Margaret loved her old house. It was more than 100 years old, full of character and, as the builders liked to point out, nothing was quite square or straight. She’d painted it, changed it and cared for it. Her grandchildren had grown up knowing it simply as Grandma’s house.

Which is precisely why Margaret didn’t want to wait until she could no longer look after it.

She was already noticing that some of the jobs were getting harder. Climbing ladders or getting onto the roof no longer seemed like particularly sensible ideas. The little maintenance jobs were accumulating and finding tradespeople to do them wasn’t always easy.

Then an experience with her cousin brought Margaret’s thinking sharply into focus. Her cousin had always been house-proud, but after becoming unable to keep up with the little jobs around her home, things had changed surprisingly quickly.

Margaret looked at her own house differently. “I thought, my place is still in really good condition. But do I want to get to the point where it isn’t?” The answer was no.

“If I don’t make the move now, when am I going to do it?”

Time and energy to nest

Margaret had long thought retirement living would make sense for her eventually. She knew people who were living at Oak Tree Taylor Street, and knew new villas were available.

Suddenly, “eventually” felt a lot more like now. “I wanted to move while I still had the energy to move and to set the place up,” she says.

Margaret approached choosing her new home with characteristic thoroughness. She spent time studying Oak Tree’s floor plans online, measuring rooms in her old house and plotting furniture on graph paper.

Three bedrooms were important. Her grandchildren stay over, as does family visiting from New Zealand, and Margaret wanted to continue having space for them.

A double garage was high on the list too. Margaret is heavily involved in local theatre and has accumulated plenty of fabric and costume supplies, so half of the garage has become her sewing space.

And then there were Kura and Koa, her two miniature dachshunds. Being able to bring “the babies” was non-negotiable, so Margaret chose a villa with a larger outdoor area for them.

At Oak Tree Taylor Street, she’d found a home that could accommodate the life she already had.

The autumn that felt different

Margaret moved into Taylor Street in March, while she still had the time and energy to settle in and make her new home her own.

It wasn’t long before she began to appreciate another benefit of her move.

For years, autumn had meant work. There were large trees to prune and leaves to rake. Her big timber deck needed to be cleaned and oiled, which meant shifting heavy outdoor furniture, finding someone to help her move it, doing the job and then moving everything back again.

This time, there was none of that.

“And it was wonderful,” Margaret says.

If something needs attention at Oak Tree now, the Village Manager can organise it rather than Margaret having to chase tradespeople herself.

It’s one less demand on a life that, as it turns out, has very little spare room in it.

No idea how she ever had time to work

Margaret came to Armidale in 2009 to take up a chair in early childhood at the University of New England, retiring in 2020. Retirement certainly hasn’t left her wondering what to do with herself.

She’s deeply involved in Armidale’s local theatre scene, helping produce several productions a year, writing and performing, coordinating her Favourite Shorts program and working on costumes.

She’s also president of New England Family Support and secretary of U3A. She swims three times a week, runs a guitar and ukulele group, sings and co-runs a theatre play-reading group.

Then there are family commitments, including grandchildren who come to stay.

“I have no idea how I ever managed to find time to work,” Margaret says. “I am running. Absolutely running.”

Moving to Taylor Street hasn’t replaced any of that. “I do all the things that I used to do with the addition of a couple of things here that I join in with as well.”

Margaret joined in with the village morning teas when she first arrived, giving her a chance to get to know people while she was still surrounded by paint tins and unpacked

boxes. These days, Thursday evening happy hour is one of the village activities she enjoys – a chance to have a drink and a quiet chat before walking safely back to her villa.

It’s a balance Margaret appreciates. “We do have that small village vibe,” she says. “Nobody’s living in each other’s pockets.”

Choosing the right time

Looking back, Margaret is glad she made the move when the decision was still entirely hers to make. She had the time and energy to choose her villa carefully, make it her own and settle in on her terms.

And now that the moving, painting and unpacking are behind her?

There’s no shortage of other things demanding Margaret’s attention.

To find out more about what living looks like at Oak Tree Retirement Villages, visit oaktreegroup.com.au or call 1300 367 155.