Meandering and cooking around the world channeling Julia Child: This Old House Swapped for That New Condo

I told people it was a downgrade of home style for an upgrade in lifestyle. After twenty years in the same home, I began prepping, purging and packing decades of memories and dragging them down the road to a modest condo within walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks. Check. Check.

Not unlike that last move, I approached this enormous task by myself, mom solo, despite having four grown children with lives and homes of their own. I won't lie - it was a challenge. Like my lovely white French lilac tree, I, too, aged over the last two decades, and the preparing to move process was. . . interesting. The painter showed up without paint. The handyman showed up and asked to borrow a screwdriver. Without missing a beat, I quickly shot back, "Phillips head or flat head?" You laugh. I cried.

My experience has shown me that workers of a certain younger age consider people of a certain older age, like me, completely oblivious to the home repair and remodel world. Clearly, they are unaware that we were bred on the world of PBS's, This Old House long before the capital letters HGTV evolved into a proper noun. My people, baby boomers, are defined by the Pew Research Center as the nearly 80 million Americans, representing 26% of the population born between 1946 and 1964. I proudly rank in the upper percentile.

We are the focused group who intently studied the episodes of Bob Vila refinishing aged oak floors and restoring kitchens and baths. Along the way, we gleaned the nuances between wax versus polyurethane and satin versus eggshell, as we grew weary over the plethora of baseboard options (by the way, you can’t go wrong with the ubiquitous 5.25-inch primed colonial, always primed). As a result, members of the baby boomer generation are well versed in the world of home restoration.

This trend is not only my impression obsession. Researchers from the Kennedy School at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) published a report titled, Improving America’s Housing 2017, Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook. The study related a prediction that homeowner improvement spending will increase 2% annually over the next decade to a staggering $25 billion by 2025.

The authors suggested that homeowners 55 years and older will generate 50% of all the home improvement spending. The report pointed out that the 55 and older demographic was growing in both size of population and market share of remodeling. The researchers attributed some of the demand due to aging in place. This trend was in contrast compared to previous generations. I would have liked to ask them: Did they or did they not watch Bob Vila?

For added validation, I investigated the 10-year price performance of the stock of Home Depot. On January 2, 2009, the stock closed at $24.13, and on January 2, 2019, the stock closed at $172.41. I did the math using the handy calculator on the HD website. The stock price with reinvested dividends increased +800% during that 10-year period. There appears to be a correlation with the data on remodeling trends.

Before embarking on my road ahead, I made a calculated self-assessment to consider if I was really ready for radical change. Having moved twice during my childhood and several times as an adult, this property represented my longest layover. I would never again assemble my coveted farm sink, barn door, French door, and spa bathroom as an ensemble in my more modest, miniature estate.

The outdoor green space that I lovingly tended for two decades was on the site of a former golf course where my father treaded 60 years ago. I have told my children that from my window I could imagine grandpa on the 9^thhole in my patch of tall evergreens digging for his wide-left tee shot. In the quiet breeze, I could almost hear him declaring a Mulligan.

It’s in that same plot that I planted tiny blue snowdrop bulbs which I legally, or perhaps not, brought home from Ireland at the turn of this century. They popped up each spring simulating little blue stickie notes reminding me that Ireland was calling me back. Melancholy can be a paralyzing emotion. Then, I splashed myself with a dose of reality: Walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks!

The universe has a way of keeping things real. Thankfully, finding my next suitable perch was surprisingly seamless. Devoid of lists of hopes and dreams my younger self required in earlier home purchases, my current list had one subject: needs. My new home checked my few boxes.

As luck would have it, I located my new home in a nearby village of winding streets. Naturally, on my way to see it, I made a wrong turn. After a few twists and turns, I found myself adrift on a charming little street named Sheridan Avenue. The Sheridans are my great-grandfather’s family from County Cavan, Ireland, that I tracked down and connected with in 2005.

I took that ordinary street sign as extraordinary divine and directional intervention, as if to say I was heading down the right path. After a few grateful breaths and a duly programmed GPS, I took this road less travelled, and the rest is my new history.

Realistically, that doesn't mean I won't revisit the repair and remodeling cycle that so absorbed my previous homes. In fact, I've already lined up my next project to modify this old condo into my newish condo. After all, life has taught me that it is not mine until I knock down a wall. Or two.

Keep in mind now, if you are a member of the demographic cohort identified in the Harvard study, you are likely to find yourself in the good company of younger, skilled tradespeople sometime over the next decade.

They will politely enter your home and introduce themselves as Chase or Morgan or a similar sounding hip name you won’t find listed in your baby boomer high school year book. Resist the urge to ask them to spell it. Nevertheless, when your correct response to a home repair query is met by a surprised look, be sure to follow it up, as I do, with, "What else do you have for me?"