I am a recently retired wife and mother, in her late 50s, with a plan to live out new adventures primarily at home. I crave what I never had…the stay-at-home mother and homemaker experience. My kiddos may be grown and on their own; but, they still need me from time to time and, when they do, I am so grateful not to have to rejigger a crazy work schedule to be there for them. During my career, feeling pulled in so many directions left me literally in knots.

I had a very exciting and interesting career for almost 40 years in the satellite launch business; but it was also very demanding often requiring me to sacrifice sleep, travel frequently, and cope with lots of stress (the good kind and the bad kind). My husband recently retired too and he is really upset about the idea of a home-centered retirement. (Ha Ha) Nope…no he is not. He is fully onboard. After a long career and so much busy, he craves home even more than I do.

Blogging on Reinventing Home is about the process we went through to redefine home for us. We sold our family home of 28 years and bought two less expensive properties (not in that order). One is a single family home about 30 minutes from a beach. The other is a condominium we just renovated near family and friends. The plan is to be able to get away and still feel at home in both places. We are not wealthy and we have to watch our pennies, so we will blog on how having two homes works financially and whether it is worth the extra work for us. With such a drastic life change, bouncing back and forth, I expect bumps along the way. The blog will include posts on the 10-month process of getting our family home ready to list and the sales process which made all the hard work worth it. We got 47 showings in 4 days, 7 offers, and an ultimate sales price that set a record for our neighborhood in 2024. After taking a short 3-month break, we renovated a condominium. The kitchen, shown in the picture above, was 99% completed by Christmas 2024 and is the kitchen of my dreams. There will be posts on the process of renovating our condominium and the kitchen itself. We are super excited to finally settle into a routine in retirement after this crazy period of transition. Going forward, I hope to engage with folks out there doing a fantastic job making a beautiful home on a budget.

Blogging on Family & Friends, I hope to connect with other retirees and grandparents on their own journey. We are not grandparents yet; but we hope to rock it if or when we are. We are looking for tips on how to be there for our adult children, be awesome grandparents, and still have a retirement experience for ourselves. We also want to find ways to spend more time with and really connect to extended family and friends than we were able to when we were working and raising our children.

Blogging on Health & Fitness, I hope to connect with some kick-butt women who are fit or on a fitness journey after 50. One of the benefits of sticking close to home is a stable diet and exercise routine. While I’m not kick-butt (yet); for many years, I’ve exercised regularly–nay compulsively. Think running on treadmill (a lot) to release stress. New research is leading me to explore new paths. My diet has never been great. I plan to completely overhaul that. Help me please! I also hope to blog on new testing and equipment/technology that we are using to make this experience as fun and rewarding as possible.

Blogging on Having Fun Exploring Our Passions and Interests…While full-time or extensive travel isn’t for us, we do hope to take a few meaningful trips especially with each other, our children and possible future grandchildren, family and friends. We plan to explore many passions at home. Ha ha…I just heard that. Mine are mostly around home. I am burned out on renovation-style DIY. The kind of DIY where you stay covered in paint, caulk, wood and spackle dust 24×7; but I plan to do smaller, fun DIY projects. I’m also passionate about cooking new delicious and healthy meals. My husband’s passions and interests are mostly around art and music. If he’ll let me, I plan to share some of what he is up to.

Tracking & Managing Finances is one of my new passions. I’ve taken it to, what some might consider, a crazy level in retirement because I enjoy it (not because I am a miser). I need an outlet for the withdrawal of all the spreadsheet engineering and project management I used to do at work. My husband has always had a passion for investing. My risk aversion during our careers held him back and cost us dearly. Learning the mistakes I made has been painful. With at least a 20-year time horizon still left in our lives (we hope), we feel optimistic about our investing future. I am willing to share our story, maybe as a cautionary tale, but not to advise anyone else on anything.