Home Base

not there yet but our plan is sell the home. I don't want to finish my life in this area, had my fill of it :), time for new.

when my daughter settles down when older, then we might consider a very small home near her location as 'home base' when we feel a need.

We are travelers and want to wander without any attachments. sure can't wait for that day :)

My plans are to do as jnharley, I plan to sell the house as I have no intention to move back to the town I live in now. My children have no plans to move back to their hometown. I will do what I need to create a RV pad on our family farm. My brother and a nicer town with good medical are about 30 miles away. and I will have a 'safe' place to hideout whenever I want.

We built that big Fl. Retirement home in 2006. Sold it in 2014 and sold or donated the stuff inside. We do have a small 5 by 10 storage unit that should be emptied this winter. This works for us for others maybe not. We love the freedom to travel.

ependydad wrote:
The initial plan is to fulltime for 14 months, do a trip criss-crossing the U.S. and then settle back into a S&B somewhere. We'll sit down at about the 1/2-way point and decide if we're going to continue fulltiming or stick to the plan and come off of the road. If we continue, we'll get rid of everything. If we decide that we'll end up coming off of the road, we'll have the stuff ready for us.

Just my opinion but I really don't think you can see the country in 14 months and after 7 months decide if you want to continue. Also, if you don't want to go back to Maryland, you will not have lived in seasons in a possible place you might want to settle.

I would recommend not putting a timeframe on full-timing. That gives you an easy out and more pressure to go back to where you were.

When you keep the house and pay storage fees on all the stuff you will most likely return there. If you're sure that's what you want, fine. However, if you're thinking of settling somewhere else, you need to explore every area of the country. We settled in a place unknown to us 16 years prior. We never would have thought about living here had we not RVd in the area and really got to know it for many seasons.

Remember, there's a reason you want to full-time in the first place and mainly it's the freedom and exploring new areas. Just my thoughts.....

We're going down the middle - downsizing to a condo. The plan is little or no mortgage and let the Mx people worry about the sticks and bricks when we're not there. This will make us get rid of most of the accumulation and hang onto and use the stuff we've become attached to. Plus, we really like summers here on the Cape (although the traffic is really getting bad lately), and it would have to take a pretty spectacular place to move us away from here.

Having said that, we're snowbirding this winter and not doing anything about downsizing until next year with an open mind.

We held onto our home and rented it out for the first six months. Then we sold it. We knew, all along that we didn't want to live there if we ever came back. If I had my choice, we would have sold it before we left. DH wanted it just in case. It is easier without the s&b.

Someday, we may buy another but it won't be where we were living.

ependydad wrote:
…..

Now, our big expense is storage. About $325/month to keep our stuff until we get off of the road. The initial plan is to fulltime for 14 months, do a trip criss-crossing the U.S. and then settle back into a S&B somewhere. We'll sit down at about the 1/2-way point and decide if we're going to continue fulltiming or stick to the plan and come off of the road. If we continue, we'll get rid of everything. If we decide that we'll end up coming off of the road, we'll have the stuff ready for us.

You're really not going to see much in 14 months - - We've been fulltiming for over 9 years and still have a lot of places left to see. If you are going to criss-cross the country in 14 months you'll see nothing but interstates and truck plazas. Just spending 1 month in each of the lower 48 will take 4 years to do, and a lot of states take much, much more time that 1 month.

Barb

We also sold our home because we knew we did not want to live in that area. We already owned a piece of property in the Midwest and we built a garage and an RV parking pad. We consider this our home base and we usually stop there in the spring and fall to visit family members and schedule medical and dental. Everything is paid for and the taxes are low. If something serious happens in our country, we have a place to go.

I'm nowhere near retirement age nor do I yet know if fulltiming is the life for us (family of 4). But, I do know that I really don't want to go back to Maryland at the end. However, my wife wasn't ready to let go of the house.

We decided on renting our house out. The rent basically covers the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and homeowners association fees.

Now, our big expense is storage. About $325/month to keep our stuff until we get off of the road. The initial plan is to fulltime for 14 months, do a trip criss-crossing the U.S. and then settle back into a S&B somewhere. We'll sit down at about the 1/2-way point and decide if we're going to continue fulltiming or stick to the plan and come off of the road. If we continue, we'll get rid of everything. If we decide that we'll end up coming off of the road, we'll have the stuff ready for us.

2gypsies wrote:

trikepilot wrote:
If circumstances were to require a temporary sticks and bricks like after a major surgery or something like that, we will just rent a furnished apartment wherever we happen to be until we are ready to hit the road again.

Keep in mind that even though you might have major surgery or medical problems, you can live in a RV easier than in a house. We've done it as have many of our friends. You can go to the best medical centers in the country. You have very few steps to get from place to place in a RV. Physical therapists will even come to your RV.

X Had three major operations. I was glad I got to recover in the RV.