My parents have chosen to do it, and they are in their mid-70’s. I’m nearing my mid-50’s and if I have the choice to stay at home rather than move to a retirement village or an assisted living center, I too would choose to Age in Place. So would 89 percent of 50+ year olds, in an AARP survey conducted in 2005.
But many are not prepared to remain in their homes. Most have not taken even the most basic steps to make their home more senior friendly. In response to this growing Boomer trend, the NAIPC (National Aging in Place Council) has formed an education and resource website for aging adults who choose to remain at home (www.naipc.org).
The self-stated purpose on the NAIPC website is: “The National Aging in Place Council is a membership organization founded on the belief that an overwhelming majority of older Americans want to remain in their homes for as long as possible, but lack awareness of home and community-based services that make independent living possible.”
The identifier “Aging in Place” may be a new term to you but already there are hundreds of “specialists” identified in this field. The list of experts includes Legal and Financial assistance, Healthcare, In home care giving, Interior redesign, Remodeling, Insurance, Lifestyle transitions, Public and non-profit resources, Products specific to senior safety, Reverse mortgages and Real estate services.
The National Association of Homebuilders has also taken up this cause by offering an extensive training and certification course of study. CAPS certified professionals have completed the course of study that includes understanding senior demographics and the aging in place concept, how to make the home safe for seniors and extensive training in ethical business practices.
The NAHB website (www.nahb.org) has an extensive list of items around the home that anyone choosing to age in place will want to consider. Here I have provided a few of the highlights.
Exterior of the Home: Low-maintenance exterior of brick or vinyl siding; trees, shrubs and plants should be low maintenance; and deck, patio or balcony surfaces should be no more than ½ inch below the interior floor level.
Entry and Hallways: Hallways should be a minimum of 36” wide; provide at least one covered entry to the home with not step up or down; non-slip flooring at foyer; and provide a place for package delivery that is easily accessible to home owner.
Interior Doors and Windows: Doors should allow a clear path of at least 32 inches; replace doorknobs with levered door handles. Plenty of windows for natural light; low maintenance exterior and interior finishes; with easy to operate widow hardware.
Faucets: Install lever handles or pedal controlled faucets and make certain anti-scald controls are in place.
Kitchen and Laundry: Upper cabinets should be lowered three inches for easier accessibility; install glass-front cabinet doors and install pull-down shelving. Appliances should have easy to read controls; washer and dryer raised 12 to 15 inches to facilitate loading and unloading, or replace with front loading machines; replace stove with electric cook top with level burners for safety in transferring pots and pans between the burners.
Bathroom: Provide at least one wheelchair accessible/maneuverable bat on the main level; bracing in tubs and showers, with seat in shower; raised toilet with grab bars; stand-up showers should be curbless and be a minimum of 36 inches wide; and install slip-resistant flooring.
The website’s list is quite a bit more extensive and continues with suggestions for stairways, lifts and elevators, Ramps, Storage, Electrical, Lighting, Safety and Security, Flooring, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Energy-Efficient Features, and Reducing Maintenance and other convenience features.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Sell Your Home on Facebook
Social networking has always been a part of our lives. We interact with people at church, at work and in the neighborhood. Let’s admit it, we would often be finished at the store much quicker if we didn’t constantly run into people we know and stop to speak. The Internet has made social networking even easier and made it easier for all of us to expand our social network to an almost unlimited scope.
Many social networking sites have become popular, and Facebook seems to be one of the most used among all demographics. My young nieces and nephews each have a Facebook account and so do my 70+ year old aunt and uncle. This tool is a great way to stay in touch, share pictures and videos and communicate both public and private messages. So why not take advantage of this free networking tool to sell your home?
First of all, if you haven’t activated a Facebook account you won’t have any idea what I’m writing about. If you have, then follow along and I’ll give you a few tips on how to use the various facets of your Facebook account in ways that could help you sell your home.
Status Updates: Update your status with good memories of things your family has done in your house. It could be as simple as, “Remembering Memorial Day family cook-out at our house. 12 adults, 16 kids and a 10lb box of hamburger patties. Great memories!” This simple post communicates that your house is spacious enough for big groups and entertains well. Use the status box in this way to communicate different benefits of your home.
Photos: Your photo page allows you to create albums and post photos of anything you like. Why not create several photo albums that really show off your home. Take pics of your home when it is “open house ready”. Post other photos in another album of times when friends and family are being entertained there. A powerful feature of Facebook is that it allows you to add a description to every photo. Tag your photos with information about the newly remodeled bathroom or kitchen, etc.
Video: Shoot a video tour of your home and post it here. Take a few minutes to storyboard the shoot, but begin with a shot from the street, slowly pan through all the rooms and finish with a tour of the backyard.
Blog: Post about how you found the house and why you decided to buy it. Post about late night slumber parties and movie nights. Post about landscaping you’ve added and updates you’ve made. The more personal your posts, the more the home is made personal and attractive to the reader.
Friends: The more Facebook friends you have the more potential “salespeople” you have helping you sell your home. The best way to grow your list of friends is to ask the friends you already have to recommend to their list of friends that they connect with you; then they will see your status updates on their Facebook homepage and have access to all the things you post. If you really want to expand your list of friends, go to your account settings and click on Networks. There you will be able to find other local networks and request friendships with a great many people you don’t currently know. Who knows, they could be looking for a home just like yours.
Messages: Facebook has its own email feature that you can use to request friends and family to place a picture of your home on their “Wall” so anyone viewing their profile can see your home for sale. Ask your friends and family to request their friends to help you sell your home by place the picture on their “Wall” as well.
Facebook has many other ways to get the word out about your house that is for sale. Spend some time getting familiar with the features of the site and think creatively about ways you might use the standard features of Facebook to sell your home. If you have other ideas or would just like to visit about this topic more, you can find me on Facebook. Let’s chat.
Many social networking sites have become popular, and Facebook seems to be one of the most used among all demographics. My young nieces and nephews each have a Facebook account and so do my 70+ year old aunt and uncle. This tool is a great way to stay in touch, share pictures and videos and communicate both public and private messages. So why not take advantage of this free networking tool to sell your home?
First of all, if you haven’t activated a Facebook account you won’t have any idea what I’m writing about. If you have, then follow along and I’ll give you a few tips on how to use the various facets of your Facebook account in ways that could help you sell your home.
Status Updates: Update your status with good memories of things your family has done in your house. It could be as simple as, “Remembering Memorial Day family cook-out at our house. 12 adults, 16 kids and a 10lb box of hamburger patties. Great memories!” This simple post communicates that your house is spacious enough for big groups and entertains well. Use the status box in this way to communicate different benefits of your home.
Photos: Your photo page allows you to create albums and post photos of anything you like. Why not create several photo albums that really show off your home. Take pics of your home when it is “open house ready”. Post other photos in another album of times when friends and family are being entertained there. A powerful feature of Facebook is that it allows you to add a description to every photo. Tag your photos with information about the newly remodeled bathroom or kitchen, etc.
Video: Shoot a video tour of your home and post it here. Take a few minutes to storyboard the shoot, but begin with a shot from the street, slowly pan through all the rooms and finish with a tour of the backyard.
Blog: Post about how you found the house and why you decided to buy it. Post about late night slumber parties and movie nights. Post about landscaping you’ve added and updates you’ve made. The more personal your posts, the more the home is made personal and attractive to the reader.
Friends: The more Facebook friends you have the more potential “salespeople” you have helping you sell your home. The best way to grow your list of friends is to ask the friends you already have to recommend to their list of friends that they connect with you; then they will see your status updates on their Facebook homepage and have access to all the things you post. If you really want to expand your list of friends, go to your account settings and click on Networks. There you will be able to find other local networks and request friendships with a great many people you don’t currently know. Who knows, they could be looking for a home just like yours.
Messages: Facebook has its own email feature that you can use to request friends and family to place a picture of your home on their “Wall” so anyone viewing their profile can see your home for sale. Ask your friends and family to request their friends to help you sell your home by place the picture on their “Wall” as well.
Facebook has many other ways to get the word out about your house that is for sale. Spend some time getting familiar with the features of the site and think creatively about ways you might use the standard features of Facebook to sell your home. If you have other ideas or would just like to visit about this topic more, you can find me on Facebook. Let’s chat.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Looking Out My Backdoor
Darker than usual. That was the best way to describe the flowers I watered early this morning. It was earlier than usual when I turned on the hose and adjusted the nozzle to the “shower” setting. Sipping my coffee, I watched the hues of the eastern horizon slowly scroll through the color wheel from blue black to ultramarine and finally to streaks of cadmium orange and yellow just before the Venetian red and gold sun crested over the rooftops of the neighborhood across the street. Coffee tastes best in my backyard bistro.
The four empty lots next to ours lay freshly mowed and new footings stood tall on the fourth lot over. It won’t be long before the framers show up and erect the skeleton of a new home. By Christmas, there will be another newly completed home on our street.
It was light enough now to clearly see where to step so I grab the doggie shovel and start picking up after the dogs. My dogs are prolific. I’m glad the lot to the north is still empty. A quick flip of the shovel over the fence top and….
I was amazed at just how much our neighborhood had grown in the past two years. Immediately following our move in June 2007, the housing bubble popped and builders everywhere slammed on the brakes.
During the interim completed housing inventory has been sold and new homes are beginning to show up in neighborhoods everywhere. The number of new homes is more modest and less speculative than in years past. But at least there are clear signs that our local housing market is on the mend.
We were the fourth family to move into our subdivision and just the other evening we had a “block party” where 75 adults and children showed up. I used to be able to see the houses three streets over. Now when I look that direction, I see the front door of Dan and Aly’s home.
For many months our subdivision was quiet and our streets were clean. Now it’s not unusual for the streets to be caked with dried mud from the tires of delivery tucks and workers. When I come home for lunch radios blast mariachi music and quite often I’m forced to take an alternate street because ours is blocked by flatbeds dropping off piles of lumber and stacks of shingles.
It’s a good feeling to drive into the place where we have invested thousands of dollars and see that other families also believe that this will be a good place to settle in and raise a family. There’s landscaping in most of the yards; spots of color, young trees still staked to the ground, pots of plants and sprinkler systems to keep it all watered.
Every evening now there are couples who walk their dogs and children who ride their bikes. When we first started walking the streets of Silverhawk, it was a challenge just keeping the dogs out of the empty lots and sticker patches. Empty lots have now been filled with houses, and stickers have been replaced by thick stretches of fescue and Bermuda. We no longer pick stickers out of paws, but we do carry little blue bags to pick up the canine left-behinds.
The general feeling is that things are improving. Slowly but surely new homes are being started. There’s more traffic flowing through the model homes. They sit on our street and some weekends it’s tough to drive between the cars parked on both sides of the street. We see young couples with kids, older couples with no kids taking the tour. SUV’s and sub-compacts, Ford, Mazda, SAAB, Mercedes, sit in the driveways of homes already owned.
Similar scenes are being relived in new subdivisions throughout our area. The builders I talk with are encouraged and excited that they can once again do what they do best, build. And I’m glad too. I hope they keep on building and that homes continue to sell. I just hope they don’t start a new home on the lot to my north anytime soon. Otherwise, I’ll have no place to toss my doggie droppings.
The four empty lots next to ours lay freshly mowed and new footings stood tall on the fourth lot over. It won’t be long before the framers show up and erect the skeleton of a new home. By Christmas, there will be another newly completed home on our street.
It was light enough now to clearly see where to step so I grab the doggie shovel and start picking up after the dogs. My dogs are prolific. I’m glad the lot to the north is still empty. A quick flip of the shovel over the fence top and….
I was amazed at just how much our neighborhood had grown in the past two years. Immediately following our move in June 2007, the housing bubble popped and builders everywhere slammed on the brakes.
During the interim completed housing inventory has been sold and new homes are beginning to show up in neighborhoods everywhere. The number of new homes is more modest and less speculative than in years past. But at least there are clear signs that our local housing market is on the mend.
We were the fourth family to move into our subdivision and just the other evening we had a “block party” where 75 adults and children showed up. I used to be able to see the houses three streets over. Now when I look that direction, I see the front door of Dan and Aly’s home.
For many months our subdivision was quiet and our streets were clean. Now it’s not unusual for the streets to be caked with dried mud from the tires of delivery tucks and workers. When I come home for lunch radios blast mariachi music and quite often I’m forced to take an alternate street because ours is blocked by flatbeds dropping off piles of lumber and stacks of shingles.
It’s a good feeling to drive into the place where we have invested thousands of dollars and see that other families also believe that this will be a good place to settle in and raise a family. There’s landscaping in most of the yards; spots of color, young trees still staked to the ground, pots of plants and sprinkler systems to keep it all watered.
Every evening now there are couples who walk their dogs and children who ride their bikes. When we first started walking the streets of Silverhawk, it was a challenge just keeping the dogs out of the empty lots and sticker patches. Empty lots have now been filled with houses, and stickers have been replaced by thick stretches of fescue and Bermuda. We no longer pick stickers out of paws, but we do carry little blue bags to pick up the canine left-behinds.
The general feeling is that things are improving. Slowly but surely new homes are being started. There’s more traffic flowing through the model homes. They sit on our street and some weekends it’s tough to drive between the cars parked on both sides of the street. We see young couples with kids, older couples with no kids taking the tour. SUV’s and sub-compacts, Ford, Mazda, SAAB, Mercedes, sit in the driveways of homes already owned.
Similar scenes are being relived in new subdivisions throughout our area. The builders I talk with are encouraged and excited that they can once again do what they do best, build. And I’m glad too. I hope they keep on building and that homes continue to sell. I just hope they don’t start a new home on the lot to my north anytime soon. Otherwise, I’ll have no place to toss my doggie droppings.
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