Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
oldtrader: you have one huge house and property. Wonder what part of the country that is...sounds like Wyoming or Montana. Ever think of going to a smaller place?
You are right, it is in Montana. Yes we considered it. We had the choice the stair lifts, or move to a smaller 1 story home. We really like the house. The setting is great, with lots of privacy, and fantastic views. We have 1/4th acre fenced in the back yard for our Chihuahua with an 8 ft chain link fence. Not to keep him in, but to keep out the predators that would like him for lunch. Lots of trees such as Dutch Elm and Cotton Woods, around the edges of the landscaped area. The medical system is fantastic. It is good enough that the Mayo Clinic has accepted it as only one of 7 affiliated medical systems. And that is important to older people. With the Internet we don't have to drive 100 miles round trip to shop for things we need and want.
We have room, when our kids, grand kids, and great grand children want to come visit so we are not crowded or have to send them to a motel. We can separate the different age groups even by floors so they can socialize where they want to be. The great grand kids like the 4th level media room with a large flat screen TV that is hooked up to a dedicated computer, with over 50 on line sources for Free Movies, plus TV, or games. On the lowest level a large family room with another big screen TV, with large selection of videos they like collected over the years. And a large open plan kitchen, dining area, and family room. Plus the large Living room. We can make it pleasant if 2 or 3 families want to gather here for a reunion as they have done in the past.
We both grew up on large cattle ranches, where we could ride all day to get across them and get back. We were used to lots of room. We spent our working lives living in the big cities. We raised our family for years in the Silicon Valley. We always worked in the business world, the last part from 1972 till we retired as Investment real estate brokers with our own office. And we like room.
This is why we live in this home, instead of downsizing as many have. The last couple of years, our home has gone up in value about $50,000 a year making it a good investment. This area was not really effected by big real estate fiasco a few years ago. We have a nice home, with beautiful view, large enough for family gatherings, nice quiet neighborhood. As we can afford it without any strain.
Why would we want to really consider going to a small cramped lifestyle is how we feel about it.
I am 85 and my wife is 87. We can climb stairs, but the possibility of falling is too great a risk. I fell once already from the second step, and tore out a ACL and had mine operated on the same day Tiger Woods had the same operation.
I have some very find doctors, specializing in the aged population and orthopedics. They tell us, as we age, no matter what we lose mobility, plus the strength of the bones lessens, so a fall is what makes a lot of older people become bedridden/wheel chair ridden. They tell me, that the most dangerous situation for elderly is to fall, and do permanent damage. They say it does not matter how well preserved you are, or how healthy you think you are, it is a problem waiting to happen as you age. Stairs is the one place that so many elderly injure themselves, and can put in a wheelchair or bed for life.
We have a 4 level 3,700 sq. ft. home for the two us (no basement) with soaring 25 ft window wall in living room. The bedroom are all on the 3rd and 4th level. For safety sake, we have installed chair lifts on the 3 stairways, and we ride up and down for safety. We have 5 acres that is across the county road separating the best area of the city, and the county.
To take care of a big home, and the surrounding property, we have a housekeeper come in 3 days a week, to maintain the home. We have an outside man that mows the 1 acre of lawn and landscaping, and does outside maintenance, and inside repair as needed. He uses our tractor mower and other equipment. In the winter we install a blade on the tractor, and he can clear our 500 ft lane up to our yard, and 1/4 acre of parking area the few times a year we get a bad snow. Our snow is light and fluffy here in the Rockies so we only have to use a leaf blower to blow the snow off of the walks and rear 15'X35' ft Veranda.
No matter what some younger people may think, the elderly and handicapped do have to make adjustments in their lives as they age. You may think it is O.K. to walk up flights of steps on a regular basis, but as the medical professionals tell us, you have either to make adjustments or will end up in trouble. I like being able to walk normal without a cane or crutches. The problem with stairs is, one slip is all it takes to cause serious damage, no matter how good of health you ae in. We had two choices. Move into a small single story so called retirement home, or continue to enjoy our beautiful home, with fantastic mountain views in the distance. Watching deer and rabbits feed on our lawn. See an occasional predator pass through up to a Cougar. Birds including flocks of geese in the 300 acre field adjoining our home. A very pleasant home for elderly, and by installing chair lifts, and having household and yard help, we can continue to live were we are happy.
I'm just trying to picture a 4 story house with 3700 sq ft, that must be a house with a small, narrow footprint bc our home is 3700 with two stories and it's not overwhelmingly large
You are right, it is in Montana. Yes we considered it. We had the choice the stair lifts, or move to a smaller 1 story home. We really like the house. The setting is great, with lots of privacy, and fantastic views. We have 1/4th acre fenced in the back yard for our Chihuahua with an 8 ft chain link fence. Not to keep him in, but to keep out the predators that would like him for lunch. Lots of trees such as Dutch Elm and Cotton Woods, around the edges of the landscaped area. The medical system is fantastic. It is good enough that the Mayo Clinic has accepted it as only one of 7 affiliated medical systems. And that is important to older people. With the Internet we don't have to drive 100 miles round trip to shop for things we need and want.
We have room, when our kids, grand kids, and great grand children want to come visit so we are not crowded or have to send them to a motel. We can separate the different age groups even by floors so they can socialize where they want to be. The great grand kids like the 4th level media room with a large flat screen TV that is hooked up to a dedicated computer, with over 50 on line sources for Free Movies, plus TV, or games. On the lowest level a large family room with another big screen TV, with large selection of videos they like collected over the years. And a large open plan kitchen, dining area, and family room. Plus the large Living room. We can make it pleasant if 2 or 3 families want to gather here for a reunion as they have done in the past.
We both grew up on large cattle ranches, where we could ride all day to get across them and get back. We were used to lots of room. We spent our working lives living in the big cities. We raised our family for years in the Silicon Valley. We always worked in the business world, the last part from 1972 till we retired as Investment real estate brokers with our own office. And we like room.
This is why we live in this home, instead of downsizing as many have. The last couple of years, our home has gone up in value about $50,000 a year making it a good investment. This area was not really effected by big real estate fiasco a few years ago. We have a nice home, with beautiful view, large enough for family gatherings, nice quiet neighborhood. As we can afford it without any strain.
Why would we want to really consider going to a small cramped lifestyle is how we feel about it.
Thanks for your detailed description of your "little village". Sounds like you were part of the Silly Valley boom. I was transferred up there in the mid 80's and came back down south early 90's...Missed So. Cal roots and wamrer weather. Talk about that boom -- some of the stories...
Sounds like you've had both city and country and now parked for the last segment of your lives. Let's see now how many of my 700 sq ft apts could I fit in your "village". 5 or so. Thanks again.
Obviously if you never do any exercise other than your own stairs you'll lose something if you move to a ranch-style home - but 2 weeks to get back into shape - what's the big deal? If you have any other physical activities in your life then it shouldn't be a big deal to be in a ranch.
Do you have a full bath at least on the first floor?
Two weeks at age 43. I'm 64 now. I sold that house after living there for 20 years and now live on the 9th floor of an elevator building but I use the fire stairs as much as possible. I walk down the 9 flights and usually walk up to the 5th floor and take the elevator the remaining floors. Sometimes I only make it up two or three floors till I cave and take the elevator but that's still good in my book. I'm 64 y.o. and want to remain strong and healthy.
I do have empathy for people with disease or injury that prevents them from being active. It could happen to any one of us.
I think what the OP and others on that side of the discussion are not realizing is that one can take excellent care of oneself, but one's body may still breakdown and maladies may still strike.
For most, one's body does not stay the same through each decade of the older decades. For example, osteoarthritis strikes a good number - and the exercise one did in previous decades may even be one of the main causes of zero or almost zero cartilage remaining in the knees.
And one's body may and often will weaken in some respects.
And to one poster, cancer can still strike, and often does, even with your list of preventative things to do.
On the OP side of discussion, people seem to think that just with good care of oneself, almost all problems of an aging body (and even cancer) can be prevented - but that's not really accurate.
Last edited by matisse12; 08-25-2017 at 06:08 PM..
One thing that does make me a little sad is the idea that you need to have stairs in your house to get proper exercise. Hope I'm just misreading that. Stairs are a nice supplemental exercise, though.
there are so many reasons besides knees that steps can become problematic. People get many other diseases that can impair mobility or just make it awkward to use stairs. People of all ages can have foot or leg injuries. You can have an arm or shoulder injury and be able to get around but find it difficult to carry anything up or downstairs which can be very problematic, especially if you live alone.
The chances of any type of medical problem increases with age so realistically speaking, the odds of stairs being an issue increases with age. Some people are lucky enough to not face these problems, others deal with them far before they are elderly - I never expected to be using a walker while I recovered from surgery to remove a bone tumor in my hip when I was 30.
That doesn't mean people should never have stairs - I personally just bought a home with stairs 3 years ago, while in my early 50s. I intend to stay here for another 10-15 years. But even assuming everything goes according to plan, I will be buying a condo or some other home with no stairs the next time. I knew that going in, and didn't buy this home with the intent to age in place, in part because there are reasons where I may not even stay in my current location. For other people, if they think they are where they hope to live out their days, it can often make a lot of sense to take these things into consideration in their 50s, even 40s, with the idea that this home needs to serve their needs for many decades to come.
Nicely said! Boy I sure envy your ability to write well. It's not my gift, so I always appreciate coming across posts like this that manage to say the things I wish I had been able to say.
I read a lot in the RE forums about how people want/insist on houses with no stairs. Many are older with documented mobility issues. But there is a significant proportion of people in their 50s and 60s who are PLANNING on having mobility issues. As someone who recently hit the big 4-0, I asked my doc about this. Do I really need to start thinking about "aging in place?" Do people's knees just blow out at 55 and you can't ever move again? What the heck is going to happen to me??
He kind of laughed at me and suggested that this is nonsense, that a lot of people have hip and knee flexion issues because of a lifetime of sitting-- in their cars, at their computers-- and will not suffer from anything but the effects of disuse. He gave me some exercises and just suggested I read some articles (one listed below) as well as continued to climb stairs and be active.
So I know that there are a lot of BBs who will protest loudly, but is this whole stair thing a self-fulfilling prophecy in many cases? I understand that many have heart and other legit issues which make a stair climb difficult. But I also go to classes where "stair climbing" is part of my workout. I just think the whole emphasis is...odd. Its almost obsessive for many.
For me, I've had bad knees since middle school. I played a lot of soccer and did a great deal of damage. Then I went into martial arts as a college student and made things worse. I also have a long history of knee problems in my family. I've needed surgery since high school. I've blown it off for decades because I didn't want to deal with months of therapy and all that knee surgery entails. At some point, I won't be able to blow it off anymore unless I want to be stuck in a wheelchair for something rather silly.
I've watched my great grandparents, grandparents, and parents as well numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins age. Not everyone ages gracefully including those who were physically fit or walked a great deal. My grandparents walked miles to and from work....didn't stop them from having mobility issues and issues with stairs later in life. Heart and lung issues come up. I had one grandfather who was told absolutely no stairs due to his bad heart.
No one expects these things, but many of us choose to make plans to deal with it in our younger years while we have the money, time, and resources to deal with it. Much easier to have a plan and start putting it in place when you're in your 40's that when it becomes an absolute necessity for you to leave a hospital and go home at 73 which is what happened to a member of my family. By then, he was retired so their income was rather limited to make alterations to their house. It was a constant struggle until he went into a nursing home.
There are lots of two story residences with bedrooms on the first floor for elderly parents. My own mom had cancer young and toward the end she lived in a downstairs bedroom in my home.
While there may be a bedroom on the first floor, is there a full bathroom? At least a bathroom with a shower in it? How many steps into the house? How steep are those steps?
Also, many homes with a first floor bedroom are rather small bedrooms. Our house has 2, but you can't fit a queen bed in one. The other bedroom you can fit a queen bed and 1 nightstand - that's it. No dresser or second nightstand. The closet is also extremely small. It's 24 inches wide and there's duct work in it so it's not like you can even use the full 24 inches. To get into this house, there are steps at all 3 entrances. They range from 3 to 7 steps. Some of them are very steep. The last family who lived here, moved to retire into a home that was easier to age in. Master bedroom on the second floor isn't always the greatest thing when you're elderly.
Exactly. There are stair lifts you can put in for heaven's sake.
I think its really sad that healthy people who are too young to worry about this yet are organizing their lives around an idea of infirmity. I am not talking about people who are already infirm. I am talking about adults who are still moving with ease. And I even bought into this idea enough to ask my doctor about it.
Again, another idea that sounds great in theory. However, they aren't super cheap. Many homes aren't built with one in mind so the stairs are far too narrow. There's no electricity on the stair wall for a chair lift. Then there's houses with curved staircases like every grandparent and great grandparent of mine lived with due to living in homes built in the late 1800's. Chair lifts weren't possible in any of those homes.
Only 1 of my grandparents even had the money for something like this. Did she spend it? Nope. Instead, she made the living room into her bedroom/living room...aka sleeping on the couch. She did that for a good 20 years! I can't imagine a sleeping on a couch for 20 years was as easy on the body as a mattress.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
