Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Remodeling for aging-in-place

The best ideas for Golden Living columns often come from our readers. In this case, it was a friend of the Office for the Aging (OFA) who read a recent Golden Living column on preventing home improvement scams targeting older adults looking to remodel their homes with an eye toward aging-in-place, who asked:

“What’s aging-in-place?”

It’s a simple question, with an answer that could easily fill more than one Golden Living column.

We’ll try to be brief.

When older adults are asked where they’d like to live out the rest of their lives, the most common answer we see is they’d prefer to stay in their own homes.

It could either be the home they’ve known all their adult lives, or a smaller home tailored to their evolving needs as older adults.

If their five kids are grown-and-flown, maybe their two-story, six-bedroom house is a bit much and they’d like to downsize. Or maybe it’s still the right house if the right updates are made.

We’ve noticed three related trends relating to aging-in-place: families making space in their homes for older relatives; grown children returning home after college to live with parents and/or grandparents; and single parents sharing their home with their own parents.

Even for the healthiest older adults, aging will take a toll on physical abilities. Issues with vision and mobility tend to be the areas of greatest concern, so it follows that most remodeling projects should take those issues into account first.

Aging-in-place on a shoestring

Your list of things to improve is long, but money is short. Even for those with ready money, finding a reputable contractor with the time to take on your work can be a lengthy process. Finding the available materials can be chancy given supply-chain issues. What to do in the meantime?

If you’re comfortable as a do-it-yourselfer, start with the simple things that are within your skillset and budget. If a doorknob is sticking, maybe this is the time to replace it with a lever-style door handle. Comfort-height toilet seats can improve a bathroom’s safety and ease of use.

Aging-in-place with style

A common early criticism of home safety products was that they looked “institutional” rather than matching an individual’s preference. That’s no longer the case. As home safety merchandisers see the growing opportunity in the aging baby boomer market, they’ve started offering a far wider range of products that are both ADA-compliant as well as stylish.

And keep in mind…

Rebuilding Together Dutchess County (www.rtdutchess.org; 845-454-7310) offers qualifying older adults a Rebuilding Day program for large-scale home repairs necessary to maintain a safe and healthy living environment. The program’s application window opened June 1 and runs through August. Applications received during this time are considered for service in 2023.

 

Golden Living is prepared by Dutchess County OFA Director Todd N. Tancredi, who can be reached at 845-486-2555, ofa@dutchessny.gov or via the OFA website at www.dutchessny.gov/aging.

Todd N. Tancredi
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Millerton News and The News does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Windacre, a 25-acre property in Millerton will be the site of “Work in Progress,” an afternoon with acclaimed entomologist, New York Times bestselling author and Homegrown National Park co-founder Doug Tallamy.

Provided

For nearly three decades, Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, has studied the intricate relationships between native plants, insects, birds and the ecosystems that sustain them. His books, including “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope,” have helped shift the conversation about conservation from something that happens primarily in parks and preserves to something ordinary people can practice on the land around them.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, Tallamy will bring that conversation to Windacre in Millerton for “Work in Progress: Toward Native Fields,” an outdoor gathering exploring both the possibilities and the complications of restoring private land for biodiversity.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe at Homelands PowWow in 2025.

Joeseph Plante New Media Storytellers
Our goal is to continue building an annual gathering that honors the history, culture and traditions of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in their original Homelands.


For the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican people, the Berkshires are not simply a place to visit. They are ancestral homelands.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

How would you feel if you found out you weren’t the only you — if there was an exact replica of you? What if you found out that you’d been cloned? Would you believe that you’re the real you? Would you suspect you might be a copy of the original? How could you be sure anything about your life was real? These are some of the questions posed in Caryl Churchill’s play “A Number,” opening at the Ancram Center for the Artson Oct. 1.

Churchill was born in London in 1938 and has been hailed by the theaterl world as one of the strongest voices of her time to take on sexual politics and feminist themes. Her works garner pointedly considered analysis from the highest levels of theatrical intellectualism. Basically, it’s about as far from “The Lion King” as you can get. While she’s experimented with dance theater in the past, “A Number” is much more stripped down, highlighting Churchill’s chosen themes and the skills of both actors on stage.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Dispatches from the Farm

Dispatches from the Farm

Adamah Farm crew members planning out the day’s tasks on a late September day.

Janna Siller

“Dispatches from the farm” is a new, periodic column offering a firsthand look at the rhythms, challenges and rewards of farming through the eyes of a local farmer.

The thing about plants is that they can’t get up and move. When a storm like last weekend’s nor’easter threatens to roll through, you can’t just round everybody up and settle them safely on the sofa for movie night.

Keep ReadingShow less
dispatches-from-the-farm

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman to perform at Hotchkiss Oct. 4

Cheryl Mazak

The passion, drama and energy of Beethoven will fill Katherine M. Elfers Hall at The Hotchkiss School on Oct. 4, when world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman is joined by pianist Shai Wosner for a special recital.

The 4:30 p.m. program at the Esther Eastman Music Center will feature three of Beethoven’s celebrated violin sonatas: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23; Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring”; and Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Found Footage Festival brings laughs to The Triplex

Found Footage Festival brings laughs to The Triplex

Pickett and Prueher on stage.

Provided by Found Footage Festival

On Sunday, Oct. 4, the Found Footage Festival makes its way to the Triplex Theatre in Great Barrington with a treasure trove of lost and forgotten VHS tapes scraped from the piles of distant memories and discarded physical media.

The Found Footage Festival is a “celebration of the videos that time forgot” hosted by two Brooklyn-based comedy writers and childhood friends, Joe Pickett of The Onion and Nick Prueher of The Late Show.

Keep ReadingShow less
film festival
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.