Did your RE downsize/home strategy work out as you had hoped?

[INTJ10]

I'd be curious to know if anyone moved from a detached home to a condo/townhouse and regretted it. If we moved, our living space would remain about the same (1200 sq ft) or go down slightly, but we'd drop the yard and other home maintenance stuff.

We moved from a 2900 sq.ft. old (1890) farmhouse with 3 outbuildings on 40 acres to a brand new 1800 sq.ft. townhouse. We had to do a major, painful downsizing of "stuff".

Life is good. We actually have time on weekends to do stuff other than maintenance and yard work. It is a big change in lifestyle but we found we can be happy without a lot of "stuff".

 

[Bamaman]

I keep a clean house and very modest sized 1600 sq ft with partial finished basement. When working I always kept it clean and could do it in short order. Now it takes all day. I am so slow and lazy now, I couldn't even imagine how long it would now take me to clean a bigger house.

We find it easier to keep a larger house looking cleaner. We use an industrial dust mop on the 4000+ square feet of hardwood floors. We can also close off rooms that we're not using--keeping them clean.

In a small house all our "stuff" would take up all the space on cabinets, kitchen island, tables, etc. In the bigger house, our "stuff" is spread out--diluted. We also try not to use but 3 of our 5 full bathrooms.

 

[Focus]

We moved from a 2900 sq.ft. old (1890) farmhouse with 3 outbuildings on 40 acres to a brand new 1800 sq.ft. townhouse. We had to do a major, painful downsizing of "stuff".

Life is good. We actually have time on weekends to do stuff other than maintenance and yard work. It is a big change in lifestyle but we found we can be happy without a lot of "stuff".

No shared-wall issues? No conflicts with the neighbors? I'm told one of the biggest issues of townhouse living is that you and your neighbors may not agree on when to undertake the maintenance of shared areas (like the roof).

 

[Souschef]

My late wife and I moved from a 1400 sq ft home to an 1800 sq ft townhouse. We never regretted it. There was no yard pool maintenance to worry about, and when we traveled, we just closed the front door and took off.

 

[Cheesehead]

I think it's really important to plan for stairs, you don't want them especially if you played a lot of sports.

I'm in great shape at 64 but going up stairs is now painful. I looked into surgery but was informed that half my issue is arthritis so surgery won't really help. Apparently this is quite common. So in sum, the house you age in should not have stairs. Who knew?

 

[INTJ10]

No shared-wall issues? No conflicts with the neighbors? I'm told one of the biggest issues of townhouse living is that you and your neighbors may not agree on when to undertake the maintenance of shared areas (like the roof).

I can only speak for our townhome but I have never heard the neighbors. The shared wall is a concrete block wall plus studs/drywall on both sides. This is a new house and it is very quiet when the doors/windows are closed. One of my neighbors has kids next door to his unit and he said he has never heard them.

I don't know if it is a Florida thing or it's just the way kids are now, but I rarely see kids outside. When I was young, I was outside all the time.

The HOA is responsible for all exterior elements (roof, painting, lawn). So there are no conflicts between neighbors regarding those decisions. You do need to accept the landscaping decisions of the HOA. There is a community swimming pool. HOA fees are $150/mth.