Quote Originally Posted by shootingstar View Post
An ideal situation might be have a large lot with a house and then a small cutie, studio house. When things get difficult in physical abilities, sell or rent the bigger and occupy the studio house.
It doesn't matter how big or little the house is, it's absolutely useless for getting in and out of if there are steps required to get in. Try getting up even two steps if you are using a walker or wheelchair. When I was discharged from the hospital after fracturing vertebrae, my little sister had to lift me up the steps to get into my parent's house. Just two steps, but impossible for me to navigate in my condition. Thankfully she is trained as an EMT so she knew how to do it without injuring me or herself.

It's possible to design homes with zero-step threshhold, and still keep the rain out. I know an architect with a young family who designed his home this way. They love that they didn't have to lug strollers up and down steps when their kids were little. Also it's a 3-level home but he has stacked the closets on top of each other so that if they ever need to put in an elevator they will save a ton of money on structural.

The point is, the way our current housing stock and even most new housing stock is built will probably not be able to accommodate the needs and wants of our seniors, who are increasing in absolute numbers every year. That's basic baby boomer demographics. Concepts like aging in place and universal design need to be a lot more mainstream than they have been.