On March 27, Char and I made another change in our living arrangements. This all started back in January of this year (2024) when we began to think more seriously about the aspect of retirement for the both of us. See, I had been retired since 2012 but Char had to continue being gainfully employed until she actually reached retirement age. She isn’t there quite yet, but that day is just over the horizon and we determined that we needed to make some real moves toward establishing our retirement environment and so we began to plan for the eventual day that she would give notice to her firm of the intent to retire.
It was painfully obvious to both of us that there would come a time when my being much older and not in the greatest of health, I would no longer be in the picture and she would have to go on alone. We decided that Alexandria was not where we needed to retire, firstly because of this cost of living in that metro area and the need for a more enjoyable locale. Alexandria is part of the Washington, DC Metro Area and as a result is rather crowded and rather isolated for human interaction. For example, we had been in our condo for over a year and had not met or communicated with any of the other residents. Oh we knew the concierge folks on the front desk and the two maintenance technicians. But none of the owners/residents were actually known to us, other than a nod on the elevator.
And so, with our decision made about retirement preparations, we began to search localities that we felt would be a location where we would be near the water, and in an area where the residents overall were more in line with our age and focus. We also wanted to be in an area where we would take day trips to interesting venues, focused on historical or quaint perspectives. This set of ideas causes us to return our attention to the Hampton Roads/Tidewater area of Southeast Virginia. We had no desire to relocate into any of the locations below Virginia and the western areas of Virginia were not of interest either. So we began our focused search for a new, retirement home.
This focus area was primarily on the Hampton/Newport News/Yorktown/Williamsburg area. We initially began our preliminary research in our former neighborhood of Kiln Creek, Newport News. But then a new discussion brought another requirement for our retirement home. We decided to look at 55+ communities, primarily in the Williamsburg area. A request to our Navy Federal Credit Union bought us a local real estate agent who was a participating agent in the NFCU real estate program. Our northern Virginia real estate agent (with whom we had done several housing deals) then vetted the agents from the NFCU program recommendation. Turned out this agent was terrific and within a short time we had decided on the Colonial Heritage community. We visited the community, looked over the facilities available to the residents of this development and toured two of the main home offerings.
On March 27, 2024 we closed on this new 55+ community home, and made arrangements for our moving company to deliver our household goods. We were home again!! Only problem is that we still owned the Alexandria Condominium and therefore now had two mortgage obligations!!
Our hope, and that of our super real estate agent (whom we consider part of our family), was that we would be able to find a buyer for the condo within a relatively short time. Oops, that didn’t happen. Seems the folks who actually were interested in the condo and were not turned off by the asking price, were then turned off by the very high condo fee! Seems that they were not excited about having a mortgage in today’s market coupled with a condo fee of just under a thousand dollars.
So, we paid two mortgage payments until July when a buyer actually placed an offer in our hands. Thank the Lord, we finally had a real buyer and our August outlay would only be for ONE mortgage. Yea US.
Now we are preparing to implement a set of final purchases/installations for our new home in Williamsburg, Virginia, a very historic area and part of the History Triangle, including Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We are also right next to Hampton Virginia, the oldest continuous English speaking settlement in the North American continent and where my ancestors first came to this continent back in the mid-1600’s. So, lots to see and do,especially for us old history buffs and for the most part, these areas were very accommodating for folks like me who have mobility problems (mobile carts for rent). We are hoping that the family will come down to visit, now that we have a house large enough to accommodate visitors.
Sometime in the mid to late August we will restart our DayTrip activity, with several small historical areas to visit and write about. This activity is where we locate and then travel to the interesting and historic areas to visit, film and write about. So, keep a eye out. We will post in this blog as well as linking into and posting for Facebook. Not sure about the others, we are not familiar with how they operate yet.
So, a new evolving lifestyle change for the Bride and I. New house, new town, and new neighbors. What’s not to like?
Musings of a Geriatric Curmudgeon 