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Flexible spaces let you live in your home longer
I’ve been doing some remodeling for a couple in their 70s who live in a two-story home, but the husband is having some trouble walking up and down the stairs.
They really love their house — they raised their family there and they want to live someplace with lots of room for visiting grandkids — so they don’t want to move to a one-level place.
So they’ve decided to remodel so they can live on the first floor of the home and let the grandchildren have the run of the second story when they spend the weekend.
We made room downstairs for a master suite and a bigger kitchen by removing the wall between the home’s two-car garage and the kitchen to make the garage a part of the house. When we’re finished, the expanded kitchen will include a spacious breakfast room and will open up into a big family room with a large-screen TV and a game table.
Upstairs, we’re converting one oversized bathroom into two smaller ones so the kids won’t have to wait in line in the mornings.
And when those children are grown and gone, the couple figures, they’ll use the upstairs as quarters for a live-in caregiver so they never have to move to a nursing home.
More and more of my older clients are designing some changes into their homes to make the space more flexible. Some want to add on or convert some space into a big suite with a separate entrance so their own elderly parents can live with them — without being on top of them.
Others, like the folks I told you about, want to contain the noise and activity of the grandchildren to a specific part of the house. Still others want to put their grown children’s unused bedrooms to use as hobby rooms, man caves or yoga studios.
In fact, “flex space” ranks on a National Association of Home Builders list of the top seven amenities older homeowners want in their houses. It’s a space that you remodel to serve whatever purpose you’d like it to serve now — but in a way that will allow you to adjust it as your needs change. For example, a guest bedroom that doesn’t get much use once your grandchildren are grown could easily be redecorated as a hobby room or library.
The more flexible the space you have at home, the better it will serve your needs as your lifestyle changes. And that could help you live in your home longer.
Here’s what else is trending in the homes of active, mature adults, according to the NAHB:
- Home offices. A lot of folks are easing into retirement by continuing to work part-time or by lending their expertise as consultants — often from home. Converting an underused space in the house to a home office — or adding one on — will keep work and home separate.
- Media centers. If you’re automating your home and adding high-end electronics, you might want to add on a home theater — or work with a design/build pro to figure out how to soundproof and darken an existing room so you can use it as one.
- Wider doors and hallways. Whether you’re pushing your grandbaby around in a stroller or using a walker or a wheelchair yourself, wide, short hallways and extra-wide doorways make easier work of getting around the house.
- Better lighting. Adding more windows — large ones —to invite in natural light is becoming almost as popular as placing extra electrical fixtures under cabinets and on staircases.
- First-floor bedrooms and bathrooms. Adding a room or converting the garage will give you a master suite as large as you like with space for a big bathroom, a luxurious, walk-in shower and a couple of walk-in closets.
- Low-maintenance exteriors. After all those years of mowing and mulching, a lot of homeowners are converting the better part of their yards to patio/outdoor kitchen combinations that require very little maintenance.
Jeb Breithaupt, B. Arch., MBA is president of JEB Design Build in North Louisiana. His firm won the coveted BBB Customer Commitment Award in 2015. You can reach him at 318-865-4914 or email jeb@jeb.net.
Want more information? To get your free report, “11 Remodeling Mistakes Cost You Thousands,” Call Mari at 318-865-4914 or email mari@jeb.net or call 318-216-4525 to hear a free audio recording of the report.
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