Aging-in-Place: How to Make Homes Safe for Aging Parents
WILLIS: Next week is national Aging-in-Place Week, time to think about where your parents will live as they get older. The AARP says 89 percent of folks over 50 want to stay right in their own homes and that can cost less than an assisted care facility. We visited two homes to figure out whah at it takes to prepare a house for aging-in- place.</s>WILLIS: Steve, all of this starts outside. You've got the rail, there's a little ramp, here.</s>STEPHEN C. GIDLEY, AGING-IN-PLACE CONTRACTOR: And then we have the vestibule, which is well lit and heated and then we have the elevator, which is wheelchair accessible and it's also safe to carry up four people.</s>WILLIS: And so, we're going to go up to the first floor, here.</s>GIDLEY: Yes, we'll take a ride to the first floor where the living is.</s>WILLIS: Steve, I want you to show me this one-floor living idea. How does it work?</s>GIDLEY: It was very important to John and Lee Sullivan that we be able to have a bedroom directly accessible to the kitchen and the family room so it would be easy one-floor living -- wide doorways, well-lit rooms, safe, easy over thresholds, flat floors.</s>WILLIS: It's really pretty and wide open.</s>GIDLEY: So, here's a bathroom, also right off the kitchen with a comfort level it to seat.</s>WILLIS: Yeah, that's totally different than we're used to seeing.</s>GIDLEY: Six inches higher than usual, so the individual gets up and down easily. It's got a grab rail so it's safe.</s>WILLIS: Grab rail, right here and another one over here.</s>GIDLEY: A grab rail in the shower, a seat in the shower and again, low shower controls so an attendant can help an individual with motor function problem, take a safe shower.</s>WILLIS: So Steve, this is a more modest renovation, this house right here, the upgrades, not quite what we saw before. Tell me what you've got in this house.</s>GIDLEY: Well, the man living here needed to be made comfortable on one level, so, again, this is first-floor living. And what we needed to do is make it universally safe for him.</s>WILLIS: So, Steve, you've really transformed this into a safe and accessible house. You know, we see the tape down here holding that carpet down. You can't trip on that.</s>GIDLEY: Right. And a walker won't catch its legs on that.</s>WILLIS: Tell me about the stairs, here.</s>GIDLEY: Right, we wanted the client to be able to easily access his bedroom and the kitchen. There were two steps up in the house, so we did was we made them mini four-inch short steps, we put safety railings and a guardrail so he could step up each platform and turn safely with his walker.</s>WILLIS: So, this is much easier for him, obviously, navigating this. And you said that you've really worked hard on the bathroom. So, let's talk about that.</s>GIDLEY: Right. Once again, the requirements were for a safe shower area, and also a safe tub area and what we did was we made it accessible so that he could get into the bathroom, use the chair, all the shower controls are low, and we put guardrails in the shower so that he could have good stability.</s>WILLIS: Bottom line, just the basics like handrails and an accessible shower can run you up to $10,000. Bigger upgrades well, they'll cost you more. That elevator we showed you, about $30,000. But even a higher-end renovation could cost less than an assisted care facility. The average price for one year in an assisted living facility is $36,000, that according to MetLife. Now, once you decide to make upgrades, look for a contractor with a CAP certification from the National Association of Home Builders, and it's a contractor who has taken courses in becoming a certified aging-in-plaace specialist. You can contact your local senior center to find contractors who do this kind of work in your area. As always, we thank you for spending part of your Saturday with us. YOUR BOTTOM LINE will be back next week, right here on CNN. You can also catch us on HLN every Saturday and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. And you can hear much more about how the news of the week affects your money on "YOUR MONEY" today at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and tomorrow at 3:00, right here on CNN. Don't go anywhere. Your top stories are next in the CNN "NEWSROOM," have a great weekend.