Unlock Your Forever Home: Top 10 Aging in Place Hacks

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Foreign.

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The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home Improvement Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric G. Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends coming up in this week's second hour of the show.

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In this hour of the around the House show with Eric G. He is going to give you 10 solid things you can do around your house to help age in place.

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It doesn't matter if you are in your final home or just have a surgery coming up, you might want to catch these tips to make access easier for your home.

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So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.

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Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

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I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

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We've got a great show coming up.

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This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

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I've got two of these things.

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I have one at the beach house.

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The I tell you what, I've got the six burner at the beach house.

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Cooked on it last weekend.

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It was amazing.

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And then of course I've got the smaller four burner over at my girlfriend's place because I wanted the nice grill, but we have a tight small space back there.

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I wanted to be able to make sure to have the right grill for the right size and the right amount of people coming over.

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And that's the great thing.

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And you can find them all@montymc grills.com killer warranty build stout more heat than you'll ever need and you can control it, which is the big key to using any outdoor grill.

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To find out more, head to monumcrills.com today we're going to be talking about steps that you can do around your house to help age in place.

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And what is aging in place?

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Aging in place is basically a theory about how can you stay in your home the longest if you're 35 years old and you bought your first house?

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Yeah, I know people used to buy 25, but houses get expensive.

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If you're thinking about, hey, this is going to be a house that I'm going to have for a while, or you're active and you get hurt every once in a while or you've got grandparents that come visit or your parents, it doesn't matter.

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There's a time that you're going to need these things in life.

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And here are 10 little tips and tricks that you can do to make it better and easier to age in place.

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So that way you know when you get up in your elderly years, I'm not talking 65, but it's depending how well you took care of yourself or what health issues you have.

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If you can make it so it's easier to navigate and it's safer and you don't have to have help, it can really change how you live and the way you live.

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So the first one here is an obvious one, but it's a big one.

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And these are all things that you can be doing now, or even more importantly, thinking about as you do renovations around the house.

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Installing grab bars in key locations is one of the bigger ones to do.

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Now this can be a little more difficult and here's why.

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There's plenty of homes out there built with fiberglass tub showers.

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Those are very hard to add grab bars to because you can't just hook it to the fiberglass.

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If you go through the fiberglass and grab the stub behind it, there's probably a space behind it.

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So it's not great.

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But if you've got a tile shower or if you've got a wall with drywall or plaster and you can grab a stud with it.

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Now your money.

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And here's the cool thing.

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The grab bars you used to be able to get looked like they were out of your 40 year old best Western hotel that hadn't been remodeled.

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And you got the ADA Room because it was the last one available.

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They got the ugly stainless steel kind of radiused ends and the plate that covers the screws.

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They look horrible.

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They're not awesome.

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Now they've got stuff that decoratively matches.

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It looks more like a towel bar that'll hold you and they can be really part of that.

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Now you could put them in next to the toilet around there, so you've got a place to help.

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You could put them in the bathroom, in the shower or bathtub, depending on where you need them.

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And you can plan these out.

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Now there are options to be able to get in there.

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I've gone into a back of a closet before, remove the drywall.

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I've gone in there and installed them there.

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And you can actually block in behind it, fill it up.

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Really fill up that space so you can drill through that fiberglass.

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So on the outside it's a little bit harder.

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Now you're taking siding off and going that route.

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But if you're doing a remodel, it's a good way to go.

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So you want to make sure you put those into the studs.

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And you want to make sure that if they're in a wet location that they're caulked and waterproof correctly so you don't have water damage going behind it.

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But really putting them near toilets, inside, showers, bathtubs can prevent balls, really, because you have something to grab.

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So really there are now ADA compliant designs that are going to really blend in with what you're trying to do and make it look good.

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And I tell you what, from someone who has broken their leg, had knee surgeries, hurt themselves doing DIY projects, sports, whatever, having those in the right places can make a big difference whether you have the ability right now or not.

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So that's a big one.

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Now here's the other one here.

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When it comes to doorknobs around the house, this is a solid rule.

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Get rid of those knobs for lever handles.

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Now here's why.

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If you have somebody that's dealing with, let's say they've got some ability issues with their hands, maybe it's a weak grip, maybe you've broken a finger or two, maybe you've got arthritis.

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My rule is to be able to operate something with a closed fist.

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So if you can come up and open a door with a closed fist, you're doing pretty good.

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Now, knobs can be troublesome that way because you've got to grab it and twist it and that can be troublesome.

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Now if you are a dog owner, this can be problematic.

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Like my house, I had to change from levers to knobs because my dogs were smart enough, they knew how to open the door, they could come up, hit the handle, open the door, and then rooms I didn't want them in could be easily accessed.

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So think about how smart your pets are and maybe it's something you change out later.

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But having a lever handle and that works for faucets as well, if you can operate that with a closed fist, that single lever, or depending on the knobs and stuff, you can have that 8 inch widespread faucet in the bathroom.

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You've got to open your hand.

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If you can do it with a closed hand, it's nice.

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Not a bad way to go.

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And that works in the kitchen or anywhere else.

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So think about that one.

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Now here's a big one.

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And this can be something.

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When you're changing out things around the house, you can really start to think about.

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Flooring is a big deal.

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That overly plush carpet with the thick massive pad underneath, it can be problematic with a wheelchair.

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It can be problematic with a walker.

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Not so bad if you're on crutches.

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But these are things that you have to worry about.

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Now the biggest issue that I see when we're running into this and we designed it this way in my mom's house, which style wise to me wasn't the best because I don't like it as much.

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But all of her walkways around the house were tile.

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And then we did carpet in the living room in certain areas that she wanted to have something softer.

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Now a lot of people say I want to go carpet everywhere because if I fall, I want something softer.

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Look, if you fall, you're going to fall.

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And to be honest, having the tile floor or a soft pad floor probably isn't going to make the biggest difference.

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But really what you want to consider is why are you falling?

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Are you falling because you have a transition strip that goes between because you remodeled the kitchen or somebody remodeled the kitchen 20 years ago and went right over the top of the flooring.

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So you got a half inch or a three quarter inch lip going into the kitchen or into a bathroom or another room.

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You want to keep those basically transition free.

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So you want to make it so the carpet is flush with the tile, but the linoleum in the kitchen is flush with the hardwoods in the hallway.

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You see where I'm going?

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If we can get that, those are places where people trip and if we can stop trip hazards, you're doing really good.

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Now the other thing is here is when you're thinking about flooring, you want to make sure that whatever you're putting in those entryways or water areas is something that's got grip to it.

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Now tile these days if you get a porcelain tile or one of those that's it's very durable.

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They now have basically tiles that have a anti slip coating on it.

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Now if you've got that marble, I want to be Hollywood bathroom that's got the marble or the entryway that's got it.

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There are some nano coatings out there that is absolutely amazing that you can put down that really stops that from being a slippery surface which is super cool.

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So with that non slip coating you can go through and really get that so it's not slippery and that can really change how you do it.

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We got a lot more of these when we come back around the house.

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We'll be right back after these important messages.

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Don't change that top.

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To find out more, head to aroundthehouse online.com Eric G. Will be back with more tips for aging in place.

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Just after a quick note from our sponsors.

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We will be right back.

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But kids these days will never understand what it's like to play an instrument, to be in a band.

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What's up?

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This is Sticks it in ya and Satchel from Steel Panther.

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And you are listening to around the.

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House with Eric G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should too.

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Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

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Ruben.

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I'm Eric G. This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

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Check them out@monument grills.com and if you want to get a hold of me, if you've got questions about what we've been talking about now, our number one or our number two of the show or you want something maybe talked about in a future episode, reach out to me.

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Just head over to aroundthehouse online.com and message, message me there and I'll get back to you as fast as I can.

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We were talking about tile here a minute ago and it's interesting stuff.

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So we were talking about I had to cut it short because we went out to break.

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But there is a product that you can put on that overly polished marble or whatever else.

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And it's used a lot in, in hotels and things like that.

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But I tell you what, this is cool stuff and what I like about it, it's called Surestep.

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So it's a non slip treatment for tile stone.

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And it just basically gives you this nano coating on the top, whether it's a shower floor or anywhere else.

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So it's really cool.

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I can get you in touch with these guys.

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You got to find an authorized distributor.

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It's not something you could buy because they got to put it on correctly.

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But it's called Surestep and it's affordable stuff because they're doing it in hotels, hospitals, things like that all around the country.

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And really cool stuff.

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You want to find out more?

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My buddy Michael Stroppa is the, I think the Washington, Oregon guy for that.

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But neat stuff out there and I think it's a really cool product that will help people out there and really help them not have a slippery surface like that where they could trip, fall, slip.

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And it's a cost effective solution for dealing with that, which makes me happy.

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That's good stuff.

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So that's important there.

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Now we've been talking about here those things that you should be doing around the house here to really help you age in place.

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And we were talking about eliminating those thresholds, tripping hazards, things like that.

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One of my favorites is adding better Lighting with motion sensors.

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Now you can do this simply one of the biggest things I have stairs to go to my second level.

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That's where the bedrooms are.

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Now in a aging in place that is not your best situation.

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But sometimes finding that house, it's a ranch type house with everything on one level can be hard.

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So my staircase I have a really sturdy railing and then I did under tread lighting.

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So I have LED lights that come down that are always on.

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Don't use that much energy.

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But I tell you what, they're super cool the way they work.

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So you now have a lit staircase.

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So the chance of tripping and falling with that is a lot better.

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You're going to really increase your odds of not falling, which is key.

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So that's good.

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Now you can have it where you walk into a room and it sees that it turns on.

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Or you could have it where a certain time of day you can turn those lights off and on.

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So there's ways to do it without having irritating motion sensors.

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But things like under cabinet lighting, toe kick lighting underneath the bottom toe kick of a cabinet in a kitchen or a bathroom.

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And just having the proper lighting with the right lighting controls works well.

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You can have it where it's voice activated.

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You can really have it where motion sensing lights make it so you can see what's going on.

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And that can really help prevent trips and falls.

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And these are things you can add.

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Now this is just a cool little project but it's going to keep it so you have a less of a chance of falling and that's good.

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Now this next one here, number five was a big one that we did at my parents house because I had a opportunity here about 15 years ago.

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My parents had a seven level: 1970

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And we knew that was way too much for them.

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My dad was coming down when he was alive with health issues and we knew that was going to be a problem.

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So I got the opportunity to help design their home to really make it foolproof for them having the most access and to be able to stay there the longest they can.

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And here's the thing, and this is really the whole basis behind aging in place.

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You really want to stay out of those assisted type living places as long as you can.

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And most people don't have insurance for that here in the United States.

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So you think about assisted living costs.

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They vary Significantly across the U.S. if you're in Hawaii, you can spend on average $9,340 a month.

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Think what you can do to your house over time to help alleviate that.

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My friends in New Jersey, you're 7 to 9, $500 a month.

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California, a little lower,: 6250

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It adds up.

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Now if you're in Mississippi, you're way cooler.

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bucks or Iowa,: 3420

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But really, you're looking in that 3 to $9,000 or almost $10,000 a month.

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So you're spending well into the six figures to take care of yourself a year.

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Let's say somebody's in there for five years.

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Man, you're getting into the price of a house pretty quick.

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So these things make a lot of sense when you're trying to make things work and trying to make it all work right.

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You want to make it so you can live in these places, your home, for as long as you can.

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And that's a big one.

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So think about what you can do.

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So we created my mom's house, dad's house, when he was alive.

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We designed it so there were no steps going up to the front door.

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So we had it.

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So there was a little bit of a covered walkway that came up that was ada ramp available to walk up.

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So we had the right slope to it.

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It made it so you could roll right out of the garage right up into the home.

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Now, of course, we had to have the stairs up into the garage, but we could really make it so you could roll right in the front door.

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So we had a no step entry.

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Anytime that you can do a zero step entry to get you there is super smart.

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That will get you right into the spot where you can really have some fun with this.

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So you're not having to put in an ugly ramp.

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You're not ha.

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And it could look gorgeous.

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We did it out of stamped concrete that looked beautiful, colorful, looked great.

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And you don't ever have to worry about steps coming in.

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It's better for everybody that way.

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So think about that.

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Think about the same way with any other place in the house.

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Making sure that you have that access out to a back deck, no steps, build the deck flush.

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Think about all those kind of things, what you could do with that.

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And there's a lot of tricks you can do.

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Kind of recessing the sliding glass door down a little bit.

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There's a lot of little things you can do with tracks to make things work a little bit better and a little more functional.

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Now the next one here is what we did originally.

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And this is something.

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When you're changing outdoors, it can be a bit of work.

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But if you're doing a remodel, it's smart.

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Or if you're building a new house, it's even smarter.

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We widened the doorways.

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We did three foot doorways in the entire house because here's what happened.

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When you get a wheelchair going through there and you've got a smaller doorway, the chance of dinging that doorway up with the walker with all that stuff can be a really big issue.

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Now the other thing I want you to think about, it's not on here, but when you're thinking about designing cabinetry for a bathroom remodel, for a, for a kitchen remodel and you have kids, or if you're worried about that ADA type stuff down the road or aging in place, really what you want to be thinking about is staying away from the softer woods like alder.

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But think about using more natural hardwoods with wood grain.

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It will hide more sins of things bouncing off of it than a painted finish or a stained alderman.

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Even birch will be softer.

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So you want to stay away from the softer woods on cabinetry because it will.

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That's a little side note.

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Learn that one the hard way.

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Talk about that trick when we come back just as soon as around the House returns.

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Don't go anywhere.

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Hey, this is Ron Keel, the metal cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band and stuff dealer.

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We are rocking around the House with Eric G. Raise your fist.

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Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

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I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

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This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

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Check them out@monument grills.com if you want to find out more about us or if you've got a question or comment about anything we're doing on the show.

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You can find out more at aroundthe house online.com make sure you follow us on social media, all those kinds of things.

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And if you want to be one of the around the House insiders, we're gonna be shipping out a couple stickers as long as supply lasts for anybody that joins up there.

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And you can find out more over@aroundthehouse online.com you get the podcast a couple days early so you can actually listen to the show on Thursday instead of Saturday and you get a full access to our back catalog.

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So we got something over there and surprise, a cup of coffee or less.

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So not too bad.

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A month and you get all this access as well.

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We've been talking about those tricks and tips to make sure that you really have things going right for designing Your home for aging in place, for maybe that upcoming knee surgery from your skiing accident, or the shoulder injury from out on the wakeboard or whatever.

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This stuff can help you now instead of waiting till you're later on in life.

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And these are all little tricks and tips.

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One thing we were talking about in the kitchen design, which was really cool, is now you've got dishwasher drawers out there that have really changed how you can design out.

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So if somebody's in a walker, let's say, or you're in a wheelchair, that bottom rack on the dishwasher can be problematic.

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So sometimes using a couple dishwasher drawers up high can make it easier for you.

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And then you can be actually, if you have two of those top dishwasher drawers and regular drawers down below, you can actually almost work out of those and not have to put those dishes away in a top cabinet.

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Now, there are tons of things if you're doing a kitchen model for somebody that is in a wheelchair or something like that, where we've got cabinets that can drop down, we've got cooktop heights that can raise up and down, sinks that can raise up and down, there's a lot of things that you can do out there, but that's a much more detailed situation, and that comes with some significant expense.

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We're talking about widening doorways, and that's a big one.

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I'm not the biggest fan on barn doors, but they can be better than a pocket door.

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So I'd rather do that because it gives you more to work with those pocket doors.

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You've got that little latch on there that can be really problematic that I worry about.

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So that's something to consider when you're dealing with doorways.

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Now, the next one here is a big one, and this is one that I think is super important.

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And you've heard me talk about it before when we've had other people on the show.

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But I think this is one of the most important ones out there.

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I say installing a comfort height toilet couple inches taller that has at least a nice bidet toilet seat on it that plugs in can be a game changer for people that have limited abilities.

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Hear me out on this.

Speaker C: 00:25:52

Nobody wants to have to yell out for somebody to help them when they're in the bathroom.

Speaker C: 00:25:57

It is demoralizing.

Speaker C: 00:25:59

It is not easy.

Speaker C: 00:26:00

No one wants to have somebody come in and help clean them up.

Speaker C: 00:26:04

And if you can give yourself or others in your family the power to be able to do this on their own by punching a button on a Remote like on a Toto washlet.

Speaker C: 00:26:17

You have changed the game of needing help if you are able to get up and get out off that toilet seat.

Speaker C: 00:26:25

If you can push a button to help clean yourself up, guess what?

Speaker C: 00:26:29

You have now eliminated the need for maybe helping the house on something that is so hard to manage.

Speaker C: 00:26:37

And you've given yourself such easy independence for really adding an outlet and spending three to $800 on a toilet seat that plugs into the wall.

Speaker C: 00:26:49

And for people that have texture issues or anything, that warm toilet seat is game changer as well.

Speaker C: 00:26:56

You're adding comfort, you're adding cleanability, you're adding style, and you're adding access where you can take care of yourself.

Speaker C: 00:27:06

So I cannot say how important this is for installing a comfort height toilet with a bidet seat.

Speaker C: 00:27:12

This is one of the most important ones on here because it's really going to eliminate some need to help and it's going to make things a lot easier.

Speaker C: 00:27:20

Now, the other one here is a bigger project and this might not work, but the more you can move essential living areas to the main floor, the better off you are.

Speaker C: 00:27:31

If you've got a place for a bedroom, a full bathroom, a kitchen and a laundry on the main level, you're set.

Speaker C: 00:27:39

Even if they're not your primary rooms, you're okay.

Speaker C: 00:27:43

Now, I will say elevators have become more accessible for people.

Speaker C: 00:27:48

Sorry for the pun, but they have.

Speaker C: 00:27:50

You can access the price of these so much better than you can.

Speaker C: 00:27:54

They have some that are more like bank fault tubes where they lift you up and put you back down again.

Speaker C: 00:28:00

Not having to come in and put the massive elevator in.

Speaker C: 00:28:04

They have more compact ones, but then you have to have the real estate to do it.

Speaker C: 00:28:08

Many times inside the house you don't have the rooms and I got to do it outside permits, all that stuff can be expensive.

Speaker C: 00:28:15

So really the more you can do to give yourself everything on one floor, the better you are.

Speaker C: 00:28:21

It's just really that simple.

Speaker C: 00:28:24

Now, there are things that you can do.

Speaker C: 00:28:26

We've seen the stair risers, we've seen that where you ride the cart up those.

Speaker C: 00:28:30

I dislike those greatly.

Speaker C: 00:28:33

One, I think they are dangerous for the people that are trying to use the stairs.

Speaker C: 00:28:36

One, I think they're not as safe and two, if you can put an elevator in or find a house that has that access, the better off you're going to be.

Speaker C: 00:28:44

Now, the next one here is going to be important and we're going to give some other tips here that I want to talk about as well that are important but anytime that you can have at least one shower, be curbless or a walk in shower, the better off you are.

Speaker C: 00:28:59

That curbless shower, one, you're not stepping your toe on it, I like that.

Speaker C: 00:29:04

Two, if you've got a walker, a wheelchair and a stool, you can get in there and take care of yourself.

Speaker C: 00:29:12

Grab bars in the right location, you're hanging a towel on it anyway, a washcloth, who cares?

Speaker C: 00:29:17

It'll look cool.

Speaker C: 00:29:18

If you match it up, you can really give yourself some access there.

Speaker C: 00:29:21

And I think that's super important when it comes down to this, to be able to really have that.

Speaker C: 00:29:27

And here's one trick.

Speaker C: 00:29:29

If you're putting in a new bathroom and you're gonna do this for ADA or just for access, if you're going heated tile, keep it going.

Speaker C: 00:29:38

Do the heated tile on the floor, do it on the floor of the shower and do it on the bench.

Speaker C: 00:29:45

Nobody likes sitting on a cold tile bench.

Speaker C: 00:29:48

Make sure it's waterproof correctly.

Speaker C: 00:29:50

And I'm not talking about just doing membranes, I'm talking about using wedi, one of those, a good waterproof system that will last.

Speaker C: 00:30:01

You want to go with the teak bench because you want that look cool.

Speaker C: 00:30:04

But making sure that is built correctly with the right tile, that's not slippery, it's got the great lighting.

Speaker C: 00:30:11

The other thing I think is important too is while you're at it, put in like airmada's system where it dries the shower so you won't have any of those issues in there with air.

Speaker C: 00:30:20

Making sure that you've got a vent fan that's going so you don't have mold in there.

Speaker C: 00:30:24

And that's a side mark here that I want to tackle before we go out to break.

Speaker C: 00:30:29

I think putting in the right H vac system that keeps the temperature consistent, that sized correctly for the house, that has some virus capture and kill technology at least to keep the particles down and to keep it so you have less pollutants in your air, that's going to be important too.

Speaker C: 00:30:50

Because if you've got people coming over to take care of you, or maybe you're just getting older and your immune system is not what it used to be, Having a safe place to do that is key.

Speaker C: 00:31:02

And I think that's super important to be able to do that.

Speaker C: 00:31:05

So think about that when you're doing these kind of things.

Speaker C: 00:31:08

I think really having that system to keep the air clean that you can monitor as well, I want to see you be able to go, wow, okay, why is my.

Speaker C: 00:31:18

Why do I have unhealthy air in my home.

Speaker C: 00:31:20

What's the issue?

Speaker C: 00:31:21

Is it mold?

Speaker C: 00:31:22

That could be a problem?

Speaker C: 00:31:24

Is it radon?

Speaker C: 00:31:25

That could be a problem.

Speaker C: 00:31:26

I guarantee that could be a problem.

Speaker C: 00:31:27

If you're measuring radon, you want to make sure that's at zero or as close as it can.

Speaker C: 00:31:33

So you don't want to get in there and go, ah, it's okay.

Speaker C: 00:31:35

No.

Speaker C: 00:31:36

Especially if you've got some health issues.

Speaker C: 00:31:39

We come back, I've got a few more here for you.

Speaker C: 00:31:41

And we're going to talk about some other things you could do to make sure that you're independent in your home as long as you can.

Speaker C: 00:31:46

And this is not really for you people out there that are listen to the show that are 70, 80 years old.

Speaker C: 00:31:52

These are for my friends out there in the audience.

Speaker C: 00:31:54

This is for you that are in your 30s, 40s and 50s that are planning ahead, going, what happens if I get hurt?

Speaker C: 00:32:00

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Speaker C: 00:32:03

Don't change that top.

Speaker B: 00:32:04

To find out more, head to aroundthehouse online.com Eric G. Will be back with more tips for aging in place.

Speaker B: 00:32:11

Just after a quick note from our sponsors, we will be right back.

Speaker C: 00:32:22

All right.

Speaker A: 00:33:36

Baby is drunk.

Speaker A: 00:33:37

It's the end of the show.

Speaker A: 00:33:38

Now drinking down, people.

Speaker A: 00:33:39

It's time to go.

Speaker A: 00:33:40

It's that time again.

Speaker C: 00:33:42

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Speaker C: 00:33:46

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

Speaker C: 00:33:48

This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

Speaker C: 00:33:50

Check them out@monumentgrills.com and if you want to find out more about us or you just want to reach out to me with some questions, head over to aroundthehouse online.com we've been talking about my top 10 tricks here to make sure that you're aging in place correctly or you've got a house that you can really grow old in or if you've got that surgery coming up from that sports injury from 10 years ago or you're at water skin and you hurt yourself.

Speaker C: 00:34:18

And guess what, you might need to do a few of these things now sooner, of course, rather than later.

Speaker C: 00:34:25

Now to wrap up my top 10 here, the last one is an important one.

Speaker C: 00:34:29

And I've got some honorable mentions over here that are good to think about as well.

Speaker C: 00:34:32

When we get towards the end of the segment here, the last part of the show, really using smart home tech for independence.

Speaker C: 00:34:40

Things like cameras, video doorbells, smart locks.

Speaker C: 00:34:46

There are new fall detection systems out there.

Speaker C: 00:34:50

We've Talked about them on the show here.

Speaker C: 00:34:53

So really, if you're sitting here and this can be done without having to use cameras inside the house.

Speaker C: 00:34:59

But if you have a strong WI FI signal in the house, there is technology now to make sure that you can tell when people are in rooms by the WI fi shadow they create by moving around.

Speaker C: 00:35:14

So you can tell if grandmother's up moving around because somebody's walking in the kitchen.

Speaker C: 00:35:18

Cool.

Speaker C: 00:35:19

Grandma's out of bed.

Speaker C: 00:35:20

You can do this without having to worry about or fall detection.

Speaker C: 00:35:25

When it senses somebody falls, it can do that as well.

Speaker C: 00:35:28

Now, of course, there's all the things you can do.

Speaker C: 00:35:31

My Apple watch has fall detection on it.

Speaker C: 00:35:34

If I go tripping and falling, it's going to ask me if I'm okay.

Speaker C: 00:35:38

And if not, it's going to contact my emergency contact to make sure I'm okay.

Speaker C: 00:35:43

And if not, depending on what settings you do on some of them, it can even call an ambulance for you.

Speaker C: 00:35:49

So these are things you can really do.

Speaker C: 00:35:51

Some of these things are smart.

Speaker C: 00:35:54

Like, I've got a family member that has seizures.

Speaker C: 00:35:57

They've got a seizure watch.

Speaker C: 00:35:59

So if they are getting ready to have one, it can sense it and warn them to get into a safe space.

Speaker C: 00:36:06

There is a lot of smart home technology out there that you can use to make things safer, better, and more livable.

Speaker C: 00:36:14

We were talking about smart home stuff.

Speaker C: 00:36:16

It is so nice to be able to turn on the heat, turn on the radio, turn on the lights, turn on whatever you want to do within the house.

Speaker C: 00:36:24

I can see if my laundry's done on my phone because I have an LG washer and dryer setup that sends me a push notification when the dryer's done or the washer's done.

Speaker C: 00:36:36

I have to go walking into there to see it.

Speaker C: 00:36:38

It tells me right there I've got cameras that tell me when a package is delivered.

Speaker C: 00:36:43

My front door will tell me a package is delivered before I can even see it on the camera.

Speaker C: 00:36:48

Just about it's there, but it'll give me a notification that a package is delivered.

Speaker C: 00:36:52

So these things are so much smarter.

Speaker C: 00:36:55

And now here's another one here that I think is really smart.

Speaker C: 00:36:59

We had on last week in the Best of, we had a really good system for a Dropbox.

Speaker C: 00:37:05

Now this is something that we have an issue that I'm gonna have to do some remodel at my mom's place.

Speaker C: 00:37:10

But her biggest problem is her mailbox is down the steeper driveway down at the street.

Speaker C: 00:37:17

If she orders something on Amazon in Her rural area compared to many.

Speaker C: 00:37:23

They throw it in the mailbox, hard for her to go get it.

Speaker C: 00:37:27

So to me, having a package delivery system that lets you drop those packages into your house, like NB Sentinel, that really helps you in that aging in place.

Speaker C: 00:37:39

Because they could put the code in, drop the stuff in there, and it's inside the house so you don't have to go walking out in a walker, leaning over, tripping on the front door threshold.

Speaker C: 00:37:50

You see where I'm going with this?

Speaker C: 00:37:53

Having a place that can be designed for those online deliveries.

Speaker C: 00:37:57

Maybe you're ordering groceries off Amazon, maybe you've got your local grocery store delivering to you or medications.

Speaker C: 00:38:05

You want to have access to it so you don't have to go outside to get it.

Speaker C: 00:38:08

This can be something that's super important.

Speaker C: 00:38:10

So that's one of the ones that I think is really big there.

Speaker C: 00:38:13

Now another one that's important here as well.

Speaker C: 00:38:17

And it's little stuff.

Speaker C: 00:38:18

I like to have rocker light switches.

Speaker C: 00:38:22

And when in doubt, you can move them a little lower.

Speaker C: 00:38:25

Large rocker switches are good.

Speaker C: 00:38:26

But here's the other thing that's interesting.

Speaker C: 00:38:29

You can control some lights and this is really cool.

Speaker C: 00:38:32

Lutron Casita has remote controls or little remotes that you can actually stick onto things.

Speaker C: 00:38:38

You could technically install this on a walker right on the edge of a wheelchair.

Speaker C: 00:38:47

So they could turn on the main lights off and on without even having to move.

Speaker C: 00:38:52

And it's got a battery, it would operate just like any other dimmer switch.

Speaker C: 00:38:57

And you can program that to control whatever lights you want without having to go to your phone and use an app.

Speaker C: 00:39:03

So that's an important one there.

Speaker C: 00:39:05

The other one that we talked about here as well I think is smart, is using contrast.

Speaker C: 00:39:12

Designing with contrast is big.

Speaker C: 00:39:15

So if you've got counters, floors, anything you can do to visually distinguish one surface from another to prevent missteps.

Speaker C: 00:39:25

If you've got reduced vision, putting a contrasting color at the edge of the step down from the living room into a sitting area or one step up someplace, that can be a huge deal.

Speaker C: 00:39:37

I really doing that.

Speaker C: 00:39:39

So that's a little design aspect you can do to make it look really good.

Speaker C: 00:39:43

Now the other thing is if you're designing a kitchen, I like drawers compared to pull outs.

Speaker C: 00:39:50

If you're designing a kitchen, go with a drawer versus a pull out.

Speaker C: 00:39:54

Here's why pull outs, you have to grab one or two doors, open them and then pull out.

Speaker C: 00:40:01

And that can be very hard to do in a wheelchair or a walker.

Speaker C: 00:40:06

You want to be able to have one motion instead of three or four.

Speaker C: 00:40:10

So just anything you can do to give access is going to help you out.

Speaker C: 00:40:16

Now here's the thing, guys.

Speaker C: 00:40:17

If you are going to be starting a new project, like you're going to be building a house, if you're going to be renovating, doing a kitchen or bathroom, this is where you want to really reach out to your professionals.

Speaker C: 00:40:29

I like certified kitchen and bath designers for designing cabinetry in spaces like that.

Speaker C: 00:40:35

There are aging in place specialists out there that are certified.

Speaker C: 00:40:40

Those are all important things.

Speaker C: 00:40:42

That is I think a really important thing to get the help as you're going through this.

Speaker C: 00:40:48

So it might be worthwhile if you're thinking about doing this.

Speaker C: 00:40:52

You really want to be able to work with somebody that is a CAP certified or one of those kind of different things to really be able to work with this.

Speaker C: 00:41:01

So there's a lot of studies, a lot of smart.

Speaker C: 00:41:05

There's a lot of people out there that specialize in this.

Speaker C: 00:41:09

So if it's something important, maybe doing a walk before you do the remodel, Spend a minute.

Speaker C: 00:41:15

Was your mom, father, grandparent, uncle.

Speaker C: 00:41:20

Is somebody be gonna be living in your house?

Speaker C: 00:41:23

Do you have a child that has limited abilities that it's not gonna get any easier as they get older?

Speaker C: 00:41:29

Are there things that you can do?

Speaker C: 00:41:30

Yes, there are.

Speaker C: 00:41:32

So really you want to be able to do what you can.

Speaker C: 00:41:36

And there's a lot of resources out there for that.

Speaker C: 00:41:39

And I think there's a lot of things we can do to make sure that we live independently and need these other places a lot less.

Speaker C: 00:41:48

It is so crazy.

Speaker C: 00:41:50

I've helped so many friends and family members that have had people have to go in now memory care, whole other situation.

Speaker C: 00:41:59

And a side note on that, you want to make sure that you're getting appliances.

Speaker C: 00:42:03

This is a big one.

Speaker C: 00:42:03

If someone's working on the memory care thing, I think one of the biggest things is being able to control them from not leaving, not turning on a stove, not flooding things.

Speaker C: 00:42:17

So really creating situations where you can turn off that cooktop.

Speaker C: 00:42:21

I've had these things go badly.

Speaker C: 00:42:23

There was a girl I was dating up in the Seattle area when I lived up there 15 years ago.

Speaker C: 00:42:29

Her dad unfortunately was going through that and he took a plastic like Big Gulp style coffee mug, the ones out of the 80s and 90s, put it on the coil burner cooktop cause he wanted to heat his coffee.

Speaker C: 00:42:43

Seemed logical to him.

Speaker C: 00:42:44

He was a smart builder, was way deep into the dementia slash Alzheimer's game and turned it on and we had a fire.

Speaker C: 00:42:53

I used three big fire extinguishers getting that thing out.

Speaker C: 00:42:58

And when the third one was sputtering, I didn't know if I was running out the door.

Speaker C: 00:43:02

And I already got everybody out of there.

Speaker C: 00:43:03

I was trying to make sure to see if I could get it because he had plastic everywhere.

Speaker C: 00:43:07

These are the things we want to prevent.

Speaker C: 00:43:09

These are the things we want to see if we can help.

Speaker C: 00:43:11

That's a whole other situation that we're really not going to deal with on the radio.

Speaker C: 00:43:15

But being able to control some of those things and making sure that they can't just go wandering off can be an important one.

Speaker C: 00:43:21

And keeping them safe is our highest priority, as well as keeping them comfortable.

Speaker C: 00:43:27

All right, guys, if you've got any questions, feel free to reach out to me@aroundthehouse online.com and I'm here to help you.

Speaker C: 00:43:33

I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.

Speaker C: 00:43:36

We'll see you next week.

Speaker B: 00:43:37

Make sure and catch our back catalog of podcast episodes on your favorite podcast player.

Speaker B: 00:43:43

And to find out more, head to our new website ataroundthe house online.com.

Speaker B: 00:43:48

thank you for listening to around the House.

Speaker B: 00:43:51

We will see you next time.

Speaker A: 00:44:01

Love is a love song let's be lovers we're all over the radio Take my hand out Nowhere to go all over the radio with you.