“Aging in place” is the new catchword of both boomers and their aging parents who want to remain living independetly in their homes after retirement. This often involves adapting their current home through senior-friendly home improvements or remodeling or making use of assistive technologies.
While some seniors, retired or not, are affluent and active, others have been set back financially by the financial meltdown and recession, and particularly by the sharp decline in housing prices while facing a relentless climb in property tax
es. Regardless of their financial situation, seniors overwhelmingly choose to live independently at home.
This series of articles will help identify trends, technologies, specific home improvements, and resources that can help seniors in their quest for independent living.
Some of the topics that we will explore in this section include the following:
- Living styles: Retirement is an opportunity to enjoy new experiences. With a broad array of attractive living choices, younger seniors often prefer to stay in the community in which they raised their family rather than retire to a condo in Florida for shuffleboard and earlybird specials. They may downsize to a more manageable home, often in a newly built over-50 community of smaller homes nearby with attractive amenities and the latest technologies, an appealing alternative to moving far from family and friends. If they are affluent, they may maintain a vacation home within a few hours’ drive, opt for a luxury mobile home, or vacation on a sailboat.
- Technology enhances independent living: Technology makes life easier for seniors, more comfortable or less risky. Lighting controls, smart appliances, Internet access and communications technology, assistive technologies, ambient assistive living, and monitoring and emergency alert systems are interrelated technology solutions that contribute to senior homeowners’ independence.
- Home improvements and remodeling: Many home improvements are inexpensive and can enhance independent living. Changing faucets and doorknobs, and adding grab bars and railings are some of the less-expensive improvements that pay off in enhanced convenience and confidence.
- Finding contractors: Many homeowners are handy enough to complete just about any home improvement project. But if the project is too demanding, hire a handyman or specialized contractor. This article will explore how to find and deal with contractors to assure a quality job without a surprising cost.
- Lighting: Older people need more light and higher contrast to see clearly. Installing brighter bulbs, replacing old fixtures with track lighting, and adding under-cabinet lights to illuminate countertops are helpful strategies.
- Safety issues: Protecting against falls is the most important safety issue, since a broken hip will often put an end to independent living. Installing adequate lighting and safety bars and railings, keeping flashlights handy, especially next to the bed, and programming phones for autodial are simple but effective ways to manage risk.
- Financing: Sometimes seniors decline to make essential repairs and improvements because they can’t afford them. Often there are sources of volunteer work and/or financing available to help with such repairs and improvements.
- Scams: Never give an unknown phone caller your credit card number or other personal information, regardless of your view of the caller’s intentions. Don’t respond to an unsolicited email from anyone requesting an account number. Don’t hire a contractor who rings your doorbell unsolicited. These are nearly always indicative of scams. This article provides rules to follow that will help to protect against scams.
You will find articles here that treat many of these topics, describing home improvement and technology solutions that enable and enhance aging in place — seniors’ independent living at home.
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