Residential elevator companies are notoriously difficult to deal with. There are very few of them and they know it.
And best of luck to you @Hoggirl
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Let us know the results!
Will you sell your condo, or rent it out? (Or maybe that’s for another thread).
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Keeping my fingers crossed, I hope they take the offer.
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Good luck on the bid!
When we moved from Chicagoland to San Diego, we didn’t consider this at all, which in retrospect we should have. My experience with the broken and sprained ankles should have been a heads up. Husband wanted a two story; I was fine either way. We put bids on both one and two story houses. One of them would have required a steep set of interior stairs from the ground level garage (with bedrooms and a bath) to the main floor. Very happy we got outbid!
Our current house is almost a ranch - the primary suite is down three steps because it originally was the garage. The front entrance is up four steps. Neither of these have railings. The back deck is raised from the pool/garage level and has two pairs of seven steps down, one set all in one and the other with a landing. Those do have railings. Both “upstairs” and “downstairs” have full baths, the lower with a walk in shower.
Those three interior steps (as noted in the other thread) were an issue for me during husband’s surgical recovery but he didn’t see a problem. I can see in the future putting ramps both to the front entrance and the interior if necessary. Both bathrooms are big enough for a wheelchair if needs be. We don’t have the other kinds of assistance, like grab bars and such. The laundry is in a small room next to the kitchen but someday I can see moving it into the “downstairs” bath in lieu of the double Jacuzzi tub and redoing the walk in shower to be much more agility friendly.
I would like to have some kind of rails for our pool because it just has wide steps now to enter. But when I had a broken foot a few years back, I was able to sit on the side of the pool, take off the boot, swing my legs over, and get into the pool. I exited the same way and that’s also how I always enter the hot tub. I won’t walk down those steps! So it’s workable.
We were in our early 60’s when we started looking and thought we were fit. But we were lucky to get any house - tough market - so likely would not have considered future aging needs. This will likely be the last house we own - no future plans to ever move. If needs be we have room to put a small house on the property - there’s a large RV pad, for instance. So it’s a good aging in place property although we didn’t think of that.
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For folks concerned about basement laundry (for self or parents), there can be workarounds.
My mother’s laundry room at her low income apartment was a pain. For years she used to do her laundry at my house…. and garden and/or putter while we were at work or school. When she got older, we had a routine where I’d take a bag of her laundry home with me every week or two, bring it back clean and hangered at my next visit. Easy peasy. In some situations, a neighbor could be hired for similar(?)
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Wow, you are a saint.
As laundry is the chore I hate the most I can’t imagine taking on my Mom’s as well 
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Honestly doing my mom’s laundry was probably easier than doing it for my kids (by then gone from the house). All easy care, washer/dryer… then throw on a hanger (overkill, but it made it easy for her to put away). Probably average of 1 load per week - she didn’t wash sheets very often, had always used small towels. She wore each item a few times before washing. And she hand washed her own support pantyhose, so no socks and usually no underwear. I was visiting her anyway, so no big deal to tote home a pillow case full of landry. She handled her own bills, appointments, banking/investments (online), ordering groceries on Walmart ToGo. So like I said, laundry was easy peasy… small favor to ask (though she did feel bad about asking)
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Good luck, @Hoggirl! Congrats on your decision. As a bonus - your question promoted a lot of thoughtful discussion on this thread that (I’m sure) helped a number of us think through related issues…
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Congratulations! I’m very excited for you! Please keep us posted. FWIW, I hate 2 foot surgeries, one I couldn’t walk for a month. I managed going up and down on my bottom.
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Our offer was accepted!
We are excited, but now I’m stressed - ha ha!
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Wow, wow, wow! Exciting! You minimized so much over the years that you can fit all your belongings in a couple boxes, right?! Good luck with the rest of the process! (including selling your current property if that is happening).
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Ha ha! No!
We will be taking some of our furniture. And, I have a clothing problem.
Planning to purge again before we go.
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Yay, congrats, Hoggirl!
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Wow, wow, wow! ! I’m so happy for you! I can’t wait to hear all about it. You can wear fall and winter clothes now again. As much as summer is my favorite season, winter clothes are my favorite to wear.
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Congratulations! Big move… but you’ve been there before/know what to expect.
How long were you away?
We talked about moving somewhere “fun” for a couple of years before grandkids. That’s kind of like what you did… but I’m guessing no grand kids coming soon.
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We have been here a little over six years. Florida is the state I grew up in. I moved my senior year of high school to the state where I (later) met dh.
It is a big move, but yes! Back to where we raised our ds.
However, I cannot imagine our ds ever returning to this state to live. So, even if we ever get any grandkids (still looking for a girlfriend so they are not on the horizon), they will likely not be local. Unless we move again to where he is! Ha ha! It will be nice for him for visits though, as he still has friends there. Interestingly the boys have mostly stayed in the area whereas the girls have mostly scattered. Also interesting, at least to me, is most of the guy friends have married, whereas none of the girl friends (friends who are girls) have.
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Not sad I will need to acquire those next fall! Ha ha!! I do love to shop.
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This is a timely thread for me. I had foot surgery today to remove the hardware from my broken ankle surgery a year ago. I’m so thankful that our house is one story, with only one small step from the walkway into the front door. I’m on an ankle scooter and boot for the first 24 hours and then tomorrow I can use the boot and walker for another couple of days. If I had to navigate stairs, there’s no way I could manage.
I grew up in a ranch style house and never lived in a 2-story. Never had a basement, either, since I’m from Florida. Of course I couldn’t foresee that I’d have a broken bone but I wouldn’t have chosen a house with stairs anyway when we downsized 3 years ago. I’m 72, H is 78. We’re not taking any chances! 
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You would if you had to. I had foot surgery 6 years ago and on a knee scooter for a month. My butt and arms got a great workout every morning and night. I moved all my bathroom stuff downstairs.
Since I had one broken and one sprained ankle, I couldn’t put weight on either of them. So I rented a small wheelchair for a month. Then I graduated to the walker and finally a cane. The problem with scooting myself up or down stairs was standing up - so I stayed downstairs in the dining room where I could access the kitchen and downstairs bath.
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