I am planning to sell my house.
I thought it was too big when it was me, my wife and the pets. Now that my wife is gone, it is much too big.
The 2nd bedroom is empty all the time. The 3rd bedroom, my former office, is vacant except when one of the cats uses the litter box.
The dining room and florida room are just pass through areas.
The extra bathroom collects dust.
I sit on one corner of the couch. I use one chair in the kitchen. I sleep on half the king size bed.
The backyard garden has quickly grown into a jungle.
The pool, which was rarely used, is now just a leaf catcher.
This was our home. Now it’s just a big empty house and I am like a zombie going through the motions of life who inhabits it.
It’s too bad.
Ellen and I made this house our home. We redid the floors. We put in hurricane windows and new doors. We landscaped the yard.
We put new locks and handles on all the doors. We painted. We changed the light fixtures.
It’s a beautiful place. But I think it needs to become someone else’s home now.
I want to downsize.
The cost of maintaining this place don’t make sense. Taxes and insurance alone are nearly $9K this year. Maintenance adds thousands more.
Just to keep the house up means I need to return to work soon.
And for what? Why would I bother to work just to maintain a house that’s to big for me?
So I’m looking at my options.
- Buying a new place nearby. So far, nothing is appealing. Most of the houses, townhouses and condos I’ve seen would cost more to buy and come with HOA fees of $300-$500 or more per month. So on top of similar insurance fees and taxes, I would be agreeing to HOA fees that can increase at a moment’s notice and “special assessments” that can be levied at will. That’s not gonna happen.
- Looking elsewhere in Florida. The weather is great most of the time. I’m considering central and northern Florida as potential options but have not investigated too deeply yet.
- Boondocking. This is an extreme option that I am considering. I am seriously thinking about selling everything and downsizing to live in a small RV trailer on public land. It’s called “boondocking”. I’ll be writing more about this in a separate post.
- Going rural or small town. Another consideration is moving to a small town or rural area somewhere else in the US. The weather is a challenge. I want extremely mild (ie no) winters which limits me to Florida, Hawaii (never happening) or Arizona. So far, I’ve found smaller and cheaper but not with the weather I want.
Everyone tells me not to make any major decisions right now until I am through the grieving process.
Well, I’m not sure I will be able to hold out until then.
For now I am doing research and gathering info.
We’ll see where and when this leads.