Moving Experience

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There are reasons to move from Houston. The weather especially. We can't take the summer heat well any more. Nobody can take the rain...



Ever since I retired, we've looked at different places to live. For the first few years we checked countries in Latin America. According to many magazines, we could live like kings on our puny retirement income.

 Magazines lie. Aside from the cultural shock, it still costs a lot to live anywhere, regardless of the country.

 I love Costa Rica. I think it would be lovely to live there. A few decades ago it even would have been inexpensive.

 So scratch off foreign places.

 We looked at all the "good" places retirees move to. Tennessee had some nice bargains, but we don't know many people in Tennessee.

 Some of our children and one grandson live in Colorado. Talk about expensive!

 I moved to Houston from Michigan almost forty years ago. I accepted my surroundings, but I yearned to return. It's not exactly tax-friendly to retirees, but there's a lot to love about MI, not least are all my relatives still living there.

 Darling is a native Houstonian. Her friends and family are all here. Three of our children live here and one bubbly grandson.

 After many discussions, we resolved a few months ago to simply quit trying to find a place to move. Darling would miss her friends and family too much. Seriously seeking a new location just caused stress.

 We saw something on TV with a waterfall and Darling said "That's what I'd like to live near..." I said "Well, let's search for that."

 It's fun to look sometimes.

 I put the keyword "waterfall" into a search on Trulia and it found a house near my brother in Michigan.

 It lied, of course. The waterfall was a little fountain thing near the house.

 I closed my browser, but a few minutes later Darling said "Hey, what about this one?"

 I wasn't very interested, thinking we'd be looking once again at million dollar homes in Colorado (not something I enjoy).

 This was a house on a lake in Michigan, near my brother.

 Lake - check. Nice kitchen - check. Walk in closet - check. Pantry - check (sort of). Lots of storage - check. Trees - check. Deck - check. Sun room - check.

 My real estate buddy from high school went to look at it on Saturday and gave us a video tour. We put a bid on it. We had to raise the bid a little on Sunday, but they accepted.

 We're moving to Michigan.
We will miss our friends and family and we'll miss the children and grandson, but my heart is glad to leave here and go back to Michigan.

 As my Aunt texted me "Welcome home."

 Moving will be a pain, though. I'll keep you posted on that.

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