Home Remodeling Advice: Aging in Place Specialist

When you live in a house for many years, it grows on you. You know where everything is, the room layout, the creaking stair on the way to the basement. With age, we grow even more fond of our dwellings, and are more reluctant to leave them.
But as old age sets in, the large house becomes more and more difficult to operate. First, hard tasks like window or gutter cleaning become too daunting. Repairs slowly become taxing and tiring. At some point the stairways and other parts of the house become too difficult to navigate. This is when many elderly couples decide in favor of moving into a condo, where there are no maintenance chores, no stairs and other things to worry about.
And it’s never a happy moment…
There is a solution to this, however. There is no need to move out into another place where you will feel comfortable and safe. You can make your old home comfortable again. Royal Home Improvement has a list of aging in place home design ideas that will make your home easier for you to live in, eliminating the need to move out, leaving it behind.
What Does Aging in Place Mean?
Aging in place means adding certain features and introducing modifications to your house, which aim to achieve two main goals:
1. Eliminate Dangerous Elements, such as slippery surfaces, steep stairs, low-visibility rooms.
2. Increasing Home Accessibility, which includes adding a ramp for the front porch, rails in the stairwells, barrier-free showers and more.
When you consider the costs, (which are in fact surprisingly modest) you will realize this is a small effort compared to the necessity to leave. Aging in place home design modifications will allow you to remain in your home, living safely and comfortably.
To make it simple for our readers to assess the project at hand and decide what they do or do not wish to include in it, our aging in place specialists have composed this list of recommended modifications:
1. Accessibility. The main thing to think of is access. Adding a ramp to the entrances of your home are ideal to avoid trips and falls, but it may the most reasonable option indoors. The home lift technology is becoming more and more accessible in terms of purchase and installation costs, and can turn what seemed like an impossibly hard climb into a short, easy ride. Accessibility also refers to the layout of your home.. A narrow hallway or small powder room may not allow for a wheel chair to move and turn. Royal Home Improvements can help identify these road-blocks and offer solutions.
2. Safety. This mainly refers to bathrooms and kitchens where elevated shelving can be difficult to reach, or stepping into a traditional tub may lead to a slip or fall. Bathrooms can be equipped with grab bars and a walk-in shower, or a walk-in bathtub. Including comfort height toilets and benches will allow for easy transitions.
3. Lighting. Relocating light switches to a lower height will ensure you can use them easily without too much of a reach. You may also want to consider swapping out low-light bulbs with something that will illuminate all the dark corners.
There is more to it of course, about which we’ll be glad to give you more advice, sharing our experience. Give us a call and we will do our best to help get your aging in place home design project on the way.