Aging in Place
Making plans to stay in your home as you grow older? More and more baby boomers are choosing to “age in place”. There are many changes that can be made to make your home accessible but still elegant. If you are planning a remodel in a home where you plan to age in place most of these items can be added during the remodel but changes can be made in phases as well and a current remodel can simply be prepped for the future.
Overall: widen doorways and hallways; choose nonslip flooring; raise electrical outlets to make them more accessible; install motion sensor exterior lighting; build a no-step entrance into the landscape making it look like a sidewalk, if you have steps put in handrails; install rocker style switches
Kitchen: add faucets that turn on with the wave of a hand or by touch, cabinet doors can be equipped with electric touch-to-open doors and drawers, add a flameless induction cooktop that cools instantly when a pan is pulled of the burner, put in a removable cabinet that can become a work space, add cabinet shelving that can be made to pull down and lower items to the user, build pantries with adjustable shelves, add a microwave drawer, ovens can be replaced with one that has French doors, open from the side or doors that slide away beneath the oven
Bedrooms: Move a master bedroom downstairs with enough space to maneuver around the bed, put a pocket door or a door with a lever handle on a door to an on-suite bathroom
Bathroom: Install a curbless shower with fixtures placed so they can be turned on before stepping into the shower, use one-inch hexagonal marble floor tile which with its tightly spaced grout lines provides good grip; add a comfort height toilet.
Stairways/elevators: If you are doing a remodel in a home you plan on aging in place at remember that one method used to install an elevator later is to use stacked closets that can be converted to an elevator shaft later or an external elevator can always be added at a later date.
Oven with slide under door
Oven with French doors
Curbless shower
North Carolina company Blum has offered their signature AVENTOS lift-system cabinets for a few years, but this year they introduced the electrical SERVO-DRIVE, which closes the cabinets at the push of a button. To open the cabinets, lightly push on the outside to have the cabinet door swing out and up. Then, to close it, push the small button on the inside corner of the cabinet, and the doors automatically close. Streamlined and efficient.
