Diane Girard Review

Elderhouse; Planning your Best Home Ever
by Adelaide Altman.
Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, Vermont, © 2002.
Paperback

Elderhouse: Planning Your Best Home Ever, is a guide to examining and refurbishing your home so that it can become a liveable, safe space to stay in as you age. I could review this book using only the phrase: helpful but annoying. However; you might want a little more information than that.

The author, Adelaide Altman, is an interior architect and designer. She looks at “obstacles and booby traps” which may be lurking in your current home. She pays particular attention to entrances, lighting and colour; kitchens and bathrooms, and gives excellent safety suggestions throughout the book. There are also sections on the outdoor environment, and on one-room-living. One of the best things about this book is its print size – it’s very readable. It also has illustrations, floor plans and helpful tips, which the author refers to as Elder Aids, presented in easy-to-find small boxes. The index is useful and so is the rather short bibliography.

One of the least attractive aspects of the book is the author’s tendency to philosophise about aging. For instance, “Miracles await us. … Science may soon be able to slow, stop or even reverse the human aging process” and, one of her chapters is actually titled Activity Rooms for Busy Brains and Happy Hands. She includes little ‘stories’ to illustrate her points, stories I could have lived without.

Still, I would recommend that you borrow or buy this paperback if you are considering whether to stay in your home, and wondering if you can modify it to suit your future needs. It is one of the few up-to-date sources of information I’ve found covering that subject.

But before those of you who are forever young jog out to find this book, which should be accessible through your public library, think about this. If you want to remain in your own home as you age, what services might you need, and are they available where you live? What will you do if you can’t drive any more, or if you become less physically mobile?

If you do preliminary research on available services first; the Elderhouse book can be a useful guide to help you make your home safe, comfortable, warm and inviting.

---

Diane Girard lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada near her family of a daughter and two grandsons. Diane began writing poetry and fiction in grade school and has continued to scribble for her own pleasure while earning a living in different ways. She has had several careers and is currently not considering becoming a consultant.