Aging in Place, Part 5: Reaching Compromise with Concerns

Resilience in Aging - A Memory of Chester Grady

Visit the historic Grady Machine Shop in Maine

For not quite three years we lived in Belfast, Maine.  While there, we lived on the same street as a centenarian named Chester (Chet) Grady and while our road had been renamed officially by the town, it was informally and more popularly knows as "Chester Grady Road" by locals. By the time we met Chester, he was within months of the end of his life. He had a bed set up in the corner of the main room but prior to this very short time in the front room, he'd been climbing the stairs to the same bedroom where he was born (!!!) every night. I found this brief meeting remarkable and it left an impression on me. 

I mention Mr. Grady because his story is unique and interesting but also because it sets the stage for the penultimate blog entry in this Aging in Place series. I'm going to broach the topic of reaching a compromise with our concerns (and fears) about aging. While I've been writing this series, I have wanted to focus not on "disaster" planning, but on an empowering and aesthetic approach to design that encourages us to build homes that we have relationship with; we want our homes to support us in sickness and in health, hopefully, as was the case for Chet Grady, till death do us part!  At the same time, I don't want to leave the impression that all design considerations allowing aging in place have to concurrently assume that our lives will necessarily contain infirmity - rather that what comes, we will be able to handle, with our homes.

Approaching Health Concerns Realistically

Accidents are just that. They happen out of the blue, infrequently, and with surprising outcomes. I generally don't think twice about walking to the grocery store even though I could be run over by a car along the way. It's not something I expect to happen, which doesn't mean it couldn't happen. And as a result, I walk on the correct side of the road, wear appropriate attire to the light conditions, and stay mindful of the cars approaching me in case they appear to be inattentive. In other words, I take active, rational steps to walk safely and thus don't fear overmuch for my safety on the road. Even so, I know accidents can happen.

Planning to build with aging in place in mind should be a hedge and a thought provoking process that does not assume sickness ahead but embraces that change of varying sorts will enter into all of our lives. One thinking about a home shouldn't feel that they can't pursue design as they want it - planning to live our lives fully in a home we love doesn't mean having to set aside certain features, but to consider features fully and evaluate whether they will provide lasting rewards. If you experience health issues now, you're probably not keen to build a home that has a lot of structure in it that poses difficulty (why put a grand staircase in a home if you are currently using a wheelchair?). But if your situation is quite the opposite, you might even view stairs as a part of your daily health routine and want to keep them incorporated for sure. Even in this situation, you might consider ways that the stairs will not make your home uninhabitable should a very serious injury or illness change your circumstances. Another approach, of course, would be to think about whether your lifestyle is one that minimizes future risk for the most part. While we can't prevent every accident, we can do a lot to reduce the likelihood of their happening. And we can do that with our health, to a large degree, as well by eating well, getting regular exercise, etc. 

Summarizing - The Balanced Approach

To briefly summarize, if you want to live in your home "forever" it's important to give due thought to changes that might occur in life. Certainly, we will all age and notice those effects. But consider carefully how to approach the process. Design strives to reflect the character of those living in the space - and that applies whether you are considering yourself in the present or the future. Thoughtful touches can make a big difference in terms of long term viability, but also keep in mind that it makes little sense to build a house that you find unappealing aesthetically because you fear a life with mobility issues that may never materialize. Balance is key.

I've tried to approach this series from a perspective that enables a view of design and the intention to live a long time in the same place as an enjoyable process of discovery rather than one that focuses on scary possibilities and creates a sense of fear. I hope this comes through!  

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Aging In Place, Part 4: Right Sizing 101

Serious thought about the right size of a YOUR house is important too!

Big or Small? Right Sizing in a Nutshell

When designing, embrace the idea of right sizing over pre-conceived notions of small and large. It's entirely possible to design a space that's too small as well as too large. Either situation can make a house less optimal for people, and both situations can be prevented to a large degree by careful planning - so long as one has or takes the time to do it. If you're here, reading this, you are probably a fan of smaller spaces. But even for we lovers of small, it's important to keep asking, "What do we need from our homes to accomplish our goals as inhabitants?"  Some general answers might include shelter, safety, a place to enjoy and take pride in, a place near our work (or far from it!). But size matters here, too. Deeper considerations might assess specifics like needing (or not) a garage, a workspace, home office, bedrooms for kids or guests, garden spaces, kitchen with or without extras, areas for entertaining, outdoor rooms...these preferences are heavily influenced by really personal attributes. Do you have a big family? Do you love to entertain or host gatherings?  Are you a cook, an artist, a craftsperson, do you like big open spaces or small cozy ones? What's your climate like? Are you home much? Do you need a huge deck if you have an outdoor window of opportunity only a month or two long? Maybe. Maybe not. Not just our personal preferences, but even our geography can be an influencer in design priorities. 

We have a client NOT including private guest bedrooms as she doesn't want to encourage long visits from her many friends!  Having had too many visitors in past situations, she knows it detracts from her home experience, so she's allowing multifunction spaces to suffice. A space is there, but not so welcoming that it will make for overstaying. Another example...clients have a condo in the city and are designing a second home. It's meant for (big and fairly frequent) family gatherings. Though it won't be their permanent residence, they are even designing in kitchen features that allow for particular family members tastes and lots of bedrooms for kids and grandkids (not all of whom are even here yet!). The second home is, in fact, larger than their main residence - which is in a city and too restricted in size to serve these important needs. In both examples, it's the fulfilling of function that's critical to the client, not size alone. In a nutshell, that's Right Sizing. 

Make Your Own Right Sizing Design Checklist

When you start designing, be honest with your needs and try and make them conform to your own self rather than an imagined ideal. Shawn and I have always felt that most houses are too big, have a lot of wasted space and inefficiency built in. However, we have found, through experience, that 800 square feet is not enough for us. Why?  We both work from home. We also plan to rent part of our home out and/or have an autonomous space for visitors. We grow, cook and preserve a lot of our own food so space is needed for storage and preparation. We live in a climate with a long winter and have activities that we need some space to do inside. Importantly, we are embracing a Passive House building technology that requires even thicker wall assemblies than we've built before. Some of our square footage will be for extra insulation! These are some personal factors on our checklist. It's helped us when we first gape at our square footage calculations and react with "Oh, no, that's too big!"  It helps us answer that question more effectively. Your checklist should provide the same benefit.  Do you need a wine room?  I mean that seriously!  We have friends who are INTO wine - their collection brings them joy and satisfaction, and it takes up a corner of their dining room and expands under the house! Conversely, we are NOT into it - we don't even need a shelf in the pantry for it!  Go to a Home Depot and you'll see wine fridges all over the place as though everyone needs one. So ask YOURSELF the question!  Is this need real or is it put in your head by kitchen and bath design magazines? Either answer is okay if you use the information critically to design a better space for your needs!

If our homes are bigger than we need, they don't offer appropriate payback. They waste space and our time by requiring maintenance, conditioning, cleaning, time, etc. If our homes are too small, they can frustrate us and inhibit our goals. Well designed homes should be tailored to suit. Needs, like body shapes, are non conforming. Insisting that one size fits all isn't an approach that will reap great rewards. In particular when one is building a home to live in for the long term, it's important to have a good grasp of need. 

A Few Last Design Tips

Is the house you're designing too big?  Are you overdoing it on the "Well, I'm only going to build once!" excuse?  Remember that everyone has a budget...overextending it can make a dream home into a nightmare. I'd certainly suggest that building too small is better (or at least less costly?) than building too large, but taste the salt in that, too. If you end up remodeling or expanding when you hadn't wanted to, you're also potentially wasting time and money! Have you looked around the outside of your home for inspiration? Does the home achieve the aesthetic you are striving for?  A cute cottage design can get lost if it expands a great deal. Likewise, a modern beachfront design you love may not compress well. And surroundings can play into that as well. Does your surrounding support the aesthetic you're embracing?  It might matter. Does the space you are designing advance the "cause" of the inhabitants? Does it provide the shelter, comfort and safety you want? Does it promote creative or well flowing aspects of your life?  Does the size do something for you or does it make life more difficult?

My last bit of advice is to keep asking these and other questions as you meander the design process. A key to aging in place successfully is for our homes to be scaled to the users and rightly sized.

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Aging In Place, Part 3...Designing for Changes in Physical Capacity

Long-term living solutions don't have to look sterile, they can follow any style!

Photo Credit: Innovative Building Solutions

Working in residential design, with clients in different locations, of varying ages and life stages, and with all kinds of needs and outlooks on life has taught us a great deal. One of the lessons learned has been that no matter your age or the size of your house, it's worth spending time considering accessibility issues for one's home - especially if you are planning to live in it for a long time. Even people not considering building from scratch give a lot of thought to how their homes will serve or pose challenges as they age or circumstances change. Very few Americans will live in the same home for their entire lives - see Five Thirty Eight. But in just my small social circle, several friends and family members do fit the bill of planning to stay in their homes "forever." So here are some thoughts on designing a space that will allow you to age in place a little more easily. Not all of these suggestions involve the expectation of major mobility issues and most of them could also apply to people choosing to retrofit their homes to make things more smooth flowing.

Accessible Landscape & Barrier Free Entries

A recent client described to us the house she plans to build later this year and one of the things she emphasized was a low maintenance yard with easy access.  She wanted a deck but one with a minimum of stairs (preferably just one) to allow accessibility for herself and any friends who might visit, regardless of physical condition. She wanted to keep gardens to a minimum and maintain as much of the native flora as possible as it was already self sustaining and would not require a ton of work to keep up. This was partly out of consideration of her time and how she wanted to spend it - and also forward thinking; an easy to maintain yard is just that, no matter your age or physical condition. If you don't crave a garden area and derive a lot of satisfaction from the upkeep involved, it's worth thinking about. Similarly, as regards outdoor features like decks, ponds, garages, gazebos, etc...take some time to think about their maintenance when you are designing. There are a variety of lower maintenance materials available now (composite decking that is impervious to rot and requires no staining, for example) to cut down on how much work has to go toward upkeep. Likewise, if you are concerned about access to your home, consider minimizing or eliminating stairs or creating alternate pathways that might be easier to use in case of mobility issues. Maybe your foundation choices will influence the layout of your land and entrances to your home (eg: a slab, a walkout basement, or a crawlspace foundation all have different tendencies when it comes to entrances, especially when paired with the geographic quirks of your building envelope - is your site sloped, for example?)

Floor Planning for Long Term Usability

When considering your floor plan, give a little thought to whether or not you want multiple stories or a single floor layout. Some people find that as they age, kids move out, etc. second floor bedrooms either aren't used as much or won't be as easily useful. On the other hand, you may really like the aesthetic that a multi story home has and want to consider ways to repurpose rooms as needs evolve. It's also perfectly true that not everyone worries a great deal about mobility compromises and so stairs don't pose an issue. We have friends who love their home just as it is - so much so that they'd sooner install an in home elevator than even consider moving. Again, details that thinking ahead of time can resolve to one's satisfaction. Your approach will depend on a lot of factors, current needs and conditions, finances, perceived likelihood of future conditions and needs.  It's easy during the design process to identify a part of the house that could allow for a future renovation in case needs change or as money allows. A lot of clients have had situations where they design with the intention to knock out a wall in the future - sometimes for growing kids, sometimes to create more space or a first floor bedroom/ensuite if needed or desired.  If you are designing for a new build, you can even frame up a wall with door headers pre installed for future expansion. A little bit of imagination can pay off pretty handsomely if you try and consider multiple outcomes and uses when doing your design work.

Other Areas for Accessibility Considerations

Other areas that bear a lot of forethought in design are kitchens and bathrooms. There are so many reasons to reflect on how they can be made easy to use, keep clean, and provide a barrier free or full accessibility in most conditions. The idea behind barrier free spaces in buildings is that anyone can use them. That means a person using a wheelchair could get around independently in that space. In a bathroom, think of the challenges posed by typical things encountered there. Imagine getting into a deep tub if you were having issues with stability or had recent surgery on your knee or required wheels. Climbing into and out of tubs can be hard even when you're feeling great if you aren't paying attention. Talk about potentially slick surfaces!  So walk in and out showers (with or without a standalone tub) are a huge area where a bathroom can offer far greater long term access. Likewise, grab rails can be an easy installation and simple solution to all sorts of potentialities. We installed our first European style "wet room" this build using material purchased from a company called Trending Accessibilty. We love it. It's incredibly easy to clean the simple tile surfaces, and the long central drain is both good looking and useful in that all the mop water can be sent right down the drain. The glass wall is actually easy to clean, and prevents water from splashing all over the place. We can just walk right into our shower. Likewise, we could wheel in, if needed, as there's no curb to get over. We chose to install a free standing tub along with the shower for times when we want a soak, but a side benefit is that it stays clean - no shower curtain leaving soap scum at the edges, it's easy to wash and keep up with.

The kitchen is an area that I've already spent a lot of time considering how to make more accessible and barrier free because I don't crack the five foot height mark. So I've got plenty of experience with too tall shelves and difficult to reach areas. Kitchens pose special challenges and can be designed well to cover any capacity or life stage. For myself, I want to incorporate slightly lower countertops, but not so low that my taller husband couldn't comfortably cook. I want enough space between the countertops to flow in that comfortable triangle so idealized in kitchen design. For me, an L shaped kitchen will allow this and work stylistically. It would also be a great shape for someone with a wheelchair. Every point easily accessed with no galley shape restricting flow or turnaround. Some advanced consideration of appliances might point you toward ADA compliant options, like this.  In terms of cabinetry, interior drawer systems that pull out are easier to work with and require less stooping and hunting for "that thing" at the back of the cupboard. I have used these types of cabinet inserts in our latest kitchen and I love them!  For a cook of any ability level (and here I am referring to physical ability, not culinary skill), this is a great gift to have!  And fun!  Useful and immediately helpful. 

I also think some care and thought can and should be given to house cleaning whilst in the design phase. Stairs can be a pain to vacuum. Maybe you don't want them at all or want easy to sweep stair surfaces. Deep tubs are a tripping hazard and involve some hands and knee work for cleaning. Are they worth it to you? (No wrong answers here). How about locating the laundry. Do you like to line dry in the summer?  Having a door out nearby might be nice. Do you eat outside often?  Consider a pass through window or door that allows access to the outdoors right from the kitchen. Cleaning is a necessary chore that can be fun but sometimes isn't. Put some time into imagining how to have a cleaning program that can be flexible with you regardless of time or other constraints on ability. Storage solutions shouldn't require pulling out step stools all the time. Pay attention to landscape and factor in your interest and energy levels. Perhaps you want to consider ways to make some aspects of gardening require less bending and being hunched over. Raised beds and elevated planters could help with this. Gardens are such an interest area of mine that I think I could write a whole article on it, especially as I get older and learn to be more cagey in structuring my all day gardening adventures in consideration of my back muscles! 

Aging in Place is Different for Everybody

Final thoughts for this blog entry include emphasizing that design should ultimately be fun and liberating process. Since we're talking about planning for long term usability and function, liberating takes on multiple meanings. One shouldn't assume that a wheelchair or a massive change in mobility is in the cards for them. But all of our abilities will change as we age. Life is a spectrum, not a few age points on a line. Our needs change with age, with family size, with things that we want to pursue.  Well considered needs should be a part of designing our homes. Some extra thought can have a wonderful impact and give you more confidence that your home will continue to provide a refuge for you and your loved ones. If you are someone who has concerns now that will impact them in the future (joint issues, MS, being very short or very tall, just being thoughtful, you name it) designing a home that will rise to meet and assist you rather than foil you will be rewarding for years to come.

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New Plan release: RH2 2 Story, 4 Container Home

The RH2 container house plan: 2 stories with four shipping containers. 1,440 square feet + decks.

Plan Details

• Containers: 4
• Design Factors:
• First Floor Load: 40 Psf Live / 10 Psf Dead
• Second Floor Load: 30 Psf Live / 10 Psf Dead
• Roof Load: Prefabricated mono-pitch trusses.
• Design Standard(S): 2015 International Residential Code
• Seismic Design: C
• Wind Speed: 90 Mph (3 Second Gust)
• Winter Design Temperature: -16º F
• House Square Footage: 1440 Sf (720 Main Floor, 720 Upper Floor)
• House Dimensions: 16’ X 60’ (Two Offset Shipping Containers @ Main Floor)
• Patio Decks (2): 8’ X 15’ (240 Square Feet Total)
• Porches (2): 8’ X15’ (240 Square Feet Total)
• Levels: 2
• Overall Height: 23’ - 9 7/16”
• Bedrooms: 2
• Bathroom: 2 
• Foundation: Concrete Pier Footings + 45’ High Cube Containers (9’-6” Typical)
• Water Heating: Tankless Electric (Requires Minimum 200 Amp Service)
• Heating: Wood Stove + Electric Back Up  Wall Heaters
• Print Size: Arch D 24" X 36” (A1 594 X 841); Black & White Sheets

Download the free study plan.

Purchase the SketchUp Model for this plan. 

 

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Long Term Affordability Considerations in House Design

Smaller houses, lower taxes

This cheerful tiny house became an on site short term rental after hosting us for a few years while we built.

Over the years, many of us have seen incredible increases in home costs around the country, and in fact, the world as a whole. There are still some places where costs have actually gone the other way, as industries have changed, moved around, etc. but a lot of places seem to have become inexorably (and sometimes alarmingly) more expensive. These changes can occur very quickly and can make for real financial concerns. When you've lived in and loved your home for a long time, to be pushed out by rising property costs seems terribly unfair. Yet it happens. Even if your home is paid off entirely, property taxes never end, and the costs can be substantial. When you're thinking about aging in place rather than resale, upward trends in prices can be a devil in the details.

Incorporate a Rental into your Plans

One of the things we've opted to explore to hedge for this potential is to incorporate a rental into our property. Getaway and weekend rentals have solid demand in our area because it's a vacation town near the water. For the same reason, the likelihood of our property taxes going up in the future is very real. These factors make us feel that a rental is a good investment for us. The nature of a rental might be quite different depending on your location, so this sort of consideration should be a part of your planning stages. Our location is well suited to short term rentals, but other places might better support full time rentals, or even a mixture depending on season. Some areas that might be best suited to incorporating a rental on site (be it an ADU, a mother in law cottage, a separately accessible suite or even an extra room in the home) include locations near natural features that draw visitors, in city locations, seasonally weighted areas (ski towns, lake properties, leaf peeper locations in the NE), areas with colleges nearby...you get the idea. Some areas might NOT carry a demand for a rental enough to justify the extra costs, so you should weigh that into your planning as well. The old real estate admonition about "location, location, location" is always worth a revisit. Another area worth some thought...if you build rental space into your property plan, will you maintain it yourself or hire on helpers to assist with the cleaning? If so, do spend a little time researching those costs. For example, if you're in a remote location and don't want to do the work yourself, it might strain likelihood that someone will drive a long way for a two hour job once or twice a month. Be sure that your location will support your endeavors from start to finish. Taking an appropriately critical and reasoned approach can help when it comes to this process of cost forecasting.

Smaller Houses can be Dynamic too

Extra space on your property doesn't have to be static endeavor either. It can also be a multi functional space depending on your needs at the time - a one time rental could also be great for a future craft studio, home based business, place for visitors, or even a spot a live in caretaker could occupy if needed. There are potential tax write offs for many of these scenarios that could be useful as well.

Plan for the future

If you do decide your location will support the costs and work associated with maintaining a rental on site, you may find yourself with a lot more financial flexibility when it comes to staying in a home or an area that you love for the long haul. No aging in place plan can really work well without giving finances due thought. I can't think of too many more distressing things about building a dream home than discovering a decade down the line that it's become unaffordable. You might not be able to prevent rising real estate related costs, but you can make decisions along the way that cover your bases. There's a lot of comfort in that!

 

 

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Designing for Aging in Place: A Multi Part Blog Series

Aging in Place for All Ages

There is an old Chinese adage that states, "Build the well before you are thirsty." It seems highly applicable to design and building. 

In the next few blog entries I'll be exploring the concept and some design ideas relating to aging in place. I guess that's partly because I'm ready and looking forward to staying put for a while. We're not young and we're not old either. What we are is getting ready to embark on our final homebuilding project (at least for a long long while) so it's on my mind. We want to build the right way for our needs, so that we can stay in our home for a long long time, incorporating needed and wished for spaces along with care and thought that will make the home comfortable for us potentially until we reach a great age. Here are some of the topics I'll explore, frequently using my own experiences as examples.  I hope that despite including my own experience as a reference point you'll easily be able to substitute yourself and your own inclinations along the way. If you want more or find a particular area of interest, check back in to future entries for a more fully fleshed out exploration. In the meantime, just kick back and ask yourself, "If I go to the trouble and expense of designing my dream home, what features would I include to make it a home I can enjoy for many decades to come?"

Long Term Affordability

Can your home be designed so that it also "pays for itself?"  For our next build, we want to incorporate some sort of structure in the design that will allow us to rent a fully separate part of our home out if we so choose. This will help with taxes, have the potential to generate income, and will provide space for visitors. Having an easy to care for unit that provides a little income potential will help us stay in our home, even if taxes continue to increase and we choose to retire someday, or if we weren't able to work any longer in our chosen field.  Not only that, if we ever needed medical care from someone skilled, they could even have a place to stay (we live in a geographically complicated location).

Designing for changes in physical capacities. 

Barrier Free Shower

Though not large, the 840 square foot Itacha Modern house we built offers a European style bathroom wet room with a curbless walk-in shower!

It's now easy to design classy and sleek kitchens and baths that are also fully accessible (this is also sometimes referred to as barrier free design). Check out the slick bathroom styles you can choose from at http://trendingaccessibility.com - all barrier free if you choose to make them so.  When we designed our last build, Ithaca Modern, which we finished earlier this year, we included a European style wet-room that has a curbless shower. Not only is it barrier free - it's easy to clean!

Kitchens, when you are designing your own home, are well worth doing some thinking about, and when you start from scratch, you get to make the rules. It's worth considering how to include options for an unknown future along with the appliances you've always dreamt of. They can mesh, I'm convinced.

Right sizing your house design. 

Health and mobility issues aside, what features should you include to make the house viable for your long term needs? This part of design is huge for aging in place without regrets! For us, it means spending enough time on the issue of right sizing. I'll use some of our concerns as examples. The bigger it is, the more maintenance costs involved both in time and money. Plus, we're minimalists by nature and don't want a huge house full of stuff. However, building too small could also land us on Rue Street (French 101 pun, sorry) - wishing we'd made enough space for things we really value and need. For example, we live in the usually wet and not too warm (but otherwise fairly wonderful) Pacific Northwest. For a couple of activity lovers, this leaves us valuing a space to work out indoors enough to include it in our design. 

Reaching a compromise with concerns. 

Again using ourselves as an example: Our building lot precludes building a one story house both dimensionally and in having a lovely view made even better with a second story. We don't anticipate losing our mobility - and take steps to maintain health. While we want to hedge our bets in designing for the long term, we can't hedge them all. We're okay with this, and with potentially needing to do some retrofitting down the road. I guess my point is, this isn't disaster planning - or at least, not strictly so. Nothing in thoughtful preparation has to preclude designing to your preconceived desires. Include what you want and at the same time spend a little time considering how it would feel to have to leave your home. Maybe there are some things you can include to make that a much less likely possibility, even if something rotten and unexpected happens to you.

The nitty gritty aspects of ADA specifications.

A ramp might be a less common need for aging in place but keeping entries wide and accessible without a lot of stairs could be useful. This is from an ADA approved plan we designed for some clients in our home town.

It's a little daunting to read the requirements that commercial buildings need to adhere to to meet these standards - check it out here if you don't believe me. You don't have to meet every one of these standards for your own build, but it's useful to know things like minimum width for making a full turn in a wheelchair in a kitchen or bathroom, for example, or having some information about accessible hallway and door widths or window and counter top heights that assist in barrier free living. A little information can assist and even foster design tremendously.

So what's next?

There is an old Chinese adage that states, "Build the well before you are thirsty." It seems highly applicable to design and building. Building a home that will accommodate you and your needs for the long term is great planning from a financial point of view at any age. You could just as easily employ this thinking when considering expanding your family as you could when downsizing at retirement age for example. This kind of thinking is one of the base layers of the Aging in Place approach to building. 

Imagine if your home allowed you to experience a major health setback, whether it were a temporary loss of mobility or something long term like a stroke or complications from an illness, and not have to spend days or weeks in a hospital or rehabilitation setting. How about the potentiality for assisted living from the privacy of your own home?  Certainly, an approach like this could save a lot of money in very short order, especially if a group setting doesn't appeal to you. Planning for aging in place can be as simple as including a first floor bedroom or as involved as planning for a fully barrier free home. You can be in any decade of your life and benefit from incorporating just a little of the thinking behind building for aging in place. Here are some common things to consider:

• How many bedrooms will you need? 
• Do you plan on having kids?
• Is there a passion in your life that could likely become a home based business? 

As a quick thought exercise, Do you think at this point in time you could design a home that will last you all the way through your end? I'm not sure I could, but it's worth considering. 

I hope you'll stay tuned and enjoy some of my upcoming blog entries. If you have comments or suggestions, experiences or things especially on your priority list, I hope you'll share by sending me an email or leaving a comment below.

 

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Does Building an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) Make Sense for You?

One type of home design that we often get drafting requests for these days is the Accessory Dwelling Unit, also known as an ADU or DADU (Detatched Accessory Dwelling Unit). We've also seen these small fully autonomous homes typically built in people's side yards or back yards called Laneway housing, mother in law cottages or backyard cottages. Whatever you call them, they are becoming a more and more common solution to a host of problems and needs. 

Benefits to building an ADU

A fully functional ADU, right next door! Drafted by THE small HOUSE CATALOG.

What are the benefits behind taking on a project like this?  Especially in cities, where space is at a premium both in terms of availability and typically price as well, an ADU can provide a potential for rental income literally right next door. An ADU can provide housing for other family members that might benefit from it temporarily (think adult children having their own space while attending college, mother and father in laws having their own space to live in while helping out kids when they have kids, overflow space for visitors, or just plug in your unique situation). It occurs to us that the potential for garnering rental income in areas where property taxes might be rising at alarming rates can be an excellent method to help one stay where they love being while staying afloat with rising costs. Whatever the situation might be, having a potential rental or some extra space can offer real benefits and doesn't have to break the bank to design, build or maintain. Custom design of the space can allow the homeowner to construct an aesthetically pleasing space that complements the original home design and brings all kinds of side benefits.

Special Considerations for ADU or DADU construction

Are there any drawbacks to having an ADU or DADU on your lot or acreage?  It seems that flexibility and potential benefits far outweigh the concerns, but there are always two sides to a story. Return on investment, obviously, might be the foremost question. Is it financially viable to you? As ADU and DADU style homes are typically smaller (around 500 sq. feet is fairly common) your building costs don't tend to be as difficult to comprehend and plan for as they would be with a larger structure. More things to consider and spend some time researching include the zoning, parking and other requirements or restrictions that might need careful attention paid in your area. Cities and municipalities generally write their own rules regarding these structures and those rules need to be approached thoughtfully in order to have a good experience.  Building a fully autonomous structure in your yard is a bit different than building a shed. One has to consider electrical and sewer/septic hookups and also how close this new dwelling might be to your current home. 

Some of the questions you might have as you consider this option are less technical and more personal. Do you feel comfortable with renters sharing a space literally right in your back yard?  How do you feel about managing and marketing a rental if that's what you are envisioning? Are you willing to live that close to your adult kids or your in laws?  Are they willing to live that close to you?  One would be wise to consider the potential of the building after your initiating need is met. Do you live in the kind of place (for example a growing city that has a real need for extra housing) that can support and pay you back for your costs if a few years down the line your in laws or kids or friends aren't using the space as much?  Can you rent it and augment your income?  If you are considering the ADU to expand your home space, could a more traditional addition serve you better or does a backyard cottage offer you a lot more flexibility?  If you are hoping to rent the space out for income, will you still want to do that in ten years? How will the completion of the ADU increase the value of your home in terms of resale?  

Design Your ADU With THE small HOUSE CATALOG

This ADU, in the Ballard area of Seattle, is an 800 square foot Airbnb rental. Owner designed in conjunction with THE small HOUSE CATALOG.

None of these questions are too hard to speculate about and consider. The payback for spending a bit of time pondering questions like this is multifaceted. It can be fun, for one thing! And it can make your design process more fluid as well, as a fully considered project is easier to communicate to your drafter - designer and can really enhance the process of plan development. At this time, we've done work on ADU and DADU projects in several cities including Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles, as well as rural locations and smaller cities.  If you're considering a project like this, feel free to give us a call or fill out the estimate form here to get the design ball rolling. We'd love to help!

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