Thread Drift

[Pax]

Congrats, Crankin!

[Crankin]

Still waiting for the 2 people to get back here with their respective spouses. One is a woman with 2 younger kids, who was stringent in telling our agent they are "a Waldorf family," which is good, because the type of people who send their kids to a Waldorf school would love our house. Her question was, although her kids would love playing in the woods, could they put a lawn in... and what about a pool? Oy. DH sent a detailed plot plan with 2 reasonable ideas for a lawn (I could kinda see this, but not having one is a draw, actually) and then asked our agent if she was aware that we have a neighborhood pond, with a beach?! She may not have seen this in the brochure, as it's at the end. This woman lives in a town that I wouldn't want to live in, so I think there is motivation there. The other guy lived in Cambridge and works at a pharma company. Not clear is they are renting or have a home.
DH spent all day yesterday doing demolition at the condo. There's more we want to change than we planned, but, that's how it goes. There is only one room with carpet (the sunroom) and it is in terrible shape, so we need to replace that. It's a small room, though. DH agrees that we can't live with the bathtubs... that will be an expensive change, but just having the handicapped bars are creeping me out. I know people are telling me "I might need them," but I would rather ignore that advice at this point. Plus, the tile is dated and the tubs actually are a bit ugly.
DH met our neighbors. Apparently, he is the youngest person there, and one of the very few males. As I mentioned way earlier in this thread, West Concord is populated by widowed women, and now I see just how true this is. It's mainly because the condos/townhouses here are a bit cheaper than in other surrounding areas. These people are not quite old enough to be our parents, but maybe aunts or uncles. It should be interesting. I don't do well with "neighbors," but I will try to smile. At the closing, the sellers made me sad. They were smart people, but seemed so "old," despite only being maybe 10 years older than me. We didn't want to say too much about all of the changes we are making, but they asked us if we were excited about the "new white appliances," and we said we were replacing them with stainless... they were aghast, because of "all of the fingerprints." I told them we had had stainless appliances for many years, and there is a special cleaner, which they did not know about. I know all of this is unimportant, but I do find it interesting to see how how others age. My role models are people who are 75 and riding 50 miles a day, which of course, is not the norm. And, my own grandparents didn't seem as old as these people.

[OakLeaf]

Good luck, Crankin.

You got me to thinking, how accessibility features are usually unattractive, and how much that's a sign of ableism in interior design (or structural engineering? not sure which specialty I'm talking about!). Maybe that will be the next frontier, as designers themselves age. I wonder how many falls every year can be attributed to either people who refused to install grab bars because they're so ugly, or to half-azzed solutions that are attractive but not structurally stable and not up to the task when someone does need them. I know there are many other barriers to people making their homes accessible, but ugly really shouldn't be one of them.

[ny biker]

Crankin, I just saw this on a local news blog -- looks like if might affect your sale.

https://www.arlnow.com/2015/09/29/as...impact-buyers/

BTW when you gut the bathrooms you should consider adding blocking for grab bars to be added later on. Even if you never need them, it sounds like it would be a good selling point down the road (probably way down the road, but still).

I put in blocking and a few grab bars in my bathroom because I don't think old age or infirmity are the only reasons to have them. Merely being weakened by the flu or hurting your knee can lead you to want something to grab so you can steady yourself as you get in or out of a tub. I slipped and fell stepping into a tub in a hotel recently and without the grab bar I probably would have hit my head. And it's now possible to buy some that don't look like you're in a hospital room.

[shootingstar]

I put in blocking and a few grab bars in my bathroom because I don't think old age or infirmity are the only reasons to have them. Merely being weakened by the flu or hurting your knee can lead you to want something to grab so you can steady yourself as you get in or out of a tub. I slipped and fell stepping into a tub in a hotel recently and without the grab bar I probably would have hit my head. And it's now possible to buy some that don't look like you're in a hospital room.

Ny, good point.

For first 4 days after my concussion accident off the bike after cyclist collided into me, I could not stand and take a shower. In fact, I didn't even take a bath. I was too dizzy...even to make simple turns in the kitchen to wash a cup or chop some veggies. There's actually a lot of body turning, and head movement to execute simple daily tasks around home indoors.
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Within the last 5 years, several friends around my age ('50s) and all women who are physically fit, no weight problems etc. have had: broken/sprained wrist/leg/ankle, strained their back (including my 50 yr. old sister who jogs every day for past 15 yrs., has run marathons) where they ended up in bed for a few days /very limited mobility for a few weeks.

We're mortal, and even the strongest of us, will at minimum, fall off our bike at least once in a lifetime. Even those of us who have cycled regularily for past few decades.

[Crankin]

The ones that are in there now are butt ugly, looks like a hospital room. I am sorry, I can't deal with this at this stage of my life. We've had things that made it difficult to move (fractured knee, flu, etc, DH's broken wrists and collar bone) and we never considered putting in bars. We are going to have the tile/bars gutted and put in swanstone surrounds. Maybe I am being stupid, but I just don't want to be old. I've had enough crashes/dumb accidents to know we all can fall, but this will not be part of my interior design right now. You guys are being realistic, and this is a very sore point with me. Everyone in my family lives to 90 with not too much infirmity and generally I deal better with problems of young people rather than older people. I know you are right, but I do not want to have reminders of possible infirmity.
I am aware of that mortgage/financial rule change. I don't think that is it. People looking at this price range are generally pre-qualified. The combination of a contemporary home, on a hill, with no grass, means our pool of prospective buyers is smaller, as New Englanders tend to be somewhat provincial in their ideas about homes. Most people want an 8 room colonial or Cape on an acre lot of grass. The woman with the kids is still interested; our agent had a talk with her today, about getting her husband here. We know we make these decisions more quickly than others, so we are impatient.

[shootingstar]

We just have 1 bar by the bathtub-shower in Vancouver. It came with the place when bought new from the condo builder...over 15 years ago. AFter awhile it becomes like wallpaper: you don't notice it.

Just 1 bar would have been appreciated in this location of home is helpful.