Two decades ago, Gene Chernay decided to build his home in Highland Village with his future in mind. Now, at 71, he’s fully embracing the genius of that decision — which included adding mounting support inside the walls for future grab bars and incorporating extra lighting in the bathroom — and sharing it with others.
“I’m passionate about preparing for the future,” says Chernay, owner of Village Designs and Remodeling and a certified aging-in-place specialist. “My mother-in-law passed about six months before turning 100, and my father-inlaw was 91. Over the years, I’ve just seen how we decline. We’d go visit them and see what they needed. I’d put in grab bars and this and that. I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like it’s helped my quality of life.”
Many people decide to downsize or upsize after their kids are gone. They want different things from their homes as they age, whether it’s due to safety needs or comfort. But others would rather adapt their home to their changing lifestyle so they can stay where they are as long as possible (aka, aging in place), like Chernay did. And in some cases, people need to adjust their home to create space for an aging parent.
In the early days of the 2020 lockdown, Keitha Wright found herself the single mom of two boys, ages 5 and just a few months old. “My mom was living in Houston, which is where I’m from, and fortunately was set to retire that April or May,” says Wright, an attorney who moved to the East Dallas neighborhood of Hollywood Heights more than a decade ago. “We realized the world wasn’t going back to normal, so her company said go. Turned out to be a blessing, because I had a brand-new baby, was going through a divorce, and suddenly she was no longer working and could come help me.”
Almost three years later, Wright’s mom is happily still there. At 67, she wasn’t going back to Houston. It was time to consider a permanent living arrangement — she was staying in a bedroom in the main house, and little boys (even if they are your grandkids) aren’t the best full-time roommates.
This is Wright’s second home in Hollywood Heights, and she’d fallen in love with the historic East Dallas neighborhood. She didn’t want to leave and couldn’t find an older home that met their now-extended family needs. So she started eyeing the oversized, detached garage behind the house.
“We don’t really use the garage. It was just for storage,” she says. “I told my mom, ‘This space is bigger than my first apartment was in D.C.’ So we converted it to a mother-in-law suite.”
Joel Day, contractor/remodel supervisor at Daycor Enterprises, based in Melissa, Texas, headed up Wright’s remodel. “We’ve seen a number of people ask us to create space for their parents, and they want their own space,” Day says. “If you redo the garage, you’re at least somewhat more separated.”
Whether you’re wanting to transition your home for yourself or embarking on a remodel/addition for your aging parents, these are the adjustments Chernay and Day recommend:
- Change showers with an edge to be level-entry (easily done on a pier-and-beam house; more of an undertaking with a slab foundation). Adding a bench is also helpful.
- Create a kitchen island workspace that has seating for food prep and other tasks.
- Add grab bars to showers, baths and toilets.
- Expand the doorway between the owner’s bath and en-suite bathroom to be 32 inches wide to accommodate a walker.
- Remodel the hall bath (or maybe one used by the kids) to make it wheelchair accessible for aging parents.
- Add a pull-down closet rod to make clothes more accessible. (This works via a lever that lowers the rod down.)
- Add a stair lift or, usually less necessary, an elevator.
- Raise your toilet seats.
- Add or improve lighting, inside and out.
- Switch out knob cabinet hardware for pulls that don’t grab your clothes.
- Change out over-the-range microwaves for counter or drawer versions.
- Add rollout shelves to deep cabinets.
- Level out floors. Step-down family rooms have their place, but they become a safety hazard as you age.
- Add a carport for homes that don’t have a garage. (Added benefits: ROI is good and they don’t fill up with boxes and bikes nobody uses.)
Another pro tip: Don’t stress if your primary bathroom doesn’t have a bathtub. As long as there is one tub in the house, your resale value is safe.
A 2019 analysis by the nonprofit Rebuilding Together — which started in Texas in 1973 and is now national — found that 45% of residents it helped with essential home repairs had recently fallen or almost fallen. “The repair of their home especially helped individuals with poor health to envision themselves aging in place,” the research showed, with 91% of clients indicating that the changes would enable them to remain in their home as they aged.
Chernay would like to see more of this, which is why he completed the aging-in-place certification. “Coming from a 71-year-old, I’m looking back and realizing how brilliant I was. We built a one-story house with wide doorways, wide hallways and the lighting is great. I know my wife and I are going to retire in this house at some point. We’re not going anywhere.”
How improvements impact future resale value
Carol Gantt, owner of Gantt Design Construction Consultants and Designers, has spent much of her career remaking spaces for families. Based in Lakewood, she has a lot of experience working in older homes like Wright’s. Her most practical advice: Consider the eventual resale.
“It’s really disappointing when you go to sell and you’ve put all this money in thinking somebody’s going to love this house, and then you find out you’ve done all the wrong stuff,” she says. “You should just keep it in mind because you have people you care about, like your kids, who are going to be selling your house. You’re probably gathering money to leave to them, and your house is no different. It’s probably the main thing you’ll leave them. In 30 years of doing this, I’ve seen people of all ages say, ‘I will never leave this house.’ About half of them leave within two to three years.”
That said, your house needs to work for you. And most of the time, both goals are possible. One example: the level-entry shower. Everybody wants a level-entry shower these days, so it’s a win-win come resale time.
One of Gantt’s jobs involved taking a 2,000- square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house and adding a mother-in-law apartment. Long-term, the idea was the area would become an owner’s suite. The space has a seating area, a bedroom with a large bathroom, a closet and a small kitchen that can later become a cabana-like way to serve the pool area. There’s also a set of French doors that look out onto the pool.
“Eventually, somebody is going to care about resale,” Gantt says. “If you don’t have a nice master suite, then you can benefit from building your addition in a way that it becomes a master suite, and the house becomes a four-bedroom house.”
Back in Hollywood Heights, construction is done on Wright’s mother-in-law suite. “I think it certainly adds value for what I need it for right now,” says Wright, “but even long term, it would add value to someone who might want to rent a house or who has teenagers.”
She adds, “A lot of people have said, ‘Oh, that’s so sweet to help your mom.’ But oh, no — we built that because she’s helping me out. With this, she’ll be able to have her privacy and get away from the family fully. And when she wants to be with us, she’s right there. It turned out to be a good fit.”
Programs to help senior homeowners remodel
The City of Dallas’ Senior Home Repair Program gives grants of up to $10,000 for home repairs and upgrades. Applications for 2023 have closed, but check back later in the year for 2024 deadlines.
Habitat for Humanity Texas’ Aging in Place program can help residents with upgrades such as lever door handles, raised toilets, ramps and rails. In addition to home repairs and modifications, the program connects homeowners to community resources.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Single Family Housing Repair Loans and Grants Program (also called the Section 504 Home Repair Program) offers rural Texas homeowners 20-year loans of up to $40,000 with a fixed interest rate of 1%. In addition, $10,000 grants are available to help homeowners get rid of safety and health hazards.
The Specially Adapted Housing grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides grants of up to $101,000 for disabled veterans who need to rehab or build a permanent home.