Can I Age In Place With Stairs?

FWIW, my mom is 86 and lives in a condo with bedroom and bathroom on 2nd floor and laundry in the basement.
 
MarieIG said:
As a number of posters have said, it works until it doesn't.

If we choose a "forever" home, if it is two stories, it will need to have complete living on the first floor including a first floor master and first floor handicap accessible bathroom.

The bathroom needs to be wide enough so that someone using a walker can get in there comfortably. There will need to be a seat in the shower, and wheelchair access also would need to be considered.
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In addition, you need to be able to roll into the house.

One grandmother was able to walk up and down the stairs until the day she died - she preferred to use the first floor bathroom; but my father gradually became paralyzed.

We were able to set up "home living" for him on the first floor. We had to have him taken to the hospital from time to time, and he needed to be taken out and brought home by stretcher which they were able to roll into the house. (He was transported by ambulance - not ambulette - because at that point he was unable to sit.)

I am not a great fan of home elevators (unless you are living in a mansion, have round the clock staff, the elevator is maintained with by a service company on a monthly basis, you have an emergency response system in place, and of course it is not so small that it's claustrophobic if you get stuck in it). I do not have the same concerns for a nice condo or apartment building, CCRC, where the elevators are (presumably), larger, monitored, maintained under a service contract w/ emergency response and inspections built in. (There is more involved, but I'll stop there.)

So, you are young and fit, and have plenty of time to decide exactly what you want in a "forever" home. You can take your time to pick out the perfect place. Perhaps you will be able to live in this home and navigate those stairs without issue into your late 90s - but one doesn't necessarily know.

As an aside, I became sick in early March (some type of mysterious virus which was not the flu - long story). My side effects included dizziness, and I temporarily lived on one floor and needed support going up and down the stairs (when I went for medical visits and subsequently to the hospital) so that I wouldn't fall . . .
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Our current 2-story home, which might become our forever home, was purchased 7 years ago and had 90% of the stuff we wanted, including 2 master bedrooms down on the main floor. The first owner designed and built the house for a disabled child as one of the occupants, so every thing in the house is wheelchair accessible and perfect for aging in place. We do almost all our living on the first floor and if we ever needed live-in-home care, there's an extra bedroom on the first floor. I wouldn't consider it a "mansion" but it does have enough room to currently fit my entire family of 3 adult children with spouses and 2 grandkids into our home for holidays without sharing bedrooms or bathrooms. We are 69 and 67, in good health, though we could both lose some weight!

Our home includes a residential elevator, with a load capacity of 900lbs. We didn't look for a house with an elevator, but this house had almost all the stuff we wanted plus the elevator and other stuff. We don't use the elevator routinely because we live mostly on the first floor. We are not yet mobility challenged (despite 3 replacement knees), walk daily in the neighborhood, and we have a wide L-shaped staircase that makes the climb upstairs very easy. We do take falls seriously as we have had our share of falls over the years. Nonetheless, despite limited use, the elevator has been extraordinarily helpful when we had to take in our mobility challenged, walker and wheel-chair restricted family members for several months before we transitioned them into assisted living facilities. When our older, mobility challenged friends visit us, the elevator is their preferred way of getting to the upstairs guest bedrooms.

The elevator undergoes a maintenance and inspection check every 2 years; it's a $350 charge for this service -- we get bulletins from the elevator company that manufactured, installed and services the elevator in case there are any service, maintenance, safety or design issues requiring retrofitting of the elevator or special attention. I think if your forever home embraces a 2-story dwelling and it's new construction, an elevator is the good way to go for accessibility to the 2nd story -- this might add $30-60K in construction costs.
 
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ChrisC said:
Our current 2-story home, which might become our forever home, was purchased 7 years ago and had 90% of the stuff we wanted, including 2 master bedrooms down on the main floor. The first owner designed and built the house for a disabled child as one of the occupants, so every thing in the house is wheelchair accessible and perfect for aging in place. We do almost all our living on the first floor and if we ever needed live-in-home care, there's an extra bedroom on the first floor. I wouldn't consider it a "mansion" but it does have enough room to currently fit my entire family of 3 adult children with spouses and 2 grandkids into our home for holidays without sharing bedrooms or bathrooms. We are 69 and 67, in good health, though we could both lose some weight!

Our home includes a residential elevator, with a load capacity of 900lbs. We didn't look for a house with an elevator, but this house had almost all the stuff we wanted plus the elevator and other stuff. We don't use the elevator routinely because we live mostly on the first floor. We are not yet mobility challenged (despite 3 replacement knees), walk daily in the neighborhood, and we have a wide L-shaped staircase that makes the climb upstairs very easy. We do take falls seriously as we have had our share of falls over the years. Nonetheless, despite limited use, the elevator has been extraordinarily helpful when we had to take in our mobility challenged, walker and wheel-chair restricted family members for several months before we transitioned them into assisted living facilities. When our older, mobility challenged friends visit us, the elevator is their preferred way of getting to the upstairs guest bedrooms.

The elevator undergoes a maintenance and inspection check every 2 years; it's a $350 charge for this service -- we get bulletins from the elevator company that manufactured, installed and services the elevator in case there are any service, maintenance, safety or design issues requiring retrofitting of the elevator or special attention. I think if your forever home embraces a 2-story dwelling and it's new construction, an elevator is the good way to go for accessibility to the 2nd story -- this might add $30-60K in construction costs.
Click to expand...


One advantage of stair type elevators is that if it stops it is easy to help the person down the stairs (or up if the case may be) Since the elevator is situated on the steps and there is room to get around them.If need be it would be trival for ems to get a person, with just a carry.
 
meierlde said:
One advantage of stair type elevators is that if it stops it is easy to help the person down the stairs (or up if the case may be) Since the elevator is situated on the steps and there is room to get around them.If need be it would be trival for ems to get a person, with just a carry.
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The new ones, come with a crank and a place to manually crank the chair up/down the stairs even if the electricity and battery failed.

Of course it would work faster and easier with a drill and socket instead of the manual crank.
 
I saw elevators advertised with battery backup. In case of power outage, you aren't stuck in the elevator. I don't know how many trips up and down it will go using the battery. I suspect it's just to get you safely out if the power fails while in use.
 
meierlde said:
One advantage of stair type elevators is that if it stops it is easy to help the person down the stairs (or up if the case may be) Since the elevator is situated on the steps and there is room to get around them.If need be it would be trival for ems to get a person, with just a carry.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "stair type elevators." Are you talking about stair lifts? There is a big difference between home elevators and stair lifts. https://www.lifewaymobility.com/blog/stair-lifts-vs-home-elevators-which-is-best-for-me/
 
Our home does have a large master suite on the main floor, and we can get by in old age without having to go upstairs.

Our problem was that the house is on a conventional foundation with a 42" crawlspace. It's 5 steps to get into the house from any of our 3 entrances.

My wife had foot surgery 2 weeks ago and will be in a wheelchair for 2 mos. So I spent last week building a wheelchair ramp into the house thru the garage. It's much more enjoyable than fumbling with the stairs.
 
"Can I Age In Place With Stairs?"

Yes, as we do not have to use the stairs because the master bedroom is downstairs. It means abandoning the 5 rooms upstairs, which we are using for guests (what guests in a pandemic?), and storage, with one room for my electronic hobby.
 
All set except for washer and dryer

Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.
Click to expand...

When I was single, I had one of those and used it for many years. It was great. Sure, you might have to do laundry slightly more often than otherwise, but it held more than you might think.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...


At that point it is not clear how much other housekeeping you would/could do so a maid service might also make sense on a weekly basis, which could also do the laundry at the same time.



Alternativly if still driving a number of laundramats have wash and fold services so you could drop off and pick up.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...

I'd get a full sized washer and dryer and have it installed somewhere upstairs. Maybe you can get it close to the master bedroom closets, so that you wouldn't have to lug the clothes very far before or after doing laundry. My laundry room isn't that close to the closets, but I have a very nice (and expensive) laundry cart that eliminates all that lugging of laundry baskets. Options #2,3, and 4 just don't float my boat.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.



We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.



So I guess we have some options down the road-



1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:



2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.



3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?



4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.



Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...



I would go with option 3 or 4.

My uncle and I were faced with the same situation when my grandmother got to the point where she couldn’t get to the basement to do laundry.

The plumbing, electrical, framing, etc can be a daunting task. We ended up not doing it because of complications.

Far easier to have someone else do the laundry.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...

I have the laundry closet smack dab in the middle of the upstairs. It will have a stacking full sized washer and dryer in it as soon as I get the walls and floors finished. My wood stove is upstairs too. The house is intentionally designed to allow living on the upper floor. Now I just need to figure out how to automate getting the wood cut, split, stacked, and moved inside as needed. Or I can just turn the furnace up a bit as needed.
 
qwerty3656 said:
Well, I was making the point that at 86, my mom gets up and down the stairs w/o a problem.
Click to expand...

And at 72, my mom didn't. It works until it doesn't. Is there a plan for if/when it doesn't work anymore? Otherwise it's just keeping your fingers crossed.
 
harley said:
And at 72, my mom didn't. It works until it doesn't. Is there a plan for if/when it doesn't work anymore? Otherwise it's just keeping your fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

DW tore a tendon at much younger age. Stairs were out of the question after her surgery for a couple of months. Not a problem here, BUT did have to revamp the bathroom for wheel chair and then walker access. Quite costly, but needed it anyway. YMMV
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...

You missed one option. Whenever is the right time....move to a place that has everything you really need on the first floor. Unless there is something terribly unique about your specific house or location you may be able to find something you like just as well by moving.

If that is out of the question:

You can stack a full size W/D. Our last house had a small utility room and we wanted a freezer in there also so we stacked the Full size W/D and it worked great. That would take up much less space for you. Anyway with full size stacked W/D we had the ability to choose most anything that was a front loader (which is our preference anyway).
 
Katsmeow said:
You missed one option. Whenever is the right time....move to a place that has everything you really need on the first floor. Unless there is something terribly unique about your specific house or location you may be able to find something you like just as well by moving.
Click to expand...

I didn't consider that option because it would be the most expensive, due to all the selling, buying, and moving costs. Plus, we've been in this house for 30 years, so it'd be a LOT of work to pack up and move.
 
Late 50s, DW and I go biking and more regularly to keep fit, and this really builds up the legs. I hope to stay in shape with the free time I have (now due to WFH/COVID, soon due to retirement) and delay this issue as long as possible.

That said, if I moved for some other reason, I would focus on single level homes as a primary criteria, just not going to move "just in case" for this reason alone.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Lots of posts in this thread. I haven't seen one situation mentioned, though maybe I missed it.

We're set up fairly 'ok' with our rancher for one story living. Except the washer and dryer are in the basement. I can't see us lugging laundry up and down a full flight of stairs at some point.

So I guess we have some options down the road-

1. Steal a corner of the dining room, and frame in a utility closet with bifold doors for a new full size washer and dryer. This would require electrical, plumbing, and carpentry work. Fortunately, this is right above the current washer, so the plumbing stack is right there. I'm hesitant to steal square footage from our already modest sized dining room. I know, I know, no one uses dining rooms anymore. :angel:

2. Same as (1), except use a compact washer and dryer, where the dryer is stacked above the washer. More space efficient but limiting, also in terms of the appliance selections.

3. Use a laundry service, if they exist for non-commercial customers?

4. Find someone that could do the laundry for us - either in the house or take it to a laundry mat.

Just curious if anyone has gone down this road yet.
Click to expand...

If your only concern is carrying a laundry basket and not going up and down the stairs you can install a dumbwaiter.
 
splitwdw said:
If your only concern is carrying a laundry basket and not going up and down the stairs you can install a dumbwaiter.
Click to expand...

Yep. DW has called me a lot worse.:angel: But, seriously, when I knew DW before we married, her parents had a laundry chute that connected 2nd story and first floor to the basement where the washer/dryer was. It even substituted for an intercom system. Wow, what they didn't think of back in the 40's! YMMV
 
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