How old are your parents?  How many of you have been involved with elderly parents or know someone who has had to drop everything to take care of their parents’ changing needs? Many boomers are dealing with these issues NOW and will be facing them personally within the next decade or two.

When I talk with my boomer friends these days, we commiserate about our elderly parents.  I’ve gone through all the stages involved with a changing parent-child relationship.  I became the parent and had to move my parents out of their long time Connecticut home of 50 + years to a safer, easier to navigate environment.   It would have been much better to leave them in their home because they had been so comfortable there.  However, with two stories, steps to the front door, and inaccessible sinks, counters, etc, it would have been impossible for them to stay in their home.

Traditional home designs don’t easily accommodate changes in people’s lives and abilities as they age. Sometimes people have to move, a costly choice, because their home no longer supports these changes. Wouldn’t it be less expensive to have home design that can be easily modified and adapted to many different needs?

We have more advanced materials and amenities in our homes, but our floor plans are very similar to homes built 100 years ago, when the average life expectancy was less than 50 years old. Today the average life expectancy is 80 years of age.

Consider this:

1/3 of all Boomers are more than 50+ years old.

People who are age 50+ are more than a third of the population.

The population of 50+ people is going to double in the next 35 years.

We have a housing crisis coming up on our hands. Today we talk about affordable housing. Tomorrow we’ll talk about accessible housing, only tomorrow will be too late.

Universal design is intended to be user friendly and provide easy access for people of any age and ability. Universal design has been called other things: aging in place, design for all ages, basic access, and barrier-free design.

Enter Seattle architect, Emory Baldwin of ZAI, Inc., who built a home for his young family using Universal Design principles. It’s a beautiful Craftsman style home located not far from Seattle’ s Greenlake.   His home is recognized in the most recent issue of Seattle Metropolitan magazine.   His home has been selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to receive an award in the 2009 small project category for “Accessible Residential Design.”

It’s a light filled, sunny, happy home with lively colors, big windows, and high ceilings.

If you didn’t know he used Universal Design principles in his plans for the home, you wouldn’t notice much that is different. Universal Design done right is very comfortable, livable, and practical. When a home is built from scratch with Universal Design principles, it can be more cost effective over the long run.

What are some of the universal design features?

All the hallways are 42 inches wide and the doorways are all 3 feet wide.

The closets are ready and waiting for a future elevator. Emory incorporated a stacked closet area on each floor, with the space retrofitted for an elevator. The cost to incorporate into the original plan? About $21,000. The cost to retrofit the home with no dedicated spot for an elevator? $100,000.

The first thing you notice when walking up to the front door is the completely level entry into the home. The entry walk is actually sloped slightly toward the home. It’s 17 feet long and rises 1 foot along its length. A wheelchair would have an easy time of entering the home.

Universal Design-Level Entry

The thresholds throughout the house are level.

All flooring is level with no thresholds

Instead of door knobs, you see door handles.

The open airy kitchen has several useful features, the island is surrounded by wide access ways.

wide access around the kitchen island

Kitchen cabinets have pull out shelving.

Pull out kitchen shelving

The master bath is a Universal Design dream. The vanity is built on wheels, so in the future, if you’re using a wheelchair, you could remove the vanity and scoot under the sink.

Master bath vanity-now you see it.

Master bath vanity-now you don't see it

Showers have completely level entries. The shower entry is completely level with the bathroom flooring and would accommodate a wheelchair, if necessary.

Here’s some links to builders using Universal Design principles in other parts of the country. Some builders are beginning to consider Universal Design in their construction, building homes that work for everyone.

Homeowners are becoming increasingly more aware of affordability, accessibility, and sustainability when buying real estate.  Homes that meet more of these criteria will become increasingly more desirable. Green and accessible features will help increase the value and saleability of a home.

Congratulations to Emory for his AIA award and designing this beautiful, practical home.