Retirement home: The house that Michaela and Jonny recently moved into in St Margaret’s Bay
Retiring appears to be a luxury these days, but married couple Michaela (57), a retired teacher and psychotherapist, and Jonathan (56, known as Jonny), a retired financial advisor, have recently both hit this milestone. They marked it by ‘downsizing’ to St Margaret’s Bay, Kent. As part of our MyPad series, Tom Luckett asked them about their move and what the concept of ‘home’ means to them.
Beyond working life: Michaela and Jonny are starting new chapter
Describe your place in three words.
Jonny: Spacious, modern, coastal.
What is your number one reason for buying your new place?
Michaela: Change of lifestyle to something affordable, easy to look after with plenty of space for family in a lovely location.
What makes a home feel like a home?
Jonny: As well as the aesthetics, making it somewhere welcoming where we can spend time with friends and family.
Has this changed between different homes?
Michaela: I think we have felt differently about each home we have lived in together. Some have been what we could afford at the time, some have been to be closer to work, some have been to be close to schools. Also, when younger, financial implications played a major part in what we could afford and where that was located. Our home has tended to reflect the different stages in life we were at and our different needs at that time. I think if your home can be your refuge and a place that is easy to be in, so that it enables you to deal with everything else happening at the time in your life, then it feels like a ‘home’.
Favourite spot: The kitchen in their new home
What is your favourite feature in your place?
Michaela: The kitchen. It’s modern, full of light and spacious and is a lovely, social place to cook and chat.
Jonny: The location – Being so close to the sea and the variety of walks.
Has your childhood home played a role in determining where you’ve lived and how you’ve made a place feel like home?
Michaela: I grew up in a small town close to the sea with space around me. I love to be somewhere quiet, with green space and big skies and the sea – this is now where I live. I don’t like the hustle and bustle of cities and prefer not to be permanently surrounded by loads of noise and traffic. However, I do like to have neighbours and amenities close by; I think this is reflected in where we have lived and how we’ve made a place feel like home. I don’t seek to replicate my childhood home in terms of how it feels inside – but I do seek to have a similar location.
How long do you plan on staying in your new house for?
Jonny: There are lots of stairs, so as long as we can keep getting up them! But probably for the next 20 years or so. It will be too big for us by then.
Describe how you think things would be different, if hypothetically you were in your 30’s again today buying a property?
Jonny: The property market is very different today, with the big rise in prices. But that aside, I sometimes think that maybe we should have stretched ourselves a bit more in our previous two moves. We always made sure we didn’t take too many risks with how much we borrowed, and that possibly held us back a bit. But on the other hand, that strategy meant we didn’t overexpose ourselves too much in the event the market crashed, or we lost our jobs.