It seems like selling your home and moving to Florida is a dream come true, made possible only by decades of hard work and saving away. Then, your moving date finally comes and you’re ready to call Southwest Florida home. How exciting! In many cases, it just makes sense to purchase a condominium since you don’t need as much space as you did back up North. The benefits of choosing a condo are numerous: there’s no yard to keep mowed, not as much house to keep clean, it will be less expensive on a fixed income, and so on.
Yet, for some retirees, after years of living in the same house on a beautiful street with friendly neighbors, it is tough to make this new living arrangement feel like “home.” Does this sound familiar? If so, do not despair or worse yet- regret your life change. This move will still be a wonderful thing for you. By doing a few, or all, of the following, you will feel like you’re condo is the perfect place for your golden years:
#1 Join the local community. You’ve probably left friends and neighbors that you have known for many years behind. It may seem difficult to meet new people at your age, but actually this is the perfect place to do so. Most condominiums are part of a community, either a building or an entire neighborhood. There are probably a lot of scheduled activities that you could join in on, like movie night, bingo, pickleball, water aerobics, and more. If none of your neighborhood’s events interest you, you can always branch out a little more and join a zumba class or hit the green at the same time every week. In no time, you’ll be meeting new people that you have a lot in common with.
#2 Remodel your condo. Now is the chance to make your new condo’s look and feel match what it is inside your heart. You may want to remodel it so it is more traditional, like the home you left back up north. Perhaps you want to go in the total other direction and create a totally contemporary look that will be the background of your new life here in Southwest Florida. You could opt for a beach theme to show off why you moved here, or really anything else. This is your new condo, and the choice is yours!
#3 Get a pet. If you’ve left friends and family behind, you have every right to be a little lonely, even if this move was the culmination of years of waiting. Perhaps your condo feels too empty without the grandkids coming over every weekend and your neighbors not yet stopping by. A little dog or cat is the perfect companion for this season in your life! Even a modest-sized condo is plenty big enough for a smaller breed dog. As an added benefit, since you don’t have a yard you’ll be forced to go out for regular walks or make trips to the dog park. This will get you outdoors, exercising, and meeting new people.
#4 Go outside and enjoy what Southwest Florida has to offer! The best condo in the world will get boring after a while. You didn’t move here to watch television and take naps. Get out there and take in all that Southwest Florida has to offer! Of course there are world-renowned beaches, but there is a lot more. Take a walk through J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, eat ice cream at The Love Boat, take a day trip to Key West, go to the Naples Zoo, shop at the outlet malls, or anything else that will keep you entertained.
With so much to love about Southwest Florida, it would be a shame to let a not-so-perfect condo ruin your experience. Even if you’ve been feeling a little out of sorts so far, it doesn’t need to stay like this. Call in Beattie Development’s Remodeling Team and we can get to work making your current condo your dream home! Even with a small space, our team can do wonders by installing new cabinets, laying a new floor, changing the light fixtures, and so much more. In fact, we are so sure that we can enhance your condo living experience that we’re making it easy for you to hear the testimonials of our past clients who are just like you.