Your Home Can Be Comfortable Place To Live When You Reach Retirement Age

Baby Boomers are beginning to settle into their destination homes, the places where they plan to spend their child-free years.

For many, these homes will become their final addresses.

Once folks reach retirement age, they want to stay put. In fact, 85 percent of people older than 65 have no intentions of moving, says Judith Miley, a nationally renowned home re-designer from Ocala, Fla.

Often, as people age, their houses become increasingly hostile environments. This doesn’t have to be the case. With a little reorganization, planning and some retrofitting, houses can adapt to the abilities of the inhabitant.

Whether people will be able to stay in their own homes instead of moving to a care facility or relative’s home often depends on their insistence for independence, says Dr. Yolanda Brooks, a Dallas-based clinical consulting psychologist and licensed occupational therapist.

Instead of feeling like they are trapped inside a Stephen King novel, “houses should be built in a way that will allow people to function independently, so that over time people can remain self-sufficient in their own homes. It’s what people, the insurance agencies and the government all want,” Miley says.

“I call them greater later houses,” says Mary Jo Peterson, author of “Universal Kitchen Planning” and “Universal Bath Planning.” Originally published by the National Kitchen and Bath Association for designers and builders, MacGraw Hill is printing them for the consumer. They cost about $50 each.

She says bathrooms and kitchens need to be designed for flexibility. Walls need to be built - and fixtures located - to allow for the eventual installation of grab bars. That way, when the time comes, plumbing fixtures won’t have to be relocated and the bars, which come in a variety of colors, shapes and lengths, can be easily installed.

Doorways and hallways need to be wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs; hallways should be 42 inches wide, doorways at least 32 inches. Kitchen cabinetry needs to be of varying heights for performing tasks while standing or sitting.

Diane Webb, of the National Association of Home Builders, says universal design features that benefit older people include side-by-side refrigerators, and nonglare counter tops with rounded edges and a dark band that delineates the edge of the counter. Other amenities include attached garages with a step-free entrance into the home, a phone jack in the bathroom and pocket doors in the bath that slide into the wall, or doors that open out.

“Too often people fall in the bathroom, and it is difficult to come to their aid when they are blocking the door,” Webb says.

Many people resist making these changes in their homes, fearing it will hurt the resale value of their home, but Webb disagrees with that line of thought. “None of these changes say an older person lives here. It just makes their life easier,” she says.

Miley often adds lever handles and lever faucets, as well as hand-held showers, shower benches and motion sensitive outdoor lighting, to her retrofit wish list.

During resale of the house, these items are never referred to as handicap features, Peterson says. “I really work hard to refer only to positive aspects. I don’t deny the safety aspects, but play up the supportive attributes and mention (that) a person’s physical abilities may change. I say: This is a sink that can be used by a child or someone who works from a seated position.”