Ageing and living without a car

[axel_knutt]

According to BBC You and Yours today a quarter of homeowners over 55 said their home was not suitable for their needs as they age. And, only 1% of new homes being built are bungalows.

Ground floor flats would do, but you won't catch me buying one unless they do something to end the leasehold scam.

[Carlton green]

According to BBC You and Yours today a quarter of homeowners over 55 said their home was not suitable for their needs as they age. And, only 1% of new homes being built are bungalows.

My 'new' car is from 2012. I looked at the online forum for that model and it is full of people with much later models bitterly complaining about faults with all the various electronic thingys that have either failed or dont work.

Answer is... Dont buy a modern car...

Al

It would be interesting to know in what way their homes are not suitable and even better to hear about their plans for tackling those issues. Bungalows are a way forward for some and I’d quite like one, even nicer imho are dormer bungalows. Unfortunately they are in short supply and they command a premium price so that rather limits options. If one has a largish house then it might be possible to put a bedroom downstairs - maybe move a living room upstairs in an exchange - and perhaps install mechanical aids to help with the stairs. A downstairs WC and washroom is sort of a ‘must’ too.

Contemplating one’s inevitable destiny isn’t fun but it’s probably wise. Few of us know what the future holds for us, but I’ve found it interesting to consider how friends and relatives have died and then look for common themes of poor and good life and illness management. Typically some Hospital care seemed to be involved and for that personal transport was needed for either or both the patient and carer / spouse / relative - GP’s once gave care at home but that seems to have ended, another casualty of Government changes, etc.

[Edit. One thing I forgot to mention with regard to suitability is transport links. Links for ourselves have already been mentioned so don’t need a special point here, but transport links for those that might visit us are important too and particularly so if they’re helping us in time of need. ]

According to BBC You and Yours today a quarter of homeowners over 55 said their home was not suitable for their needs as they age. And, only 1% of new homes being built are bungalows.

Ground floor flats would do, but you won't catch me buying one unless they do something to end the leasehold scam.

I’m similarly minded, but there are many other property scams out there that take advantage of the old, etc.

[eileithyia]

I guess we see from different perspectives. I was brought up in a city so regular buses was part of my life. Admittedly not all bus journeys were of any use or every journey was easily completed by bus. Once I became a cyclist I never considered using the bus even for some fairly hefty bits of shopping. Moving up north for a time I was in a fairly rural setting be it on the edge of a town... nearest bus being almost a mile away. With a learning disabled son I moved down into the town where we have 2 excellent bus services and he can walk to the train station so he wasn't too isolated.
I guess my cycling experiences (riding with a variety of other cyclists) over the years has taught me that no matter how fit we are there's stuff that can be lurking to bite us. I've seen quite a few of my older colleagues knocked off their perch due to stroke, parkinson's, alzheimer's, arthritis, age, etc that have meant they have had to give up their car, that given me enough cause to be thankful I live somewhere where we have a public transport which seems to be improving recently.

I do find it interesting the comparison of taxi prices, but note you still have a car..... we used to have this conversation with a relative who 'needed' his car for shopping and was doing less than 2,000 miles a year, that by the time he deducted insurance, service, MOT, new tyres (he was always damaging them ) then a taxi home with shopping would not be any more expensive.

It sounds like you have quite a bit of experience of seeing how YMMV works and the diversity of what happens to folk in life. Certainly good health isn’t guaranteed, even to those who have been virtuous and cycled ‘everywhere’. Then there are the unplanned challenges of family life and employment which can turn life upside down.

To my mind the best that we can do is attempt to plan ahead but that’s hard. A friend’s husband was well last year but is now in hospital on his deathbed, another friend’s son was recently rushed into hospital and it could have been a case of his wife and their children loosing a loved husband and father. Stuff happens out of the blue.

The community I live in doesn’t support a Taxi company. Most of my driving is to enjoy a couple of hobbies that require me to travel and public transport (from here) just wouldn’t allow me to pursue them, I’m resigned to having to give up some things once I can not longer drive. That’s life and we have to roll with it or be crushed by it - easier said than done.

Thinking ahead seems to be the best we can do, and observing one’s older friends and their difficulties is perhaps one of life’s better guides. Then it’s a case of having a flexible mindset and seeing how to make what you’ve got work for you. We don’t always get what we want and we’re not always in charge of what happens to us, but we can attempt to manage (for ‘the best’) how we react to it all,

Indeed. Am sorry to hear about your friend. Yes there's aspects of our current life that would be difficult without one or the other of us being able to drive... getting my son to his cycling activities primarily... as he is a special needs athlete involved in special olympics.

[al_yrpal]

Carlton, on that same programme they interviewed a couple that hadnt been able to find the right property and had instead altered their home. ... Stair lift, grab handles everywhere, adapted bathroom. I would want the nice garden too. Staying put in nice surroundings is a good alternative to venturing out in a car somewhere.

Al

[Carlton green]

Carlton, on that same programme they interviewed a couple that hadnt been able to find the right property and had instead altered their home. ... Stair lift, grab handles everywhere, adapted bathroom. I would want the nice garden too. Staying put in nice surroundings is a good alternative to venturing out in a car somewhere.

Yes, there’s more than one way to alleviate and sometimes even solve most problems. My first home was a rented ground floor flat and, despite many things, it was a great first home for me. One thing it did not have was any private garden, I found lack of even a small garden ‘difficult’ and have never been without one since. Going off on my bike, or for a car trip to see the sights is quite nice, but having your own garden to relax in is a joy. Taking a bit of sun and fresh air in your own ‘backyard’ is an oft overlooked and taken for granted pleasure.

With regard to property I’d really prefer a dormer bungalow but anticipate well end up in a smaller house instead in which case adaptation and planning for adaptation will be important. When my own parents died they didn’t need anything special in their home but a downstairs toilet would have been helpful - as a broader statement if your bathroom is downstairs then make sure that you have a toilet upstairs too. So a toilet on all levels where you might sleep, using stairs when you’re half asleep is not unlikely to result in a serious fall. Dad died of a heart attack and Mum of Cancer (for which she needed either stay in care or to live with caring relatives).

When the wife’s parents died she nursed her Mum (stomach cancer) in her parent’s home and took her for treatment at the local hospital too, her Dad couldn’t be nursed at home and died in a nursing home from Prostate Cancer. Their home didn’t have adaptations for those illnesses and, in their particular cases none would have helped; my Mother in Law did have other long-standing health conditions and their stair lift got a lot of use.

H’mm, it’s obvious but it wasn’t: have a home that’s big enough for a carer to stay, somewhere for the carer to park and a toilet on each level in the house. Aim to have a room which can be a downstairs bedroom, improve stairways and wheel chair access to and use within the home.

[Mike Sales]

It has been suggested that I should apply for one of the village almshouses, since one has become vacant.
I don't think I will. I am nicely settled in my cabin. It is remote from the road and surrouunded by trees which are full of birds. Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
Rooks, muntjacs and squirrels visit.

[Jdsk]

...
Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
...

I recommend Merlin ID;
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org

Jonathan

[toontra]

I recommend Merlin ID;
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org

Worked well in India. Identified all manner of strange and exotic-looking birds.

[Mike Sales]

I don't have a phone, nor any need to name the little birds; I just enjoy them.
My frequent excursion is to a collection of pools, surrounded by trees and bushes, inhabited by greylags, mallards and moorhens.They dried up over the winter, but have now refilled and I was glad to see the birds come back.

[roubaixtuesday]

...
Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
...

I recommend Merlin ID;
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org

Jonathan

Thank you! I've already got Birdnet which is great for sounds, but that also includes visuals and is by the same people.

Today's encounter: the red legged partridge

[Carlton green]

It has been suggested that I should apply for one of the village almshouses, since one has become vacant.
I don't think I will. I am nicely settled in my cabin. It is remote from the road and surrouunded by trees which are full of birds. Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
Rooks, muntjacs and squirrels visit.

I am reminded that just because you can doesn’t mean you should applies to many things. If you’re content where you are and have evaluated that your current and likely needs are satisfied by your current home then stay put.

This has been a really interesting thread, and potentially so useful to many of us. My thanks to the OP for starting the thread, I hope it didn’t wander too far from his original post and that it did answer his questions.

[Bmblbzzz]

It has been suggested that I should apply for one of the village almshouses, since one has become vacant.
I don't think I will. I am nicely settled in my cabin. It is remote from the road and surrouunded by trees which are full of birds. Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
Rooks, muntjacs and squirrels visit.

A delightful Thoreau-esque life.

[jimlews]

My perfect retirement house is a large bike shed with a bedsit attached.
Everything I need right there !

[Mike Sales]

It has been suggested that I should apply for one of the village almshouses, since one has become vacant.
I don't think I will. I am nicely settled in my cabin. It is remote from the road and surrouunded by trees which are full of birds. Wood pigeons and blackbirds that I can identify and others I cannot.
Rooks, muntjacs and squirrels visit.

A delightful Thoreau-esque life.

Yes. I enjoy solitude and simplicity. I hate noise, and at this moment I can hear the thunder of what I take to be a warplane overhead. Probably USAnian.
On my visit to the Coles Lane ponds today I saw many more geese than before, with chicks, and Moorhen chicks too, or perhaps Mallards. Is not Spring marvellous?

[Bmblbzzz]

Yes, spring is marvellous!