Building a Home to Suit Your Aging Needs

As we grow older each day, our minds tend to think about our retirement possibilities. Money and savings as well as the plans and goals we would like to achieve after 50 and beyond penetrate our thoughts more and more as the time passes. As we make sure our lifestyle needs are met with age, such as finances and vacation planning, we also need to realize we are going to eventually become unable to do the things we take for granted now. With age comes aching joints, limited vision, and for some, immobility. If you are building or going to build a new home as your retirement home, then this article has some advice that will come in handy for planning that build that final home.

As baby boomers start to age, plans for modern home designs are begging to change. Many polls reveal that many baby boomer aged people want to stay in their own homes as long as they can instead of moving into a living assisted facility. Many new home builders and remodeling contractors are beginning to use this data in redesigning homes for multiple usages for handicaps and the hardships that come with age related disabilities.

With the advent of this new way of home designing for the future, many companies now offer plans that revolve around the idea of growing old in your own home. The National Home Builders Association has begun to offer a three day course that gives ideas and teaches the fundamentals of this design concept. It is now their fast growing education program.

If you’re starting from scratch when building your home, then you have the benefit of adding in some of these features for aging in your home. If you’re adding on to your home you can incorporate many of the ideas into your new addition. By adding some of these features you can save money in the long run when theses needs are required.

The first and most major of ideas are to build a one story home or addition. By eliminating stairs and the need for climbing up and down saves a serious amount of money in the future needed for a stair mobility chair or elevator. If space is limited and you must build a second story, and then make sure your stairs are wide enough to accommodate a stair chair in the future. If you opt for a wheelchair elevator, simply place two closet one on top of the other in your design. That way in the future the closets can be removed easily and the elevator can be added without a lot of construction changes.

Hallways, door openings, and any tight access places should be made wide enough for a wheel chair. In the event that a person in your home has to use a wheel chair, there will be no need for massive construction remodeling to take place later on. If you never need a wheelchair, at least it will be easy for you to navigate in and move your furniture easily.

Kitchen and bathroom sinks are lowered and designed without cabinets for future wheelchair access. You can add a false cabinet during building which can be easily removed later on without costly re plumbing and cabinet work.

Light switches and all electrical fixtures are lowered prior to building. The lower switches are easier for you to reach as old age sets in and posture and movement becomes limited. You also should design the interior lighting so as eyesight decreases with age your lighting can increase as needed.

Painting interior colors brighter and more luminescent is something not thought of often but can cause a great deal of help for the elderly. The lack of contrast on floor and walls can sometimes prevent someone with poor eyesight from seeing the edge of a wall of cabinet before it’s too late. Use contrasting colors to help pull objects out and make them more easily distinguishable.

Many people often think as they grow older that they will not get a disability. The truth of the matter is you are more likely to become disabled as you age. Whether it is simple eyesight or hearing loss, or a more severe disability such as mobility, the idea of planning ahead is always a good start for the part of the future that is inevitable; getting old.