How to FutureProof your forever home

If you have found your forever home and many people do in their mid-life, you may need to adapt your home to make sure it will be fit for purpose as you age and as your family dynamic changes. It does not necessarily need to involve huge expenditure but with fore-thought it will allow you to stay in your house for as long as possible.

Over 60% of people from the age of 55 stay in their home for the rest of their lives

Reference: Money marketing‍

Adapt when renovating

Increasing the accessibility in your home doesn't necessarily involve drastic changes or have to impact the aesthetics of your home to still be practical. Changes you make will not only help older relatives but also younger children making your home suitable for multi generations.
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Things to consider are:

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• Steps and Stairs - If you are changing your porch, adding a room or renovating think how you can eradicate steps so that more of your house is easily accessible for wheel chairs and will remove trip hazards. Trying to adapt this later will often mean redoing the work, and although ramps are available they are often not aesthetically pleasing and hard to manoeuvre. 
• Bathrooms - Having a downstairs toilet can be crucial, especially if upstairs is not accessible. When creating one ensure the doorway is wide enough for a wheelchair. If you are putting in a shower go for a sleek wet room with no steps to future proof your bathroom. 
• Gardens - The cost to make your indoor/outdoor living on one level with little to no profile can be more expensive, but aesthetically pleasing and great for young and old. 
• Configuration of rooms - If you are extending, think how you can change configuration of your rooms if necessary - e.g. what used to be a play room might be a hobby room, or a downstairs bedroom. 

Keep engaged with the community 

This may be your forever home because you love the community and are near many friends and family. The key is not to take this for granted and to keep your social life varied, as people inevitably leave the area or your commonalities change through different life stages.

Maintaining your home   

Adding an amount in your yearly costs, will allow you to  keep-up with house improvements and achieve at least one thing a year. Otherwise you may find you have large unexpected costs as things deteriorate.  As you renovate areas of the house, look at ways to reduce yearly running costs, increase insulation or alternative sources of power so you are less vulnerable to rising energy costs.