Old age housing

I think about the kind of housing I would like if something happened to DH and I had to move.


I would want a condo unit of about 850-1,000ft.² where someone else is taking care of maintenance.

But here’s the thing that seems to be impossible to find: I want my own garden space about the same size as that pictured. With a largish garden bed I could grow pretty much anything I needed to grow to maintain my activities in plant societies. I would also want a patio or deck, doesn’t have to be large, for some potted plants.

Finding a condo with much dedicated garden space is impossible.

In my city condo the ladies there have several different little garden spaces, but they’re very small.

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There are many turn-of-the -century apartments/condo buildings in the Midwest that have a sunroom as part of their floor plan. I suppose I could get one of these on a first floor and just grab a big part of the yard for my garden, working with the condo association. I always love those spaces.

Condo by a community garden?

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Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff

Condo by a community garden?

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no I want my own dedicated plot or I can step out my back door or front door and access it. I thought about that community garden option, but I don’t like it, having had community garden plots for years.

How about a very small house with a very small yard and get someone to mow it for you?

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Originally Posted by catherine

How about a very small house with a very small yard and get someone to mow it for you?

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Yes, that’s probably what I’d have to do.

It is fairly easy to get someone to mow. It’s just all the other stuff of maintenance that is a pain.

Maybe look for something called a ranch condo. It’s ground floor with a garage. We have a number of them in my Chicago suburb.

Smaller ranches with a low maintenance yard are pretty scarce here. It's pretty easy to hire yard work without an HOA. Patio homes or duplexes are a little more common, but small yards with little space for a garden plus some restrictive HOAs are slightly more common. After that it's mostly retirement or regular apartments, which I hope in all eventualities to avoid. I don't have it too bad where I'm at, but it something I've been thinking about. My next door neighbor is 97 and seems to keep up with things with a little help. There's not a perfect place for everyone

I don't have all the details, but they just passed a law in Massachusetts allowing the building of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs):
"...the Affordable Homes Act creates key policy initiatives, including allowing accessory dwelling units under 900 square feet by right on single-family lots. Often referred to as in-law apartments, accessory dwelling units can be attached or detached from a single-family home and often take shape as a basement or attic conversion, a cottage in a backyard or a bump-out addition to a home. This new policy replaces a patchwork of zoning regulations across the state with a uniform law that allows homeowners on single-family lots to add these small units without needing a special permit or variance unless they want to add more than one. Construction of ADUs is still subject to local building codes. The Healey-Driscoll Administration estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 ADUs will be built across the state over the next five years due to passage of the law. " - from Mass.gov website.
I'm trying to wrap my head around whether this would be helpful in our situation. I love the idea of my mother being in a little cottage out in the garden, at least right now, but it wouldn't be a panacea as her abilities continue to diminish. By the time we got something built, it might not even be relevant any longer.

There used to be one of these set up down the street from me. I could be wrong, but I believe in our area, they are to be "temporary".. not a forever-type building on the property. It seemed to work out well for the folks who had it install - I believe for their aging parents. It's been gone for a couple of years now.

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Originally Posted by rosarugosa

I don't have all the details, but they just passed a law in Massachusetts allowing the building of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs):
"...the Affordable Homes Act creates key policy initiatives, including allowing accessory dwelling units under 900 square feet by right on single-family lots. Often referred to as in-law apartments, accessory dwelling units can be attached or detached from a single-family home and often take shape as a basement or attic conversion, a cottage in a backyard or a bump-out addition to a home. This new policy replaces a patchwork of zoning regulations across the state with a uniform law that allows homeowners on single-family lots to add these small units without needing a special permit or variance unless they want to add more than one. Construction of ADUs is still subject to local building codes. The Healey-Driscoll Administration estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 ADUs will be built across the state over the next five years due to passage of the law. " - from Mass.gov website.
I'm trying to wrap my head around whether this would be helpful in our situation. I love the idea of my mother being in a little cottage out in the garden, at least right now, but it wouldn't be a panacea as her abilities continue to diminish. By the time we got something built, it might not even be relevant any longer.

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I would like to be a little old lady in an ADU in someone’s garden.

This reminds me: my grandparents lived in a mobile home in my parent’s one acre yard in town. My grandfather, the flower gardener, took care of the yard although my dad mowed it. But gramps did all the rest.

Now there are zoning laws against “trailers” but they served a purpose.

Yes, I think the trailer would be an excellent solution. We tried to get my parents to move into one on our property, even offering to buy the trailer, and they wouldn't. It would have worked out much better than what actually ended up happening.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

I would like to be a little old lady in an ADU in someone’s garden.

This reminds me: my grandparents lived in a mobile home in my parent’s one acre yard in town. My grandfather, the flower gardener, took care of the yard although my dad mowed it. But gramps did all the rest.

Now there are zoning laws against “trailers” but they served a purpose.

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I think someone would love to have you as a rent-paying resident in their backyards! Maybe you could barter gardening-for-rent!

Some neighborhoods are very sensitive to "trailers"--when I went to CT for my aunt's birthday in July, I was proudly telling my cousins about my camper and how perfect it is as a guest house and studio. I guess I am turning Vermonter, because they commented that if they had a camper in their yard their Fairfield county neighbors would be out after them with torches. Geez--we trailer owners aren't all like Randy Quaid in Christmas Vacation!!

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Originally Posted by catherine

I think someone would love to have you as a rent-paying resident in their backyards! Maybe you could barter gardening-for-rent!

Some neighborhoods are very sensitive to "trailers"--when I went to CT for my aunt's birthday in July, I was proudly telling my cousins about my camper and how perfect it is as a guest house and studio. I guess I am turning Vermonter, because they commented that if they had a camper in their yard their Fairfield county neighbors would be out after them with torches. Geez--we trailer owners aren't all like Randy Quaid in Christmas Vacation!!

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Well, it is true that mobile homes have a bad rap. Oddly, my grandparents had plenty of money and could have afforded a house, they just chose not to have one.

We have the remnants of a mobile home park in the middle of Hermann and it ain’t pretty.

Honestly, DH says it all the time. I admit that we tended to look down on mobile homes--until we moved to Vermont. People take extraordinary care of them up here. As we speak, my next door neighbor is installing an amazing bar on the patio he built surrounding his park model camper. He picked up an old boat for cheap and cut it in half and then installed an amazing ash bar that he made himself by lashing the wood together in a way that completely hides the seams and which is epoxy'd to a high gloss. He and his partner--my good friend (and a female)--together raised a pole barn over the camper back in 2016--carrying the joists on their shoulders all the way up the ladders. A couple of years ago, they built a stone wall with their bare hands and last year they created a patio. This year they also installed an awning (they didn't make that!). I'd post a picture of their place because it's so nice, but it would be an invasion of their privacy so you'll have to take my word for it.

Most Vermonters are, as my Scottish MIL would say, very "hoose-prood"

I actually lived in a double-wide on a private lot in Kansas - I loved it!! A mobile home is actually the way I'm looking now in prep for retirement. Don't want to be in a park, though, as I dislike HOA's and love hanging my clothes outside - LOL. We'll see what happens.

We are actually on the other side of the mountains looking at real estate this weekend. It is very hard to find small houses that aren't way too expensive or needing major reno. I am too private of a person to live in attached housing like a condo or apt. Garden and one floor is a must have. Back in Central Texas where we used to live, they are building massive swaths of cheaply built starter homes out on the edges of big cities. Really ugly and many are not selling but they keep building more.

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Originally Posted by happystuff

I actually lived in a double-wide on a private lot in Kansas - I loved it!! A mobile home is actually the way I'm looking now in prep for retirement. Don't want to be in a park, though, as I dislike HOA's and love hanging my clothes outside - LOL. We'll see what happens.

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I never imagined I would live in a mobil home! It is perfect for this stage of life! I hang my clothes outside happystuff. I also like being in a retirement community where there is a multitude of things to do.

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Originally Posted by frugal-one

I never imagined I would live in a mobil home! It is perfect for this stage of life! I hang my clothes outside happystuff. I also like being in a retirement community where there is a multitude of things to do.

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Mobile homes make good sense in mild climates and in areas where they are accepted and kept up.

That tends not to be the case in the Midwest.

When in WI, there were nice, well kept mobile home parks. Guess YLMV?