Home Plans For Retirees Hard To Find

Third in a series on housing for independent living.

The ubiquitous Sun City communities which have become synonymous with retirement in some sections of the country are built by the Del Webb Corp. of Phoenix.

“We are the foremost producer of active-adult homes in America,” proclaims Martha Moyer, corporate public relations manager for the nation’s sixth-largest home builder, with over a billion dollars in residential sales last year.

“But,” says the Sun City spokeswoman, “we build and sell homes - we don’t design and sell home plans.”

Does anyone specialize in the design of home plans for sale to active retirees?

That question was raised in the first column of this series by former Spokane banker and lawmaker A.J. “Bud” Pardini, who lamented a lack of home designs for healthy and active older adults. Choice is extremely limited, he said, for empty nesters wishing to get out of their large family residences and into a single-story, two-bedroom, two-bath home of 1,500 to 1,800 square feet.

Homes of this description are the most popular type among empty nesters looking ahead to an active retirement who want a residence where they can age in place.

But unless one wants to buy into an age-restricted retirement conclave, there are few existing homes available with fixtures and design features that serve well in later years. True, Pardini noted, one can always hire an architect and a builder, but that entails laying out several thousand dollars in design fees.

Sun City’s Moyer didn’t have a solution to Pardini’s quandary. The real estate sections of many newspapers and magazines carry home plans and occasionally one of these is suitable for empty nesters. But she knows of no firm that makes a business exclusively of designing and selling home plans which give empty nesters or active retirees a wide choice of options.

If anyone does know of such a firm, she advised, it would be James McAlexander, president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors and founder of Landmark Designs Inc. in Cottage Grove, Ore.

I wasn’t able to contact him, but his son, Scott McAlexander, president of Landmark Designs, said the answer is, no. Nobody specializes in creating home design plans for active retirees. “That would lock them into too narrow a market to be feasible,” he said.

But his company does offer such plans, as part of their overall design business.

“We have many designs to fill the needs of younger retirees,” McAlexander said, “and we work with customers and modify our designs to meet customers’ needs and desires.”

As expected, the generally preferred design is one story. “People get older and they don’t want to climb stairs anymore,” said McAlexander.

“Typically, they want three bedrooms - one for the person or the couple, one for the kids when they come back to visit, and one for the computer - two baths, and a great room (combination dining, living, family room).”

Designers raise the dishwasher and lower the countertops. Widen doorways and halls. Enlarge bathrooms. Create kitchens capable of accommodating wheelchairs.

To order a collection of plans (cost is $20), call 1-800-562-1151 toll free.

Those who find a design they like, but who want a closer look before ordering, can buy a study kit for $14.95 that includes a scaled down floor plan and furniture templates with which they can experiment.

When shoppers are ready to order, Landmark Designs charges by the square foot. For example, a single set of plans for a home 1,500 to 1,800 square feet is $290. For a master plan on velum, which can be copied and modified locally by another designer, the cost is $425.

“If you find a floor plan you like but you would like us to revise it, we’ll make the changes for a reasonable fee,” said McAlexander. “We quote the service charge right up front.”