[barb1191]

The "snowbird" works for awhile in returning to our condo up North in the summer and spending winters in our home in TV. Maintaining two homes is not an easy deal and costly to boot. We chose to not rent either place as we wanted access in both places at our convenience as well as not wanting strangers in either home.

We sold our condo up North and built an adorable in-law one bedroom, living rm, kitchen, laundry & bath, deck and inground pool (pool was already there) onto our daughter's home. That worked out well for awhile but did notice that the "kids" all had their activities such that we didn't really see them that often. We decided while up North that we missed TV soooo much that why are we up North? The kids would enjoy visits South and that turned us into TV "frogs."

We have no regrets and communicate with the kids often, email, facebook, phone/Skype....works out fine. Since we've made the decision to stay permanently in TV, we gave the kids permission to rent the in-law and that should cover the additional costs for adding onto their home. She has a nice young professional couple who love the place (inlaw) and they were willing to rent on a month-to-month basis just in case we needed to return for whatever, illness, for one reason.

I write this as a suggestion to those who choose not to break the tie from "home" that the inlaw worked out great for us, however, TV won out. The inlaw is well maintained by the kids and it does have an "open-door" policy for us, if need be.