Handrails are the key!
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I’m not on this group, but I get pictures on FB from a group called “Death Stairs” and this picture popped up recently. Seems apropos for this discussion:
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I prefer two story homes with a balcony off of the master bedroom. So, yes, in answer to OP’s question.
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I just love the hive mind of CC!
Thank you so much for all the thoughts about this possible purchase for us. Lots of fodder for discussion for dh and me.
The point about universal design is interesting. My mil lives in a one-story home that she thinks is well-suited for aging in place. It really isn’t. I am not sure it could be adapted as she thinks it could, so there is definitely a distinction. One-story in and of itself is not sufficient.
As I wrote somewhere up thread, I am not concerned about this being our, “final,” home. I have thought that many times with our home purchases.
We like everything about this place: new construction, price point, location, and no yard. It is slightly larger than our current place, so we have crept up in size since our large down-size. We are now at 1,650 and this place is 1,919. However (other than clothing and shoes), I am very mindful about not creeping up in, “stuff.” I had to deal with that issue with the sudden and unexpected deaths of my parents in my early 20’s, and I will not put that burden on our ds. Because I did not deal with aging parents, I don’t have that experience to draw from as we consider this.
Right now, mil could visit us and navigate stairs just fine. I’m sure that won’t last. The laundry is upstairs as well, so it would mostly be an issue of schlepping luggage up and down when we traveled or anyone came to visit.
Looking at the floor plan, I am thinking it might be possible in the future to make the downstairs half bath a full bath, though I am not sure. We’d likely just move again if we needed to. I get that would be challenging if we were in the middle of a medical crisis.
I will report back when we make a decision - which I expect will be soon.
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But what you don’t see when you travel are the elderly who are stuck inside.
My next door neighbor is currently trying to manage, from afar, the care of his parents back in his country of origin. They are in their late 70s, and his dad now has mobility issues and his mom has memory issues. His hometown has excellent weather and the lifestyle is very active and the local diet excellent. People walk up and down hills to the market each day to buy fresh produce etc. So his parents did everything “right”. They were very fit and active…until very rapidly they weren’t.
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And to add to Fiftyfifty’s excellent post-
There is MS and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and ALS all over the world. Keeping to a Mediterranean diet and walking up and down hills and not smoking and all that jazz is terrific. But there is zero evidence that you can avoid these diseases-- some of which reduce mobility slowly, and some which reduce mobility so rapidly the family can’t keep up with the changes. I had a parent with early onset Alzheimer’s who went from driving to work to bedridden and confined to a wheelchair in a matter of months. By the time we had the “it’s not safe to drive” family discussion it was moot…
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Well if MIL won’t be able to navigate those stairs sooner than later, she can’t visit. My vote is buy it NOW!
I better be careful, I’m going to be a MIL soon! Lol!
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OP alluded to something I was thinking, that people’s willingness to do a two-story perhaps aligns with their willingness to move again if needed.
Friday night, I was in a new Zoom book club with several people who I had never met. Turns out that I was the only one in the group who still lives in the first house they bought. The idea of moving many times is not appealing to me in the least, which is probably why I live in a one-story and only want to live in a one-story and want to age in a one-story. I don’t want another mortgage or any of the stuff that comes with moving, but that might be appealing to many. That means a two-story house at 60 is just another stop on the way to a final home many years down the road.
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We are not in our first house (a 2 story in NY, 1 bathroom upstairs). But we’ve been in the current house for 30 years. Originally the first floor den/guestroom with attached bathroom mentioned yesterday was planned for the older visitors we expected. However in recent years we’ve thought it is helpful for aging place.
Since the den and downstairs shower are so small, I’ve also thought of a contingency plan to use the corner of our 2-story family room for a make-shift elevator (temporary lift system) if ever needed for a wheelchair. Not sure it is possible, but it made for an interesting conversation topic with the kids at the holidays.
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Here you go:
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Thanks! This is the kind of thing I have in mind (full flight), as a contingency plan. Thought it might need to be hand-built, but this could work. (Not interested in a “real elevator”, though we do have some friends considering building one at an outside wall).
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I’m not doing these stairs anytime soon!!
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Part of the reason for wanting to sell/move is to take the appreciation on this property tax-free. It would be a move back to dh’s home state (where his mom and sister are) and to the specific area of that state where we raised our ds and still have many friends. Selling will provide us with a nice surplus of cash because we can buy much lower in the flyover state (albeit without the Gulf view). That cash can generate additional income whereas the appreciated value does not. Also, any market downside will hit harder in a more expensive place.
The last two hurricane seasons have been a bit nerve-wracking as well.
Moving is a pain, I agree. But, it’s not an insurmountable task.
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I’m visiting my S and DIL in Seattle. We browsed some townhomes yesterday that just came on the market. I"ve been contemplating getting a small place here and another in NC, where my other son lives. The townhomes we saw yesterday were three stories, with one bedroom on the first level and another on the third. High ceilings, which means lots of stairs – in one townhome, there were 16 stairs to get to the next level, and in another there were 17. I thought of this thread and concluded, Nope, no way.
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Welcome to the land of the so called “Ballard Box” - a skinny tall townhouse nicknamed after the city area where a local construction company began building them.
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Thinking about the responses and I realize we all look at this through our own lens. For some of us who have lived in only a few homes we can’t imagine a purchase at this time of life that might mean moving again. I’ve lived in only two houses since college. The present one for 35 years and I have no desire to move. Until my knee replacement I hadn’t put much thought into aging in this home. I know we can make this house work with some small adjustments. For someone like @Hoggirl who has moved several times it’s not like this is her last home and she is ok with that.
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I agree. We’ve moved over 10 times. I never assume it’s the forever house.
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Yes but…
If you’ve had to move a parent in a hurry (which many of us have done" the sticking point isn’t “is this my forever home”. It is 'Can I recoup my investment if I have to sell in a hurry" (which is no small matter if you need to pay for intense nursing/rehab care) and “how long would it take to get modifications done if I decide to stay”.
I got an entry ramp installed for a parent in 48 hours after a hospitalization (it could have been immediate, but there was a weird twist in the stairway and the contractor wanted to wait to get the right piece to eliminate a cumbersome bump). It would have taken weeks to modify the bathroom on the ground floor if that hadn’t happened already, and months to construct a bedroom on the ground floor if a family room/office wasn’t there already. You don’t always have months. And you don’t always have access to the cash you need to wave it around to get a vendor to push you up in the queue!!! And staying in rehab to wait out construction is going to be an out of pocket expenses ticking away once you’re deemed medically cleared to go home!
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Yep, my parents put themselves in a terrible situation. My mom had mobility issues ( in her early 70’s) and refused to move from a home with no full bath on the first floor. When she had an injury and lost part of her foot, well it was a nightmare. Dealing with this while raising young kids, FIL with dementia, ugh! I think about these things all the time because I had a front row seat in what not to do.
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Well after this weekend I probably will not buy another house with stairs. All I was doing was moving my sewing room back upstairs after my grown D moved out. Up and down with heavy stuff was a real pain in the tail. I don’t mind stairs but moving stuff up them is a different story. So even if you get the move done with help if you decided to mess around with furniture placement you have that to worry about.
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