Empty-nesters try ‘rightsizing’ their real estate

One day it’s a story about baby boomers building huge McMansions. Another day it’s a story about baby boomers downsizing into pint-sized patio homes.

So which is it? Supersized homes? Or just the essentials, ma’am?

The answer is somewhere in the middle. Baby boomers entering the empty nest years are finding that it’s not square footage per se that constitutes downsizing, but rather homes that reflect the changing needs of a gently aging population.

Oftentimes it means trading in a home with one or more levels for a ranch-style plan with the master bedroom suite on the main floor. And it usually means good-bye to weekends with the lawnmower – but not always.

For Pat and Linda Burton, who live in the Country Meadows subdivision on Windsor’s western edge near Interstate 25, a larger yard was in fact on the list of criteria before a move would be made. Both are traveling sales representatives – she for the High Plains Journal, a farm/ranch journal published out of Dodge City, Kan., and he for Bayer Animal Health, also headquartered in Kansas – so weekends home are a time to do what they love, and this includes gardening and yard work.

What they wanted to get away from was the five-level home they lived in for more than a decade near the heart of Fort Collins. Though going up and down the stairs was not problematic for the couple, they could see a time in the future when it might be.

Plus, it was time to get way from a neighborhood that was evolving into one with more rentals and fewer longtime residents. So the Burtons looked. And looked. They looked at 106 existing homes and models. “We spent every weekend with our Realtor,” Linda said.

Nothing was right. So they chose to build.

The Burtons found a corner lot on a low-traffic cul de sac that would allow them to situate their home exactly as their Fort Collins home was oriented. And now they have a fabulous view of the Front Range.

Inside, everything is on the main level: master bedroom, guest bedroom, and two home offices. Square footage actually increased by 1,000 square feet. Though the Burtons view the home as their last, Linda said she thought that with two previous homes, too.

And as for the yard work?

“Pat and I are both from agricultural backgrounds, and our jobs confine us to somebody else’s office or vehicles. Gardening and landscaping is wonderful therapy for both of us.”

Patty and John Gates knew exactly where they would move if ever the opportunity arose. Problem was, homes in the Fairway Four subdivision, adjacent to the Greeley Country Club, come on the market as often as a Colorado Rockies winning streak – not very often.

“My parents have lived there from the time they (the homes) were brand new. We’ve always liked the area. It’s established, has great landscaping and it’s very quiet and very no kids, aside from the occasional visiting grandchild.”

Not to be discouraged, they looked at several other patio home communities that might fill the bill, but none did. Then a friend of Patty’s, who knew the Gates were interested, let it be known that she was ready to sell her home.

The Gates – she’s executive vice president at Bank of Choice and he’s director of safety and security for School District 6 – moved in October and are looking forward to their first spring and summer sitting on their patio without a care in the world. And definitely with no thoughts of “Oh, I better go water this or that,´ said Gates.

“We don’t miss the big yard or big house,” she said of the home they left behind in Greeley’s Bittersweet neighborhood. “We had a huge yard with lots of landscaping and lots of beds to maintain.” Their new home provides main-floor living with a guest bedroom in a loft.

What they lack in outdoor square footage is made up for by the golf course in their back yard.

“The golfers don’t bother us a bit,” Patty said. We’re in a perfect location. For us to get a golf ball, they’d have to be doing something very strange.”

The one thing that strikes visitors to Carol and Harvey Parish’s patio home in Greeley’s Poudre River Ranch is how un-patio homelike it is. They were one of the first to move to development, which sits to the south of the Poudre River and the concrete trail that follows it. Their home looks out onto the open space.

The Parish home, however, definitely lends itself to empty nesting. The main floor features the kitchen, great room and huge master bedroom suite. Two guest bedrooms are in the basement level. They left a home with five bedrooms.

The Parishes – she owns Westlake Wine & Spirits and he owns Cam & Co. Appraisers – enjoy their newfound freedom from home and yard maintenance to spend even more hours on the golf course, biking on the trail or Scuba diving in tropical locales.

Broken sprinklers? Not their problem. Snowy walks? It’ll be taken care of. Yard need work? Not their call.

“My husband was ready for it long before I was,” Parish said of the move. “We’re both full-time working people; the hours never get any less.” They finally decided to move to a patio home to free up time to do what they love the most: travel.

Being appraisers past and present, the Parishes knew about available properties without having to go visit open houses. “We didn’t look at one other one. We have been through every patio home in the city at one time or another, and we’re familiar with the different neighborhoods.”

When Parish was assisting in providing refreshments at an open house at Poudre River Ranch, she was invited to attend as a guest as well. She knew immediately it was a patio home she could live in. “We decided that night. We sold our house the first week it was on the market.”

The only downside to patio-home living, Parish said, is the parking. “We used to have a big driveway.”

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