Downsizing have you regretted it

[JudyC]

Our present house is a four bedroom detached circa 1999, now mortgage free. We love the area where we live as it's semi rural and easy access for walking and cycling. Also our eldest DS is in the process of buying a house 10 minutes walk away.
Our daughter lives with her fiance and younger son has his flat in Liverpool. So it's just DH and I at home apart from when they visit, which is quite often .
We considered downsizing a couple of years ago but didn't do it. Now DH has been made redundant and I'm working part time. Downsizing to a three bed semi would free up around 80 to 90k. Of course we'd have moving fees, and any other expenses. I'd miss my conservatory and the wood burner we had installed only 18 months ago.
If we added them to a new house then it starts to eat into any profit..There are some nice new builds near by, but I'm worried we'd regret moving. But then again it would take the pressure off DH to get another full time job at 60, and we could have more holidays

[PoohBears#1fan]

We downsized from our large family home to here but still have plenty of space - we went from a 6 bed to a 5 so it's not small, just smaller. We certainly don't regret it, if anything I prefer, it's far more homely, the big house was great at swallowing up loads of people so perfect when the kids had their friends round and we had my parents or friends, everyone had their own space.

Our plan once our youngest is settled is to downsize significantly, life's too short to work to maintain a large house, we want to work less and go away more, generally enjoy ourselves.

[JudyC]

Originally Posted by PoohBears#1fan

We downsized from our large family home to here but still have plenty of space - we went from a 6 bed to a 5 so it's not small, just smaller. We certainly don't regret it, if anything I prefer, it's far more homely, the big house was great at swallowing up loads of people so perfect when the kids had their friends round and we had my parents or friends, everyone had their own space.

Our plan once our youngest is settled is to downsize significantly, life's too short to work to maintain a large house, we want to work less and go away more, generally enjoy ourselves.

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Yes I remember you downsizing now. Three bedrooms means less downstairs space though. I wonder if it would make us feel more free or if I'd hate it. One thing I could do without is having four toilets, we presently have two ensuites, a bathroom and downstairs cloaks, far too many! The bathroom and both ensuites are the one things needing replacing still. It'll cost a lot to do them all. Moving into a shiny new build has its appeal.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by JudyC

Yes I remember you downsizing now. Three bedrooms means less downstairs space though. I wonder if it would make us feel more free or if I'd hate it. One thing I could do without is having four toilets, we presently have two ensuites, a bathroom and downstairs cloaks, far too many! The bathroom and both ensuites are the one things needing replacing still. It'll cost a lot to do them all. Moving into a shiny new build has its appeal.

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That's the concern isn't it that we've got used to having lots of space so would miss it. Having spent this week on a 6' wide canal boat with DH and 1 of our dogs (St Bernard) though I'm not sure I would miss it

I can certainly see the appeal of a new build with nothing needing doing, plus your running costs should be really low as they're so well insulated.

[sueandco]

I have just retired (at 56) and DH retired at the end of March. We are currently selling/buying, hope to exchange next week, but are upsizing from a three bed terrace to a four bedroom detached despite two of our children now owning their own properties and our other DD living away for work 90% of the time. We just find we need more space, I realise this puts us in a minority as most downsize but for us it feels right. You can always go smaller but once you downsize you generally can’t go up again.

[MrsBC]

We downsized from a 4 large bed Victorian terrace to a 3 bed semi. Never regretted it or missed the space, though we had a small conservatory put on within a year. We find we have space for DS and family when they visit (DD lives in town but sometimes stays the night) and the garden is just a nice size. We're lucky that we found a house in a really quiet small grove and we settled quickly.

[BevS97]

We downsized to a modern townhouse a few years ago. I love having no mortgage, and it’s fine when it’s just us 4. But even though it’s a 4 bed house the downstairs is quite small and it doesn’t work when we have more than a few people around.

I would prefer an older house, but I we could only afford 3 beds in an older house and the 3rd beds were all far too small for an adult so this was a compromise.

It’s definitely not our final home but I do think it was the right move for us at the time.

[llamala]

We downsized from a four bed family house, to a 3 bed bungalow, we did ass a big double garage with a room for storage above. Easy to clean, cheaper to run. We dont miss the big bills and the time spent cleaning decorating etc.

[munmun]

Originally Posted by sueandco

I have just retired (at 56) and DH retired at the end of March. We are currently selling/buying, hope to exchange next week, but are upsizing from a three bed terrace to a four bedroom detached despite two of our children now owning their own properties and our other DD living away for work 90% of the time. We just find we need more space, I realise this puts us in a minority as most downsize but for us it feels right. You can always go smaller but once you downsize you generally can’t go up again.

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We are the same as you, last year we moved to a bigger house from a big house. When you retire we found you need more space not less. We have an attached annex where may husband does his absorbing hobbies, we have space for visitors I have a study and a gym. We use all the space in our home, we like to be organised. We also have a large garden that we enjoy.

OP you should do what's best for you but for us living on top of each other would be difficult, we need space.

We could not down size while we are fit and well.

[Taffy1959]

We downsized almost 5 years ago from a large 4 bedroom detached house with 3
floors and a fair sized garden to a 3 bedroom bungalow with a much smaller garden.
It’s in a really nice area very quiet with lovely neighbours.
When we started looking we knew we wanted
a bungalow which was detached with enough parking for our 3 vehicles.

We are very happy here and life is much easier with everything on one level and a smaller garden plus I don’t miss vacuuming two flights of stairs.