Survey: Assess Your Home/Lifestyle Fit

• Home Office: Will you need space for an office?
• Entertaining: Do large groups of family members gather at your home for meals or holidays? How much space do you need for entertaining and how formal should it be?
• Recreation and Hobbies: Do you have sporting equipment to store? Do you need a room for crafts or hobbies?
• Health: Do you have any health conditions that could affect what kind of living space would be most convenient for you?
• Outdoors: Do you enjoy gardening and need plentiful outdoor space? Or would you rather not maintain a lawn or garden yourself?

Transitions

As members of the household change and their needs change, we often develop quick-fix solutions to meet those requirements, such as: carving out space in a kitchen to accommodate a training crate for a new pet, installing handrails in a staircase to make it safer for a toddler or converting a first-floor family room into a bedroom during a visit from an older relative who cannot climb the stairs.

For the most part, many of these quick-fix solutions work. Some even work so well that we keep the solution in place even after the reason for the change no longer exists. Some of these solutions may not work very well, but we make do by adjusting how we live to fit the constraints.

As you contemplate a transition point in your life there's an opportunity to consider what you really need.

• Does your home fit you and how you want to live, now and in the future?
• What features would make a home more flexible and functional?

These features often are associated with universal design, an approach to creating environments and products that are more comfortable, accessible and easy to use for people of any age, size or ability.