Two-House Pendulum Swinging Back to One

[kcowan]

The cottage will eventually likely just be passed on to one or more of the children.

I recommend that you sort this out sooner rather than later. Cottages, particularly in your geography, are often considered more valuable than homes to heirs. My Dad gave the cottage and some cash to me and the house to my brother. This created much stress for my brother and I only neutralized it by offering to switch right away contractually.

When faced with the choice, he chose to keep the house. But Dad had a codasyl that gave him use of the cottage for the rest of his life if he paid half the maintenance taxes etc. That could have been messy but when faced with the prospect of those costs, he decided that he really liked it because Dad was there.

So we were able to work it out but that was just good fortune.

 

[48Fire]

The idea of eventually saving our daughter from dealing with the stress of two homes to empty and sell certainly crossed my mind. We are just completing the sale of the second home of MIL after nearly 2 years of issues. Fortunately the family conflicts were resolved although at times they were tenuous.

 

[Danmar]

Workshops? I'm not the most handy guy so my "workshops" are pretty basic, mostly hand tools. Best equipped ones are in Arizona and the cottage. Not much at Condo with a little more in Canmore. Have to admit I sometimes forget where stuff is, especially clothes. But this is a very minor issue. Obviously, eventually people tend to downsize and simplify. Not there yet.

 

[hesperus]

We have three homes, and you could say we're actually in accumulation phase. Two are in colorado, (one is primary home, and other is a mountain cabin, with 10 acres of land). Our other is a winter getaway in Palm Springs, CA, which we just bought last summer. All are single family, as we don't like shared walls.
By far the most labor intensive home is our mountain cabin. We have water rights, which we exercise most years, and the land is forested. The work it takes to maintain that land is extensive, and physical. Considering a caretaker for this piece, but it's hard to tell from year to year how much work it will be. Some years are more demanding than others, depending on snowpack, water needs, and undergrowth. I purchased a tractor a few years ago to help with that, and that has been a huge labor saver. Kinda fun, too.

 

[kcowan]

I think it is a function of where you are in the life cycle. I put an addition on our house 30 years ago. I would not attempt that now. I don't even wash our cars anymore. A friend from New Hamburg NY should not be trusted with power tools anymore. And he was a steel worker.

 

[JP.mpls]

Harley, What area in Florida are you in? Now that you have been down there for a while, would you recommend that area? What do you like and dislike about your location?


Thanks,


JP

 

[6miths]

I recommend that you sort this out sooner rather than later. Cottages, particularly in your geography, are often considered more valuable than homes to heirs. My Dad gave the cottage and some cash to me and the house to my brother. This created much stress for my brother and I only neutralized it by offering to switch right away contractually.

When faced with the choice, he chose to keep the house. But Dad had a codasyl that gave him use of the cottage for the rest of his life if he paid half the maintenance taxes etc. That could have been messy but when faced with the prospect of those costs, he decided that he really liked it because Dad was there.

So we were able to work it out but that was just good fortune.

Thanks Keith. It's an ongoing discussion and although it has a reasonable value it is still not a particularly large part of the estate so it shouldn't be hard to shuffle things in such a way as to make everyone happy. Part of it will come down to who feels that they might enjoy it as well as has the income to maintain it. Depending on the decisions made, how long we live, and our health, it may wind up sold before we depart this earth.

 

[48Fire]

We also do the "traveling light" thing, taking just the dogs and the hedgehog and computer stuff and some paperwork. The rest we duplicate or do without. When we started doing this 5 years ago I decided that I would build my second workshop off Craigslist. It's amazing how much really good stuff I was able to find cheap. I ended up with a for-crap Craftsman table saw that I'm going to replace, but everything else was decent to excellent, and probably 25 cents on the dollar. Plus, if we ever decide to stop snow birding, I'll sell the stuff for most of what I spent on it. I even got a box of glues and clamps at a yard sale for $5. Amazing. Up north where we live is more rural and agricultural, and there's nowhere near the selection of stuff available on Craigslist.

The "traveling light" plan was working well lately for us. Two, fully stocked houses, clothes, tools, etc. for the most part. However, now the primary home needs to be completely purged, since there is no room in the ER home. Should be a challenge

 

[brett]

In the process of moving our family from Vancouver to Calgary years ago we discovered boxes that had not been opened since our initial move to Vancouver some 20 years earlier. We discarded some. Others we kept...it was a corporate move so if we were undecided we simply moved them.

Fast forward another 11 years to our downsizing from a large home in Calgary to an 8X8X16 container. It took us seven months to prepare our house for sale and to cull our belongings. Some of which consisted of boxes that were unopened from the previous move. Boxes of books that had lots of air miles on them. We got very serious given our downsizing/storage constraints.

Currently in our rental condo locker we have unopened boxes stacked in our storage areas. You know, those must have or cannot throw outs that we did not think that we could live with. Including a few of my power tools.

Go figure. Perhaps are still accumulators even though we only travel with carry on and avoid all souvenirs.

 

[Huston55]

In the process of moving our family from Vancouver to Calgary years ago we discovered boxes that had not been opened since our initial move to Vancouver some 20 years earlier. We discarded some. Others we kept...it was a corporate move so if we were undecided we simply moved them.

Fast forward another 11 years to our downsizing from a large home in Calgary to an 8X8X16 container. It took us seven months to prepare our house for sale and to cull our belongings. Some of which consisted of boxes that were unopened from the previous move. Boxes of books that had lots of air miles on them. We got very serious given our downsizing/storage constraints.

Currently in our rental condo locker we have unopened boxes stacked in our storage areas. You know, those must have or cannot throw outs that we did not think that we could live with. Including a few of my power tools.

Go figure. Perhaps are still accumulators even though we only travel with carry on and avoid all souvenirs.

I know exactly what you mean.

DW & I moved more frequently (about every 2-4 yrs) so, we'd identify our 'purge candidates' by looking for boxes that had more than two different colors of move inventory stickers (which meant they'd been moved without unpacking for 2+ moves); which also meant that despite our emotional protests to the contrary, we likely didn't need whatever was in those boxes. BTW, I think the record was 5 stickers.

Fast forward to the last two moves before FIRE...We knew FIRE was imminent and, during the next to last move, we downsized home space by 50% and purged accordingly. For the last move (into FIRE location), we downsized by 50% again and, again, purged accordingly. We felt really good about the whole process; and getting rid of lots of 'stuff' was liberating.

In the interest of full disclosure, we do have a very small storage locker and we continue to purge the remaining stuff (digitizing old slides/pictures, etc.) and the like.

 

[NW-Bound]

I once entertained the idea of having a 2nd home up in the Puget Sound, as I loved the area and wanted to be near a large and calm body of water (no open ocean for me). It would serve as a summer place for me to get away from the searing heat of the southwest, which is awfully nice in the winter right like now. I even went up to Port Ludlow to look at some properties, but then realized how tough it would be to go back and forth between the two homes, and the hassle of maintaining the two with them being far apart. I was not even fully retired then.

I eventually settled for something a bit more amenable: a 2nd home in the high country of my state, a mere 2-1/2 hour drive away but at 7,000 ft elevation where it is cool in the summer, surrounded by evergreens and a national forest. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and used to go up nearly every weekend when I still worked. Even in the winter, it was a blast to go up to watch snowfall while staying warm, a glass of Cognac in hand, my favorite music playing, something smelling good cooking on the stove top.

Then, I got into RV'ing 7 years ago, and spent a bit of time traveling in the summer. I am now getting back into foreign travel, and want to spend up to 2 months abroad each summer.

The cost to rent on Airbnb is a fraction of what I have been spending on maintaining the 2nd home, let alone the opportunity cost of the principal (homes are really lousy investments, if they can be called that). I do not regret it though, as I bought it when my son was growing up and the numerous weekends we spent riding our dirtbikes exploring the forest trails could not be had now at any price (I could do the same a lot cheaper with a motorhome, but I did not know about this then).

I have not been able to go up to the 2nd home for the last few months. My wife has been stuck taking care of MIL who is very weak from pneumonia. She is in fact living with us now.

Well, I do not even think of selling the 2nd home now. I do not need the money, and in a few years when I get tired of traveling the 2nd home will be appreciated again as a summer sanctuary. It is great to be able to hop in the car and drive up, not even packing a toothbrush. We usually do stop at a market in a town along the way to get fresh produce. Got lots of foodstuff in the pantry and the freezer. Hope not too much stuff gets freezer-burn.

 

[Danmar]

@NW. If I lived in Phoenix full time time I would have bought a place in the high country as well. Beautiful and easily accessible. Yes, the weather really s perfect right now.

 

[45th Birthday]

We had two houses for 15 years, then bought a large condo that lives like a house for our domicile for tax purposes. After two years going between three places, we decided we felt too fragmented. Because of the distance between them, we didn't go back and forth but would relocated from one to the other in sequence. One in winter, one in summer, and one in spring and fall.


So, we decided to upsize the former summer place so it would be comfortable for longer stays, and sell the spring/summer place. Still own the original summer place because it hasn't sold yet, but when we do we will finally be back down to two.


We don't see dropping to one, but that might change as we age. Now we can connect more in each place and also have more time for travel.

 

[RAchip]

"Only been retired for a month but we enjoy the multiple house scenario. We have three homes and have always found the change of location invigorating. Each time we switch homes it is like going on vacation. Since ours are all free-standing homes, there certainly is more work and expense. Condos would have made things easier but that is not our preference."

We have been living with the multiple houses situation for a long time and its making the "final" retirement decision more difficult. We have our primary residence in the NE US. Then at the "local" beach (2 hrs away) we have 2 houses, one on the beach and one on the bay. The wife and kids like the beach but I like the bay for boating and fishing. Then we have a place in Florida (Gulf coast). We envision moving to the florida house eventually, but for the first few years of retirement we will probably keep everything and move around like we always do.