Aging is inevitable. At some point as people advance in age, it’s typical to need assistance with day-to-day living. However, many of today’s senior citizens are opting to stay at home, or live with family, rather than moving into assisted living facilities. This trend is fueling demand for viable multigenerational housing.

Many homeowners are renovating their properties to make additional space for family members to move in. For example, here at Alair Homes Calgary, we’re seeing increased demand for attic bedrooms, basement renovations, and bedroom additions, and we’ve been working on more of these types of projects than we used to in times past.

If your family is consolidating to fit more people under one roof, we invite you to consider the following suggestions for building a multigenerational home. We anticipate these ideas will be helpful for transforming your current home design into the ideal space for harmonious multigenerational living.

Compare Current Living Space Against the Amount of Space Needed

The first step is simple enough; it’s determining how much space you already have, versus how much space you need to add. If you have three bedrooms and four groups of people who need to sleep in the home, you’re going to need to add one bedroom.

Evaluate Where to Make Additions

If you have an unfinished basement or attic, it’s a no-brainer to remodel either of those areas to add an additional bedroom. Family rooms, garages, rec rooms or home offices could also potentially be candidates for transforming into an additional bedroom. If the house doesn’t include enough raw square footage to enable re-purposing of an existing room, it may be smart to add an additional bedroom onto the home, or to build a guest house or mother-in-law suite on the property.

Selectively Add Aids Where Needed

A multigenerational home could potentially benefit from the addition of ramps, grab bars, non-skid flooring surfaces, and perhaps even an elevator. If these things aren’t already present in a home, they can be added.

Research and Follow Local Laws

For extensive additions to a structure, you’re likely to need to involve professional help. It will probably be necessary to obtain permits and building inspections. Consult local professionals and your local governing bodies to find out what you need to know about the legalities of your planned renovations. For many projects, such as adding an elevator, you’re definitely going to need professional help.

Here at Alair Homes, we do both custom home building and custom home renovations. We can help with either or these sorts of projects, whether you’re interested in building a multigenerational home from the ground up, or you’re more interested in making room in your existing home for Grandma and Grandpa to move in. We service many areas in Canada and the USA; we have 50 different locations in North America, including the Great Lakes area, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Arizona. We offer you free, reliable estimates, and we hope you’ll give us the chance to earn your business. Let’s talk soon.