GUIDE
An age-in-place remodel that lets you stay home
An age-in-place remodel updates the home so you can stay in it safely as your needs change. The checklist is walk-in showers, grab bars, wider doors, ramps at entries, and first-floor living, done so the updates look like part of the house and not a hospital add-on.
Aging in place in Stillwater and the Oklahoma City metro usually means one thing. Staying in the house you know, in the town you know, as your needs change. The home that worked at forty does not always work at seventy, but the answer is not always to move. Often the answer is to update the home so it works with you instead of against you.
An age-in-place remodel is not one big project. It is a set of specific updates, each one solving a problem before it becomes a fall or a barrier. The checklist below is the work that makes a home workable for the long haul, from the bathroom to the entry to the way the house is laid out. Done right, these updates look like part of the home, not like a hospital room got dropped into it.
This guide is for homeowners planning to stay, and for families helping a parent stay. It walks through the checklist, what each update does, and how to plan it so you can do the most important pieces first and the rest over time. The goal is a home that lets you stay home.
THE GUIDE
Step by step
- 01
Walk the home and find the barriers
Start by walking the home and looking for where it is getting harder. Steps at the entry, a tub you have to climb into, doors too narrow for a walker, a bathroom down a flight of stairs. The walk tells you what to fix first.
- 02
Bathroom: walk-in shower and grab bars
The bathroom is where most age-in-place work starts. A walk-in or curbless shower replaces a tub you have to step over. Grab bars go where they actually help, at the shower and the toilet. Waterproofing is done right, behind the tile, so it lasts.
- 03
Doors and thresholds: wider and flush
Wider doors and accessible thresholds make the home work with a walker or a wheelchair. Doorways get widened, thresholds get flattened, and the path through the house stops being a series of steps and bumps.
- 04
Entry: ramps instead of steps
If the front entry has steps, a ramp is the update. The ramp is built to a proper slope, with the landing and the rail, so it is safe and not a workaround. The entry stops being the thing that keeps you in or out.
- 05
First-floor living
If the layout allows, first-floor living means a bedroom, a bathroom, and the kitchen on one level so you do not climb stairs every day. When the layout does not allow it, a home addition can put the primary suite on the ground floor.
- 06
Lighting, handles, and the small things
The checklist includes the small updates too. Better lighting, lever handles instead of knobs, non-slip flooring, and reachable storage. None of them are dramatic, and all of them make the home safer to live in.
THE PARAGON STANDARD
What Paragon does differently
- —One crew, start to finish. The same crew that walks the home builds the updates, so the layout, the tile, and the access all work together.
- —Detailed, itemized bid. Each update is a line, so you can do the most important pieces now and the rest later, at your pace.
- —Clean job site, every day. Age-in-place work often happens while someone is living in the home, and we keep the dust contained and the job site clean so you can stay.
ON THE JOB
From the build
QUESTIONS
What folks ask
Can you make my bathroom safer without it looking like a hospital?
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Yes. Grab bars, curbless showers, and accessible layouts can be built to look like part of the home. We plan the finishes so the updates belong, not read as a hospital add-on.
Do I have to do the whole house at once?
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No. The bid is itemized so you can do the most important updates now, like the bathroom and the entry, and the rest over time. We plan it around what you need first.
Can you set up first-floor living?
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If the layout allows, we can plan first-floor living so you do not climb stairs every day. If it does not, a home addition can put the primary suite on the ground floor. We tell you honestly what is possible at the site walk.
Do you build ramps and widen doors?
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We do. Entry ramps, wider doors, and accessible thresholds are all part of age-in-place work, and we build them to fit the home, not bolted on.
How do we start?
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Book a site walk. We come out, walk the home with you, and follow up with a detailed bid. No pressure, no charge for the walkthrough.
BOOK A SITE WALK
Planning a project? Book a Site Walk.
Tell us about the job. We come out, walk the site, and follow up with a detailed bid. No pressure, no charge for the walkthrough.
Serving Stillwater, Payne County, and the Oklahoma City metro.
See Age-in-Place Updates