At 69, we traded our empty-nester condo in the city for a much larger house in the suburbs

At first, I worried about how we'd fit in with our younger neighbors.

Jackie Fishman My husband and I moved into a condo when we became empty nesters, but we started craving more space.

We moved into a home in a suburban cul-de-sac — but worried we'd be much older than our neighbors.

Surprisingly, we built beautiful friendships with our younger neighbors.

When my husband and I first became empty nesters more than 20 years ago, we moved from our suburban Maryland home to a two-bedroom condo in Arlington, Virginia.

We hoped to make some new friends as we started this chapter of our lives.

The city itself was fun, and the living environment was pleasant, but the proximity made it hard to connect with neighbors; it felt like everyone was protective of their privacy and space.

Fast forward 17 years, and our family looked a lot bigger with in-laws and four grandchildren.

Family gatherings at our condo started to feel tense and stifling: Aside from our small, not-toddler-friendly terrace, there was nowhere to comfortably escape if someone needed space.

Add retirement to this picture, and we started to realize we needed more breathing room — both for ourselves and our hobbies, and to host sleepovers with our youngest family members.

So, we moved to a four-bedroom home in the suburbs of Maryland near where we had previously resided, and closer to where our children and grandkids lived.

We weren't sure how we'd fit in with our neighbors A friendship formed when we started walking our dogs together.

Jackie Fishman My immediate fear was that we would be outsiders, just the "old couple on the block." With the exception of a few homeowners who had held onto their property despite being longtime empty nesters, everyone else on our cul-de-sac — and many people in the community itself — seemed closer to our children's ages. (In fact, we'd later discover that one neighbor was in our daughter's high-school class.) I didn't expect to befriend our neighbors, and instead focused my energy on renewing relationships we'd had when we previously lived nearby.

I also started playing mah-jongg and pickleball to try to cultivate new ones.