Well, this is the last house we will ever buy. We are both recently retired and bought a new (5 years old) house. Moved ~100 miles from our other place.
We absolutely love it. It’s perfect for us. Since we will both be home more often we upsized. We need our space. We also have more room for guests to come and stay. We have 3 friends coming to stay the day after christmas.
(oh and did I mention a 4 car HEATED garage. It’s da bomb. My wife and I each have our own 2 car garage)
Is it a ranch?
We moved into our present home - a split-level with basement - about 13 years ago in our young 50s. Figured we would move out of it inside of boxes. A couple of years later I shattered my ankle - and only then realized that our house had no single level on which I could sleep/eat/shit&shower. That and developing hip arthritis makes me more aware of the impact significant mobility issues might cause with stairs - and more intent on maintaining my fitness/mobility.
If I have had that awareness 13 years ago, I think we would have looked for a single-level ranch. Even if it had a basement, I would have moved the laundry to the main level.
At present, I imagine the only move from this house will be to single-story living. And I’m thinking maintenance-free rental will likely make more sense than owning a condo.
Yes, a ranch style. Single story living. That was critical. One of the reasons we moved.
Full finished basement. We can just live on the ground level though. That’s where the master bedroom/bath is, and our game/play room (chess and piano). Kitchen of course. Direct entry to the garage, and another spare room with an in suite full bathroom. Landry area is right on the ground floor as well.
We do spend a lot of time in the basement. That’s where my office is, and our dartboard. We play a huge amount of chess and darts. The poor dartboard is getting pretty banged up, we aren’t very good, and we don’t care.
Had my hip replaced before COVID struck and that was a bit of a wake up call. I had an improvised bedroom on the first floor of our old house, it was ok. It was three weeks before I got up to our regular bedroom.
That’s so cool. That was a lot of work and now you guys can fully enjoy retirement.
I bought my last house in 1993. It’s a three bedroom, two bath ranch house. It’s larger than I need since it’s just me but there’s no reason to move. I expect another 25 years here if all goes well. The old man next to me bought his house when it was first built in 1960. His daughter moved back in with him. The lady three doors down is also an original owner and just turned 100. Her adult son moved back in. The two adult offspring grew up together as kids.
Kitchen table, I think. We’re elder Millennials. When we came into some money last year, we were badly in need of a good kitchen table, and my friends, we went a little wild. It’s a custom made cherry wood Amish table with two leaves that fit inside. Six matching chairs. It is incredibly heavy and SO easy to clean. And it’s beautiful. And it’s hard to imagine outliving it.
I’m not sure a single other thing we own qualifies for this thread.
If that was to me - Yeah thanks. It helped that my wife is/was a real estate appraiser. She did most of the work finding the house.
I’m starting to relax in a “I don’t have to do that this minute/weekend”
Today I bought a 45 pack of business envelopes. I can’t imagine how long it’ll take to get through this box.
The current house, for sure, is the last I’ll ever buy.
And it’s possible that the current car is also the last. Not that I intend to shuffle off this mortal coil any time soon, but I’m starting to worry about the safety of my driving. I’ve never had an accident but in my younger days my driving was supremely confident, and now I’m getting slower, more cautious, and certainly less confident.
My friend, who is approximately my age, got into a serious accident that totalled his almost-new car. To add to his troubles, because of his age, he had to re-take his driver’s test (which he passed). There is a certain age (not sure what it is) where even once accident and a clean driving record forces a driver re-examination. And other threshold age where at least certain aspects of cognitive function are re-examined every two years.
Ooh, nice. We got a custom made cherry wood kitchen table a few years ago (only one leaf), too, and I’m pretty sure that’s our last kitchen table. But our first kitchen table, a wedding present, lasted until we got this one. One doesn’t buy a lot of kitchen tables.
I have all this really nice furniture, and I’m sure no one will want it after I’m gone. It’s sad to think it will end up in a landfill somewhere.
But my mom’s kitchen table, the one i grew up at, is now in my nephew’s home, so who knows.
I just bought two heavy saucepans, one big, one small, and. two heavy frying pans, one big, one small. My old thin ones are warped and the no-stick coating is coming off. These are probably the last cooking vessels I will ever buy.