Sawbridge - if you are not going to love it after investing $300k into renovations, I don’t blame you for passing. 
We are investing mega$$$ into House2, but we liked it enough to think that we might even love it after fixing it up. So far, so good, we are moving in the right direction. Mr. B installed the new dishwasher today, the laundry room is almost ready for the washer and dryer to move in… After installing the dishwasher, Mr. said, “I hope I will live a looong and healthy life, and that this machine outlives me.”
H is coming around to the home improvements I am wanting. One reason is one of his co-worker has been bedazzled by some of my suggestions with 401k, and H respects this fellow. Also one of my home improvements is a storage building (it will be more than a storage building - pot planting porch etc, take a lot of ‘stuff’ and work out of our garage). This guy built a storage building last year! He did it himself - mine would be more professionally built (there are contractors here that do that construction almost exclusively). A very small home improvement which is happening next (low cost, not that much effort) is making a broom closet out of what was where our upstairs gas heat unit was - the new gas heat unit is small and in attic space. Ordering an ironing board hanger to put my upstairs ironing board and iron in there too, along with my clothes steamer. We have lived in this community since 1983, and feel like shawwife does about people. And right now the kids live not far (that will change some, but we are not retired yet either to move away). All the improvements I want to made will help with resale too - eventually when we decide to sell - or life events have us selling, will have to gear towards that phase. Some of the home improvement work is good to do in retirement, where that is the ‘work’ part of the retirement day…
“But many who said that to me were from the city. This is because ShawWife is a) and wonderful, charming and interesting person; and b) one of the most generous people around (especially one-on-one).”
Sounds like your wife is the type that could make new friends anywhere but I don’t blame her for wanting to keep her social circle.
@ChoatieMom I would think, if anything, most retire folks are able to keep their cars longer. No more commuting. Even if they are active retirees, that won’t be the case for all of retirement for most of us.
@doschichos: Everyone has to make the best decision for their circumstances. DH (when he was home) and I commuted about 25 miles to work each way (more when we lived in Boston, and those were the cars we took with us to AZ). Those cars never died. We’ve been retired for fewer than six months and will be down to one car (forever) when our 19-year-old Corolla dies. We bought a Highlander hybrid two months ago after trading the 18-year-old Windstar to our handyman for a $500 discount off his last job for us. All we care about is reliability. Our financial planner is clueless about cars. We laughed at the ten year replacement accommodation, but whatever. Better to be conservative where finances are involved. We plan to travel with the Highlander, but we also plan to keep it for twenty years.
Cannot imagine having just one car in retirement. We have enough trouble negotiating shower time. I don’t even want to think about debating the relative merits of needing the car for my part time job vs. your volunteer robotics mentoring, never mind who is meeting the kid at his doctor appointment.
^^Seriously, @wellspring. We have five, and we use every one of them. Four of them are pretty old, but each one has their specific use. I can’t imagine sharing a car. Maybe if we lived somewhere that we could walk everywhere or had close public transit, but otherwise? No way.
We have two 2009 Toyota Highlanders (one we bought new, seats 7; the other seats 5 and is a Sport model that we purchased through Car Maxx - but exterior and interior look about the same except one has the 3rd row seating) - one now has 100,000 miles on it and the other has 109,000 miles, and an Old Buick Park Ave Ultra. Some cars do last a long time. We maintain the vehicles well. We probably will end up continuing to buy less than new to avoid the new car depreciation. We feel comfortable taking either Highlander on trips. I am pretty ‘sold’ on continuing to buy Highlanders.
I would hope to only need one car in retirement, if we move to a walkable area with good public transportation. Otherwise, we’d need 2 cars since DH and I tend to do our own things.
We were juggling 2 cars with 3 drivers for a while - son living with us and working needs a car to drive to work. [ 97 original owner Lexus ES 300 with 205k miles, 2009 CRV original owner with 115k miles] It worked out most of the time but occasionally I would be annoyed at not being able to do something due to car sharing. So recently I sold my classic car (a hobby, not transportation) and bought a more modern version which can function as a car.
Since moving to AZ 18 years ago, one car always sits. DH was never home (100% travel job for 17 years) and DS went to boarding school at 14, so no ferrying kid around. We’re rarely out separately and, when we are, the other is doing something at home or choosing to do whatever s/he needs the car for at some other time. We haven’t needed two cars for years and, over the course of our marriage, have had a single car for several years at a time at different points. Now that we’re retired, it’s even easier to schedule. DH wants to get rid of the old Corolla so he can finally use that bay to build a new shop. I have a hunch we won’t have that car much longer, and I’ll be getting those extra pantry shelves sooner rather than later.
I do not love cars. I am neutral about cars. They are a hassle. I hope that we downsize to one car, although it would not make sense to get rid of the 18 year old truck with only 45k miles on the odometer… we only take it where the trucks are supposed to go: HD, nurseries, lumberyards, topsoil place, city dump… Mr. B will soon be hotrodding in his new electric tin can, I will keep walking to the park and ride and take the bus, thank you.
It’s impossible to get rid of a truck. If you own a home and do projects, you must have one. And if that old truck dies…you’ll end up with another one.
Love love love our Highlander. That is all.
We got by on one car for many months of the past year without any issues. Our time is our own for the most part so if one of had someplace to be, the other could usually accommodate. Husband has 2 wheeled transportation when the weather is good. We’re back to 2 vehicles but one often just sits there. Between no commute and no schlepping to kids’ activities any longer, our mileage is way down.
It sounds like I have way more things to get to than a lot of people. But our city isn’t great on public transportation. Even if there were a bus I’m not sure I could get my sewing machine up the steps of a bus. I can barely heave it into my Subaru.
I don’t like driving but I like it better than asking people to accommodate me.
We won’t get down to one car until the day that one of us can no longer drive.
Ditto
S2 lives at home but needs a car for his job (he travels to multiple locations). I need one for work, all the household errands and dr. appts. DH takes the Metro but is mightily unhappy that he depends on me to get him to & from the Metro. S2 is planning on becoming an expat soon and I’ve told him that when he returns, he MUST get a vehicle if he’s living here. He has not wanted to get one because he doesn’t want the expense, knowing he will be leaving it here for an undeterminate time.
Otherwise, I think we’ll have two cars until one of us can’t drive. We drive cars til they die and we don’t get pricey ones.
My parents are in their 80s and just went down to one car because my mom can no longer drive. I suspect that will be me as well: two cars until one of us can no longer drive.
We can’t even figure out how to get down to 2, because neither of us will give up our trucks. They are 15 years old and run fine. Maybe $300-400 a year each to keep. For that amount, neither of us will budge.
I want a pick-up available when I need it. I’m not working around his schedule. I’m sure it’ll continue this way until either the truck(s) or the driver(s) die.