Should I Go or Should I Stay Now?

So, I haven’t blogged in a couple weeks (really, it’s been longer than that). I’ve been up to my elbows in a bathroom facelift (and this is just the beginning).

Left: Too much wallpaper             Right: Painted Feather Gray

Left: Old light switches                     Right: New light switches

My bride and I have reached that stage of our life when we’re contemplating downsizing. It’s not an urgent need but it looms and we want to be prepared. We have one child left at home and the house is too big. When there were six of us living in the house we needed the space but now … not so much.

Our ideal home would have one story, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, a living room, a basement that could be finished, 2 car garage, natural gas, sewer, town water and a small, flat lot that does not require much TLC. Oh yeah, and newer construction. We don’t want a 1950 or 60 rehab (we watch HGTV and we’ve witnessed the issues that can arise when it comes to rehabbing an old house when we attempted to rehab a 200 plus year old money pit – screw that!).

Unfortunately, the ideal home does not come with an ideal price tag. Holy crap, new houses are expensive. The ones we’ve perused in our desired area are pushing four hundred thousand.

There are some “bargains” in other regions of the country such as Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. But that would mean relocating.

A few years ago I would have had no problem with the notion of relocation. But now we’ve got a couple of grandkids and I’m not nearly as certain that I want to move too far.

It’s a conundrum. Do we settle for a place that is less then what we want so that we can stay closer to the kids and grandkids or do we pick up and leave and risk missing watching, firsthand, our kids’ families flourish?

I admit I vacillate from one extreme to the other. I rationalize by saying that there’s Skype and FaceTime and a host of other media available to maintain contact but is it the same as being there?

I guess it comes down to what is best for us (and right now I’m not certain we know what that might be). We’ve got time to figure it out but before we know it we’ll have to make a decision.

What do you think – downsize and move or stay and watch the kids grow?