I am in a very similar situation except both my DD's are finished with college and out on their own. Our house though, does work great for just the two of us. I had that in mind when I bought 20 years ago.
But, this too is a young area and I would like more like minded neighbors. The question is, where to go?
We upgraded our kitchen almost 4 years ago, so that is how I found GW. I still have things that I too am just not motivated to do. We had to toss an area rug in the living room after my elderly dog passed way. Now going on 5 years we are still with a bare living room floor.
How to get your mojo back? Keep reading Home Decorating or even Kitchens. I still enjoy hearing about and discussing kitchens! Each time I read a post it inspires me. One day I finally bought new dishes, which were way over due.

Well, when we reached that point with our last house, we were motivated to get it ready to sell, which we discovered is always more work than you think it will be.

I just thought I would point out though, that no matter how ready we thought we were to get out of that place, I still bawled like a baby the last couple of weeks we were there. And we were only there for 4 years. My (unsolicited) advice to you would be to ENJOY your home for the next 2 years. Even though you may be frustrated with it because it's not working for you anymore, those walls witnessed your family memories and heard your children's laughter for 16 years. Try to appreciate it on a different level.

I would start researching other places and real estate . Several things can come of that. You could find yourself inspired and excited about the next adventure or you could find that you really love where you are or you could end up with a combination of the two. No matter what, it is fun to pick a place and look at homes for sale there. It may lift you out of the doldrums and energize you one way or the other. We are currently exploring France as a possible retirement location and believe me, it is great fun looking for the perfect house!

I was getting to the same place as you, but my kids are still relatively young. I think it's because I've gone back to work full-time and have no time to think about it or have people over to see it.

This summer, I found I got more interested in it again when my dh and I started getting rid of things and reorganizing. It made things feel fresh again and lifted a load off my back. It might help you get a start on your next phase and help you enjoy the rest of the time in your current place.

This is interesting. I have always wondered why people who post here seem never to be satisfied with their homes, always tweaking, changing, keeping up, seeking some kind of perceived perfection, while I have been happy as a clam enjoying our lovely little home as it has been for years.

My advice is to embrace what you have for the next year or two, until you actually decide to get ready to move. Since decorating your home was more or less your hobby, your home is no doubt beautiful. What you need is a new hobby to occupy the niche decorating did, something artistic and fulfilling, until you have a new home to concentrate on. I bet you can live with a boring style and a less-than-perfect layout for that long, if you have something else to think about.

Yes, my interest goes dormant for periods of time. Much of it has to do with cash. We just don't have the dough to spend on beautifying the house as I'd like to. That's the problem with buying a fixer upper -- you live with bad decor, get accustomed to it, then it becomes "home"! There's always something more important we need to spend on, like tuition or a necessary repair. And my husband should have his say in how to use the disposable income too. After all, he's the one on the career treadmill. He should enjoy his earnings for all his hard work. So oftentimes the available decorating funds will go towards a vacation or a snow blower or lawn tractor.

"I have always wondered why people who post here seem never to be satisfied with their homes, always tweaking, changing, keeping up, seeking some kind of perceived perfection, while I have been happy as a clam enjoying our lovely little home as it has been for years. "

sherrmann, that's an interesting observation. Now you've got me wondering too!

One more comment for judithn: we preferred buying homes that hadn't been decorated for sale. We always changed everything anyway, and it's nice not to feel guilty that you're throwing out fine materials because of the wrong color, or something equally trivial. I felt sorry for the previous owners who spent on new flooring, wallpaper, fixtures, lights, or window treatments when we ripped 'em out as fast as we could.

You'll probably do just fine for resale if you just pare down, declutter & keep everything sparkling clean. I like daisychain's idea that reorganizing makes things fresh again.

This is going to sound silly and maybe you already do this but when I used to feel like this (we did do a whole house reno 2 years ago because we're staying so I don't currently have this problem) I would buy fresh flowers every week for a while. It just spruced up my old drab place and gave it a breath of fresh air.

I've never been as into decorating as most people on this forum. Just don't have that much time to commit to it. I've done some home improvement projects, more out of necessity. I have to say though my interest in even that is diminishing both for our home and our weekend lake home. Since I hit my mid-50's I've been more into saving and investing as much as possible so we have as much retirement flexibility as possible as soon as possible.

So now that I'm on that mission I find myself having a hard time investing a lot of money in home projects. I'll have to do some things one of these days but I pretty much don't do anything unless it's a real priority. So decorating is even less of a priority for me now than before.

Get your creative juices flowing by decorating either your dream home or lend your decorating skills to the folks here who ask for help. That costs zero $, at least your $.

I enjoyed reading your post, Shermann. Interesting observations, and sage advice!

Piggybacking on Shermann's advice to "embrace what you have," I'd just emphasize that the more you do that, and appreciate and feel grateful for where you are now, the better the next place will be. You're creating a positive field of energy with your emotions that will be mirrored at the next place. One good thing will lead to another! Just because you allow yourself to love your current place and "embrace" it, does not mean you are closing the door to new possibilities! On the contrary! You open the door to more good things to unfold as you love what is in front of you now with all your heart. Trust life to take care of the rest.

Do whatever makes you feel good about your current house. (Operative words here are FEEL GOOD!). As others suggested, buy flowers, use fresh scents, paint something a color you love, notice how beautiful the sunset is from your window. Whatever floats your boat. You want to raise the vibration of your energy level from negative, to so-so, to great! (Hope this isn't too airy-fairy for you, Judith!)

Sounds very Feng Shui sinky-gardener. :)

In your situation, I would not concentrate on ANY home. It sounds like your future move is too distant to be looking . . .I'd spend the next two years LIVING. I'd spend time and effort on hobbies, helping people, etc.

When the time comes to sell, I would not do anything major. Just make sure your home is very clean, and little things are repaired. If you start that now . . .well, it will be too soon. Decluttering, if that is an issue, can start immediately, and you will always like any space more when decluttered.

By spending this time living and not planning for the future, when the end of the 2 years is up, you will have a better sense of what is important to you and where you should move.

I get very philosophical during apartment/house hunting. You do not want to spend the next 2 years like that! Put it on the burner . . .but let it just simmer.

I find that I am working on a lot of organizational and maintenance and paring down, vs adding to what I have.

(But, if I seriously thought I might be moving in 24 months, I would probably have to start planning now all of the things that would need attention before listing the house. LOL You must be a better housekeeper than I am. )

MY DD 1 and 2 are out now at school. On my fall list is to organize the basement to get rid of all those things I saved "just in case they needed it for their apartment". Then I want to move our document storage from the dining room to one of the DD's closets upstairs. This will free up space in the dining room to store platters/serving pieces etc that are currently in the basement.
I want to get the basement empty and clean enough to do some sewing projects.

I will be lucky to get this all done by the holidays! So maybe you have some similar tasks, while they aren't as fun as decor, they are necessary to transition over to you emptier nest way of living.

judith, ignore your house. as a couple others have said "live life".

When you are truly ready to start thinking about selling, you'll find the motivation to do what you have to do...your goal of moving on will be truly real.

Until then, give yourself permission to forget the house!

Sometimes I have to stop decorating, even stop thinking about it, if I can. On your death bed your not going to think about should I of put plain slipcovers on or should I have gone with the bold print.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking if only I could meet Mr. Big and move to Savanah and start over. It never ends for us decorating geeks. Thank goodness we have eachother.

So much wisdom here! I have to think about it. Right now, Because DD is packing for school this week, I kind of hung around the house organizing some things. I got into the corners with the vacuum, dusted railings and ledges, and rearranged some furniture. I think it is good to focus on sorting and organizing right now because I'll have to do that to move anyway. We're not hoarders or anything but things aren't as streamlined as they'll have to be when we move. I realized that replacing certain things that have worn out or been used up was a good idea so I replaced some drinking glasses and bought new sheets. Neither was a big expense but they made a big difference to me. I agree with everyone who recommended flowers. I'm going to ponder everyone's postings more thoroughly though. Lots of good ideas...

I lose interest often, really. Partly because it seems impossible to do everything I'd like to do and partly because I don't want to be obsessive about it. Although I am a chronic "tweaker" (got it from both parents!) I try to keep myself in check--we have a LOT of other financial obligations that come before home improvement.

Also, I don't like the "bones" of this house, so sometimes I throw my hands up and declare that it isn't worth it to even try....

But then we invite people over, which means a round of cleaning, which means the place gets all spiffy and fluffed and then I think "Ahhhhh, nice. Now if only I had those blinds I want/a little table right there/some more color on this side of the room..."

And we're back to being interested....

Same with my garden. There is probably a week per month when I want to burn it all to the ground. Then I spend an hour out there weeding and poking around and I'm in love again.

Since it's going to be a couple of years before you can move, start making plans to build your house. When you're really serious, and want to build what will be your forever home, it can take up to 2 years, if not longer. Look at houseplans~exteriors as well as the floorplans~and start deciding what you and DH want in a house. Once you start planning, you'll be so far ahead of the game the build will actually be fun with less hastles and headaches. You *will* have to come up with a dollar amount you can spend to keep things realistic.

Like you, I knew I wanted to move but didn't have a clue where it would be or how it would come about. I had lived in San Diego in 3 different condos, and was bound and determined to have a house. Before I knew what was happening, my youngest dd's husband was offered a job transfer to Austin. I decided I would be making that move also, knowing I would be moving away from 2 other grown children, but were aware of my wanting my own home, and we're as excited as I was. I was so excited thinking about the house I had been wanting for so long(16 years!)that I jumped into getting my condo ready to sell right away. It sold it in 3 months in a horrible market, a month before Christmas, and had 2 back-up offers, 5k under asking.

I was blessed to be able to built the house of my dreams in Austin, and thank goodness I started making plans long before I even knew I would be moving.

I have always believed if you put it out to the universe she will make it napped. You just have to believe! ;o)

Newdawn, I don't know...maybe on my death bed I *will* be wondering about paint colors I didn't use, did use, etc.! Who knows? That might distract me from less pleasant realities.

Why not go to Savannah now? You don't have to wait for Mr. B.! I can see you in Savannah. They'd love you there, you know.

Something funny happened and I remembered this thread so I thought I'd post it here.

I do stop by and read here every couple of days. I seldom post because I made my big "decorating push" before I got my new puppy a bit over 2 years ago. I'm not doing any decorating, I'm doing agility training....at least that was the plan and it had worked out perfectly until about 3 weeks ago.

Three weeks ago my dishwasher died and it all snowballed from there. I can't complain, we've lived in this house for 17 1/2 years and the original dishwasher lasted until about 3 weeks ago. I did my research and ordered a new dishwasher....but I also started shopping for flooring because I'd always thought that when the dishwasher died it would be a good time to change the flooring. The dishwasher was installed as was the new flooring but, in the meantime we'd developed a leak in the kitchen ceiling. (Master bath is above kitchen.) We didn't know exactly what was leaking so, that meant that I had to hire someone to pull apart the ceiling, find and fix the problem and then put the ceiling together again. (Did I mention that my husband was out of town for work during all this? Yes, 3 weeks, he missed the whole thing!)

Anyway, we got all that done but, I also got to talking with the contractor. I'd called a contractor I'd used before. I thought my leak was too small a job for him but, if that was the case I was hoping he could refer me to someone. I was lucky, he likes to maintain a relationship with his clients so, he said he was happy to fix the ceiling......and he did some other stuff for me too.

This is what the kithcne looked like 3 weeks ago:

This is what the kitchen looks like now:

I'm tickled pink but still a bit flabergasted about the whole thing. I'm also pulling my hair out trying to play catch up with my training. Local agility trials start next weekend and I've let down on training while I was coping with the kitchen.

That is too funny. But the kitchen looks great. To go with your great looking kitchen can I suggest a new light fixture - that would be the finishing touch on your new space.

Lost interest no, burnt out from it yes.