BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Trailers and motorhomes are people’s homes on the road, but some retirees are choosing to make them their permanent homes.
Tina Bullock sold her Keystone Heights home and is now living in a travel trailer at the Keystone Heights RV Resort. Her neighbors to one side of her — Ron and Liz Nyland — sold their home in Jacksonville and now make a fifth wheel their home.
Bullock and the Nylands chose to do so for the same reason — to downsize and enjoy their elder years without having to worry about the upkeep that comes with houses that are too large for one or two people.
“It’s a simpler way of life,” Ron Nyland said.
Bullock said, “Not having all that responsibility — that’s the thing.”
Bullock, whose husband, Chuck, passed away 10 years ago, was living alone in a 2,000 square-foot house she and her husband had built on 5 acres 45 years ago.
“There were repairs and upgrades I needed to do,” Bullock said. “At 75, I just wasn’t willing to do all of that.”
Bullock also looked at a house that had accumulated a lot of items over many years, saying to herself, “I just can’t leave (my son) to take care of all of this if something happens to me.”
As for living in a travel trailer, it gives her all the space she needs.
“In my house, I was living in just two or three rooms — the bathroom, the bedroom and the little den,” Bullock said. “I thought, ‘I don’t need much more than that.’”
Ron and Liz could relate.
“We had a 2,600 square-foot house and four bedrooms,” Liz said. “We didn’t need that. It was just the two of us.”
However, the idea of living in a trailer almost came out of the blue, sparked at first by making improvements to their house.
“We didn’t have any idea we were going to do what we did. I did a lot of work around the house,” Ron said, adding, “I told Liz, ‘This place looks pretty good. Maybe we ought to see if we can sell it.’ I went on Zillow. I said, ‘You know what? I think the time is right.’
“We listed it. We sold it in two days.”
The Nylands already owned a Class A motorhome, so they looked around for a place where they could park it and stay when they weren’t using it for traveling. That led them to the Keystone Heights RV Resort.
“We had thought about downsizing eventually,” Ron said, “but instead of downsizing and buying another piece of property, where you have taxes and other stuff and the insurance, we just decided to go this route.”
Ron and Liz eventually bought a Class Super C motorhome when their Class A motorhome had its windshield crack while driving over a slight bump on a trip out west.
“You’re not looking at pennies and dimes with that,” Ron said. “That was like over $4 grand for the labor and the windshield.”
When their travels ended, and they returned to the RV resort, Ron and Liz decided they needed more elbow room.
“It was a beautiful motorhome,” Ron said, “but it felt almost claustrophobic.”
They bought a fifth wheel and have since replaced that with another fifth wheel that has fewer steps.
“My knees are starting to give out,” Ron said.
Ron and Liz have discovered they’re perfectly happy living in their fifth wheel.
“I don’t want a house,” Liz said. “There’s too much responsibility.”
Downsizing
It’s not easy sometimes to look through your possessions and decide what to keep and what to get rid of, but as Liz put it, “You just have to realize that some of this stuff is just stuff.”
She and Ron have a small storage unit on their RV site as well as a storage unit in Jacksonville. Liz said the unit in Jacksonville contained “boxes and boxes of pictures and stuff because Ron took a lot of pictures of the kids.”
At Christmastime, the Nylands removed six or seven boxes of photos and took them to their children. Liz said they were told, “Anything you want, you keep. If you don’t want them, throw them away, because we’re not taking them with us.”
“You just have to let go of a lot of things,” Ron said.
Bullock, because of her involvement in community organizations, had accumulated an office full of plaques and awards. She said she found that part of downsizing the most challenging — having to determine which ones she’d keep.
“It just broke my heart because I know those clubs and organizations paid a lot of money to do that,” she said, adding, “That part was hard — to let go of some of those.”
Bullock said it was hard to get rid of everything she wouldn’t be keeping in her trailer. Like the Nylands, she has a storage unit. Still, she said she sometimes looks at an item she does have in her trailer and asks herself, “Why did I bring that?”
That question doesn’t get asked of one appliance on her kitchen counter that rarely gets used.
“I brought my big mixer,” Bullock said. “Once a year, I make divinity. It kills little hand mixers. I use (the big mixer) for that. That’s it.”
Savings, amenities
Since they no longer own homes, Bullock and the Nylands don’t have to pay for upkeep or any emergency repairs that arise. They no longer have to take care of the swimming pools they both had.
Ron said it’s nice to not have to pay home insurance, which he believes is going to continue to increase. Bullock said she was paying almost $5,000 in insurance.
The savings also include no property taxes.
Aside from buying a trailer or motorhome (if you don’t already own one), Ron said, “All you pay for (at the RV resort) is your lot and your electric.” Bullock added that the cost of living at the RV resort includes internet and cable.
For Bullock, the Keystone Heights RV Resort was a good option because it kept her in Keystone and still involved in the organizations and activities she enjoys.
“It wasn’t far away, so I didn’t have to leave my friends,” she said. “I still play cards at the Woman’s Club. I’m still a member of Kiwanis. I’m still involved in a lot of those organizations.”
Bullock also has her son and granddaughter nearby in Orange Park.
Ron likes living in Keystone, saying, “You have everything here that you want, and Gainesville’s not that far.”
The Nylands and Bullock love the fact that the RV resort has various activities to enjoy, even though Ron admitted he’s “not one to go out for all of this stuff.”
“The thing is, it’s there if you want it,” he said.
As for their current homes, the Nylands and Bullock have no plans to take them on the road.
“I don’t want to have to travel and to pull a 44-footer,” Ron said.
No, the trailers are nothing more than an alternative to owning and maintaining a house.
Bullock said she got a little sad when she and her son locked the door to her house for the last time before turning the keys over to a Realtor. The sadness didn’t last long. When her son said, “Mom, this is my childhood,” Bullock replied, “You’re not coming back here.”
Since then, she has enjoyed her new “simplistic lifestyle.”
The Nylands enjoy their new way of life, too.
“We don’t have any regrets at all,” Liz said.
