Aging in Place

This seems like an appropriate day to talk about getting older...

Our builders and architect suggested we consider modifying our main-level bathroom to include some "universal design" concepts for aging in place. The idea is to design your home so that you can continue to live there even after it becomes difficult to navigate stairs or if you need a walker or wheelchair to get around -- but without making it look like a nursing home. In the meantime, you will also be better equipped to accommodate elderly visitors with limited mobility, or, say, an accident-prone husband who might injure himself hang-gliding or windsurfing...

Although we are adding a second floor to our house, we will still have two bedrooms on the main level (one will be my home office, the other a guest room). And since we are investing so much in this renovation (both financially and personally), we like the idea of being able to live in the house as long as we want to. The only thing we'll really have to change in the bathroom is foregoing the tub/shower combo and just having a shower area that can be enclosed by a shower curtain. That leaves plenty of space to navigate the room and nothing to step (or trip) over to get in and out of the shower. We can install a handheld shower, and add a seat or bench later if needed.

In the Good Timing department, there was an article about aging in place and universal design in Sunday's Washington Post.

Speaking of bathrooms, Josh and I visited a couple architectural salvage places in DC over the weekend. The Brass Knob and its sibling, the Back Doors Warehouse, have hundreds of items salvaged from old homes and historic buildings, ranging from doorknobs to light fixtures to bathroom sinks to doors and windows. They had some cool stuff we may go back for later, but I was so horrified by something I saw there that I felt compelled to take this photo: Yes, those are toilet tank lids, in a spectrum of outmoded colors that are even more disturbing when you consider that not only did someone think to manufacture a toilet in that color, but someone else actually purchased it and installed it in their home, and yet another person tried to save it for posterity by donating it to an architectural salvage warehouse. Seriously, people, Just Say No to avocado green, lavender, peach, burgundy, or teal blue toilets (and matching bathtubs and sinks)! If you want to add a splash of color to your bathroom, buy some colorful towels or a fancy shower curtain or a gallon of paint. Then when the color goes out of style in 5 years, you don't have to replace your entire bathroom.

OK, that's the end of my rant. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with a colorful toilet...