Many of us who have older parents must make a decision about when it’s time to make sure our parents are safe.  This often revolves around some sort of assisted Living or retirement community.  There is another creative solution that is becoming more popular.

Many of my clients have opted to build or add Square Footage to their home in order to accommodate a Family Member or members.  Mother-in-law suites, father-in-law suites or guest houses are all terms used to describe the room additions.  By having the family member under the same roof, you are able to keep a safe eye out and make sure they are comfortable with having to get in your car and drive to a retirement facility.  Home health professionals can still drop by your house to ensure that the proper medication, nutrition and overall health of your family member is being taken care of.  We have even converted garages into living quarters for those on a strict budget.  The room additions offer all the amenities that we are used to:  kitchen, laundry, dining room, living room and bedrooms, but are on smaller scale.  By adding the additional square footage to a home, you could also be increasing the value of your home.

“Many of my clients are building rooms for their parents and choosing to have them live at home rather than sending mom and dad to a retirement home”–Danny Garcia, owner of Rhino Design Build, LLC in San Antonio, Texas.

Since every home was designed and built differently, taking the proper steps to ensure that they room addition flows naturally with the existing floor plan is essential.  It should look like it was built with the original house and not like just added a box the back of the home.  Property survey’s must be studied in order to make sure that a mother in law suite can be added.