Retirement home search started

[gsganzer]

Nice place. Ought to keep you busy for a while. You must be pretty tall to reach those upper kitchen cabinets.

I'll put the wife on my shoulders.

 

[gsganzer]

The designer for our new house wanted to put in a second row of cabinets like that, to balance out the tall ceiling and windows. She was good and we used a lot of her ideas but I vetoed that one. I think it looks fine without them.

What size is the shop? Both it and the house look really nice. Congratulations!

The house has really tall ceilings and doors, it makes it feel really airy though. The shop is 40 x 50, I think 12' side walls, but maybe 14'.

About 20 x 40 feet of the shop will be made into a recreation/bunk/trophy room. I'm thinking something in this style, maybe.

 

[1 Old Man]

The house has really tall ceilings and doors, it makes it feel really airy though. The shop is 40 x 50, I think 12' side walls, but maybe 14'.

About 20 x 40 feet of the shop will be made into a recreation/bunk/trophy room. I'm thinking something in this style, maybe.
View attachment 4366918

Very nice! Congrats on the new place.

 

[riptides]

...

About 20 x 40 feet of the shop will be made into a recreation/bunk/trophy room. I'm thinking something in this style, maybe.

I used reclaimed materials for a building we turned into livable space. Old metal against old wood is a really nice look. Sort of gives a timeless impression.

Your idea will go over very well for a foreseeable future.

 

[BleedingOrange]

OP, beautiful place, any chance you could provide the listing so we can see more of the features and pictures of your new awesome place ?

 

[dodge man]

Awesome shop!

 

[EddieWalker]

I really like your shop, but I wonder if I would give up any space for a trophy room. For me, I want my room in the house, where my TV is and where I spend all time. Is there a way to add on to the house or tear down a room and build a trophy room?

I'm slowly working on converting my garage into a family/trophy room. I removed and sealed off the big garage door a few weeks ago and I poured concrete for the new porch last weekend. This weekend I'm working on siding and moving the walk-through door to the middle of the room.

Three years ago I started building a new three car garage to replace the one we're converting to our family room. Lots of distractions on getting that done, but now I'm focusing on this room. It's going to take years to get it done, but when it's done, it will allow me to have all my taxidermy work all in one place, where I can see it every day.

 

[gsganzer]

Eddie,
It's funny how I've changed with this retirement property search. Our current house was built in 1967 and was a simple 1500 sq/ft ranch style when I bought it in 1997. When my wife and I married in 2002, we added a 20' x 30' living/dining room with a big fireplace on one end. It's a really nice comfortable room, but I've now filled it up with game trophies. Pedestals, shoulder mounts, even a full-bodied Tahr. Our original plan was to find a similar type of house with a great room that could also house all the game animals.

Then we started looking at retirement houses and our plan went out the window. We realized we were ready for a place that was completely different, being open and simpler to maintain and feeling less cluttered. The place we eventually bought, was the first place we looked at. As we continued to look at other homes, we found ourselves always comparing them to the first one. With it being a higher end custom home, it ended up making all the other homes feel cheap. We plan to put a couple of the mounts in the house with the gemsbok over the fireplace, sable pedestal in the corner of the dining room and probably the blackbuck on a wall. Anymore mounts and it will start to feel cluttered, which is exactly what we're trying to move away from.

Then we started looking at the workshop. I'm trying to wind-down and retire and I really don't have many more projects that I want to do, except for building a chicken coop, loafing shed and maybe some welding projects. I'd rather spend more time gardening, traveling, reloading, hunting and time with friends and family. Losing 20' x 40' to a dedicated trophy/game/bunkroom, still leaves me a 30' x 40' shop.

 

[gsganzer]

OP, beautiful place, any chance you could provide the listing so we can see more of the features and pictures of your new awesome place ?

I'll see if I still have it. I did download all the photo's from it. Maybe I can put them in an album and link to it somehow.

 

[gsganzer]

Here's the original listing. I don't know how long it will stay valid on a house that's closed.

Modern Farmhouse Listing

 

[domin]

The house has really tall ceilings and doors, it makes it feel really airy though. The shop is 40 x 50, I think 12' side walls, but maybe 14'.

About 20 x 40 feet of the shop will be made into a recreation/bunk/trophy room. I'm thinking something in this style, maybe.
View attachment 4366918

That is really charming! This stage is exciting but also a little overwhelming with all the factors to weigh. While digging through similar threads, I saw someone asking about the First American Home Warranty phone number here, which reminded me that home protection plans matter more once you settle somewhere long-term. Take your time — choosing the right place is worth it. Keep us updated.

 

[newbury]

Here's the original listing. I don't know how long it will stay valid on a house that's closed.

Modern Farmhouse Listing

Looks great, but fairly large.
/edit - could use a small electric tractor for mobility

 

[Dawg in Fl]

Im fairly familiar with the east coast of Florida and I won't go get myself into a HOA situation as it never ends well. Property within 2-3 miles from the coast is pretty speedy. For not a lot of property. And taxes are crazy high. If you get inland 10-15 miles, Property is available but the chances of having a junk collector next door is very real. Were still looking...not in a giant rush but if the right one comes up we are ready to go.

One positive point on moving to Florida is that there is a (state) constitutional cap on tax increases on your homestead's assessed value. It is a maximum of 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less, on an annual basis.

The back story is this: many people retired to south Florida and purchased modest homes. Their property values skyrocketed and many were unable to afford the gian increase in their real estate taxes. Double digit increases in taxes led to the Save Our Homes amendment to the constitution in the mid-1990s.

 

[gsganzer]

One positive point on moving to Florida is that there is a (state) constitutional cap on tax increases on your homestead's assessed value. It is a maximum of 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less, on an annual basis.

The back story is this: many people retired to south Florida and purchased modest homes. Their property values skyrocketed and many were unable to afford the gian increase in their real estate taxes. Double digit increases in taxes led to the Save Our Homes amendment to the constitution in the mid-1990s.

A similar thing here in TX, with annual appraisal increases being capped at 10%. There's also a ceiling on school taxes when you reach 65. There's a big push to cap increases even more.

 

[dodge man]

Now that I see detailed pictures of it I could never live in a dump like that. It truly is a beautiful place enjoy it.

Those listings that are old like that will often still show up years later if you do a search for its address.

 

[EddieWalker]

Now that I see detailed pictures of it I could never live in a dump like that. It truly is a beautiful place enjoy it.

Those listings that are old like that will often still show up years later if you do a search for its address.

When I get a call from a new client that I don't know, I'll search Zillow for the address to see what the house looks like before going there. It's amazing how much information is out there. A roofer that I know does the same thing before going to a house to see what he will have to deal with before driving there.

 

[tradosaurus]

I still harbor bad feelings about my parents and in-laws regarding their stuff.

Neither addressed their collections of stuff. It left bad feelings between some family members in addition to lost time and money on others.

Part of any home search should include the right sizing/downsizing aspect of the stage of life and the property itself.

The downsizing can happen at anytime. At age 60 i have gone through a lot of stuff and either have sold it, given it away, or junked it. I have a large outdoor storage shed that has the stuff I have kept. Easy to go through periodically and see what else I can get rid of.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

CONGRATS!!!

Awesome looking spread. Love the game room adjoining the shop. happy hunting more wall art.

 

[Duds13]

Stunning home, congrats!

 

[gsganzer]

It's official, we met the seller tonight to get the keys and get some tutorials on some of the house systems. We'll work on the move over the next month. We dropped off all the materials for the chicken coop we'll need to build and will head back over tomorrow to start constructing it. We'll celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday at our old house. The place was every bit as beautiful as when we first viewed it and we're still excited about starting our next chapter.

A little bit of a wild story as we went to the new place this afternoon. As we turned off the main highway and started on the secondary road, we passed a Polaris Side-by-side on the side of the road, as we approached, we saw some adults were tending to an injured boy, so we pulled over to offer assistance. Turns out, the door wasn't fully latched on the SxS and the boy fell out as they were driving down the road. I retrieved a wool army blanket I keep in my truck and grabbed my first aid kit. The kid had a pretty good gash on his head and lots of other scrapes and cuts, he was going into shock. We covered him with the blanket to keep him warm and controlled the bleeding with some of the first aid supplies. We stayed until EMS arrived and they took control of the scene. Pretty scary incident.