs that we have to constantly go up and down is only going to get worse with age.  I had 5 disks fused together a year ago and have lost strength in my right leg when walking up stairs.  My wife has numerous back issues as well including another hip that needs to be replaced.

Downsizing in one's 70s makes sense from a physical standpoint.  It also FORCED us to sell, give away, or trash a lifetime of accumulation that we no longer needed.  Memories that we had forgotten all about.  We discarded bunch of clothes we no longer needed as well.

It will take us a couple of weeks to unpack, sort out, and arrange all our stuff but our pace will be much slower.

Our neighbors are much better than the ones we had so that is encouraging.  No more loud traffic sounds on the road where we were, no more barking dog, and more silence as we move deeper into our community.

The house is about as good as the one we are leaving, built about the same time, with few repairs needed.  We made some changes that we did not need to do but wanted to do to accommodate our tastes.

By August/September, it will be like we never lived anywhere else...