We traded our condo in a walkable city for a big house in the suburbs after we retired. It’s been great for us and our grandkids.

Eventually, we began looking for a bigger home.

Unfortunately, other townhouses in Arlington in our price range still seemed too narrow and small. We wanted an open living area that flowed easily to accommodate groups, which was hard to find in anything but a single-family home.

To afford such a house, we knew we’d have to move further from DC to a lower-cost suburban area where our money would go further.

In 2021, we left the walkability of Arlington and its environs and headed back to the suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland.

We now live on a leafy cul-de-sac in a single-family home with five bedrooms, four and a half baths, and a finished basement. It has a huge kitchen that flows into a dining area and living room — a perfect space for large gatherings.

A nice bonus is that we ended up finding community and friendship with our neighbors.

We’re near a popular swim and tennis club, and the nearby neighborhood community center is filled with activities. Our town is more walkable than I expected, too, with a pleasant path along a wooded area just a block and a half away.

I still miss city life and how easily I could easily ride my bicycle to the Mount Vernon Trail and Georgetown — but everything in life comes with a price.

During the first holiday dinner at our new house, the kids went down to the basement to play by themselves while the adults stayed upstairs and relaxed in our huge living space. I knew then we had made the right move.