Question What does your dream retirement home look like

[stang37]

We like a couple of you had our dream home before we knew it. Early 90’s we purchase our property (185 acres). Four years later we were build a house which turned out to be our dream/retirement home. The house is considerable larger than we currently need now. Built in a small country community where a cell phone might work requires satellite TV and internet if you want the luxuries. The closes Walmart, Krogers, doctor, hospital is 45 miles. We do have small town 12 miles away where you can get gas, groceries and pharmacy. A place where everyone will go out of their way to help a neighbor or anyone else. Great short distance neighbors who take care of the pets, cut the grass and watch our place when we travel. Can’t say enough good things about country folks.

 

[sheridany]

@J&JD Being a bay area person myself, I am so envious of your casa. What I would give to have my rig right next to my home...Beautiful pictures.

 

[Jim]

Part of what I love about living out here on our mountain is the spectacular views throughout the different times of the year. The forest around us has almost reached its fully green state, and the grass is starting to fill in. And then there's stuff like this rainbow that just showed up out of nowhere.

 

[Neal]

Amazing! @Jim you are doing it right!

 

[Jim]

Amazing! @Jim you are doing it right!

Well thank you @Neal, that's very gracious of you to say.

 

[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: