Home accessibility and aging in place are becoming common topics of conversation. These, along with preparing for the unexpected, are important considerations at Elements. You see, my father became disabled when he was in his early 40s. Unfortunately, our home was not wheelchair accessible. Because of this, I try to be more cognizant about accessibility when designing and building homes.
Though home accessibility and aging in place may be important to you, as well, you are probably wondering if it costs more to build a home that is wheelchair accessible or can accommodate future aging needs. For example, does a three-foot wide door cost more than a two-foot six-inch door? Yes, it does. The cost difference, however, is not very substantial. If three-foot doors are planned for, rather than added later, we can figure that into the home building budget.
Honestly, when you are building a home with aging in place and accessibility in mind, we don’t want cost to be your deciding factor, however. Our goal is to help you build an accessible home affordably. To do this, we must plan before we build. Therefore, during the design phase, we must discuss your future home needs. For example…
- How long do you plan to live in this home?
- Will you host aging parents for dinner?
- Are you planning to take care of older relatives?
- Do you have a disabled family member?
- Do you just have bad knees?
These are all things to consider so that appropriate accessibility can be incorporated into your home design. As we stated earlier, if you design aging in place components into your home up front, these features can be considered during bidding and budgeting.
In other words, you know what your home needs are. So, communicate those needs in order to help your home designer and builder plan for an efficient, affordable, and accessible home.
Ready to start designing your accessible home?! Click here to contact us! We’d love the opportunity to put you in your Element!
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