We develop strong emotional connections to our homes and neighborhoods. The pleasures and joys of doing yard work and trimming those roses can become an emotional trigger as these become more difficult as we age. Some also fear moving away and leaving those neighborhood attachments behind, that sense of belonging to a community.

Aging-in-Place specialist Paul Kocharhook, President of Pathway Design + Construction, joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast to share more about how to keep our homes safe as we age gracefully, how to live more fluidly and easily in your home, and how to transform our homes to support us as we age without compromising aesthetics.

Suzanne asked what adjustments could be made to a home to help a senior who has dementia. Paul says, "There are things that we can do. Everybody's going to go through their dementia disease a little bit differently. But usually there's a caretaker in the home. My next door neighbor — when we lived in Renton here, my wife and I had bought our first house — the mother of the son who was living there, she had dementia. And she got up one night, turned on the stove, and caught the house on fire. I think it was a gas stove that she had turned on, and it caught the drapes on fire. But we have an opportunity to help mitigate those types of things. We can put in an induction cooktop that will never ignite like a gas stove would. Or sensory stuff, like an induction cooktop you can touch, but it can't burn you. So there's a lot of things that we can adapt to a remodel that that can help with, that it doesn't necessarily take away the disease in and of itself, but it can help adapt and make living a little bit easier."

Pathway Design + Construction is a residential remodeling company that serves the Greater Seattle Puget Sound region in the state of Washington. With a specialty towards aging in place, Pathway tries to help you continue to evolve and live in your home long into the future.

Visit PathwayDC.com or call 206-937-4809 for more information. If you're in the Seattle area, mention Answers for Elders to get a free consultation. Paul will come out, check out your home, make sure that it is safe, and talk about different potential projects, whether for now or in the future.

Pathway on YouTube | National Homebuilders Association website

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Mentioned in this episode:

Walk to End Alzheimer's

Learn more about the Walk to End Alzheimer's at https://www.alz.org/walk.

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement