When we purchase a new home, we often have the thought of aging gracefully with the house. However, it takes some work to make sure that the home you choose to grow old in is able to grow with you. In 2018, homeowners across America spend nearly $395 billion making sure their home was maintained.
Maintaining your home is a huge expense for any homeowner, and even more so as the home continues to age with time. Problems will begin to pop up like heating and roofing issues, all of which will require you to open your wallet to repair.
While it will cost you some money to make sure your comfy home is maintained, thankfully the work to age-proof your home doesn’t have to break your wallet, and there may be some financial help to make sure that your home twinkles in its golden years. Here are some handy tips for home updates that will have your home sparkling just as it did when you first purchased it.
Make Sure Your Home Doesn’t Have Major Problems
When you move into a new home, it may seem like everything is shiny and brand new, and most of the time, it is.
However, there could be some lurking problems that will cause you some headaches in the future. So instead of waiting until something goes wrong, make sure to hire professionals to take a closer look at the home to see if there are any major problems with it.
Then you can use the savings from your purchase to get those problems fixed so your home can age in bliss.
An aging home can only do so gracefully if its occupants are the same.
Checking up on your aging love ones to see how they maintain the house will go a long way in determining how much maintenance their home needs so it can age into its golden years. Depending on the features of the home, the property may need more maintenance than you think. For instance, if your loved one has a pool, you’ll need a pool liner replacement after so many years to keep the area in good shape.
If you can’t do it yourself, consider hiring a professional to assess an assessment on the home to ensure that your aging loved ones can move around easily and that the home can withstand the test of time.
There’s a 240-point Comprehensive Home Safety Assessment that advisors can perform on every inch of the house to make sure that it’s safe and to point out whatever home improvement needs the house may require to allow it to age.
Most of the time, these advisors won’t recommend a full remodel of the home; however, if it is pointed out that major renovations are needs, then you can’t rule out a complete makeover
Draw Up A Battle Plan
Once the assessment is done on the home, it’s time to draw up those battle plans. No, you won’t be going into combat, but having a plan to renovate your home so that it’ll be age-proof will go a long way to make sure you can live comfortably as you get older.
Draw up plans that will take into account what home improvement issues will need to be taken care of and how urgent the need is. That way, you can manage your money, prioritize maintenance needs, and manage the flow of the retrofit of the home.
Make Sure You Have the Finances
As with buying a new home, you have to make sure that your finances will give you the flexibility to make the repairs and modifications needed to keep your home aging gracefully along with you.
While private financing options are available, you may want to explore public options that will assist you in renovating your home. Many cities and towns across America have some sort of plan to help seniors age-proof their homes, and the need will only grow as the years tick by. By 2050, over a fifth of America’s population will be over 65-years-old, so these home programs will only increase in popularity and need.
Make Your Home Easily Navigable
Mobility decreases the older you get, and once that is diminished, your home’s functionality may be the main issue that has to be rectified. If you have a two-story home and you’re having a harder time navigating the stairs, then you should call a professional to renovate the stairs to incorporate stairlifts of a home elevator to make it easier for you to go between floors.
The best people to call for the job is a residential elevator installation company that can turn your hard-to-climb stairs into a simple glide between floors. When you get older, it’s all about ease of access when it comes to home improvement. It will make the home more functional and age-proof.
It’s also a good idea to upgrade your residential landscaping to make your yard easier to navigate. A smoothly paved path will make it easier for you to make your way around the yard so you can enjoy your flowers and other landscaping assets.
Two Words: Central Thermostats
Many home builders are installing central heating and cooling that will make for easier maintenance. However, in older homes, the same AC and heating set up is still the norm that will cost more to maintain.
To lessen the load on your wallet, contract residential HVAC contractors that could easily convert and update your old system to a centralized system. That way, you will save money on maintaining your heating and AC and have more efficiency in the system.
If you don’t want to deal with an HVAC contractor, there are residential air conditioning companies that will also do the job to retrofit and service your heater and AC system.
Make Sure The Home Is Smart
The term “smart home” may have seen futuristic back in the day, but many new homes are coming with smart features that provide interconnectivity to the house functions. Your home updates should feature smart functions that will certainly keep upkeep costs low and will allow the home to flow more easily with the changing times. To help keep things runnings efficiently, make sure that you have high-speed Internet connectivity with a high-speed server on your side. The last thing you want is technology failing you when you need it most.
Switch Up The Bathroom
We may not think about the bathroom much, but it’s a very important room to maintain the older your home get.
For starters, you may have to make a change when it comes to your bathtub and replace it either with a walk-in shower or a tub that will allow you easier access. Also, make sure that the new-and-improved bathroom will have “grab bars” to prevent you from slipping.
Then there’s the toilet.
If you want independence while using the bathroom, you may have to invest in a raised toilet that will be easier for sitting and allow you to be comfortable while using your bathroom. The best part is that these simple retrofits are not really that expensive and can easily be maintained as the life of the home adds on.
In short, the bathroom should not be overlooked in your home updates.
A Kitchen Do-Over
Now into the kitchen, which is considered by many to be one of the most important areas of a home and a critical spot in your home updates.
A lot of time is spent in a kitchen, but if your home is aging, then it could be time to think about a total redo of this area of the home. As with other aspects of age-proofing a home, the name of the game here is convenience and ease of access.</p?
Also, you may want to switch out those appliances. Remember when we talked about “smart home” gadgets? Well, the kitchen is a great spot for getting your home updates are closer to being smarter. Switch out the gas stove with an eclectic one that will be safer, and switch up the locations of appliances so that they will be easier to access.
Also, you may want to focus a lot on the amount of space in the kitchen. This is the area of the house where you will be doing a lot more standing, so think about switching up the flooring to keep you from getting pain in your back while standing. Also, make sure that the retrofitted kitchen has plenty of room for you to operate.
Retrofit the Lights
The lighting of a home can make so much of a difference. Older homes don’t have the same amount of light that newer homes contain, so to brighten the house up a bit, make electrical repairs to the home’s electrical system to make the lights safe and more efficient.
Also, to save on electric bills, home updates should have windows so that natural sunlight will have a chance to bring brightness into the home. With a safer lighting system and more natural sunlight, your home will take in an ageless, golden glow.
Check On The Roof
Over time, a home’s roof will eventually begin to succumb to the pressures of the environment, so checking on the roof and making the necessary repairs will, no doubt, save you a lot of money soon.
Look for experts that specialize in residential roofing repairs, and those experts can tell you if the roof needs any maintenance done to it. It is best to do roofing repairs before a problem manifests itself into being a bigger problem down the road. It’s an important step in the process of your home updates.
Set-Up a Monthly Plan With Maintenance Companies
There is no way to sugarcoat the fact that making basic home improvement repairs will cost some money, especially when you’re trying to age-proof a home.
It can be tough to keep up with all of the repairmen and contractors that will be tasked with doing home updates. So try setting up automatic repeat maintenance plans with the companies that will be doing the work
For example, you’ll want to find a professional to do much-needed drain cleaning, which requires routine check-ups. For a job like that, seek out a residential drain cleaning company and set up a plan that will keep the drain of the home serviced.
Even with roofing repair, you’ll want to set up a plan with a company that will come out to check up on the quality of the home’s roof, which will keep you from having to search for a quality roofing repair company every time you need the top of the home service, or something happens with the roof.
It will be like setting up and automatic payment plan on a bill, except you’re setting up auto repair plans to make sure that your home updates stay serviced and no major issues come about; and, if they do, you’ll already have a company that will come out and get the job done.
In conclusion, while your home may be in good shape now, the time is now to start considering how to better renovate your home so that it will continue to function with you as you grow older.
The population of the nation is getting greyer, and the current COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened fears of putting the elderly in nursing homes. With this fear, many of the nation’s elderly will opt to stay in the homes through the golden years, but that will only bring in the new problem of how to keep the home functioning to serve their needs.
Most of the tips outlined in this piece are simple maintenance tricks that could not only make your home functional, smarter, and age-proof but could also save you a lot of money down the road.
Having a plan to redesigning a buy house can make all of the difference as to whether or not your home updates can survive the ravages of time and continue providing you a comfy place that you’re proud to call your home sweet home.