One baby boomer’s dream come true
About a year ago, Laura Lee Carter told us about downsizing, so she and her husband could move into a home more suitable and affordable for retirement. Finally, they’ve done it, and Laura Lee writes for BoomerCafé about her dream come true.
Have you ever dreamt about leaving city life behind? Have you considered the consequences of selling your nice home in suburbia, and taking that cash to build a home in some lovely rural setting?
Laura Lee and her priceless vista.
That is exactly what my husband Mike and I decided to do three years ago. We chose a nice spot in the southern Colorado foothills, with the necessary solar exposure plus incredible mountain views, and started building our own custom home from the footers up! And all, by the way, with passive solar.
We were like half of all former American workers, boomers who were forced to retire sooner than expected because of health issues or loss of employment. We saw that city living was going to be much more expensive in the long-term, compared to changing lifestyles, especially when we factored in heating costs over the next thirty years. In addition, we were tired of sitting in traffic jams, breathing polluted air, and listening to road noise constantly, not to mention all of the other stresses of city life. This was our leap of faith, in hopes of finding a better life in the Colorado countryside.
Three years later we can report, the challenges of leaving suburbia with all of its conveniences were more than we ever imagined. You try moving from a nice city to a rundown former coal town with few stores or restaurants. And yet the long-term rewards have also been far beyond any of our expectations.
After over a year of construction, the dust has settled, and we find ourselves living in perfect rural silence, supreme natural beauty with solar self-sufficiency.
Sunsets out Laura Lee’s front door.
I packed up my life around age 60 and moved on to a major construction project and a whole new way of life. I’ve been blogging about it for the past two years and now, finally, the dream is a reality. New storms brew over the amazing Sangre de Cristo mountain range which we see from our house, but they beat almost everything we left behind.
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