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AARP has long been an important advocate for better home design, better home features, and helpful products that can maintain our lifestyle and enhance our safety in the home. In the August/September Issue of AARP Magazine, the article Home Sweet Forever Home is a good read. It shows a number of really good home features that are good for everyone and really good if you are older, such as a curbless shower, added lighting, and a raised dishwasher. They might have emphasized more the marketability of a UD home. They also toss a custom feature like grab bars in there. We’ll all need them at some point in our lives, but they aren’t an example of a UD feature. Universal equivalents are the handholds around toilet paper dispensers, mix valves, at soap dishes, and built into towel bars. Plan ahead and do it now! For full article click HERE

We are very aware that many homes need added lighting, natural and artificial. To help us quantify the useful light that falls on a particular location, we promote measuring foot-candles with simple, smart-phone light meter apps. Also, we can avoid over-lighting by using dimmers so you can fine-tune your lighting needs by time of day and activity. We'll share our suggestions for optimal lighting levels in another post soon. See what our colleague, Debra Young, has to say about lighting and a lot more. For the full article on HealthCentral click here!

Construction continues, with deck footings going down, and interior walls going up. We will finish later in 2019, so stay tuned to see how this home for a lifetime comes out! This home is also the Professional Remodeler – 2019 Model Remodel. SGC Horizon is the publisher of Professional Remodeler.

Thank you for following along our accessible hiking series. This week we explore the expansive landscape that is Texas specifically, San Antonio area. Leon Creek Greenway is 18 miles of a concrete paved tranquil trail that is home to many birds and wildlife. What sets this trail apart is that it meanders through several of San Antonio's parks providing a variety of interest and access points. Leon Creek Greenway is also a great example of finding the restorative benefits of nature, even in urban settings, per University of Minnesota, "One of the most intriguing areas of current research is the impact of nature on general wellbeing. In one study in Mind , 95% of those interviewed said their mood improved after spending time outside, changing from depressed, stressed, and anxious to more calm and balanced ." *Please check out the actual level of accessibility of any trail prior to making plans use them. Next week we head west to California, stay tuned! If this is the first post you are reading, I would suggest you also take a peek at our Western North Carolina and Florida trail posts.

This a great article about better designed areas in the public domain. One point to emphasize is that designing to ADA standards, which are minimum functional standards in many areas, should not be our highest aspiration; instead, just a starting point. Also, note that the authors make a compelling demographic case for significant numbers of us with human performance characteristics that are wide ranging. I believe that the demographics, however significant, aren't the reason to embrace a universal approach to design. We've needed to adopt a universal approach for a long, long time; prior even to our society's changes over the past 40 years. Rather, our demographics offer a reason for urgency. Let's do it now! For full article click HERE

The great thing about accessible places and trails is that they are also very family friendly. The other thing about accessible places is that you never really know how accessible they are. We don’t know how well researched the places are. So keep that in mind. Please share your experiences at these locations.  We hope to fill this series with lots of beautiful, accessible and family friendly trails and would love to hear from you - Have you trekked them? Do you have an accessible spot to add to the list? What is your favorite part? This week we begin in our own beautiful Asheville, NC backyard! Next week we head further south to Florida...stay tuned!

We are very aware of the problem of housing affordability and these approaches may be replicable. Other than ADU’s, we’re not sure how much of a future single family homes have in newly built affordable housing. We like ADU’s because they are small (NOT tiny) dwellings that can be placed on an otherwise single family zoned property. This can be a universal design home and can work great for older relatives or others. But we also like newly built two and three family homes as affordable options that can also include UD characteristics. That is homes that can be marketed to a mainstream audience but that have significantly higher function characteristics and easy adaptability. To read the full article on this topic on Builder.com click HERE

We have long regarded Toronto as a good example of a progressive planning city. This proposal from Sidewalk Labs has a lot going for it, including intergenerational housing and neighborhoods and more accommodating community design features. Interestingly, the article also mentions housing design that includes height adjustable countertops! We've experimented with manual and electrically operated adjustability for a long time. Challenging and often expensive. I’d like to see how that works out. We have long considered better home features for older residents: tub-to-curbless shower conversions, lowered counter and cabinet heights for a primarily older female population, extra lighting, etc. For full article on Medium.com click here

Last week we began with the trails of Western North Carolina , this week we head further down the east coast to Florida to the El Rio Trail of Boca Raton. Much like the NC trails of last week this just under 7 mile stretch is paved, family friendly and also a great place for your four legged friends. *Please check out the actual level of accessibllity of any trail prior to making plans use them. Whether you are walking or rolling, "Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists such as public health researchers Stamatakis and Mitchell." - University of Minnesota To learn more about the El Rio Trail click HERE and if you would like to explore other Florida Accessible Friendly spots, here is a great resource What do you think about pervious/impervious trail surfaces? We like a firm, stable, and even surfaces but don't like additional water runoff. Is there a perfect trail surface that does both? We would love to hear from you - Have you trekked of these trails? Do you have an accessible spot to add to the list? What is your favorite part? Let us know in the comments. Next week we head to Texas...stay tuned!

The absolute best way to age in place is to already live in a home that maximizes function (without looking institutional). Even with access to any of the helpful programs listed in the article, households are likely looking at a period of unnecessary hardship, cramped lifestyle, expense, and danger before and during almost any remodeling effort. Alternatively, we promote the culture change where people plan for their housing futures the way many of us plan for our financial futures. We’d also much prefer an “age-in-community” model where housing options exist to provide choices and people are much clearer about 1. how much a home remodel might cost (a lot), 2. how much functional improvement is possible (often not nearly enough), and 3. if their current neighborhood and community really works for them any longer (friends have moved on, driving is the only way to get around). Plan ahead!

We love ADU’s as additional residential options for older households. I can quibble about some of the “UD” features listed here and we can see that the capital costs of ADU’s can be significant. But they are more affordable than life care communities, assisted living, and can strengthen family and community connections and allow easier unpaid caregiving. Their viability is improved with the availability of home and community based services, such as home health. Want to learn more about ADU's? Check out our previous post with downloadable pdf resource guides and let us know what you think, are ADU's for you, in the comments.

Great conference in Portland, Oregon that addresses smaller homes, ADU's, and housing for missing middle households. And at least one session on universal design. It will be interesting to see if/how they distinguish universal design in homes from accessible design in homes. The former is generic, marketable to a mainstream audience, and easily customizable; the other is specific to a particular person or usually those who operate only from a seated position. To learn more about the conference, click HERE Not quite sure what an ADU is or want to know if it is right for you? Check out the great resources below that will answer many of your questions.