Do you love where you live? Is it your forever home?

[AngieW in Texas]

I do love my neighborhood. There are plenty of things I would like to do with the house, but we need to move to a 1-story house once the kids are gone because of my dh's knees. The stairs are a lot of trouble for him and that isn't going to get any better.

 

I'm hoping that there will be a one-story house for sale on our street when we're ready. I don't even want to be on a different street from where we are now.

[Harriet Vane]

When we bought our house, it was all we dreamed of. We settled into a neighborhood wherein we are the minority both racially and socio-economically. We dreamed of rehabbing our Victorian to its former glory while living out the principles of racial reconciliation.

 

We have learned that our dreams were unrealistic in many ways. I just don't have it in me to do the rehab necessary for our 110+yo fixer-upper. I'm also NOT a great housekeeper at all. I find the big house overwhelming. AND every inch of it is cracking and peeling, so even when it's clean it doesn't look great. All of this to say that the house is absolutely killing me.

 

The neighborhood has been both better than we dreamed and harder than we ever imagined. It is the oddest combination of wonderful neighbors who I consider to be real-life heroes, and lowlifes. Real, true, drug-dealing, criminal lowlifes. We knew that coming in to the neighborhood, but the reality has worn us down more than we knew it would. The noise at night, the garbage, the drinking in the street, the lack of basic safety and the fact that my children can NEVER be in the front alone . . . these have taken a toll on all of us.

 

It's no longer my forever home. It's my nemesis. ;) We are hoping to move as soon as dh gets a new job. I will miss the community here--our friends are truly, truly wonderful. I will not miss the big, overwhelming house or the rehab or the lowlifes.

[Hikin' Mama]

when we retire, I want to move about 120 miles from where we are now. I also want a smaller house and a smaller yard. We don't have a huge house, but I get tired of managing our junk. We live in the country, so we do have a larger than normal yard. I like working in the yard, but I want it to be smaller when I'm older.

 

Also, the city I want to move to has a lot more activities that I like to do. Long, long bike trail. Hiking and snowshoeing only 40 minutes away. MUCH bigger library than I've got now. Cool downtown area. Water for kayaking and canoeing only 20 minutes away. More cultural and sporting events. I LOVE it there!

 

I'm content for now, but I'm trying to convince my hubby that we will be happier there when we're older. I've even got my house picked out! :D

[JessReplanted]

No.

 

We have a house that we love (an old red-brick farmhouse with 3 1/2 acres) and I was completely prepared to spend the rest of my life there, and then God called us into church planting about an hour away from our house.

 

So, now we are trying to sell our house.

 

In the meantime, a very kind person is letting us live in a house (near the church) that she is trying to sell. It is SO hard to live in a house that I cannot make into a home (I can't even change the curtains). Next month we will have been living here for a year.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

would LIKE to have a larger house---with more of my decor/taste in the details.....would like to have more land.....we currently live in the city and I grew up in the country/rural area....want soooo bad to get back to the country LOL

[AngelaNYC]

>>Originally Posted by Abkjw01

New York City. I will never leave. I live in Queens, which is more residential than Manhattan. I have everything here. :001_smile:

 

I may move to a different house one day, but this is my forever city.<<

Well, I am in Brooklyn, not Queens, but otherwise :iagree:

 

:cheers2: :seeya: :hurray: :thumbup: :party:

[Denisemomof4]

yes. We found our dream home on acreage, and having a farm is my lifelong dream come true. I love to rescue animals in need and give them a good life. It warms me to the core of my being. We wouldn't be able to do what I do in a neighborhood or city, and I feel our life is so rich because of what we do.

 

I feel doubly blessed to be in a house dh and I absolutely love. Dh and I will stay here until we no longer can care for it. We love it.

 

Now, one of my closest friends lives in NJ. He's a VP at B of A and obviously gets paid very well. He was shocked when he came to visit us for the first time and saw how much home we got for our money. In NJ he couldn't touch place. NH is expensive, but NJ is far more so. I was shocked when I visited his sister and found her house, nice but not exquisite, was worth a couple million dollars. Shocked.

 

If your dh wants to stay in NJ, can you move further out so you get more for your money?

 

Before we moved here, it took conscious effort on my part to remain joyful and thankful that we owned our place we lived in. BUT, I hated the place, hated the location, hated everything about it. Dh owned it when I met him. It took a lot of effort on my part but it's necessary to do so you don't allow discontent to take up residence in your heart. Trust me - I know this well! I lived next door to my mil and she was NOT a nice person. It took a TON of effort on my part.;)

[KidsHappen]

I love everything about our home except for the stairs and lack of family nearby. My youngest is 11 so we will be here for at least 7 more years but then I may consider moving to a single story house close to my children and grandchildren. 4 of 6 kids live in GA and my brother said he would move there if we did so I could see getting us all together down there in the not too distanct future.

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Do I love where I live? I'm not sure. We don't really fit in here. It is my forever home, however, since it's on family land. If I could transplant my house, farm and family to Northern California/Oregon or Southern Ontario, I would.

[Danestress]

That's what I told him when we moved in, and seven years later, it's true most day, but not all. It's not so much that I love the house, but that I hate moving. I hate making decisions. I would really rather live in "not right" than do what it takes to move.

 

I love this house in some ways. It's filled with light. It invites the outside in.

 

But I hate the problems it has caused me, and it's had a LOT of them. We have spent an unbelievable amount of money fixing problems - and not fun problems like "the paint looks bad."

 

If it were totally a seller's market, I might sell. If you made it very very easy. Otherwise, I think we will stay here a long time. It's just a mile to my mother and less than 2 to my MIL. I have the loveliest of neighbors.

[dm379]

no, no, no, no, NOOOO!!! I hate where I live. But we had no choice. Only 2 months left...

[Alyce]

We move here in 1985. We moved to this area because Dh family lives nearby and his Dad's health was bad. We actually saw the house for the first time at night. The realtor didn't want us to look around because it had no electricity but we assured him our dive lights would be bright enough and they were. The house was built in the 50's by one of the more wealthy members of our town. We recently redid the bathroom and kitchen and saw just how much money he put into this house. The walls are plaster over tongue in groove paneling. We knew we'd want kids and the house has 4 bedrooms. It sits on 1/2 acre land surrounded by farm land. The kids loved to play in the fields when they were growing up. There are a few things I don't like but we've been able to live in. The house is 1800 sq ft and has lots of windows. The kitchen and bathrooms are too small but it's not that big a deal for us. We live in a town of about 600 people. We're within 15 - 20 miles of 3 larger cities. Picture a triangle with us in the middle. My Dh works in one, we go to church in a different one, and his mom lives in the other one. We got a very good price on it because it had been empty for a year (bad housing market and super high interest rates - 12%). We re financed after living in house for about 5 years to 6 %. Rates went back up for a little while and of course are much lower now. Thanks to some inheritance we are going to pay the house of by the end of the month. The water is from the town and very cheap - usually about $20. The property taxes etc are also very low. The only way I see us leaving this house is because we have died or can no longer live by ourselves and need assistance. I don't think you can find the perfect house, neighborhood etc so we compromise. There really isn't a neighborhood. We live on a busy highway and the houses are spread apart but there was plenty of space for kids to play in. Town is small and friendly. House not perfect but still love it.

[x02100sks]

So I wonder how many people are really in their forever places? Do you love your house, or is it least fix-uppable into a house you could love? Do you love your neighborhood? Are you where you want to be in general? If you are, did you keep working to upgrade your home until you got to where you wanted to be?

 

Definitely not our forever place, or even our forever part of the country-since we're in the military, I've had the "opportunity" to live in a lot of different homes...hopefully by the time we're out, we'll know where we want to live- location and house-wise

[Dandelion]

Faith (sitting in her bedroom one end of which was once the pastor's office)

 

Faith - your home sounds AMAZING! And so many memories - wow! I really enjoyed reading your post....

 

Do you love your house, or is it least fix-uppable into a house you could love?

 

I do love our house. Growing up, I always wanted to live in an A-Frame (as a young girl, I even made several architectural drawings of my future A-Frame :)). We live in a nice 1978 A-Frame on 5 acres in a beautiful wooded area just north of Colorado Springs. My living room is an open bi-level with one whole side of windows all the way to the top (cathedral style) with a gorgeous view of Pikes Peak. Granted, everyone around here has a view of Pikes Peak - but I think ours is extra-nice. ;)

 

Since the house is 32 years old, there is still lots to fix up (we've done a lot already - put in new hardwoods on the whole main level, new granite counters in the kitchen, updated the bathrooms, lots of painting and little cosmetic stuff, etc.). But it's nice, it's VERY comfortable, and I just love living in the woods with so much space. And, we'll probably have it paid off in the next 5 years.

 

Another dream of mine is to own horses some day - and this is a horse property, complete with barn, a little open-air training arena, and cross-fenced for pastures. Right now, the barn is DS's "workshop" (read: repository for various "treasures" of his that I don't want to keep in the house) - but I'm looking forward to actually using it for its intended purpose within the next few years!

 

Do you love your neighborhood? Are you where you want to be in general?

 

Everyone out here lives on 5 acres or more, so it's not really a "neighborhood" per se. But we do have good neighbors - they mostly keep to themselves, but they're very nice and helpful. One older gentleman goes around on his driving snowblower after each snowstorm and clears out everyone's driveways.

 

It would be nice to have more kids in our area (there are some, but not in the right age range). So we just have to make the drive into town for get-togethers or invite friends out here. That's ok - the kids just don't get to experience the whole "run over to the neighbors to play" thing.

 

The only real drawback for me is that I'd like to live closer to the ocean, and I would actually consider moving for that reason. Other than that, it's perfect here.

 

If you are, did you keep working to upgrade your home until you got to where you wanted to be?

 

Yep, it's a work in progress! We've done a lot, and have a lot more planned - but we're getting there!

[Nature]

I love my house, property, friends, community, etc. during the late spring, summer and early fall, but I HATE our winters. I dream about going somewhere warm for a few months each winter. Maybe someday ..

[Mallory]

So I wonder how many people are really in their forever places?I am! Almost 5 acres in northwest AR! We bought it forever and hope I never have to leave.

 

Do you love your house, or is it least fix-uppable into a house you could love? Sure there are some things that need fixed, but plenty of space for possibilities (I'd love to close in and finish the carport with a bathroom and school room or apartment).

 

Do you love your neighborhood? Are you where you want to be in general? Yes, I love where we live, No neighbors in sight (okay when all the leaves are gone you can see one other house). And yet there are several kids near enough to ride bikes to hidden in the hills. A small town (3,000 people) about 10 min away and a nice college town about 45 min away (Fayetteville, AR).

 

If you are, did you keep working to upgrade your home until you got to where you wanted to be? We just moved here last summer after almost 2 years of looking for our house. It's our first house. WE LOVE IT! I can't imagine leaving my fruit trees or my gardens or my animals. I can see us living in the garage apartment we'll have some day ;) and my kids or some other young family living in the house. I'd also love to be able to let teenage moms live here when a few of my own kids are gone.

 

Sure there are things I would fix or add, but I am so thankful for our house. It has all the things we were looking for, a few acres, a pond, and a creek, several out buildings, enough little rooms all the kids might even get thier own space some day, a kitchen big enough for our table, its own look (so many of the houses we could afford with some land are modular homes and we didn't want that)- the original part is from the 20's, but has all kinds of rooms added- it is one of a kind, beautiful cedar siding, two great decks, wonderful huge Maple trees in the front yard (I always imagine the first couple who built here almost 100 years ago nurturing those baby trees so I could appreciate them today).

 

I could go on and on. In fact this thread and post are making me tear up. For all of you still looking for your forever homes I hope you get them soon! For those of you already there, or happy with out a forever home, good for you!:D

 

Dandelion- our last rental was an A-Frame I loved it. In fact if the garage doesn't pan out I'd love to put up a small A-Frame here.

[JenneinCA]

We are mostly definitely not in our forever house. We rent.

 

I would love to buy a house in the area but we need a down payment first and since we are in the SF Bay area that is big money. We did live in a house that I thought was our forever home back in Arizona, but we sold it and moved here because of job issues.

 

Reality met life and we moved.

[nd293]

We've just bought, but it's not our forever house. A least I hope not. We'd like to be in a neighbourhood with better schools (just in case!), and closer to the sea. As practical extras I'd also like to be in walking distance of a park and a shop (our rental house ticked both of those boxes). We have another chunk of money we can use in the future, but even with this I am not sure we can afford to move much closer to the sea (we're a 20 minute drive now, and I'd like to halve that) unless we trade a house for a unit which I don't want to do.

 

That aside, the neighbourhood is OK, and the house is OK. We are doing our best to get the garden looking great and to tweak the inside of the house to suit us.

 

Nikki

[ColoradoMom]

I love my house, my land, and my town. We don't really live in a town, but our closest town (pop 1500) is fabulous. The view from the Wal-mart parking lot is something out of a postcard and I thank my lucky stars every time I walk to my car that I live in Colorado!

 

Our neighborhood is really a collection of a couple hundred houses in the middle of nowhere. The town is a good 20 minutes away. So I feel like we are all it it together - me and the neighbors. And we can do whatever we want. There is an HOA but somewhere along the line it went defunct so the only thing they do these days is organize dumpster day twice a year.

 

We have a firehouse, a church, and a market (complete with hitching post for those lazy pony rides in the summer to buy a Popsicle) with a gas station in our little neighborhood. When the complex was built in 1987 our neighbors were the first ones to build, high on a hill. They told me that our house came along soon after and was the church before the church was built.

 

I love it. :001_smile:

Edited September 29, 2010 by ColoradoMom

[Peela]

Love our home, love our neighbourhood....could live here forever....but we don't own it! It is worth a LOT more than we can afford! (But that's the benefit of renting- we live in a millionaire home in a millionaire area, and pay far less rent than we would pay mortgage on a low average average home in a low average area).

We love our neighbourhood as a good area to bring up our kids in, but we can't afford to buy here.

 

We all have our challenges, and life is unpredictable. We love it here- but we have one very, very grumpy neighbour, which is unpleasant.

I like to dream about possiblities, and I have many dreams. DH knows I would prefer to own a home- he does not have any desire to and he definitely doesnt want to live in a rough area. So...I make my peace living the way we do.

[gingersmom]

I spend my free time on realtor.com checking out places to live.

 

I may be the only person on this site who does not want to live in a house. I can't wait to sell my house and move to an apartment. Goodbye lawn care! Adios snow shoveling!

 

We just got back from Boston so I have a new place to check out home prices for.

[lulubelle]

I stopped dreaming of a bigger house a couple of months ago when we re-mortgaged with a 15 year loan and the prospect of college off in the future for the kids! Bigger would be great, but realistically we will most likely never get there.

[sewpeaceful]

It seems I am in the minority here. YES, I am in our "forever home" - I hope. It is everything my dh and I dreamed of the week we met: 2.3 acres, in the mountains, rural area, not in suburbia, on the east coast close enough to family but not too close, comfortable size (not too big, not too small). Are there things we want to upgrade in time? Of course. We would love to add a front porch and larger back deck, or even a wrap around porch. But for now, I am happy as a clam, even with roofer problems. :D With all that has happened since January, and it is a LOT, we still feel blessed beyond words.

 

We DO look forward to the day when our checkbook and marriage have sprung back from the hard year. Time will take care of both.

 

Back to looking out my front window at my gorgeous skyline, the changing leaves, the wild turkeys and deer. :D

[Rich with Kids]

I may be the only person on this site who does not want to live in a house. I can't wait to sell my house and move to an apartment. Goodbye lawn care!

 

 

I love my house! It is perfect for us right now. But we are looking forward to downsizing when the kids move on. I want a condo on the Seawall. I'm not a yard person. I wish I was, but I won't miss it.

[DawnM]

I didn't know anyone was left in NJ, I thought they were all already in NC! :lol:

 

We moved to NC 5 years ago. Is it MY dream? NO, not at all! But the kids and DH love it here and I don't see us moving, ever.

 

I am a West Coast gal and miss it terribly. But our lifestyle here is much more family friendly. In CA I worked because it was really hard to make in in SoCal on one income, although we could have. I also LOVED my job and didn't want to leave. It was hard.

 

When we moved here we literally took a 70% pay cut. This includes me not working and DH taking a large pay cut as well. But we still live fine here and DH has gotten some promotions and raises and is *almost* at the salary he left 5 years ago! :tongue_smilie:

 

So, do I love it? No. I tollerate it and like it better now than I did 3 years ago even. Is it our forever home? No, we actually have found Crown Financial and would love to downsize but not sure how easy that will be in this economy. But our forever location? Probably.

 

Dawn

[Granny_Weatherwax]

The town? No

The house? If we could afford to update the bathroom, kitchen and basement-- yes!

My forever home? Probably not.

[Momling]

Yes! We're in a house we love. We moved over last summer and have no intention of ever moving again. All other places we've lived we've known were temporary. I imagine if we get old or have mobility issues, we would probably do well to move since we have a lot of stairs and it's a gravel road. But barring health problems or catastrophic job loss, we're here to stay.

[Dandelion]

IThe view from the Wal-mart parking lot is something out of a postcard and I thank my lucky stars every time I walk to my car that I live in Colorado!

 

 

Hmmm.... I wonder if we shop at the same Walmart?? There have been many times I've just sat in my car for a few more minutes after shopping to enjoy the view. Full-on view of the Pikes Peak mountain range - just gorgeous... :)

[Mejane]

Love it here, but in four more years I'm moving into the local 55+ community so someone else can do the endless maintenance. :D

[Sherry in OH]

We will probably live in our current house at least until the children are grown. It is far from my dream house, but it works. We have made some improvements and have more planned for the future. If it were up to me, I'd have half the house, twice the yard and no HOA.

[hsbaby]

Love our house, love our neighborhood, love our neighbors....but still want to move out to a place with more land so we can have a mini-farm someday!

[Night Elf]

Nope. I have no intention of staying here even though it's a cool house. But I simply cannot be old and lugging groceries up a flight a steps. Who the heck designed this house and why on earth didn't I think about that before I bought it?

 

I don't have a particular place I want to settle down, but I am determined to have a no maintenance place in the next 10 - 12 years. And if I have my way, we'll be moving out of this house as soon as the economy is faring better and DH can get what he wants for this house.

[ColoradoMom]

Hmmm.... I wonder if we shop at the same Walmart?? There have been many times I've just sat in my car for a few more minutes after shopping to enjoy the view. Full-on view of the Pikes Peak mountain range - just gorgeous... :)

 

 

No - I have the opposite view looking southeast (from Elizabeth) that looks on to a little green valley dotted with farmhouses. I know they were not thrilled when the Wal-Mart moved into their neighborhood - but I was! :D I just love that view!

 

We have a Pikes Peak view too - but it is pretty far away - about 65 miles I think.

[PiCO]

I really like my home and the town I live in. I love Colorado. But I don't feel like I'll always live here. I'm not sure why. I've lived here since 1989.