Dwellings you LOVE

[shootingstar]

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.

.............................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.

Yes, totally agree ++1 NByNW.

This thread hasn't gone the way, that Reesha might have expected. But still it's wanting the ideal place for a long time.

[Reesha]

This thread will be what it will be, but when I have an awesome house that I love to post, there is a place for it!

[zoom-zoom]

It's interesting the discussion of design and aging. Recently DH and I have talked about maybe someday building a house. We had planned to do this before DS came along, then ended up buying our current fixer-upper moneypit.

I found a plan that I really liked, but it was 2 stories. DH immediately put the kibosh on that thought. We're not people who like to move a lot (we've been in our current house nearly 12 years) and he pointed out that anything we build would likely be the house we retire in (we're both pushing 40).

[Koronin]

I would love to have a two story home with a full finished basement. However the basement part is basically impossible apparently in most of the state of NC. In western NC the mountains make it very difficult and at the coast the water table is too high. The two story homes I like are just way, way too expensive. (I think that's partly from growing up in a two story home that I loved). The one bigger thing I wish I had was a nice front porch, we have a great back deck, but I'd love a large front porch. Also a childhood memory from the home we lived in when I was pretty young before moving across town. (Both homes were two stories with a finished basement). Otherwise I really like our home.

[skhill]

There's a place down the street from me that I just love. The house itself is pretty typical-- about 100 yrs old, cottage, roughly 1000 sqft, big front porch. It's the yard that's fantastic. There's a pear tree in the front, and in back, the chickens have a well-fenced area with a handsome coop/house. There are a series of raised garden beds, and a tiny greenhouse. The family's chickens have more room to play than the kids!

[ny biker]

My father has lived in the same house since he was 12 years old. He is now 76. My mother has lived there for more than 50 years, and she is 74. It's two stories with a basement. The house is on a hill, so the basement is below ground in the front of the house but ground-level in the back. When they go out to the car, they usually go out through the basement. The basement is also where they do laundry, store a lot of their food (the kitchen is small so there is a pantry area in the laundry room, along with a full-size freezer). There's also a work room for my father and his large model train layout.

Their bedroom is on the second floor of the house.

So my parents walk up and down stairs all day long. Honestly, I think it's one of the reasons why they are in such good health for their age, because they are constantly getting exercise as they go about their lives.

(If they had to, they could move their bedroom to the main floor, though my father would hate that since there is no heat in that room.)

[emily_in_nc]

So my parents walk up and down stairs all day long. Honestly, I think it's one of the reasons why they are in such good health for their age, because they are constantly getting exercise as they go about their lives.

I totally agree. I'm 50, and DH is 58, and I wouldn't hesitate to build a two-story house again if we were going to build a house. My mom is 77 and still lives in a two-story house and does fine. It's actually some of the only exercise she gets, so I am glad she has stairs to climb! I fully intend to be able to do stairs for a long, long time. Only time living in a two-story (w/all bedrooms and showers upstairs) wasn't good was when I fractured my pelvis and had to have a hospital bed in the living room until I could butt-scoot up the stairs.

We live in a four-story condo building now, and the wife of the couple who live in the penthouse is scared of elevators and always takes the stairs. She's 72 and very fit. That's exactly how I plan to be. And if by chance I'm not, I'll deal with it. I've moved enough in my lifetime that having to move again due to a physical limitation wouldn't be a huge deal.

We happen to live on the first floor in a single-story condo now, but that wasn't by choice; it was just the only condo available that suited our needs. If we could have put this condo on a higher floor, we would have done it and taken the steps. It's just more private being on an upper floor.