There often comes a time when your home doesn’t seem as friendly as it used to be. The staircases can feel like mountain climbing and stepping in and out of the shower becomes an obstacle course. You’ve changed while the house has stayed the same.

When this happens, a common thought is to sell the home and move to a retirement community that is more accommodating to an aging lifestyle. But what if the home you already love could change along with you?

Just as homes are remodeled to handle a growing family in the early years, it can again be remodeled to work with your changing abilities in the later years. This concept is known as aging in-place, with architects and designers becoming certified in a form of accessible design that gives the maturing Baby Boom generation the freedom of modifying homes to work with their changing lifestyles.

Accessible design is solution-based remodeling. For example, climbing the stairs to get to your master bedroom upstairs or the laundry in the basement can be hard on older legs. Moving your master suite and laundry to the main floor of the house removes the stair-climbing issue. This is possible by re-configuring the floorplan to convert spaces no longer used as much as they once were into the places you need to use every day.

Your master bathroom is another key accessible design area. Converting a tub with shower into a walk-in shower with bench seating and handheld shower head transforms an obstacle into an asset that is just as functional as it is beautiful.

When Is Accessible Design Right for You?

There are important factors to weigh when deciding if you should stay in your current home or move to a retirement community:

• If you love your current home, the neighborhood and the community amenities you’re familiar with, it may be better for your peace of mind and happiness to modify rather than relocate.

• If you’re free – or nearly free – of monthly mortgage payments, it may be more cost effective to remodel for accessibility than incur the expense of moving and taking on a monthly lease or new mortgage.

• If you’re already contemplating remodeling a home you plan to stay in, incorporating accessibility features now can help you benefit from this investment for an even longer period of time.

• If you’re wondering how accessible features will affect re-sale value, you can learn from a Certified Aging In-Place Specialist (CAPS) how mobility assists all generations, and how these universal design features make a home desirable for a broad range of buyers.

Should you stay or should you go? Educating yourself on the benefits of accessible design is an important step in answering this question. Mosby Building Arts has deeply experienced Certified Aging In-Place Specialist on staff, and their accessible design process begins with exploring the details of how you live, and what new challenges you are facing now or anticipate facing in the future. These needs are coupled with your aesthetic desires to create a home that is as beautiful as it is functional. And Mosby craftsmen build and install all your accessible features with the care and quality you expect for long-lasting value.

To explore how to stay in your home for a lifetime, call the Mosby office at 314.909.1800 or contact them here.

50+ living in your own home is all about independent, barrier-free comfort and function.  It’s a form of accessibility that benefits all the generations of your family and friends who come into your home, which is why it is also known as Universal Design.

Remaining in your home requires thinking about how your life is currently, and what your needs might be for the future.  This is where a Certified Aging In-Place Specialist (CAPS) can assist you with the questions, designs and remodeling you will need to turn your house into a home for a lifetime.

Interior Accessible Design

A St. Louis couple had been in the same home for decades.  They had raised a family there, and their children and grandchildren all lived nearby.  Nearing retirement, they realized that they wanted to stay in their own home within the their community, but wanted to explore how to prepare the house for the years ahead.

Working with a Mosby Building Arts CAPS designer, they reviewed current needs and future concerns and decided to make the master bathroom their first mobility project because this where we tend to first notice changing capabilities.  Standing in the shower, the low height of a toilet bowl or operating the hot and cold taps on the sink becomes a bit more difficult.  There are many functional solutions to all of these issues, but it should also be attractive so that we are inspired by our surroundings.  Or as we say about all our CAPS remodeling projects: “Mobility Is Beautiful!”

To look at this bathroom, you would not immediately know that it’s accessible, but it certainly is.  The His and Hers bathroom vanities have single-lever faucet handles for ease of use, and are separated by a chair-height counter top with open space below.  This can accommodate a chair now or a wheelchair in the future.

The toilet is of taller height than average with a grab bar to the right which makes it easier to access, and comes with a push-button control pad mounted to the bathroom cabinet.

The walk-in shower has a low-clearance threshold, multiple brushed, stainless grab bars, a handheld shower wand and a retractable teak wood bench mounted to the wall.

See more photos of this accessible bathroom project.

All of these accessible master bathroom items can be used now for ease of use and security, and should there be a time when they need these features, having them already in place helps with these changes.  And at all times, it is a beautiful space that is already enhancing their lifestyle.

Exterior Accessible Design

We have a remodeling client that we’ve worked with on previous mobility projects.  She is currently vibrant and active, but is thinking ahead and prefers to be prepared.  We have moved her laundry room from the basement to a new ground floor addition off the garage, and even built new, shallow steps for easier access from the garage to the house (above).

She is also a veteran gardener with a gorgeous backyard, so we came up with designs to make her outdoor living just as accessible as indoors.  We designed and built a new patio with a lightly textured concrete surface for better traction, and a screen porch with a zero-clearance entry from the patio so that a walker or wheelchair.

Her favorite feature is the concrete ramp that takes one from the patio down into the garden.  She already enjoys how convenient the lack of steps is, which highlights how so many of the universal designs just make good sense for everyone who uses them.

See more photos of this project.

Other features that add mobility and beauty to outdoor living include increased lighting, raised flower planters and beds, raised height water spigots and wide sliding or French doors leading out to the area. When done properly, nothing looks out of the ordinary because it looks extraordinary.

Mosby Building Arts has three CAPS team members – including Scott Mosby who was the first national CAPS ambassador – who are certified and experienced at helping you live more comfortably in your home for all your days.  To explore your options for beautiful mobility, call us at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.