It’s not unusual in Oak Park to see an older home get a surface makeover when new owners step in, but a new project in town is taking a different tack with a remodel. In this project, a designer, contractor and architect combined forces to help their clients redo a house with a focus on changing the bones of the home to make it more accessible for aging in place.
Long-time Oak Parkers Lisa and Lamar Johnson were looking for a home that would fit their next stage in life. They decided to move within Oak Park and tackle a wholesale renovation that would give them the home they need for the future.
A team made up of their trusted interior designer Christine Baumbach, architect Kimberlee Smith and contractor Tony Roeder of Marion Street Services say that approaching aging in place throughout the entire process is a way to ensure that the Johnsons will get everything they need in their new home.
Baumbach, who has worked with the Johnsons for over 20 years on their current home, says the Johnsons were proactive in taking steps to address their future needs. “We had talked over the years about future plans. I give them credit: they’ve always been forward-thinking. Their current home is beautiful and such an expression of their life together. I really admire their courage to step away from the familiar and establish that life in a new place.”
Roeder says the Johnsons brought him into their home search on the early side. He would look at potential new homes with them and do a preliminary pricing assessment to allow the Johnsons to see the home’s potential.
Location was key as the couple wanted to remain near the neighborhood they currently live in. Another key was making sure their new home would accommodate life and celebrations with their extended family.
Roeder, who has worked with many clients on aging in place projects, notes that while remodeling projects are not inexpensive, “every time we’ve done this, the financial benefit is real.”
Senior living facilities can cost upwards of $10,000 a month, and Roeder says these costs should be taken into account when calculating the payback of renovating for the senior years.
Roeder often partners with Smith for the architecture piece of remodels, and she too has plenty of experience in designing for senior residents. She’s worked on individual residences for aging clients and also has designed senior living facilities.
Saying that architecture guidelines for such homes are not difficult to follow, Smith notes there’s an emotional component to such work that is hard to quantify. “Having your family close and with you for as long as possible, for me, that’s Utopia,” she says.
Currently, the Johnsons’ new home is under construction, with plans in place to change all of the stairs, lower part of the basement to create a gathering space, install a dumbwaiter and leave an access point for a lift, in case that is a future necessity.
Roeder says gutting the house provides for stairways that are accessible, as well as the ability to make the house level with the foundation and support work. Smith is hard at work making sure bathrooms and the kitchen provide plenty of space to move and that halls are wide enough to improve accessibility.
When it comes to making the house feel like home, Baumbach says she is bringing along and reusing many of the Johnsons’ treasured objects and furnishings.
A lot of the design for the home is forward-thinking. “We’re making some design choices that might not be relevant today but may be later,” says Baumbach.
For instance, with bathroom tile, she chose a smaller tile with more grout to prevent slipping risk. Putting in contrasting colors between vertical and horizontal planes of tile can be helpful if a homeowner ever experiences vision impairment. With the walls opened up, the contractor can install blocking in case grab bars are needed in the future.
“A little bit of forward thinking and imagining all the possibilities – since we’re going down to the studs – provides a lot of opportunity,” says Baumbach.
Baumbach calls the Johnsons’ move a “wonderful solution” to aging in place. By moving a few blocks away, the Johnsons will keep their friends, church and social network.
She is seeing more and more clients choose to stay in Oak Park as they age rather than retire to other states. Roeder and Smith say they see the same call for long-term residents to stay in the village and for grandparents to move in to the village to be near family.
With the housing market so tight, a large portion of this population is opting to renovate to age in place.
“You don’t have to leave your community because you don’t have a place to live,” says Smith.
Roeder says more and more people are seeing the benefit to staying in a place where they have a familial and social connection, and from a construction standpoint, he thinks there are plenty of benefits.
“The bottom line is, I’ve yet to see an investment in accessibility that doesn’t pay off financially and personally. This is a priceless investment when it comes to improving your quality of life later in life.”