Question What does your dream retirement home look like

[Akdare]

What an amazing place you have...are those rhododendrons in your garden?

 

[Jim]

What an amazing place you have...are those rhododendrons in your garden?

Thank you @Akdare. Yes, they are rhododendrons. We had to plant those ourselves. But there are lots and lots of Mountain Laurel (see pictures below) that are indigenous to the area. Occasionally, we will relocate them to an area where they best serve our visual needs. So yeah, we're pretty colorful up here during the summer months!

We are also blessed with Ferns that grow wild. There everywhere and they look very much like the ones you buy at the store. We transplant these as well, and then every year they come back on their own. Sure helps with the landscaping effort when the plants return on their own.

But to give credit where it's due, this is my wife's doing. I hardly know a Zenia from a Daisy. Like most obedient men, I do what I'm told, dig where I'm told to dig, and haul whatever I'm told to haul.

 

[Roxi]

And here is the result.

Will you adopt me?

 

[AuntieDodo]

The posts of all your places are beautiful.

 

[flyboy013]

We’re currently in search of our retirement home(s). We currently live in MD and will stay another 2 years until all the kids are done with their undergraduate education.

We visited Naples, FL this past winter and loved the weather and area. We’re going back this winter and will be looking for a condo to satisfy our snowbird needs.

Our other home will be on a 20, 50, 100+ acre piece of land in NC, TN, AR, or KY. We are currently making a list of desirements, knowing that we may not get all of them (ie. fiber optic internet service).

Our goal is something similar to what @Jim has done. We're thinking of finding a place with an old cabin or stone home and start by renovating it into a coach house. We would probably put in a concrete pad for the coach near it. We would then spend our time designing and building the ideal home. Probably a 3 bedroom, 2 bath log cabin looking house with all the amenities inside. And of course a garage for the coach.

 

[BGMAC]

We picked a place in TN that had the acreage we wanted with a small 2 bedroom house that we lived wnile we built our retirement house starting in 2006. The county we picked is very rural. They actually have no building permits except for septic and wiring. Taxes are cheap $1800 for 2 house, workshop, shed on 100 acres.

Now I just have to figure out how to quit work:

slide show of the build:
drone video: