This Friday marked the one year anniversary of us moving into our new home. In some ways it is hard to believe it has been a year and in other ways I can't remember living any where else. The main reason for our move was to down size to simplify our life. The idea was to move into a active adult community so that we would have the amenities we wanted like an indoor and outdoor pool and a gym without having to take care of them.
The move has worked out more or less as we expected. This house is much easier to take care of. First is less than 20 years old so it is 40 years newer than our old house and was built with more modern materials and techniques. We had to replace some worn appliances but the first owners of the house only used it part time so it is in good shape.
We really like the house's open floor plan. Its nice to be able see the TV from the dinning room or kitchen and be able to talk to people no matter where they are sitting. It took us a few months to get things set up how we wanted but now we are very comfortable in the house and don't really miss the old house at all.
All the outside work of cutting the lawn and shoveling the snow is part of our maintenance fee so we don't have to worry or deal with any of that. That fee also includes the maintenance of a indoor and outdoor pool, club house game room, golf course and tennis course and a few other nice features of the community.
I don't play golf and don't plan to take it up but the golf course provides a lot of open space which means that the back of the houses either face the golf course or the woods and so when you go out on your patio you are not staring at the back of someone else's house. The golf course also provides about 5 miles of walking paths when it is not in use. They close the course on Monday's and during the winter and I have taken advantage of that by going for walks after work. I never did a lot of walking in my old neighborhood but this community is very quiet so I find it relaxing and gives me another way to exercise.
Since this is an adult community there are no kids running around or playing in the streets, except for the occasional grand kids coming over for a visit. This makes it a very quiet place to live. It also helps that the back of our house faces the woods. The woods are part of Bunker Hills Bog recreation area so we have a big buffer area between us and any other community or housing development. There are a lot deer walking around the woods along with a few other assorted small animals and an occasional snake.
Even though the houses in the community, like most adult communities, are close together it stills feels very private because of the way the houses and community is laid out and the low amount of activity. At first it was a little weird being in a adult community as their is a board that sets rules you have the live by and all the houses are very similar so initially it feels very regimented. However after living here it feels more like resort living than being trapped in the Stepford Wives development.
The big surprise for us and one of the reason we really like it here is the people. Everybody we have been are really nice and friendly. We see and talk to our neighbors on a regular bases (although the one on the left side lives in Florida for half the year). We now know a lot of people who go to the pool or play ping pong (my wife joined the ping pong club they have here). So now we have friend who will invite us over for a drink or ask us to come hang out with them by the pool. It definitely improved our social life even in the era of Covid. This place has a real sense of community. It also seems to be run fairly well as the home owner association seems to make reasonable rules and manages the finances very well as we have one of the lowest maintenance fees of any community in the area.
So although the move last year was hard to do I'm glad we did it and are now in a place where life is simpler and more enjoyable. It will definitely been a good place to spend my later years.
