Changes?

Such as: when the kiddies moved out their bedrooms became either guest room, 2nd office, or fitness room?

Honestly I look around my house and think what a young family would do to it for Their lifestyle. At this point I'm used to the layout and have no desire for big changes. Perhaps if there was a fire I wouldn't replace carpeting in LR/DR but put down hardwood floors.

My kitchen was redone in my mid 40's. Contractor suggested I put lights under the upper cabiets to anticipate diminished eyesight. To this day I haven't regretted NOT putting in those lights.

It took almost 30 years in this house before I stopped worrying about resale. We have no plans in the near future to sell and within reason I want to decorate for ME. Gasp I kept kitchen cabinets with solid doors in last years' re do of the kitchen. No glass doors or open shelves for me.

I have no problem with new couples buying the "big and fancy" right away if that is what they want and more importantly, if they can afford the house and maintenance. There is a high cost for every real estate transaction (realtor fees, taxes, repairs, moving expenses, new drapes/furniture, etc), so buying a bit more house than you need can be a good strategy, so you don't need to move again for a longer period.

I am not downsizing as an empty nester! We'll be having less rooms, but they will all be larger, also larger doorways for any future mobility issues. One kid will still be coming home for a few years so one guest bedroom will still be setup as his room. When we get old enough to need help for everything in the house, then we'll really downsize!

The best thing we did when we bought this home 32 years ago when we had a middle school daughter was "downsize" from a 4 bedroom, living room/family room home to a 2 bedroom, living room home. Fell in love with the house and knew that we hardly had overnight company and that she would be leaving soon. It was the best house we could have bought! Of course, we changed her room from her room to a guest bedroom and that is really the only thing we did. Everything else pretty much stayed the same.

All of these are great ideas and we're doing many of them in our upcoming house. We don't have kids and we're 46 and 49. I wish my parents would do this for the house they've owned since 1974. They have a nice retirement fund but my mom is indecisive and frugal, she'll never get someone in to remove the tub for a walk-in shower. Thank you to everyone who's taking it upon themselves to make these changes and not forcing your childrens' hand.

@Jen K (7b, 8a), my in-laws are/were like that. They finally added the master bedroom and bath of their dreams and air conditioning. My FIL barely used it for a few weeks when his health declined and passed away. My MIL wondered why they waited so long to make their house more comfortable for their needs, specially with the added a/c. She is still enjoying her master bedroom and bath.

@Jen K (7b, 8a), that was our strategy - make it easy on the kids when that time comes. I purge household goods, clothing, etc. every year and we accumulate less and less. That was my mom's strategy as well so it was easy moving her from the big house to a townhome and now to an independent living apartment (she is 92).

We also made the decision to enjoy all these beautiful updates for ourselves and not worry about the next buyers, though my 30 year olds tell me they or their friends would snap up our house in a minute so I guess we have stayed current enough to attract the younger buyer.

As empty nesters we purchased a home with a first floor bedroom and bath. That way if we cannot get upstairs any longer, we can still live in our home.

We also made sure it can be paid by retirement so we have no mortgage debt.

What absolutely fantastic thoughts and ideas. I had no idea about some of these things. Some favorites are to make it for US (me). We won't be selling. We think so much as family living there, that we forget that'll soon be us and there are past needs that are no longer. I also like less stuff, more rooms - more room to move without junk. Interesting on the lighting for future. Good point. All fantastic.

We are fortunate to be relatively healthy and mobile, but I think the most important thing is having a bedroom, bathroom, laundry and kitchen on the main floor. Even if you are young and healthy, accidents happen, people get sick, mobility can be impaired for any number of reasons. These worries definitely become more tangible as you get older, even just going up and down stairs on creaky knees a couple times a day can be difficult. In the last house, laundry was in the basement. I had a great laundry room but it sure got old carrying stuff up and down. In our current house, I never have to use the stairs unless I need to clean the other level. :)

@crcollins1_gw, that is a valid point; our current home does not allow for that option. My mom, who is 92 and gives great advice, has always had stairs in her homes and swears it has been the stair-climbing that has kept her mobile and somewhat in shape. She is on the 4th floor of a senior living community facility now and takes the stairs (going down!) every day for exercise. She says "motion is the lotion!" So I remind myself and my husband of that philosophy every time we take the stairs!

@MinnesotaMary - I really should go up and down our stairs about 50 times a day! :D

We are preparing our house for aging in place. It is a ranch so we have that going for us. This year we upgraded the electrical and added a whole house generator. I don't want to have to haul wood for heat or water to flush the toilets so a generator was a must. We lose power often for extended periods. We also renovated our in ground pool to add stairs and a railing for easier access. I swim every day for exercise so this was on my bucket list.

Next year we will be adding a 3/4 bath and workout room in the walkout basement (yes there are stairs there) and renovating our full bath to be more accessible just in case. After that, we plan on adding central A/C as the Northeast is getting warmer every year.

My parents aged in place and my inlaws are in their 90's and still living independently in their home. We plan on doing the same.

We live on 14 rural acres so a couple years ago we upgraded our tractor to one with a heated and air conditioned cab. I'm in my 60's and already appreciate that luxury. It's nice to be warm plowing the driveway and cool when mowing the lawns and fields.

Don’t wait to make the changes it will take to age in place. We have a four bedroom 3 bath home that is beautiful. I renovated my kitchen in 2013 and to this day truly love it. Our home has some design issues but it’s on 3 1/2 wooded acres and we love the quiet vacation like atmosphere of ours woods.

This February my dear husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He has already had one incidence on the stairs plus we have a total of 3 sets of French doors, and one triple slider on the main level. On the lower level we have a double slider, a main front door, an end door and the garage door. Needless to say the opportunity for wandering out of one of those doors unnoticed is high.Thankfully we also have an all brick 3 bedroom, 2 bath rancher that I purchased basically as an insurance policy in case we weren’t able to age in place as planned.

We waited too long to make the move because his AD has advanced so rapidly that he went from being totally independent in the early summer to needing 24 hour oversight by the end of the year.

Now I have to take care of everything involved in making the move which is significant after living here for 24 years. I’m totally capable of being responsible for the move but had we done it sooner I could have counted on his input into the value of his tools, machinery, and vehicles. So my best advice is to take the bull by the horns early and make the change into an “aging in place“ friendly home or make your current home “aging in place friendly’. It’s later than you realize.

Holly-Kay, I am so sorry that you are experiencing this.

@Holly- Kay, I, too, am sorry you are going through what has to be an extremely challenging time. Thanks for reminding us that life is fragile. It's important to plan for the future.

@Holly- Kay I am so very sorry that your husband has Alzheimer’s! My father has it and we adult children are helping my mother care for him. It truly is such a hard disease and especially since it is progressing so quickly! I hope you have help and are patient with your self. Being the care taker while grieving at the “long goodby” is so very hard and overwhelming at times.

Thank you for the kind and encouraging words. I do hope that sharing a bit of the story may encourage others to start working towards having some thought to the future especially since situations can happen so quickly and come out of the blue.

We are so fortunate that DH won’t have to deal with stairs. The bathroom that has a tub does have hand rails and the master bath has a walk in shower with a seat. The lot is small and the best thing is we are just a few blocks from our middle daughter’s home. We truly are blessed even in the midst of this damnable disease.

One other thought is to get rid of old papers. My home office has 24 years worth of saved bank and financial statements, taxes, instruction booklets etc. I’m so glad that it will all be dealt with before moving so our daughters won’t have to deal with the mess some day!

Well, we don't have stairs or a basement so we're good there. My dh had a bad knee and during that time, we had removed outdoor stairs to more of a concrete incline. So that's taken care of! And seeing parents go through some of that, that was an obvious thing for me to get take care of. Paperwork could be a problem. I look everywhere and every sight says something different on keeping old home sales/boat sales, etc. But for the most part, I declutter MY stuff. I really have thought a lot about not waiting to get things done that I would like. I think about that soooo often that some day I'll be on my deathbed wondering why I just didn't read that book or wear that necklace or buy that picture, etc. We just put on a new roof, had the septic redone (from a lousy install), but really need flooring, windows, paint, a master bath redo and furniture since we have a cat... well... I'll stop there. We don't have that $$. But we do own our home free and clear.

I've spend oodles of years not doing something because of resale. Grrrrr. I so hate that mentality. I would choose a smaller home, but the prices just are worth starting over for!

In this last pandemic year, I spent some time addressing small irritants.

I bought bins for the refrigerator so now I can figure out what yogurt or fruit we need in two seconds.

I realized our silverware organizer was a literally crumb-y ineffective mess, so I bought some new organizers that make using that drawer a pleasure.

The sconce in our upstairs half bath threw no light, so we replaced it with a two light model that I also love the look of.

Our laundry room had an IKEA pull out accordion laundry rack sticking out 8" from the wall as you entered. It made the room look perpetually messy. I found an accordion rack that completely folds against the wall behind two small "doors" and the lovely cabinetry is now a focus.

Our kitchen faucet was 15 years old and we had never had a sprayer. We bought a pull-down arced sprayer.

Some of these took time and being rigorous about what was a change and what was a real solution, but none took major dollars and all have improved our daily life to an amazing degree!