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We have developed many tools over the years to help you determine how well your house is working for you. With the recent COVID pandemic, UDI produced two quick guides that can help you make your current location safer without a large investment. In case you missed them just click here and here for more information. And if you are ready to evaluate your space and what your future needs may be, we highly suggest this checklist from our partners at AARP. This list will help you review your space with a critical eye. As always we are here to help as well. If you want to emphasize higher function home features along with maximizing marketability and home resale value, check out our resources here on our Better Living Design website.

The COVID crisis has shined a new light on older adults and our housing. The pandemic may actually offer some of us opportunities to reflect on our homes and what we’d like our living situations to be like in the years to come. First, we’re spending an awful lot of time trapped indoors these days. Perhaps we’ve noticed that some of our daily activities are getting harder. Is getting on and off the toilet more difficult these days? Maybe that slippery shower floor seems a little more dangerous than it used to. Or, are you now approaching the stairs with more anxiety? Our quarantine may be providing the time to take a closer look at how we accomplish everyday tasks. Second, along with our forced at-home time, we may have found ourselves without the amount of assistance that we’ve grown used to. Whether it is paid help or family members, they may be less available due to COVID issues in their own businesses or lives. Suddenly many of the daily activities that we’ve had help with, we may have had to carry out on our own, or less frequently, or less safely. From getting out of bed to getting dressed, using the toilet, bathing, cooking, and more, we might be realizing that the assistance we’ve become used to is really masking a home environment that could be helping us out more than it does. These new challenges might include high kitchen storage that we can’t reach, or the high tub rim that we realize is a real safety hazard. Finally, we have the emerging catastrophes with our long term care (LTC) facilities such as nursing homes. One of the defining characteristics of aging in the US has been our collective desire to avoid nursing homes. Expressed another way, remaining in the home we are in right now (for as long as possible or until we die) is what most of us say we want to do. We also know that very few of us to plan well for that goal. Nor do many of us have a clear-eyed view of the broader picture of our housing options as we age: can we remodel our home at a reasonable cost with an acceptable outcome, or should we think about finding another home that might be easier to fix up? We tend to wait until a health catastrophe has happened (such as a fall resulting in a broken hip) before facing the issue of our person/home mismatch. By then, it is usually too late to conduct thoughtful and comprehensive housing interventions. Now we have the news that during this pandemic, LTC’s have been hit hard with more than ⅓ of all reported US Covid-19 deaths occurring in nursing homes. In some places, the portion of nursing home COVID deaths exceeds ⅔, as it does in western North Carolina. Older adults seem to be paying attention. Covid-19 looks like it has helped to reinforce people's desire to avoid moving to a nursing home. We have been told directly by several older adults (and heard of many others) that the news of the death rates in nursing facilities has redoubled their commitment to stay at home, to age in place, and never , ever move to a nursing home. This is an understandable reaction and we’re guessing, one that is widespread. Given this renewed commitment to aging in place, perhaps the Covid-19 crisis can have the unintended benefit of opening a small window of opportunity to convince older households to plan ahead, consider their options, and begin to act affirmatively on their desire to remain in their homes safely and independently as long as possible. We know that living in a better designed home (that allows for safe and independent living) can delay moves to care settings of all types. Don’t forget the money savings as well: LTC costs can run over $100K/yr. While we are uncomfortable using fear tactics as a motivational tool, those of us in the field have been confounded for many decades by older adults’ reluctance to act in their own best interests regarding their retirement planning. Perhaps now is the time for a quiet conversation with current or prospective clients, our parents, and grandparents about how you can help with this challenging process. Older adults are best served by advisors who can help them through a process of weighing options, including if remodeling their current home is the best idea, or if relocating is a better idea. For easy ways to improve the safety of your home we have compiled a quick list here and here . While this conversation is hard to have with your parents, grandparents, or each other it is a worthy one, all of our health and well being depend on it. Ideas for safety and functional improvements, large and small can be found here: Age Friendly Design Features in Houses *NYT: https://nyti.ms/3dCQZas

How Napoleon’s Defeat in the 1813 Battle of Leipzig Came to Challenge Universal Design’s Innovative Properties - By Olav Rand Bringa, Senior Adviser in The Norwegian Ministry of Culture Napoleon was at war with most of Europe from 1802 to 1815 when he finally was defeated at Waterloo. The alliances shifted over time but at the end of the Napoleonic wars England, Russia, the German States, Austria and Sweden stood against him. Amongst his allies were Holland, Spain, and Denmark-Norway. Norway was at the time under Danish rule. This meant that the neighboring countries, Sweden and Denmark-Norway, were on opposite sides in the conflict. When Napoleon lost the battle of Leipzig, two years before Waterloo in 1813, Sweden saw the possibility to acquire land that it had long coveted: Norway. The January 1814 peace treaty obliged Denmark to give Norway to Sweden. This plan was not popular in Norway. In fact, a number of prominent and influential citizens saw the opportunity for independence after 400 years of Danish rule. Delegates were hastily elected and gathered in the manor house of a wealthy landowner and industrialist in Eidsvoll in southern Norway to work out the constitution for their dreamt-of nation. The American constitution from 1787 was an important model in this task. The constitution was approved by the 112 elected men on the 16th of May 1814. (see Figure 1) The first article read: “The Kingdom of Norway is a free, independent and indivisible realm”. It was dated and signed by the president of the constituent assembly the next day. The 17th of May has become the Norwegian national day, much like The United States’ Independence Day on the 4th of July. The Renovation Plan The wooden Manor building where the constitution was worked out, adopted and signed, was built around 1770 (see Figure 2). The house has three levels: basement, first and second floors. The house totals over 21,000 square feet and was designed to accommodate the running of a wealthy man’s estate and for his family with rooms for meetings, work, guests, and leisure in addition to private quarters. Each space was populated with a custom wallpaper, carpets, and furniture. It was a big household that required servants. They had their quarters in the basement close to the kitchen, storerooms, and wine cellar. The servants had their own staircases and passages hidden in the walls which could take them to important rooms on all floors without disturbing employers and houseguests. The room with the most historic and symbolic value is the building’s largest room and is located on the second floor of the manor house. It was in this very room, originally planned as a ballroom, that the Constitutional Assembly held their meetings, ultimately adopted the constitution then declared Norway a sovereign and independent state. It still stands and is a national treasure and symbol of a sovereign nation and of democracy. The manor has been open to the public as a national historic site since the early 1850s , and is now visited by 80,000 people each year. When preparations were made for the rehabilitation of the building prior to the 200-year anniversary in 2014, several challenges arose. The aim of the renovation was to have the building laid out and redesigned to make it look as close as possible to what it looked like in 1814 to provide visitors with a more authentic experience. It was a challenging task. Earlier restoration efforts had been of questionable quality, but the renovation team used old documents and a painstaking study of the building itself to gather the needed information.

This wide-ranging article points out many of the causes and effects of social isolation. It has, of course, become much worse over the past month with our national quarantine. The piece is equally extensive in its review of how we might address these serious mental health issues. The article begins with a story with deep resonance to those concerned with affordable housing and home design: a person with a disability forced to choose a home that she couldn’t enter or exit without being carried. So many of us with mobility impairments share a similar story, effectively being trapped in our own homes. This fact alone creates significant isolation in the best of times. In an inaccessible home, perhaps an individual can’t often leave the home, but at least people can visit. Now, under quarantine, the visitations are likely reduced to a bare minimum. With so few universal or accessible homes in our communities, at any price point, we’ll continue to be faced with bad choices when we seek a place to live. Let’s start building homes at all price points, in all our communities, that will allow everyone safe, life-long living. For full article on Medium, click here. Another article on the effects of isolation on our older population as well as a few examples of programs that are addressing those needs illustrated in this New York Times piece.

Here are a few tips for steps you can actually take to make some improvements in your home environment, even during this quarantine period, while we're all stuck in our homes. You can use this yourself, provide it to those who work with older households, or provide it to an older person themselves and maybe help them figure out a plan. More suggestions to follow.

Here are a few tips for steps you can actually take to make some improvements in your home environment, even during this quarantine period, while we're all stuck in our homes. You can use this yourself, provide it to those who work with older households, or provide it to an older person themselves and maybe help them figure out a plan. More suggestions to follow.

As many of us stay safe at home or shelter in place, we might be getting too much of each other, or maybe not enough. For those who are already living alone, the need to maintain social distancing may be causing us to double down on the worrisome tendency towards social isolation. It makes it really hard to stay connected face-to-face if it is not OK to gather in groups, even with six feet between us. Many of us are relying more and more on the telephone, emailing, or texting. I know I am. We now Face Time with our grandchildren every day. My wife has a daily schedule of reading a chapter book using Face Time. We were also part of an extended family Zoom party on Wednesday. And we really pushed the public safety envelope when neighbors gathered outside yesterday on a wonderfully warm (for a change) and windy spring afternoon. Maintaining our social distancing at the gathering, we still managed to see friends and make new ones. Let’s maintain our community during these times, and even extend it! For an article that dives deeper into this topic -> https://bit.ly/2WXYCmw

Good ideas from this article include: 1. At a certain point, downsizing might be beneficial and viable. 2. Consider repurposing a portion of your existing home, if it can be done within your budget, within local zoning restrictions, and the result will let you age with safety and independence. 3. Renting out the remaining portion (See zoning above) can really help with finances. From a lifelong living perspective, this couple lived in one of the most challenging dwellings imaginable: narrow footprint, multistory row-house with stairs everywhere and widely separated key function areas. Their “move or improve” decision was a high stakes process. The highly urbanized milieu of Brooklyn certainly helped in some ways. They already rented the bottom floor so I guess renting the top floors instead wasn’t a big stretch. It is likely that a whole range of in-home services is available as well.  I wouldn’t think that it would be necessary to drive a car much. However, not too many of us can manage a $630,000 renovation without going into debt, which is probably not a good idea at an advanced age. And $9,000/ month rental income is pretty stratospheric in most places. And it isn’t clear that their new apartment checks all the age-in-place boxes. Can they enter from the rear? Is there a step free route to the rear door? Does the new bathroom have a curbless, threshold-less shower? The laundry located in the basement will certainly be a big challenge at some point. For many of us living in suburban and rural areas, there is less certainty about the availability of in-home assistance and a far greater need to driveway past the time when we can safely do so. If you live in a rural or suburban area, these last two factors might tip the scales towards the “move” option, or perhaps “move then improve” if you can find a home in a better location and can renovate it appropriately. For full article click HERE

Last month's reader poll asked, "Pocket Doors, Yay or Nay?" We are delighted to see that you had experience with pocket doors and ideas to share about this space saver. Our readers addressed the handle and lock issues of pocket doors. The problem: Lots of pocket door hardware (handles and locks) require tight grasping and pinching or manipulation. The image below shows a typical small recessed handle on the side of a pocket door and someone using the edge-mounted, flip-out metal loop. Neither of these does a good job if you have any issues with grasping. A. Possible Door Handle Solutions: "...for many years we developed assisted living facilities in Ohio. We installed pocket doors on all resident bathrooms. We had a 36” finished opening but installed a block to keep the pocket door 4” out of the wall, thereby leaving a 32” clear opening. A handled latch set was then installed vertically. This system worked very well and was easily used by the resident.`` - Mac Kennedy Mac didn’t supply a photo but the images below show some door handle solutions. What do you think of this vertical, two-way handle? "We did this and it works well except the 3 screws are marking up the white trim we put thin rubber discs on the screw still are marking." - Debbie Popielarczyk B. Door Lock Solutions Door locks are also challenging because they need to keep a door from moving laterally. A standard lockset or deadbolt won't work. Carol Rogers has tried vertical top and bottom door bolts, like these, only much longer. "Here are a few links to products that are similar to what we’ve used.  Although they have knobs, you really just push the bolt up into the head of the door frame, (some are better for this than others) or down into the floor.  You can also do both, which is what one client did.  We mount them on the inside face of the door to be locked.  We don’t worry about them sticking out and not sliding back into the pocket, as we use surface mounted handles, too.  Stops mounted to the face of the door at the bottom will prevent the hardware from running into the jamb.  A standard 36” door should leave a 32” min. clear opening.  It’s based on French door hardware from old French doors."  - Carol Rogers Deltana - https://amzn.to/2Q6wMAx Vintage - https://bit.ly/2W2tW32 Deltana Modern - https://bit.ly/3aL2pHw Carol also reminded me that for a lot of people who use wheelchairs, the act of exerting a lateral force creates an awkward opposite effect. You move a door to the left, and you and your chair want to roll to the right. The heavier the door, the more pronounced the effect. Barn doors, which are typically bigger than a pocket or hinged doors, can be particularly heavy and therefore prone to this effect. Here are images of other ways to solve the latching challenge, with larger, graspable surfaces. I have no idea about their force requirements. Can people find other non-stainless, more traditional residential styles? This is a most unusual option that is simple to install and inexpensive but looks as if it might be a challenge to manipulate unless a larger gripping surface is attached.

*This post is sponsored by Bobrick Washroom Equipment, Inc. Universal design is defined by the idea that the design of products and environments should be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible. For an architect striving for universal design for a commercial building project, some areas may be more complex than others due to the types of human actions that take place in them. For example, doorways: a variety of movements are required to approach a typical door, manipulate the hardware, pass through the doorway and close the door. For users of all abilities, having an adequate amount of space to accomplish these tasks is helpful. For those who utilize rigid equipment to assist with mobility—such as a walker or a wheelchair—adequate space becomes even more essential. Accessible toilet compartments are another area that must accommodate a wide variety of movements, such as getting on and off the toilet, as well as reaching for and using a seat cover, toilet tissue, grab bar and waste receptacle. These actions all require bending, reaching, sitting and standing. Having all of these items easily accessible with minimal reaching can help mitigate the impact of these complexities on peoples’ lives. Open to Interpretation and Circumstance Design professionals often must contend with multiple building and accessibility codes, including federal, state and even municipal requirements, when designing a restroom. Depending on the project, interpretations may vary and the perceived dominant code may differ. For example, the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (ADAS) doesn’t require vertical grab bars in accessible toilet compartments, but 2009 and 2017 ANSI A117.1 and most state codes do. Conflicting codes can cause confusion and difficulties with compliance for architects and designers. For example, the ADAS requires toilet tissue dispensers are located with a center line that is 7" to 9" in front of the nosing of the toilet, but ANSI A117.1 requires the dispenser centerline be located between 24" and 42" from the back corner. Satisfying these sometimes-conflicting requirements can be difficult. From an ergonomics perspective, it is preferable to adhere to the ADA procedure because it locates the dispenser relative to the front of the toilet, which is a reasonable proxy for where a person might be reaching. Meanwhile, dispensers can actually be located up to 48" high. However, for many sitting persons, reaching up to 48" is not convenient; reaching between 18" and 36" is easier. Since conflicts between codes can be a source of frustration, products that address all possible relevant codes in the jurisdiction and improve upon code minimums can help make product selections easier for design professionals. Hard to Get Wrong To help architects better manage differences between codes and interpretations, some manufacturers have stepped up by engineering products with all possible prevailing codes in mind. Bobrick’s new horizontal, combination dispenser-disposal units are a prime example—their B-3091 , B-3092 , B-30919 and B-30929 units , which combine toilet tissue dispensers, toilet seat cover dispensers and waste disposals in a single stainless steel unit, are oriented horizontally to enable maximum compliance with 2010 ADAS, as well as 2009 and 2017 ICC A117.1 standards and the 2019 California Building Code. The ADAS requires that grab bars have 1-1/2" absolute wall clearance between the edge of grab bar and the surface of the wall or panel. While the ADAS apply everywhere, they may not be strictly or uniformly inspected, interpreted or enforced. For the 46 states (all but California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Texas) that have adopted the ICC A117.1-2009 Standard, code language allows dispensers to project 1/4" within the minimum required spaces above, behind and below the grab bar as an alternate design to the ADA. However, compliance with ADAS and ANSI is not always synonymous with functionality. Although compliant, some solutions that would satisfy both codes are awkward, such as those that require a higher or lower reach—for example, as low as 15" or as high as 48" above the finish floor. While traditional vertical toilet compartment combination units reduce the 1 ½" absolute clearance between the grab bar and the wall required by the ADAS, Bobrick’s new horizontal combination units are engineered to help architects and designers achieve full compliance: mounting the unit 1 ½" minimum below the grab bar does not interfere with the wall spacing behind the grab bar, complying with 2010 ADAS as well as 2009 and 2017 ICC A117.1. Reducing the grab bar wall clearance from 1 ½" by 3/16" in front of the recessed unit to 1-5/16" does not reduce the accessibility and usability of the grab bar or the accessories. The safety rationale for the 1 ½" wall clearance—prevent injury caused by forearm and elbow being trapped between the grab bar and the wall or panel—has not been compromised. Meanwhile, the centerlines of the tissue and seat cover dispensers are 7" to 9" in front of the leading edge of the toilet, which is also ADA compliant. Finally, providing waste disposal on the sidewall adjacent to the toilet tissue dispenser and in front of the rear wall of the compartment or room complies with the 2019 California Building Code. Minimizing the grab bar interference and limiting a high reach allowed Bobrick to provide a more foolproof specification option when installed properly, improving upon code minimums and providing a more preferred, ergonomic, universal result. Visit bobrick.com to learn more about the B-3091 , B-3092 , B-30919 and B-30929 units —and always consult with an accessibility expert, such as a Bobrick architectural representative.