Sunday, October 13, 2019

Washington or Arizona? We have a plan!

My husband Art and I have been snowbirds for seven years now. Our family home is in Brier,  a suburb just north of Seattle.



Our winter place is at the Voyager RV Resort, a 55-plus community in Tucson.



We love both.

As we've gotten older, the Washington house has been harder to manage. We have a yard with a big garden. We have a steep driveway and two sets of stairs inside the house that are not friendly to older knees.

The place is too big for just us.

Late this summer, we decided to rent our house to son Jason and his wife Kalei. They moved in on September 1 and will live there for a year. We will spend that time in Tucson, hopefully getting away from some of the summer heat.

As we thought about next steps for us, we considered these facts:
  • If we sold our house in Washington and bought a smaller house or a condo there, we'd be paying lots of money for a place we don't spend much time.
  • If we sold our house and moved to Arizona full time, we'd be leaving a state where I have lived for the last 33 years and where Art has lived his entire life. 
  • Half of our eight offspring live in Washington, and most of our grandchildren.
  • Arizona summers are brutal
Then! We considered the possibility of remodeling our daylight basement:
  • We'd have no stairs and we would have a walk-in entrance, plus access to the laundry room and the garage.
  • We have sons in the construction industry who would do the work.
  • We have ideas for transforming the space into a warm and welcoming, open-layout plan.
  • We can rent out the upstairs.
So, this is what we're going to do:
  • Go to the City and get the house plans, to identify bearing walls and plumbing 
  • Design the new space
  • Once September 1 comes, tear out what we don't need (a bedroom wall and two closets) and build what we do need (a kitchenette, plumbing and electrical stuff), and make the new space our summer home
Such a relief to have made this plan after many months of thinking about possibilities!

13 comments:

Sally said...

Brilliant. This sounds like a great plan.

Olga said...

Sounds like a very good plan/ I am struggling with what to do about my back and forth life but have not hit on a perfect for me solution as yet, I know it will come though. You've inspired me to think a bit harder on this!

nothoughtsnoprayersnonothing said...

It is something many of us face. Each must make his/her own plans because we are all in different situations. The important thing is to make decisions before somebody has to make them for you. lol

Meryl Baer said...

Sounds like a great solution to your dilemma. Good luck!

Barbara said...

What a perfect solution. I live small and I don't mind a bit. You'll have children and grandchildren near and the warmth of the sun in the winter. Doesn't get much better.

Janette said...

Wonderful solution. I am thinking of giving our daughter a sum of money to build an in law suite at her house,

Tom said...

The house in Brier looks so nice ... glad you've figured out a way not to have to give it up (and also to save yourself from the heat of the Ariz. summer).

Arkansas Patti said...

Think you have hit on the perfect solution. Let us know how it progresses.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a perfect solution. If you go with tile on the bathroom floor, make it heated. The heated bathroom floor was the best design decision we ever made.

Sheila

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

That sounds like a good plan.

DJan said...

What a great idea! Then you will not be leaving Washington state behind. I look forward to hearing how it all progresses. :-)

Barbara Torris said...

Here is what we have done...thought you might be interested. We refinanced the house in Oregon and took out some money to buy a townhouse on Pantano near the wash. Send me a message when you get you Arizona and come and see us!

Barbara

Allison said...

Congratulations on such an excellent idea! I'm very happy for you, spending summer in a park model was not sounding like a fun thing. We used to spend summers in Issaquah in a 42 foot RV. Then we bought a house in Tucson, and the RV just got to be less fun. So he's gone now, it was like setting fire to your ships to force commitment to the new world. We'll see how it goes.