BlogHer - Aging-in-Place Design: Making your parents safe and comfortable in their home or yours - Comments

Getting Ready for being an "aging parent"...yikes!

Barbara-b — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:10:23 -0500

Barbara's Travels...at home in the world!

http://torristravel.blogspot.com

(Check the blog to see what this "aging parent" is doing now!!)

Yes, they are wonderful suggestions. May I add that my wicked sense of humor kicked in! When do you start looking into this? My children started talking about this sort of thing when I was 55. Now I want to tell you I plan to live a very long time! I am 66 now, healthy, living in a three level condo and want to sell this award winning home so my husband and i can try out Arizona for a while. We also own an RV that we will sell to help with the move.

Please no non-scalding shower....YET!!!

When the time comes, I hope my children have the good sense to look at a list like yours or at least find me a place that has all of them.

excellent suggestions

comfortkeeper — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:50:41 -0500

Great ideas! thanks. I will use some of your suggestions. There are a couple there I didn't think of. Melody

Aging-in-Place Design: Making your parents safe and comfortable in their home or yours

JTGoldberg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:01:08 -0500

Many Americans are helping parents cope with aging issues. If you’re one of them, here are some ways to improve their comfort and safety in accident-prone bathrooms:

Replace knob-style faucets with lever-handled faucets
Replace a standard toilet with a comfort height version
Add grab bars in the shower, tub and toilet areas
Replace a wall-mounted shower head with one on a slide bar
Replace a pre-code shower valve with a non-scald version
Add a bench to the shower stall
Increase the bathroom’s lighting
Check that the vent fan is working properly to help avoid mold
Replace any sharp-cornered countertops with rounded ones
Replace smooth, slick flooring with a less slippery textured tile.
Remodel any tubs that have steps to tubs without steps, or walk-in/roll-in shower stalls
Widen any doorways to allow for walkers or wheelchairs to get through.