For many of us, and for many reasons, home is getting to be a more crowded space.
Whether you chalk it up to the sagging economy, ethnic tradition or other motivations, multigenerational households are booming.
In August, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of multigenerational households had grown to about 5.1 million in 2010, more than a 30 percent increase from 3.9 million in 2000. Other surveys place the number higher.
The process of doubling up may mean adapting a home’s features or floor plan to accommodate privacy or older adults’ physical limitations, or starting over with a new house, said Amy Goyer, family and grandparenting expert for AARP.
Goyer, who has worked with the Ohio Department of Aging and in the adult day care and nursing home industry, talked about how to look at a house that could span generations:
Q: Multigenerational households were once a fixture of the American landscape, then, for lack of a better description, they went out of fashion. Why have they made a comeback?
A: Lots of things are coming together to cause it. There’s obviously the economy causing people who may have lost jobs or seen their income decrease to move in together.
The rise in boomerang kids — young adults who move back home with their parents in order to save money — has been well-documented. But you also have this emerging adulthood phenomenon, with people 18 to 29 who just haven’t become fully independent.
Ethnicity and immigration are another factor. We have more Hispanic families and more Asian families, where it might be more common for the generations to live together.
Then, of course, there’s just longevity. Life expectancy has increased.
And there are multiple ways to define multigenerational. AARP includes the common concept of householders living with their own children and their own parents, but variations include householders with their grandchildren, householders with their parents, householders with their parents and their grandchildren, and others.
Q: The idea of universal design — adapting a home to meet the needs of all age levels and especially those who have physical limitations, such as aged adults — has been around for a couple of decades, yet it hasn’t caught on as widely as I would have expected. Maybe now, with this demand for shared space, it will.
What are some principles homeowners might consider in adapting a home, especially for use by older adults with physical limitations?
A: Universal design is just good design, a common-sense thing, and something everybody should consider if they’re looking at a new home with multiple generations in mind or if you’re looking at making changes to a current home to accommodate them.
Start with a no-threshold entry into a home. That’s great not only for a mom who has a stroller but also for someone in a wheelchair or someone who has trouble with steps.
Bathrooms are one of the key areas that people need to think about. You might want to consider a no-threshold shower, which is helpful for someone who wants to avoid steps or who has difficulty with a tub. And it’s also great for kids or if you’re going to give the dog a bath.
I just remodeled my own house and got a 17-inch-high toilet, which is a couple of inches taller than the typical toilet, and it’s easier for my parents when they come to visit. I like it too.
In a kitchen, you might look at multilevel counters. A lower counter is great if you want to sit while preparing food, or if you have someone in a wheelchair who is preparing food, or if you want to do a baking project with your grandkids.
Consider your door handles and light switches. A rocker light switch is a lot easier for a child to turn on, and it may be easier for someone with arthritis. My parents had them in their home, but now that they’ve moved to a senior facility, their apartment doesn’t have them, surprisingly. You’ll want to look at door handles: a lever style would be easier for kids as well as for someone with arthritis.
Other things to consider would include door width, whether a wheelchair would be able to get around in a house and whether stairs would keep someone with limited physical abilities from reaching the bathroom.
Q: What about privacy issues in a crowded household?
A: One of the hardest things in sharing space is keeping your own identity.
Many people try to set up a home that has an in-law suite or guest area on the main floor that has its own sitting room and bathroom. If you look at adapting your existing home, you might consider repurposing a room that isn’t used much.
One possibility is the dining room. If you aren’t the type of family that always gathers around the dining table, and having a big dining space isn’t an important aspect of your relationship, you might want to consider adapting the dining room as a bedroom space for the grandparent who has come to live with adult children.
But this isn’t something that’s unique to the older generation. The kids may love having grandma or grandpa in the home, but they’re kids, and they need to be able to be loud and to play. Maybe that dining room would be better used as a place where they could put their Wii.
I knew a family where the grandmother moved in with her adult children and grandchildren, and though they didn’t have a large home, they made sure that one corner of the living room was hers. She had her recliner chair there and her books and her own things, and that was her sacred space.
That was the best they could do, but they were showing respect for her.
Q: Given the economic climate, builders, in general, aren’t creating many houses these days, but do you see instances where the industry is trying to address the needs of multiple generations in new construction?
A: I do see high-end housing where there are two master suites, on the ground floor, each with their own private bath.
And I do see, in some locations that local building regulations permit them, granny flats or casitas that are small, separate buildings on the lot of the larger family home.
If you’re going to convert your existing home so that it has a separate apartment, you’ll have to keep in mind whether it would be permitted by local zoning and building laws.
