Age In Place At Home: Adapting The Home Environment For All Generations

by MR David L Traut CAPS

Have you discovered you need to modify your current home to better accommodate one or more family members regardless of age, size or ability, and don’t know where to begin? If so, this book is your pathfinder. Or perhaps you and your family have determined it’s best for you and your spouse to safely age at home surrounded by neighbors and familiar surroundings, but you need to identify how to proceed. This book will navigate you along a direct track to Age in Place.

David Traut’s book “Age in Place at Home: Adapting the Home Environment for All Generations” acts as a guidepost for exposing and modifying the shortcomings of accessibility your home exhibits. It will inspire and empower you to confront and overcome these problematic areas negatively affecting family members who need home accessibility the most.

As an accessibility specialist, the writer reflects upon his over thirty-five-year building career and personal experiences involving HUD, the VA, and the private sector. David is a nationally registered CAPS (Certified Aging in Place Specialist) certificate holder and is certified in Universal Design in the United States and Australia. He incorporates the principles of Universal Design into all his design/build Aging in Place renovations, realizing this methodology offers the greatest long-term benefits to everyone. Homes containing Universal Design elements do not appear institutional and offer usable style. Furthermore, these homes never need further renovation for accommodating future family member changes, except in extreme circumstances. This thoughtful interior design process offers equal accessibility to all family members. Better yet, Universal Design homes seamlessly segue into what is required to Age in Place. Many factors have contributed to our interior design crisis and home inaccessibility throughout history, and you will discover why in the book.

"Age in Place at Home" is not merely another architecture book. The home interior design book will relinquish your “just for now” attitude about establishing home in a common sense way. Fortunately, you can adapt almost any existing home environment to overcome difficulties and enable you and everyone else in the family to comfortably live at home safely. The book is broken down into two main parts. The first part explains historically why our current traditional homes have always lacked inclusive accessibility for every family member once life changes occur. Within the second part of the book, the author takes you room by room describing how the principles of Universal Design can be applied. In effect, this informative book explains what makes up a “forever home” in a realistic way simply by incorporating the Universal Design principles during periodic remodeling projects or initially during the home building process. Avoid moving from house to house to accommodate the changing needs of your family. Find out how the most used rooms within your home, the bathrooms and kitchen, show the greatest benefit from applying the inclusive aspects of Universal Design. Universal Design addresses the requirements for aging, special needs families and for multi-generational living situations in a proactive manner. Finally, the sustainable "forever home" has the unique qualities of flexibility and longevity for its diverse residents.

The book makes you aware the construction techniques used to introduce Universal Design into any given home interior design are not specialized. However, the manner of working and usable outcome is cautiously considered and executed in regard to style, beauty, and function while establishing home. The positive result is every family member has equal accessibility throughout the homes interior. IT JUST MAKES GOOD SENSE.

Paperback

Published October 24, 2022

Reviews

[ZebraDebra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age In Place At Home is an excellent guide book for senior members of the community who want to remain at home during their retirement. Not only that, it also reveals to all generations how best to manage things in such a situation. The author reveals how the inclusive design process is enjoyable for all family members regardless of their age. In order to overcome potential difficulties with adapting the home for senior members and younger family members alike, the book offers a “Universal Design or inclusive design”. Older people can happily age at home together with their loved ones. While the author does not claim to have all the answers, this book provides tremendously useful information for aging “in place”.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I really liked this book from the opening chapter and this was possible because of three fundamental aspects for me: first of all, a captivating and well-organized writing style; secondly, the information included among its pages is more than helpful and invaluable; and finally, the book’s format is agile and easy to follow.
Readers can gain knowledge as soon as they open this title. The guidance is totally comprehensible as the author uses down-to-earth vocabulary so everyone can understand it perfectly.
I absolutely enjoyed this book. People who are facing a difficult situation with a family member and need to adapt their home environment will most probably be interested in reading this book.

[CarlitasFox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read guide
“Age in Place at home” is a necessary guidebook penned by David L. Traut that anyone should read to prepare for the future.
Each chapter deals with problems that people encounter when a member of the family needs to live differently because of age, disability or just because they need safe, comfortable and big places to live.
It contains innovative ideas that are easy to apply in the house. Also, it provides pieces of advice to take into account before, during and after building or buying your home. Everything is told and backed up through the writer’s experiences who has been making changes in many family’s homes. It’s a concise and well-explained guide. I found it interesting and useful. I think that is a must read.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Home is the place where people should feel completely comfortable and safe; however, for many people with reduced mobility or some type of disability, home is usually a space full of obstacles and difficulties. In this book, author David L. Traut acts as a guide to expose and modify the accessibility deficiencies of our home exhibits.
I found this reading very interesting, since we never know when we might need to rearrange our homes based on some need. Not necessarily to condition it for some disability, but to go through the different stages of our lives. I highly recommend this reading to all those people who want to be prepared for future changes in their homes.

[Yolanda Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Age in Place At Home is a compassionate companion in the journey of creating a space that evolves with changing needs. Traut's down-to-earth style and relatable examples make the content not only informative but also engaging. What sets it apart is its emphasis on preserving dignity and independence, creating a sense of empowerment for individuals and their families.
Reading Traut's work feels like having a knowledgeable friend by your side, guiding you through the intricacies of making a home age-friendly. It's not just about adapting homes; it's about enhancing lives.

[Candice Barbara]

Everyone wants to live comfortably. When people start to age, it can be difficult for the elderly to be comfortable in their homes. It can also be difficult to house those who have a disability such as not being able to walk or struggle to see. What I am grateful for is this book that was written to help people in these difficult situations. Age in Place at Home written by David Traut can be a wonderful resource for people who need help. Though I have never been in a position where I have had to remodel a home, I have known people and this book would have been a great help.