Aging in Place
http://www2.allblues.org/aroundthehouse/articles/26/1/Aging-in-Place
By
Published on 09/1/2006
In September, Around the House with KPLU explores Aging in Place, a design concept for people who want their homes to mature with them. As homeowners across the country and Puget Sound transition into retirement, they are remodeling their homes to accommodate their changing lifestyles.
For one Seattle homeowner, the transition meant creating a new apartment in her current home with future independence in mind.
Gaspar's Construction, a residential design/build firm in Seattle, helped revamp
this Greenlake home to meet the owner's future needs.
In September, Around the House with KPLU explores Aging in Place, a design concept for people who want their homes to mature with them. As homeowners across the country and Puget Sound transition into retirement, they are remodeling their homes to accommodate their changing lifestyles. For one Seattle homeowner, the transition meant creating a new apartment in her current home with future independence in mind.
Gaspar's Construction, a residential design/build firm in Seattle, helped revamp
this Greenlake home to meet the owner's future needs.
The Challenge
Retirement isn't what it used to be. While previous generations may have settled comfortably into spending one's twilight years at home or on the golf course, the baby boomer generation is again revolutionizing popular trends, and looking to reinvent retirement as we know it. Naturally, the people who are changing retirement are also changing their homes to fit their plans, and ushering in a new era of pragmatic remodeling known as "aging-in-place."
One local boomer, the owner of a classic brick Tudor in Seattle's Greenlake neighborhood, sought to remodel her unfinished basement to accommodate a whole spectrum of life phases to come. For her requirements she called upon the help of Cathy Gaspar of Gaspar's Construction, a residential design/build firm in Seattle. The client was only 50 years old, but expressed a desire for a house revamp that would not only meet her present needs, but would also work for her future interests.
The remodeled space would have to accommodate three major life stages: At the time of the remodel, her daughter lived at home, so the client wanted to create a fun and private place for her daughter and her daughter's friends to hang out in. In the early half of her retirement, while she was still healthy and active, the client wanted to be able to rent the upstairs and utilize the basement space as a completely separate apartment, where she could live when she wasn't out traveling the world. For the third stage, the client wished to use the space as adjoining living quarters for either a live-in caretaker or her adult daughter.
The space wasn't a lot to look at when the project began. The basement was completely unfinished and included a former garage space that had been walled in years before, as part of the overall footprint. Due to this design quirk, the wall that separated the "garage" from the rest of the basement had extra firewall protection and was structurally challenging to work with. Additionally, the floor of the former parking space was higher than the rest of the basement. Gaspar's leveled the parking area, and then ripped out the existing flooring before installing radiant heating throughout the floor of the entire basement.
Two members of the Gaspar crew install radiant flooring.
This unfinished corner eventually housed the new family room and bedroom.
One local boomer, the owner of a classic brick Tudor in Seattle's Greenlake neighborhood, sought to remodel her unfinished basement to accommodate a whole spectrum of life phases to come. For her requirements she called upon the help of Cathy Gaspar of Gaspar's Construction, a residential design/build firm in Seattle. The client was only 50 years old, but expressed a desire for a house revamp that would not only meet her present needs, but would also work for her future interests.
The remodeled space would have to accommodate three major life stages: At the time of the remodel, her daughter lived at home, so the client wanted to create a fun and private place for her daughter and her daughter's friends to hang out in. In the early half of her retirement, while she was still healthy and active, the client wanted to be able to rent the upstairs and utilize the basement space as a completely separate apartment, where she could live when she wasn't out traveling the world. For the third stage, the client wished to use the space as adjoining living quarters for either a live-in caretaker or her adult daughter.
The space wasn't a lot to look at when the project began. The basement was completely unfinished and included a former garage space that had been walled in years before, as part of the overall footprint. Due to this design quirk, the wall that separated the "garage" from the rest of the basement had extra firewall protection and was structurally challenging to work with. Additionally, the floor of the former parking space was higher than the rest of the basement. Gaspar's leveled the parking area, and then ripped out the existing flooring before installing radiant heating throughout the floor of the entire basement.
Two members of the Gaspar crew install radiant flooring.
Before the basement apartment had a new bathroom and fireplace, there was this!
This unfinished corner eventually housed the new family room and bedroom.
Advice from the Master Builders Association
With all three stages in mind - live-in daughter, rental, live-in caretaker - the client asked Gaspar's to transform her unfinished basement into a light-filled, stylistically-appropriate, fully-functioning apartment, complete with a kitchen, live/work area, media room, dining room and bathroom.
To make the space feel more like an apartment and less like a cave, they installed full-sized windows and glass pocket doors between each room, maximizing light throughout the lower level. A gas fireplace was installed in the media room, adding a homey feel to the cozy quarters.
To turn the space into a fully-functioning, separate apartment, Gaspar's cleaned up the existing walk-out entry, adding new windows, tile features and a new screen door to create a welcoming entrance. The ceilings were also enhanced with acoustic insulation, offering a sound barrier between the lower and upper living quarters.
To allow the space to act as just another part of the home, the entrance between the floors was retained, yet fitted with the flexibility to lock the entrance, should the lower or upper level be used as a rental apartment. Additionally, the laundry room was made to be accessible from either floor.
In order to ready the new quarters for aging-in-place necessities, walls were backed with reinforcement that could hold grab bars when the time came for them to be installed. All the doorways were made 32" wide or wider, in order to accommodate a wheelchair. By thinking ahead and preparing the house in this fashion, the client saved herself the added expense of additional remodels in the future.
When the remodel was done, the client had nearly doubled the functional space of her home, accommodated her daughter's needs, turned her house into a financial asset that would allow her the flexibility to travel and readied her home for any physical changes her life might bring - all while creating a gorgeous, cheery living space she could be proud to call home.
Thanks to Gaspar's Construction for contributing their ideas and information on behalf of the Master Builders Association. For more information on the MBA, go to www.masterbuildersinfo.com.
Contribute your home transition stories to Similar Projects, a great way for KPLU listeners to get involved with Around the House's monthly feature. Click here for details.
To make the space feel more like an apartment and less like a cave, they installed full-sized windows and glass pocket doors between each room, maximizing light throughout the lower level. A gas fireplace was installed in the media room, adding a homey feel to the cozy quarters. To turn the space into a fully-functioning, separate apartment, Gaspar's cleaned up the existing walk-out entry, adding new windows, tile features and a new screen door to create a welcoming entrance. The ceilings were also enhanced with acoustic insulation, offering a sound barrier between the lower and upper living quarters.
To allow the space to act as just another part of the home, the entrance between the floors was retained, yet fitted with the flexibility to lock the entrance, should the lower or upper level be used as a rental apartment. Additionally, the laundry room was made to be accessible from either floor. In order to ready the new quarters for aging-in-place necessities, walls were backed with reinforcement that could hold grab bars when the time came for them to be installed. All the doorways were made 32" wide or wider, in order to accommodate a wheelchair. By thinking ahead and preparing the house in this fashion, the client saved herself the added expense of additional remodels in the future.
When the remodel was done, the client had nearly doubled the functional space of her home, accommodated her daughter's needs, turned her house into a financial asset that would allow her the flexibility to travel and readied her home for any physical changes her life might bring - all while creating a gorgeous, cheery living space she could be proud to call home.A fresh, new dining area preserves the potential for company.
Thanks to Gaspar's Construction for contributing their ideas and information on behalf of the Master Builders Association. For more information on the MBA, go to www.masterbuildersinfo.com.
Contribute your home transition stories to Similar Projects, a great way for KPLU listeners to get involved with Around the House's monthly feature. Click here for details.