Downsizers plan to travel the world, but they have to sell their $10m home first

After more than a decade of living at beautiful Mosman on the Sydney Harbour, Ron and Robyne Lindsay know for certain there are two things they’ll be taking with them – their boat and Ron’s golf clubs.

The couple are looking forward to more leisure time when they move out of the large triple-storey four-bedroom, four-bathroom home they built 12 years ago. But they may not be so popular with their grandchildren once they do.

“Having a swimming pool, the grandchildren just jump off the pontoon that’s at the end of the garden, and we’ve got a level lawn that is right on the harbour,” says Ron. “They’ll all be cursing us moving, I think.”

The couple bought the 886 square metre block about 15 years ago and spent two years getting their plans to knock down an ageing cottage and rebuild their dream home through council. They employed award-winning architect Howard Tanner, who was president of the Australian Institute of Architects from 2008-09, and briefed him that they wanted an ageless home that would withstand passing trends.

At the time, some of the Lindsays’ four children were still living at home. But now that the couple have both retired and the kids have moved out permanently, they’re ready to spend more time travelling, playing golf and tennis, and sailing.

On their list are Canada, South America and Turkey. And of course, there’s also the spiritual homes of eclairs and pasta. “It’s easy to make an excuse to go back to France and Italy,” says Ron.

The couple haven’t started looking for a unit yet – they’re going to wait to sell their home, which has a price guide of about $10 million, first. But when they do, the search will stretch from north to east.

Having grown up in different parts Sydney, Ron and Robyne are open to moving away from the lower north shore. “I was brought up in Vaucluse and my wife was brought up in Wahroonga but we met in Thredbo – otherwise we would never have met,” jokes Ron. “In those days we didn’t bother crossing the bridge.

“Being on the main harbour where we are, we get the fantastic convenience of the ferry, which is only a quarter of an hour to Circular Quay and also we see the city lights and all the fireworks. We would like to be able to get something that would give us the same outlook but in something much smaller scale.”

The couple have been thinking of moving for a couple of years and are particularly ready to do so now as Ron sold out of his business, a function centre, earlier this year.

“It’s probably just the freedom to be able to pull the door shut and do whatever we want to do really,” says Ron. “I guess we don’t want to be in the situation where our children are making decisions for us – we’d prefer to be doing these things to suit ourselves and in our own timetable.”

While the couple – Robyne especially – won’t miss having to clean a large home, they will be sad to leave the various outdoor entertaining areas, including the gardens landscape designer Peter Fudge crafted around the infinity-edge pool.

“Because we’ve got some beautiful covered balconies and verandahs, entertaining is easy,” says Ron.