Charlie and I are into full “house dreaming” mode now.
We’ll be putting our existing home up for sale on April 30th, the same day that we leave on our 2018 Road Trip in the motor home. Presumably, our home will sell within a month or two.
Where will we go from there?
We’ve pretty much decided that we want a “nest” somewhere in the Las Vegas area. It’s close enough to Southern California, so we can see our kids and friends, and it’s in Nevada, so we will save at least $500 per month (because Nevada has no state income tax). It’s hotter than blazes in Las Vegas, but we don’t plan to be there in the really hot months; the rest of the year will be mild, relatively speaking.
I’ve done a lot of research in the past few weeks on homes for sale in Las Vegas and also new homes under construction. Vegas is a big place, and some neighborhoods are not so good. Plus, Charlie and I are not interested in living in a neighborhood where there are a lot of kids playing and teenagers cruising the streets looking for some kind of trouble to get into.
For that reason, we are considering the Del Webb “Sun City Mesquite” retirement community. It is about 80 minutes drive north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. That would put it about 1-1/2 hours drive to McCarran Airport in Vegas, and about 350 miles (6 hours?) from So Cal. Also, it would put us in a great jumping-off point for RV travels to Arizona, Utah, Colorado, etc.
The Mesquite development is much like the Bear Creek master planned community that we’ve lived in for the past 30 years. The main difference is that it has a 55+ age minimum, which means that there will be no “kids” issues, and the various activities within the community will be geared to old farts like us.
We will have a house built to order. The model that we’ve homed in on is called “Serenity”. It will be a 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath single-story home with approximately 2,340 square feet of living space.
The model is priced “from $329K”. However, by the time Charlie and I get done tricking-out the design specs the finished product will probably cost around $400K. That is roughly comparable to value of the tri-level home we have here in Bear Creek.
So, we will be getting a newly-built modern home, with more square footage, no stairs to climb, no state sales tax, and we will save an additional $400 on monthly H.O.A. costs. Put it all together, and we will save approximately $2,200 per month by moving to Sun City Mesquite. That amount will pay for our RV travel during the hot months.
It’s a no-brainer.
Of course, all of this presupposes that our marriage will survive the new home design process. We’re going to have to find a way to agree on the exterior look, interior wall colors, flooring, kitchen finishes, hardware, lighting, appliances, and which of the many available options that we just can’t live without.
We’ll also have to figure out how much of our current inventory of furniture, art, and doo-dads will “work” in the new home. I tend to be pretty tight with the pocketbook, while Charlie is more of an impulsive spender when it comes to things like this. I foresee some arguments down the road. (She’ll win, of course. A happy wife means a happy life, right?)
Anyway, we’re getting pretty excited about this new adventure. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be celebrating 44 years of marriage. We’ve had a lot of adventures…that’s what keeps things interesting, in my opinion. It will be a new phase of our life together, and the move to Mesquite will definitely cement Charlie’s retirement from her bookkeeping business.
Our son Jonathan is doing great taking over Charlie’s business and within a few years he should be completely on his own. In the meanwhile, Charlie will be meeting a whole bunch of new friends, getting involved in community activities, and settling into the relaxing retirement that she so deserves.