While renting a home, you may feel comfortable with inviting your family over on occasion. But, you may be preparing to purchase a property, which means you will get to prioritize certain features. In this situation, you may expect to have your family over even more than before.
If you want to make sure that you can always accommodate your family, you should consider prioritizing handicap friendly features when you start looking around at different properties.
Ramps Over Stairs
Although you may be fine with using stairs when leaving the home, you may want to avoid inconveniencing your family. Even if they are healthy and physically able, you will benefit from thinking about the future so that you can invite family over who cannot use stairs anymore.
This also means that you may want to avoid a multi-story home. Even if the living areas where your family will spend time are on the bottom floor, you can avoid complications by buying a single-story home. For instance, one of your family members may want or need to stay at your house and a one-story house means that the guest bedroom will only be a few feet away.
Wide Doorways
While you may not worry about your family getting around your home while walking, you should consider the possibility of someone using a walker or wheelchair. To make it easy for them to get around, you should find a home with wide doorways. This will help you avoid a situation in which a family member cannot use their wheelchair when they visit your house.
At the very least, you should focus on homes with wide doorways in the shared living areas. Having easy access to the front door, living room, kitchen, dining room, and the main bathroom should be enough for almost any family member who comes over with a wheelchair.
Flooring
When looking at homes for sale, you will likely come across carpet, tile, and hardwood floors on a frequent basis. This is when you will need to decide what kind of approach you want to take with making sure that handicapped family members feel comfortable in your home.
If you want to make it easy for family to get around, you should consider prioritizing tile or hardwood flooring because the hard surface will help a walker or wheelchair roll around. On the other hand, you may want to provide the most protection in your home. This is when you will want to look for carpet because the material will provide cushioning in the case of a fall.
Taking your time to find these features will help you search real estate and feel confident about accommodating anyone in your family who is handicapped.