Aging in Place

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekend warriors home improvement show, built by bar lumber. When it comes to big or small projects around the home, Tony and Cory have got the know how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend warriors, Tony and Cory. You know, Tony, the older I get, the more I think about my house. I'm always working on it, and I know someday I'm going to want to retire. And there's a lot of things around my house that I probably need to do if I intend on staying there through retirement. [00:00:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, do you believe that you could be in your current house through retirement? [00:00:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:00:53] Speaker B: I mean. [00:00:54] Speaker A: I mean, I do think that. I don't want to. Let me put it that way. I want to retire in the desert. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Oh, sure. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Or somewhere hot, right. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Not in this geographical area. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Yes. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you what. I think about the same thing, and I don't want to retire in the house I'm living in now, because I want to have a house that's built for retirement. You know, I mean, I want to. I want to think about. I want to be on a piece of property that I'm not on currently. You know, I'm downtown on a little lot, but I want to be on, you know, a few acres. Three or four. [00:01:27] Speaker A: Downtown? [00:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:29] Speaker A: I mean, isn't your lot, like, three quarters of an acre? [00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, but it's. But still downtown. I'm on third and Main. You can't say I live on third. In Maine. [00:01:39] Speaker A: You live in. [00:01:40] Speaker B: And I'm not downtown. [00:01:41] Speaker A: You live in downtown of a town of, like, 1200? [00:01:44] Speaker B: No, 600. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Oh, 600. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Okay. I didn't say it wasn't a small town. I'm still downtown. [00:01:51] Speaker A: You live in the most country downtown I've ever seen in my life. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Country downtown, third in Maine. [00:01:56] Speaker A: You don't even have a light. [00:01:57] Speaker B: It's a. That's right. We don't have. Well, you have a blinking yellow. [00:02:00] Speaker A: You have a blinking yellow. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:02] Speaker A: No stoplight. [00:02:03] Speaker B: No stoplight. [00:02:03] Speaker A: But you're like, I'm gonna move to the country. [00:02:06] Speaker B: It's a decent sized lot. That's true. But it's not three or five acres. You know, which is what I think I want. [00:02:13] Speaker A: And here's my problem with your house. It's two story. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's already. [00:02:17] Speaker A: And your bedrooms are all upstairs. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's problem number one. [00:02:21] Speaker A: So your old decrepit body. [00:02:24] Speaker B: I'm struggling to get up those stairs already. [00:02:26] Speaker A: You're gonna be like, give me a minute. [00:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:28] Speaker A: And then one day, you're gonna fall down the stairs. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:02:31] Speaker A: And you're gonna be in a wheelchair. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, it's like 22 stairs. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Yeah, see, that's what I'm talking about. I wouldn't want that. And here's the thing. My house that I currently live in also has stairs. Well, but it's only for, like, a bonus room. [00:02:46] Speaker B: But what are you gonna do, never go up there? [00:02:48] Speaker A: I wouldn't have to. Nothing up there. [00:02:51] Speaker B: There might be some nice storage. You might hear something moving around up there, and you won't be able to go up and get it. [00:02:56] Speaker A: I'll get a dog. Pet that dog. But no, I mean, for the most part, though, my bedrooms, my living is single story. My house is basically a single level home. That upstairs was a conversion. You know what I mean? It was a remodel done 20 years ago. So I don't know. I mean, my house is set up more for aging in place than I guess yours is. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Well, yeah, there's a lot of things to consider when you're thinking about the home that you're going to retire in. Here's an example. I know you're thinking about your house as a first story house, which makes you more likely. But guess what? You have to walk downhill to get your mail and back uphill from getting your mail. [00:03:43] Speaker A: This is true. [00:03:43] Speaker B: That's a lot. I mean, your driveway is steep. So that's another thing to think about. Anyway, today we are going to talk about things to consider when choosing the home that you're going to spend your retirement years in. There's a lot of things that you can do to make it more user friendly from an age that is less nimble and spry than you are, you know, pre retirement age, aging in place, aging in your place. [00:04:22] Speaker A: But here's the other thing we're going to talk about today. We're going to discuss some things that you can do to your current home if you live in a house, if you're going to go through a remodel that you should consider installing into your current home, if you would like to live into your changes you can make. [00:04:42] Speaker B: To your current place. [00:04:43] Speaker A: Yes. [00:04:44] Speaker B: And also, we'll have some conversation about things that you can do if you're building a new home. Yeah, yeah. Like. Like, I'm going to be doing things that you can. Changes that you can make or things that you can address when building a new home. And, of course, there's a lot of overlap there. So we'll try to just hit the differences. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Sure. So the first thing on the list that I wrote down was to install grab bars and handrails. You want to have them in your bathroom near your toilets, your shower. In your shower? [00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't have any handles inside my shower and nothing to grab in there except the. Except the water nozzle. [00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, the older I'm gonna keep. [00:05:28] Speaker B: Me on my feet, I can tell you right now. [00:05:30] Speaker A: That's the thing is they make tile that is not as slippery. My shower pan that I have right now, it's, it's cast iron. It's like a tub. I have this Kohler shower pan that's, uh, cast iron. Cast iron. And it's basically like a giant tub, like a three foot by three foot, you know, shower pan. [00:05:50] Speaker B: But it's low profile. [00:05:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's low, but still it's, it gets slippery. So that's another suggestion is to use a non slip slick product inside your shower. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Along with the grab rails. [00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah. They make like, I mean, for lack of a better word, adhesive backed sandpaper that you can use, like long strips of textured grippy that you can put down in there. You can also buy like a mat, a matte that goes down in there. The mat has texture to it and it sticks to the bottom of the thing. But you know, it's got to be able to drain and, and you're going to want to be able to wash it, of course, because it's going to get pretty grimy down there, I would imagine. [00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah. It's weird how showers aren't self washing using soap in them. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah. You got to squeegee the, you know, the shower, the glass in the shower. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Squeegeeing showers. That's probably the worst thing about having a glass door because if you don't, they just turn into speckly. [00:06:53] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you can't squeegee the curtain, so imagine that it's not getting very clean. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Have you ever tried bar keeper's friend? Is that what it's called? [00:07:02] Speaker B: I don't know what that is. [00:07:03] Speaker A: I think it's called bar keepers friend. [00:07:06] Speaker B: But I know that. I know that texture or some sort of grippy something on the floor in your shower and some sort of grab bar or handle that you can get a hold of and maybe even a little teak chair or something that. A stool that you can rest on when you're in the shower. It's just a couple of the things that you can do. Tell me about this product. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah, bar keeper's friend. I knew that's what it was called. Somebody told me that you can use this on your shower doors and. Yeah, I just googled it. Sure enough, there's a bunch of pictures. [00:07:43] Speaker B: Wow. That cleans that glass up nice. [00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there's another one. [00:07:47] Speaker B: You spray it and leave it. [00:07:48] Speaker A: All those water spots. No self cleans. Oh, no, you got a scrub. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:52] Speaker A: But it's like whatever's in it clears the hard water spots off. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah, nice. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Like, this picture is pretty incredible. I mean, you can barely see through that glass and. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a huge difference. That makes a lot of difference. [00:08:06] Speaker A: I'm gonna try that out. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Bar keeper's friend. I like it. [00:08:08] Speaker A: I've got some spots on my shower. [00:08:11] Speaker B: What else can you do in the bathroom besides add handles and texture in the shower? [00:08:16] Speaker A: Well, one of the things that you have to consider is later in life, if you're going to be in a wheelchair or have a walker, you're going to want wider doors and most entry doors that you buy a house in. Most entry doors are going to have a 36 inch or 30 door. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:33] Speaker A: But your interior doors aren't necessarily that wide. [00:08:36] Speaker B: They're. [00:08:37] Speaker A: No, usually. Yeah, they could be 24. Yeah. 2424-2828 yep. 30 inches is probably pretty common. 2628 is probably also common, which is 32 inches. But if you're gonna want a doorway that you will allow, say, ada standards or a wheelchair, then you're gonna want at least 36 inches. So that's something to consider replacing doors in your bathroom or in the rest of your house. [00:09:08] Speaker B: Right. I. [00:09:08] Speaker A: To be wider. [00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Wheelchair or walker, they both are something. You have to be able to get through the door with your body at the same time. [00:09:16] Speaker A: Here's another thing you should consider better lighting. When you get to that age, your eyesight starts going down and you can't see as well. Yeah. You need more light. [00:09:30] Speaker B: It's happening to me already. [00:09:32] Speaker A: I know. [00:09:32] Speaker B: I mean, already I pick up a piece of paper to read it, and I'm like, oh, that's kind of hard to read. And I just put it underneath a light and it just comes clear to me. It's like, look at that. A little bit of light really makes it easier to see. And I'm, you know, I'm a pretty young fella. [00:09:50] Speaker A: Well, a lot of the older houses, you know, you'll have those old style can lights. I mean, we've talked about this show on this a million times. The old style can lights with the old light bulbs. Even if you replace those bulbs with screw in light bulbs, they're led. They are better than incandescent. But if you get a new trim with the hole that has the led embedded into it, those things are so much brighter than just getting a standard bulb. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:26] Speaker A: But here's the thing. When you're replacing them. I just went through this with my father in law. They bought a house, they're staying there, they're aging in it, they're going to live there, they're going to retire there. And all of the leds, all of the lights in his house, big house, all these can lights are all the old incandescent, you know, old cans. [00:10:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:47] Speaker A: We just went through. But he went to a store and chose the brightest one. And I really didn't realize this, but when you go look at these led trims that had the integrated leds into them. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:01] Speaker A: They come in different lumens. They also, they come in different kelvin. A lot of them are switch adjustable. So they have a little switch on the back that you can choose from. [00:11:10] Speaker B: What color you want. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah, 2600k all the way up to like 6000k. Which is like bright, bright white. [00:11:16] Speaker B: Like a medical facility. [00:11:18] Speaker A: Exactly. Which in a bathroom. Sure. It's great. You know, you want this really brighten light in the bathroom, but in the rest of your house you don't want that. You can adjust it more to a warm yellow look to it. But they also come in different lumens. So when you're buying them, maybe take a look at the lumens. [00:11:38] Speaker B: More lumens is brighter. [00:11:40] Speaker A: Correct. [00:11:40] Speaker B: Less lumens is not as bright. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:11:43] Speaker B: And so if you're trying to increase the brightness inside the home, higher lumen spray. [00:11:50] Speaker A: And when you're there also there's. When you get. Start getting down the rabbit hole there. There are the way that lights give off. They have a pattern, like a light pattern, like the cone of light that comes off of them. Some of them are narrow, some of them are wider. So when you're going and looking at these lights, and a lot of it gets confusing and you start looking at them and saying, well, this. Why is this $130 and this one's twelve? [00:12:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:17] Speaker A: You know, well, it's because this one has an adjustable Kelvin and this one has a higher lumens. [00:12:22] Speaker B: You know, so this one has a wider cone. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah. You really have to just pay attention. Just maybe take a little bit more time in choosing the lighting. But especially if you're gonna stay there, you know, you're gonna want bright light in the kitchen. You're gonna want bright light in areas all over your house. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Here's another thing. It can be difficult oftentimes to get to light switches. Sometimes they're over the countertop or behind an appliance or whatever other side of the room. Yeah. It's a good idea to where you can add motion sensors if you're going to be in the laundry room or in the bathroom or in, you know, rooms where you can add a motion sensor that the light comes on automatically when there's motion. That is going to save you tons of headache and heartache. [00:13:12] Speaker A: I mean, that's a great idea for anyone. Motion activated lighting. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:17] Speaker A: But especially in closets, like, you open the pantries. Yeah, pantries where the light just turns on. You don't even have to think about it. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:25] Speaker A: You just have excellent light. And there are a lot of situations like when you walk up to your entry door outside or you walk onto the side of the house to put the garbage cans out at night, have an automatic light, you know, you don't want to get out there and go shoot the switches. [00:13:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:40] Speaker A: All the way over there and I don't want. I'm already here. [00:13:42] Speaker B: I can't see. [00:13:43] Speaker A: Next thing you know, you're tripping. [00:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:45] Speaker A: So that's something to consider. Uh, next one I have on those, Tony, is to add ramps where there are stairs. Where there are stairs. Exactly. It's a pretty, uh, pretty obvious one there. [00:13:58] Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. There. I mean, I think that we oftentimes we don't really realize we take stairs for granted. It's going to be very difficult for us as we get older into retirement. And we're not saying you can't walk up and down some stairs, but you don't want to have to. And then I, if you are relegated later to a walker or a wheelchair, you want it to be able to get up there or someone to help you get up there. And the ramp is the way to do that. [00:14:26] Speaker A: I tell you what, you brought up a concern about my house and you're right. I have a single level home, but it sits high off the street. It's probably, what, 8ft? Probably eight foot elevation from front door to street level. I could add a handrail up the side of my driveway. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Yep. [00:14:47] Speaker A: And then when it hits my walkway, I could add another handrail to get up to my front door. [00:14:52] Speaker B: Yep, you should. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Pretty flat. But that's something I could do. [00:14:57] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Handrail. Wherever you're going to have to be walking, like out to the mailbox is a good idea. [00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Every day. [00:15:06] Speaker B: Every day. [00:15:07] Speaker A: Cause people love getting mail. I know I do. It's my first thing I do when I get home. [00:15:13] Speaker B: Not me. I don't. I don't love it. I wish it. I wish it just appeared on my dining room table. [00:15:19] Speaker A: Well, it's like, I wish half of my mail just appeared into the recycling bin. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Cause that's where it disappeared. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like disappeared. I don't need another ad for some pizza place. [00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so we were in the bathroom earlier and we were talking about texture in the bottom of the tub. We were talking about handrails inside the shower. We didn't really mention a grab rail near the toilet, which is also a good idea. Yeah, but that. That's a good idea. Here's something else about the shower. A lot of homes, the shower is really a tub. It's inside of the tub. You have a tub shower combo. And if that's the case in your home, then that's not going to be something easy to step over to get into that tub every time you want to take a shower. So consider the possibility of having that tub removed and replacing it with a curbless shower or a low profile curb. Or here's another one, Corey. You can actually take the tub out, replace it with a tub that has a door. Then you still have the tube and the shower and you don't have to step over it to get in. [00:16:34] Speaker A: I have seen those. One of my friends, older friends installed one of those and a. They were pretty expensive. This tub, shower thing that he got. [00:16:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:45] Speaker A: It's like you step into it and this whole side of the tub closes and then you sit down and it fills up with water around you. [00:16:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not inexpensive. [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah, his was, his was pretty expensive. It was like a yemenite jetted thing, too. Yeah, but they're cool, man. [00:17:01] Speaker B: They're very cool. [00:17:02] Speaker A: One of the other things, though, instead of that, if you just wanted to get rid of the tub and just do a shower, just do a shower. And if you really want to get fancy, you can do a zero threshold shower. So that would be more ada. So you could roll a wheelchair into it. But the other thing you have to consider when installing a zero threshold shower, the construction of that is a bit more complicated. Cause you can't just install all of that stuff. [00:17:31] Speaker B: The pan has to be down. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Correct. You have, you have to. [00:17:34] Speaker B: From the current walking surface, you would. [00:17:36] Speaker A: Have to tear out the current floor, cut the floor joists out, lower those floor joists in that area. That's how you have to do it. There's no other way to do it. So if you live in a home that's currently built, installing a zero threshold shower is possible. [00:17:53] Speaker B: It's just more work and more expensive, more in depth. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Just keep that in mind. [00:17:57] Speaker B: More requirement. There gonna cost more money. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Yep. The other thing that you wanna add in the shower is a seat. [00:18:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I was talking about that earlier. Just a little. Even just a little stool or a little teak chair that can be in there, can get wet, it will dry, and it can stay there. It doesn't need to be wiped down or. Or handled in any way. [00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Next one list, Tony, is a yemenite raised toilet. You know they make tall toilets. [00:18:23] Speaker B: They do, yes, absolutely. They make toilets, like, from 15 inches up to 19 inches. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And what's funny, I bought all the taller ones for my house when we remodeled. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:33] Speaker A: And it's funny when you. When you used to that and your. [00:18:35] Speaker B: Feet can't touch the ground when you're sitting on it. [00:18:37] Speaker A: Barely. But what's funny, though, is when you get used to that and then you go and sit on one of those smaller ones. [00:18:44] Speaker B: 15 inch. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Like, what in the world? You're so little. [00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah. You feel like you're squatting down onto the ground. [00:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah. It's so funny. But the tall toilet, it's where it's at. 100% tall toilet bowl. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:57] Speaker A: Tall toilet. Elongated bowl. [00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially if you have long legs. A longer. A taller toilet, for a long legged fella or gal, is a much nicer situation. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:08] Speaker B: You gotta. If your knees are up higher than your belly button when you're sitting on the toilet, something's wrong. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Well, they say that's actually good for your health. [00:19:16] Speaker B: Really? [00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Good for your. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Haven't you ever seen the squatty potty? [00:19:20] Speaker B: Good for the escape. It's good for the escape. [00:19:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:19:23] Speaker B: It's good for the routine. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Yes. [00:19:25] Speaker B: All right. We don't have to get too. I have seen that, but I certainly didn't know whether or not there was any truth to it. [00:19:33] Speaker A: I think there is. [00:19:34] Speaker B: I mean, it would make sense. Your body was built not to use a toilet. Your body was built to use the outdoors. [00:19:42] Speaker A: I don't think Adam and Eve had porcelain. [00:19:44] Speaker B: Right. So their body would be shaped differently when they were doing their business, then. Then it would be if sitting on the toilet. So that makes perfect sense. I understand that. [00:19:53] Speaker A: Squatty potty. [00:19:54] Speaker B: I got it. I got it. [00:19:57] Speaker A: All right, next one on the list, Tony, is a handheld shower head. [00:20:01] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:02] Speaker A: In the shower. I have one of these I actually install. I have a two parter. I know yours is, like, super fancy, but mine is just a shower head and then a separate shower handle that's adjustable. And it actually acts as a handle. A grab rail, too. So the handle goes up and down. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Okay, I'm with you. [00:20:23] Speaker A: So it's. It is rated as a handle. So it's nice. I love it. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker A: I would highly recommend that for an aging, in place shower. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. You. The. The shower head that is affixed to the wall and does not move or come down or, or, you know, is not handheld is. Makes it very difficult to reach the places you need to reach. That's it. You need something that you can get into your hand and. And move to those places because it's difficult to get those places moved. Let's move on. Yeah. Anyways, I agree. That's a good plan. Good plan. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Uh, what are some things in the kitchen? [00:21:05] Speaker B: Here's something about the kitchen. The countertops are a standard height. It's like 30 and a half or 31 inch standard height countertops in a kitchen, in a home today. [00:21:18] Speaker A: Is that right? [00:21:19] Speaker B: That's what I. That's what I believe. I'll just say that that's what I think. But I think 36. Oh, 36 inches. [00:21:25] Speaker A: I think you're thinking of Ada's 32. [00:21:28] Speaker B: Okay. So 36 inches, if you are relegated to a wheelchair, then that height of countertop is going to be difficult for you to use. So considering the possibility of lowering the countertops in the kitchen of the home that you intend to retire in is of great consideration. The standard height for accessible counters and tables, according to the. According to the access board, is somewhere between 28 and 34 inches. Between 28 and 34 inches. That is. That's a good height to use if you're. If you're in a wheelchair. [00:22:09] Speaker A: So if you're remodeling your kitchen and you know you're going to age in place there, getting your kitchen cabinets installed at 28 to 34 inches is ideal. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Or 31. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:23] Speaker B: I don't know what's where. I have that in my brain. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah. You were thinking about the ADA standards for. Yeah, for that. And honestly, when you're thinking about if you are in a wheelchair or if you know you're going to be in a wheelchair, installing a wheelchair accessible vanity in your bathroom. [00:22:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:22:44] Speaker A: You could roll up to it. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Yep. Absolutely. That's a great idea. We had. We had an aging, in place expert on the show some years ago. She gave us some really good tips and pointers. One of her suggestions was that she likes to take the upper cabinets off of the wall. Cabinets that are on the wall above the countertop. She likes to take the upper cabinets off of the wall. No upper cabinets at all because it's just too difficult to get to. And it just becomes more of a temptation than anything. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:20] Speaker B: And so all of the, all of the things that would be in your upper cabinets will be in lower cabinets. And your kitchen is going to be designed in a different way if you're doing it new, if you're building your house new, you would design your kitchen in a different way with that. Taking that into consideration. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Fantastic. Uh, next one on the list, Tony, is along with those cabinets, lower cabinets, installing shelves, or, I'm sorry, pull out shelves or drawers instead of just shelves in the cabinet. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:55] Speaker A: You know, this is a good thing to have always. [00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Nobody wants to climb on their hands and knees and try and reach something in the back. [00:24:04] Speaker B: And yet we have to if we haven't got sliding shelves. Yeah. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Full extension, slide out shelves are the best. Highly recommend it. Maybe even some lazy Susan's. It's just a good idea. I actually have a bunch of that in my current kitchen, and I love it. So. [00:24:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I do, too. I have, I have three or four cabinets out of probably six or eight that have a full extension. Drawer glides or shelf glides. They're just like drawers, but they're behind the doors. Short, very cool. [00:24:39] Speaker A: And the other thing in the kitchen is depending on what kind of faucet you have, they recommend using a lever style. It's a lot easier to grab, a lot easier to turn on and off. Twisting a handle with arthritis is not easy to do. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Right. I mean, I prefer yours. Yours is. [00:24:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:59] Speaker B: I love like a touch lamp. You just, you set the handle where you want it to be and then you just touch it. Touch on, touch off, touch off. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Mine's a touch off, a delta touch two o. And I could not be happier with that thing. I mean, I've had it for six years. When did I remodel? [00:25:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's more than that. Eight, maybe. [00:25:18] Speaker A: Yeah, eight years. And I tell you what, their warranty, lifetime warranty. Fantastic. I had the magnet. There's a little magnet in the top of the pull sprayer. So the sprayer comes out of the handle. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:25:32] Speaker A: Or out of the spout spigot. And it pulls out. And you got your long hose in there. Well, the little, there's a little magnet in there that sucks onto the top. And it just keeps it all together but it's behind rubber, and that rubber broke down and it ended up splitting. And then it got worse and they'll no longer stuck up there anymore. So I called the number, the delta number, 1800, delta, whatever it is, and they were like, oh, yeah, no problem. Send us a picture. So that she texted me a link. I took pictures while I was on the phone with her. She said, no problem. New ones in the mail. [00:26:08] Speaker B: Wow. [00:26:08] Speaker A: The whole thing took me, I don't know, 15 minutes to replace it. It's brand new. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, yours is very nice. First of all, the on off handle is, um, is easy to maneuver. You could do that, uh, very easily. And. And then once that's in place, you just touch the outside anywhere, and the water comes on. Goes off. Goes on, goes off. It's very, very user friendly. I like it. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Um, I love it, too. Sorry. Um. All right, here's some other things. Tony, we've talked about this many times. I love my smart home, but getting smart home technology is, in certain applications, very ideal. And I know the older you get, smart home stuff seems daunting because you have to set it up and you expect it to work well. And I think we're really getting there. When smart home technology first came out, it was very complicated, and you had to have all these devices and all of these things and speakers and all this stuff. But there are situations or systems out there, like Apple's Siri Homekit. That's what I use. It is so simple. You plug in a little speaker, homepod, they're $79, and then you buy things. And I just tell Siri what to do. She turns my lights on. She turns them off. She turns. She locks my front door. She can unlock my front door. You know, there's all of these things you can do within the system that for someone aging in place, for an elderly person, would be phenomenal. But I get it. I understand. They are technological, they're advanced, and they are complicated. They can be, sure can seem complicated, especially when setting them up. And when they don't work, it's frustrating. But they are getting better. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:11] Speaker A: So, well, that's. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That seems very. That seems very handy. The more things you can make work by your voice activation, the better off you're going to be, that's for sure. Yeah, we talked about this a little bit earlier in the show, but first floor living, no stairs, is the way to go. At the very least, if you do have stairs, or if you're going to have stairs, you want the main bedroom, the master master bed and bath to be on the main floor. That's, that's going to be paramount. Right. If you don't have to go upstairs, then it's okay if you've got stairs, as long as you don't have to go up there. But as long as the master bed and bath are on the first floor. First floor living is going to be. [00:28:56] Speaker A: The key, 100% and. Yeah, and like you said, if that means converting something, then that's what you'd have to do. The last one on kind of the general home modifications list that we came up with was to install emergency response system. They have systems that you can install just like in a smart home that you can alert, you can have speakers that you can yell out, ask for help. And another, that's another thing with Siri. You know, if I'm in my home, I can yell at Siri to help, to call 911, to do certain things. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:34] Speaker A: And she will do it. [00:29:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:36] Speaker A: And once you're into that system, it's not like a pay thing. [00:29:40] Speaker B: That'll be priceless. [00:29:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:42] Speaker B: Going forward. [00:29:43] Speaker A: Let's move outside, Tony. Yeah. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Let's talk about some of the things we've got outside. I mean, we've covered a lot. We've talked. We jumped outside a little bit while we were inside, but ensuring that your walkways are even and flat and free of cracks or obstacles and bumps and things that make it difficult to traverse. And then, of course, we mentioned installing handrails along our outdoor steps and ramps. Ramps that you would use to get to the. To the mailbox and back and forth to the garbage can, those sort of things. Yeah, the. It's going to be important that those are well maintained and easy to traverse. [00:30:25] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. You don't want to be tripping. No, you be tripping, bro. [00:30:31] Speaker B: Straight tripping. Boo. [00:30:34] Speaker A: That's one of the things that, in these older neighborhoods like ours, there is tons of sidewalks everywhere, but there's also tons of these older trees. And they raise the sidewalks up. [00:30:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they do. [00:30:49] Speaker A: Chipping hazards everywhere. [00:30:51] Speaker B: They heave the sidewalks. Heave when the roots that are underneath them start to come up. Yeah. [00:30:55] Speaker A: And they're always in here grinding. We've got concrete guys. I feel every other day grinding some portion of sidewalk down, trying to keep it flat. [00:31:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Here's another one. We were talking about making. We were talking about making the handle on the faucets easier to use. You were mentioning arthritis. You can do the same thing with, with door handles and door locks. Instead of a knob, which can be very difficult to grip and turn, especially as the knob gets older, instead, lever action. Lever action. Handles are so much easier to use as you get older. So consider changing out any door knobs that you have with levers. And if you have deadbolts on your doors that require a key, which is difficult to use later in life, maybe think about keyless entry on your deadbolts where you can key in a code and unlock the deadbolt and then use a lever handle to open the door. That is much easier for you going forward. [00:32:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Any lever handle trying to grab something and turn it. [00:32:08] Speaker B: Yeah, challenge. [00:32:11] Speaker A: All right, that's all we got kind of, for the modification. If you're, if you're remodeling, modification, modifying your home. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:18] Speaker A: I mean, there's probably a lot more things that to do. If you think of something, let us know. [00:32:23] Speaker B: Yep. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Email us weekendwarriors.com, but let's talk about. Tony and I are in the business of selling lumber. Yeah, we work for par lumber company. We sell new home construction day in and day out, five days a week. And there's a lot of things that go into the design of a home if you're building a new one that you should consider. And we've touched on a lot of these. Like, for example, when you're, when you're looking at the layout and the design of the home. Single level. Single level living. It's hard to say. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Single level living. [00:32:55] Speaker A: Single level. Little, like I'm getting tongue tied. Single level living. [00:33:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, laundry, everything on one floor to avoid stairs. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Right. Not to say that you can't have stairs and a second story where maybe that's where the guest is if you want to have kids or grandkids that come over and visit. Yeah, you bet. Put a spare bathroom and a guest room on the second story. But make sure you let them know when they come over to stay that they need to clean it before they leave. Cause you're not going up there. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Right. I'm gonna add to that single level living, and I'm gonna say single level storage. Incorporate an area in your home where you have a room dedicated to storage. If you're like anybody, any like us, we've got Christmas decorations coming out the, the wazoo. And all of mine are up an attic ladder. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:55] Speaker A: So I gotta, I put an attic ladder in instead of just using a ladder. But still, I gotta climb this ladder to get into my attic, over my garage, and hand boxes down to my wife. That is, it's very unsafe. And, I mean, I feel like in a few more years, I'm not gonna be wanting to do that. [00:34:13] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:14] Speaker A: So having a dedicated storage space in your home that is easily accessible would be priceless. [00:34:24] Speaker B: Yep. I agree with that completely. Number two on the list, Cory, is an open floor plan, which is funny because you. This is all you hear people say today. They're like, I want to get an open floor plan. An open floor plan is a great idea if you're making your way through the house in a wheelchair or with a walker, because the narrow hallways and sharp corners that were in homes that we were building, you know, 20 years ago or 30 years ago, those are challenging. Challenging to get around in. If you're, you know, if you're of a certain age, if you're. If you're retiring or retired. [00:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah. If you're in a wheelchair. [00:35:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Yeah. It feels like back, you know, in the early. In the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds. Everything was compartmentalized. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:35:12] Speaker A: Doors everywhere. Yeah. [00:35:13] Speaker B: So many doors. [00:35:14] Speaker A: They didn't think about wheelchairs back then. [00:35:16] Speaker B: No, they didn't. Opening doors and wheeling through them in a wheelchair is challenging. [00:35:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:35:21] Speaker B: So an open floor plan, a concept that allows you to get from one side of the house to the other side without so many obstacles. It's not supposed to be an obstacle course. [00:35:31] Speaker A: And the doors that you do install and the hallways that you install extra wide, make them wider. [00:35:35] Speaker B: Yep, extra wide with lever handles. [00:35:39] Speaker A: I've been in some homes recently where the hallways were extra wide. Like wider than 4ft. [00:35:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:47] Speaker A: 5Ft, 6ft. [00:35:48] Speaker B: Very nice. [00:35:49] Speaker A: It does feel roomy. Very luxurious. [00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:52] Speaker A: Having wider hallways. [00:35:54] Speaker B: And as long as we're talking about luxury in a home that you're building, nine or ten foot ceilings also feels very luxurious. [00:36:02] Speaker A: It absolutely does. [00:36:03] Speaker B: I love it. [00:36:04] Speaker A: Don't need it for aging in place, but it's nice. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah. If you're. You're on the outside. We were talking about the outside of Corey's house. He sort of is. His house is elevated from the street level about, you know, 8ft or so. Try to avoid that in your design. You want there to be a no step from your car to your front door and into your house. You can actually design it in such a way that there is not a step up to get into the house. And so that was. That'd be something that you would want to consider the possibility of that. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Yes. All right. Now moving into the bathroom. We kind of talked about this earlier, but installing that curbless shower. I just shipped a house for a guy who's building his dream home, his forever home. And he is designed. He has designed the house to retire in it. He wants to live there forever. And that was one of the things he put in a curbless shower. But I tell you what, it's pretty complicated area in the underfloor. He had to have a bunch of beams, some extra concrete. And he has that whole area for his curbless shower dropped five inches right from the rest of the floor. [00:37:20] Speaker B: Easier to do before the whole thing has been framed already, but still challenging. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Cause you gotta put all that stuff in there, the shower pan. It's gotta be waterproofed. But when he is done, the bathroom floor is going to be the exact level. Level as the shower. [00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. [00:37:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's super cool. [00:37:38] Speaker B: Yeah, very, very cool. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Also, in the bathroom, you're going to want to install reinforced walls with lots of blocking. You have to think about blocking because if you've ever installed a grab handle anywhere or any sort of anything into just sheetrock. [00:37:56] Speaker B: No, you can't do that. [00:37:57] Speaker A: You can't do it. [00:37:57] Speaker B: No, it won't hold you. [00:37:58] Speaker A: No, it won't. [00:37:59] Speaker B: That will pull right out of that sheetrock. So you sheetrock right off the wall. [00:38:02] Speaker A: You need solid wood right behind the wall. So a smart home builder will install for towel bars, you know, extra wide, two by eights, two by tens, blocking in a general area where they're going to put the. [00:38:16] Speaker B: Grab. Grab rails. [00:38:18] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:38:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:19] Speaker A: In the shower. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:20] Speaker A: All around, very bathroom, the toilet. And you think about those areas. It's. It's a no brainer, right? [00:38:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. It does not cost almost anything to reinforce a wall for something that's going to be coming later. When you're in the framing process, it's easy. [00:38:35] Speaker A: Most of the time it's scrap. [00:38:36] Speaker B: They knock blocks in there really quick. Yeah, absolutely. [00:38:40] Speaker A: Next on the list, Tony, is non slip flooring. Talked about this earlier in the bathroom. [00:38:45] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we talked about it specifically in the shower. [00:38:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:48] Speaker B: We didn't talk about being, being conscious of using non slip or grippy sort of materials on the floor. If you've got a tile floor or a linoleum floor, that's going to be slippery as well. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:04] Speaker B: Consider getting this textured type grippy flooring all in the bathroom, everywhere. [00:39:10] Speaker A: It's something to consider when you're looking at it. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:13] Speaker A: You know, people look at tile, they want to look at it, the visual aspect of it. But it's a good idea to ask what the, what the rating is on that next one. [00:39:24] Speaker B: We talked about these. Talked about these adjustable shower heads. Handheld shower heads. My shower, like you mentioned, my shower, I have. I have two shower heads. One on the left side of the shower, one on the right side of the shower. Those both are. Have their own individual controls. And then I have a rain head in the middle of the shower, which is right on the ceiling, so I can turn on the rain head when I come in. And that's getting me wet all the time. The water is always running down on top of my head. And then I can grab either of the other two or both if I want to have, like, a sort of dual, you know, left hand versus right hand. And if I'm trying to wash every part of my body at the same time. Um, I have everything that I need right there. Accessible handheld shower heads that do everything that I want them to do when I'm in the shower. Yeah, very nice. [00:40:22] Speaker A: In the kitchen. We talked about this already when doing a remodel, but designing your kitchen cabinets to have the correct heights for sitting in a seated position. I know you've seen countertops that step up, you know, that have the bar. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. [00:40:45] Speaker A: I would avoid that. Moving forward. [00:40:48] Speaker B: Right. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Trying to age in place. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:50] Speaker A: Set that lower so that your bar height is lower and the countertop height is lower. [00:40:56] Speaker B: And also, the island will be pushed farther away from the countertop. So you have a. A larger than, like, the minimum requirement, I think, is 33 inches, probably from. From countertop to countertop. If you have an island that's, um, adjacent to your countertop, you need a 33 inch space to walk through. I mean, let's make that about, you know, 54 inches, you know, so that you can get in and get around and spin around and move around and open drawers and have drawers open and refrigerator doors open. A little extra space there is. Is going to make it a lot easier moving around. [00:41:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. We've talked. We talked about this one. To pull out shelves, pull out drawers. Lazy susans, always a good idea. Lever style handles on everything. Here's another one that. Here's one that is interesting, because we, we had the same conversation probably ten years ago with an expert who designed homes, and we talked about aging in place, and she said, no upper cabinets. And we both thought that was crazy. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Yeah, you're cutting your storage capability in half. [00:42:06] Speaker A: And she said no, she has, her house that she currently has, has no uppers, none whatsoever. And she loves it. She doesn't want for any more storage. So it's doable. [00:42:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:20] Speaker A: As long as you design everything correctly. But think about that. Not having to reach way up and over for something. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Right. Not having to have someone come and get it out of there for you. [00:42:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:30] Speaker B: Because it's up there and you wish that it wasn't. No upper cabinets. You can have artwork on the walls, all over the place. [00:42:37] Speaker A: In your kitchen. [00:42:38] Speaker B: In your kitchen. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Be pretty cool. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Absolutely. I agree. [00:42:41] Speaker A: Another thing to consider in the kitchen is the kitchen outlets. If you're having outlet, you'll want to have the outlets installed in a place that you can access them from a wheelchair or a walker. [00:42:54] Speaker B: Right. Of course. We know that. We're talking about lowering the cabinets and the countertops. So if your countertops are lower than in kind, your light switches and your outlets would also be lower. So that if you're sitting next to the countertop in your chair, you can reach straight across the countertop at any of. And it's right there. Yeah. Not twelve inches higher or 14 inches higher. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Right. All right. There's a couple outside considerations. We've talked a little bit about the pathways, making sure everything's smooth. Zero clearance entries. You don't want step ups, step downs. A lot of times you're limited on your. For your elevation. Right. So you buy a house or you buy a piece of property, especially in Oregon, there's a lot of elevation changes, and you can't necessarily get away from that, depending on how you design the house. [00:43:49] Speaker B: Sure. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Uh, so minimizing your steps from the garage into the house, from the entry door into the house. There's ways to. To design around that. But one of the other things is low maintenance landscaping. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Xeriscaping. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Xeriscaping is a thing that you can look up. Starts with an x. It's about designing with minimal plants and plants that are. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Grow here naturally. [00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Native. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Native plants. Native plants that require less of your attention in order to still grow and be healthy. [00:44:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:30] Speaker B: And happy. [00:44:31] Speaker A: And one of these, this is one that hit me personally, because we have a little vacation house with some family. The family that we are in with are older, and we replaced the deck. And we were going to replace the deck, by his request, with cedar and cedar handrail. But the maintenance on the cedar handrail and the cedar deck was outrageous. [00:45:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:45:06] Speaker A: Because he painted it and he's like, oh, yeah, we gotta paint that, like, every two years. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Even if it was stained. It's just, it's the same amount of work. [00:45:14] Speaker A: And I said, I'm like, how many hours does it take to paint this deck? He said, oh, at least two weekends. Every other summer. [00:45:25] Speaker B: No way. [00:45:26] Speaker A: I'm like, that's insane. [00:45:27] Speaker B: There's no way. [00:45:28] Speaker A: So we went with. We ended up going with composite decking and cable, aluminum railing. And the maintenance on that is almost zero. [00:45:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:45:38] Speaker A: I mean, it takes 1 hour of pressure washing once a year or every other year. And it looks brand new. [00:45:45] Speaker B: And your view of the ocean is absolutely beautiful. Unobstructed. It's gorgeous. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Right. So it's something to consider people. A lot of times people don't consider that when they're building a deck. They want that. Oh, I love the look of wood. I hear that from people all the time. Yeah, they love the. I want the natural look of wood. [00:46:07] Speaker B: If you're gonna do that, do it inside the house. [00:46:09] Speaker A: I just. I had a conversation with a guy yesterday who. His wife. Absolutely. He said, she's gotta have mahogany. So they went out and bought mahogany. And he told me it was the biggest nightmare installing it because they got it all down and then it all cupped. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:46:26] Speaker A: And he had to rent a floor sander on his deck, his exterior deck. [00:46:30] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:46:31] Speaker A: To flatten it all out. And once it moves, you can't straighten it out. [00:46:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:36] Speaker A: That mahogany is so dense and hard to move. So that's just one of those things. And he's going to be maintaining that thing forever, probably every year for the next 20 years. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Ay. [00:46:49] Speaker A: So aging in place. Ain't nobody got time for that. I am not about to sit and paint a deck every other summer. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Well, this is. This is a great topic. I love this. I love this topic of conversation. Especially because there's you getting old. There's one thing that we cannot change about ourselves, and it's that we are going to get old. [00:47:13] Speaker A: Yes. [00:47:14] Speaker B: And there's no sense in making things harder for us in. During retirement. So while we're still able bodied, let's consider these things and work towards that while we're still capable of doing it. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Good point. [00:47:31] Speaker B: Very smart. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you heard something today that. That benefited you and that it helps you out. If you want to share this show with anybody else, you can click the share button. Click. There's a share button. I didn't even. I didn't even know that. I've never shared our show before. What? No, I've never done it. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Noob. [00:47:51] Speaker B: I should share our show with someone. [00:47:53] Speaker A: You should. Yeah, there's a share button. Just click the share button. [00:47:56] Speaker B: The share button. [00:47:57] Speaker A: Send it to your friend who's been. Who's getting older. [00:48:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:00] Speaker A: And they need to age in place. They need some ideas. [00:48:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Make sure you let. Let them know it's nothing personal. Just thought you might be able to benefit from this. [00:48:11] Speaker A: I'm going to send it to you later because you probably forgot everything. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Thank you so much for tuning in. [00:48:18] Speaker A: We'll see you next time.