Building the Retirement Place

[rtimgray]

Curly Dave offers some of the best advice I've heard. When we built the first part of our house, it had the bedrooms on the second story (up a flight of stairs) which is fine right now. A couple of years ago, we started a large addition (about 1,500 sq. ft.) and while we built our master bed/bath combo on the second floor of it, we have made accomodations for a first story master bed/bath as well. Likewise, the first floor will have a walk-in (or roll in) shower and all the doors are 36" wide. We have room outside to add a ramp should the need arise. We included everything that we will need (laundry and utility room, etc.) all on the first floor, so if we become unable to climb stairs, we can just abandon the upstairs.

Adding these features at this point doesn't cost much, but changing things later is tough. If you have already included these plans, then I applaud your forethought.

Sound like a great project. Good luck and take care.

 

[brown40]

I'll add another encouragement for contingency planning. Entrances on grade or with a ramp, bathroom facilities that don't require a step up to access shower/bath/toilet; grab bars installed in bathrooms; kitchen workspace that can be utilized comfortably in a seated position; laundry facilities on first floor/at grade; bedroom at first floor or at grade. Heating system with access ports for new loops or additions; electrical service with generator hookup/transfer switch; standing seam steel roof; extra R-value all around.

The RV hookup idea is a great one, as is a guest/mother-in-law/caregiver area with separate facilities.

Aging is golden... it's also rusty and unpredictable! Good contingency planning for infirmities will ensure the house remains adaptable to potential changing conditions, and adds value to the home that niceties cannot. If you build it 'ADA' you won't regret it.

 

[dave1949]

All good advice regarding homes for aging gracefully.

I hope the OP is not offended by my comments. We give opinions as requested, the OP has to sort them out. Simply saying "that's wonderful, good luck" isn't adding much value IMHO.

Two other ideas apply I think.

One, multi-generation housing is becoming more common driven by economic conditions. I don't see the conditions driving that trend changing very much in the next decade or two. If you have children or aging parents it might be something to consider. Including that living space now is cheaper than adding it later or as separate structure. How it is incorporated into the design is a personal choice and may depend on zoning (single versus multiple residence homes).

Two, unless you have family that will live on in your house, everything goes on the real estate market eventually. It will probably matter a good deal to you how much your home is worth on the open market eventually. It is usually a significant factor in retirement financial planning being the most expensive asset you have. You just never know what health or personal desires may lead to in the future regarding where you live. The point is this: it costs about as much to build a home with low market appeal as it does to build one with high appeal. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by building something too far out of the mainstream of what people want and expect in a home or you will surely pay for it down the road.

 

[ultrarunner]

Many homes in the Oakland hills are built on downslope lots and quite a few have second kitchens and some even have elevators... so access and quarters for help/family are in place.

I bought my home from an elderly couple that had a very hard time with mobility the last couple of years... he said the reason he as able to remain in the home so long is because there were no barriers...

Garage is at the same level of the home... not even a threshold to speak of and the drive in front is perfectly level... both of which are almost unheard of in the hills and something I never would have given much consideration.

 

[EddieWalker]

That's all well and good until it comes time to sell the place. Then the buyer's lender sends out the appraiser and the building inspector and they find all the construction defects that you have to fix before the mortgage loan is approved and the escrow closes.

That's kind of sort of how it works, but not really. The appraiser puts in his report all the things that he finds wrong with the house. The buyer then uses that report to try and adjust the price accordingly, or they just walk away because there is more wrong with it then they want to deal with. The seller can either make the changes asked of him, or he can refuse. Then it's up to the buyer to accept the deal or not.

What usually happens is the place is so junky that the price reflects that and you can get a house for $30 a square foot or less. Most of the time the issues that are wrong with a house are hidden, or painted over. This is a good part of how I earn my income. Fixing those things that people didn't know about when buying their house. Most of the time it's inside city limits where there is a building code and they where inspected. Unfortunately, it's easy enough to build something wrong, cut corners or just have a flawed design and nobody catches it. Then the foundation gets blamed because of the clay. In almost every case, it's the framing of the roof that is causing all the problems and trying to make a room bigger and taller.

Some of the very worse built houses that I ever came across where in the SF East Bay where I'm from. Tract homes in the 80's and 90's where going up so fast that builders could get away with all sorts of things. I know of neighborhoods where they would only use one nail at each end of the studs!!! And now those homes are selling for over half a million dollars each.

Eddie

 

[CurlyDave]

...Garage is at the same level of the home... not even a threshold to speak of and the drive in front is perfectly level... both of which are almost unheard of in the hills and something I never would have given much consideration.

In most places this is not to code, and in all cases it is a bad idea. I am surprised that no home inspector caught this in California.

The reason is that cars in the garage produce gasoline vapor, which is more dense than air. The living quarters should be at least 18" above the garage floor to prevent the gasoline vapor from entering the house. It is both a fire danger, and a chemical hazard. In most instances, the air in the garage is still and the vapor stays low, inside the house the heating/cooling system circulates the air and the vapor mixes right in.

* * * * * * *

Other minor features for the house.

There should be a number of electrical outlets at waist height throughout the house. The purpose is to be able to plug in a vacuum cleaner without bending over. So, there should be one no more than about 20' from every square inch of floor, even if you have a central vacuum system.

Don't leave out a room for an office. The older I get, the more paperwork I have just to live. Taxes are more complex every year, medical forms, insurance forms, etc. And, I need a place to put the computer printer.

We put an electrical outlet in every closet. I know this sounds like overkill, but it is cheap during construction, and when I had to put the WiFi router in one, it paid off.

 

[ultrarunner]

In most places this is not to code, and in all cases it is a bad idea. I am surprised that no home inspector caught this in California.

The reason is that cars in the garage produce gasoline vapor, which is more dense than air. The living quarters should be at least 18" above the garage floor to prevent the gasoline vapor from entering the house. It is both a fire danger, and a chemical hazard. In most instances, the air in the garage is still and the vapor stays low, inside the house the heating/cooling system circulates the air and the vapor mixes right in.

Makes sense... yet this type of construction is very prevalent in much of Contra Costa with slab construction... and a big plus when marketing to those with mobility issues.

Basically the entire home with two garage is built on a single monolithic slab on same plane... these homes all have gas water heaters in the garage on raised platforms...

Brother sold his circa 1948 Pleasant Hill home with the original cartridge fuse mains service for 850k last year... buyers had numerous inspections... chimney, roof, home, termite, drainage, sewer lateral and all came through with flying colors... did have about 4 square inches of dry rot at the bottom of the man door casing from the garage to the outside and was charge $300 to replace that one stucco molding.

What makes my Oakland home and that of some of my friends unusual is they are all built on down slope lots with the garage being built on a slab and the home being built over a crawl space and garage floor and home floor all on the same plain.

Come to think of it... several brand new Montclair Homes... prices 1.2m and up all have the garages at street level and the entire home is built under the garage... sometimes 3 or 4 stories of wood frame under the concrete garage floor suspended on wood floor joists... they all have spectacular 5 bridge views of San Francisco!

 

[R_Walter]

That's kind of sort of how it works, but not really. The appraiser puts in his report all the things that he finds wrong with the house. Eddie

You sure you're not confusing the appraiser with the home inspector...??

 

[EddieWalker]

In most places this is not to code, and in all cases it is a bad idea. I am surprised that no home inspector caught this in California.

The reason is that cars in the garage produce gasoline vapor, which is more dense than air. The living quarters should be at least 18" above the garage floor to prevent the gasoline vapor from entering the house. It is both a fire danger, and a chemical hazard. In most instances, the air in the garage is still and the vapor stays low, inside the house the heating/cooling system circulates the air and the vapor mixes right in.

Is this still code? I remember back in the late 80's in Dublin and Alemeda CA that they would pour the walls for the garage first and frame up the house, then come back and pour the garage floor and driveway after the house was sealed in. Every garage was about 14 inches below the floor of the house, which required a single step. The reason was to stop carbon monoxide from getting into the house and also in case of a gas leak to the water heater. A lot of houses had the water heater in their garage. I never understood the water heater reasoning in the garage, but it didn't seem to apply to them inside the house or in an attic.

Then some time in the 90's, they stopped doing that. I was told it was because cars burned so much cleaner now that it wasn't a concern anymore. I can't think of a newer house anywhere that I've been that has a step down to the garage.

Eddie

 

[sld]

Brand new patio homes around here have the garage on the same slab as the house. No step whatsoever.