Design for a lifetime

Design for a lifetime is a concept that revolves around creating an environment that addresses your needs today while fulfilling them in the future. Installing a home elevator is a perfect way to exemplify this concept. A Savaria home elevator  provides you with an easy alternative to carrying groceries, baskets of laundry and even your child’s stroller over a hefty flight of stairs. The elevator will be useful for helping your parents and perhaps you in the years to come. An elevator can provide  you with a lifetime of use as generations pass, allowing you to stay in your home longer.

Savaria elevators also offer a wide variety of finishes from finely crafted hardwood to a variety of fixtures to suit your needs and tastes. Your local contactor and Savaria dealer can enhance your installation including amenities such as a glass hoistway and glass window in your elevator, so you can enjoy the view as well as some natural light. By eliminating the barrier of stairs, and suiting your décor needs, an elevator will enable you to enjoy your home longer while increasing the value of your home in the process. Offering safety, convenience and comfort, Savaria’s line of products can be found here as well as in this short video.

Aging and Accessibility: A growing relationship

Ever worried about having the health, social and recreational services being within a block or two of where you live? Although this distance isn’t much, do you think about how difficult it is to access these places?  If you drive, find it easy to walk, or take the bus now, you’re not concerned today. But as a senior, your day-to-day needs may become challenge-filled.

For some seniors, the ability to drive is diminished as a result of impaired vision, walking several blocks could be difficult and accessible public transit may not exist. Take a look at your own neighborhood and mentally map out a 1 mile radius accounting for the services you will need.  Many city planners are doing this in anticipation of supporting the rapidly aging population. This includes improving accessible transportation and strategically positioning new social and health services for ease of access.

According to statistics, 1 in 5 North Americans will be 60 and above by 2025. This brings forth the issue of accessibility and infrastructure planning for the aging.  The Institute for Life Course and Aging, University of Toronto presents an example of how a neighborhood could change to accommodate future needs, including effective visuals of real Toronto streets.  See more about this here.

When a stairlift might not be right for you

Change is good, as the saying goes, but to what extent? You or a loved one should not have to move because of a simple flight of stairs. Your home is where memories are made, moments are cherished and life happens. Those stairs can easily be conquered now with a Savaria stairlift. And a stairlift solves the problem for many, but aging in place may come with future challenges.

Perhaps you or your loved one will need a walker or wheelchair in the future.  The Savaria Telecab provides mobility today and tomorrow.  Travel two levels in your home to overcome even complex staircase with curves, turns or immediate landings; or to accommodate a wheelchair or walker. The Telecab has many of the benefits of an elevator, but without the complex construction. Unlike a traditional elevator, no hoistway is required because it travels through a floor cut-out, along the provided rail system. If you’re facing a mobility challenge today, you may want to consider an investment that takes you where you want to go for years to come.

You can visit Savaria’s website for more information on the Telecab.

“Age in place” rather than worry about your place

Seniors face increasing worries these days including where to live after retirement, fluctuating gas prices, health issues and dwindling savings. Downsizing, or moving to a retirement home is often not what many want; preferring to stay in the place they have long called home. Referred to as “Aging in place”, many seniors are seeking out ways to stay where they are by making home improvements to accommodate a variety of health conditions or general mobility challenges.

Changing doorknobs to levers, adding a stairlift to overcome the barrier of stairs, or renovating bathrooms to make them more accessible are all ways of modifying the home to suit the changing needs of older adults. The web is becoming more populated with great ideas and resources including these sites:

Kohler (bathrooms)

Savaria (stairlifts)

Aging in the Home (general information)