Two Seniors in a Condo, Two Men and a Truck, Two Kids and a Dog

It's a tale of life changes, moving on, and family togetherness.  I will be totally honest and say that I wasn't paying attention at first, and was clearly the last one on board, but here we are - after 52 years of marriage, and as we move ever so gently into our later years, we have moved.  But it wasn't easy!

Sometime in spring, when I was busily involved with a post-retirement career I love (see many of my previous postings on this blog), and juggling that with trying to help my sister who lives alone, two hours away, and was having hip replacement surgery with serious complications to follow, my husband Paul starting thinking seriously about the next phase of our lives. 

For 13 years, we had lived in a downtown condo on the edge of a thriving college campus.  We both loved it!  We had done some major downsizing in two previous moves, but of course after that long in any one place, you do accumulate way more than would ever be needed.  Paul suggested that we might think about giving up home ownership (with all that entails - like real estate taxes, condo fees, maintenance costs, etc) and look for a smaller place to rent.  And then, he took it one step further - he started looking at independent living options in retirement communities.

When he shared the details of his visits with me, I was immediately on alert.  One place required upfront payment to include three meals a day, whether you are there to eat them or not, and everyone eats at the same time. (My question - why do they put kitchens in the independent units if all meals are provided????)   I knew that wasn't going to work.  I don't eat meals on any particular schedule, and often eat in my car as I go from one appointment to another.  And I am way too cheap to accept shelling out all that money and not getting full benefits!

Meanwhile, our daughter and her husband were thinking and talking about possibly buying a bigger house for them and their two kids (middle school age), but felt they really couldn't afford to do it right now.  They heard of Paul's visits to retirement facilities, gave things a little more thought, and then invited us to consider moving in with them.  The rest is history.

What a whirlwind of a summer it has been!  First came the "shopping" - checking out all current real estate listings in the kids' school district that would be big enough to accommodate two families moving in together, looking at a few, thinking about making an offer, and finally finding just the house that met everyone's wishes.  Offer, counter-offer, accepted offer, and on to the next step. Is there anything more stressful than getting the "old" place ready for promotional pictures and those dreaded showings when it is supposed to look as though no one actually lives in this magazine-perfect place?  My mantra became, "Showings are GOOD!"   After all, how could we sell if no one came to see what we had to offer?!?

Then came the waiting game on our end, waiting for the right offer, the right new owner to move into the place we have loved for over a decade.  It took longer than we had hoped, but it DID happen and things quickly changed to a game of purging what we could, packing what we wanted to keep, and long exhausting days of work, work, work!  Long, restless nights of thinking about all that still needed to be done made it hard to stick with it, but stick with it we did.

Moving day came and we rejoiced when those two eager YOUNG men showed up with their truck and quickly and easily (well, they DID work hard that day, but it was a relatively easy move for us)
moved our remaining belongings to our new home in the country. 

And here we are, a family of six now - Grandpa, Grandma, two parents, two kids and a dog.  We are getting along just fine.  I especially love the evening time when I usually retreat to our room to watch TV or play games on my iPad and am joined by one or both of the kids, and of course the dog, who has gone out of her way to make us feel welcome in what she considers HER home and HER room!

Stay tuned as the story develops.  The kids return to school next week, and maybe then we can finish up with all the unpacking.  For now, we are savoring the time we have with them as they fix up their new rooms and organize their back-to-school supplies. Living among college students definitely kept us young at heart and this newest step will surely help keep us that way.  Life has been good to us and we are counting our blessings.