With an aging population, it perhaps isn’t a surprise to learn that more people are trying to find solutions to accommodate their parent or parents moving into their home. Sheltered accommodation or care homes can be expensive, and can also leave the older generation feeling somewhat isolated. And then on the other hand, there are also those who learn that they’re expecting a baby but don’t want to move from the home they love.
Luckily there are a number of ways that you can make more space for your family at home, regardless of their generation. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Make a ‘granny annexe’
If you’ve got plenty of outdoor space, you could think about giving up a portion of it to build a new structure. This would become a granny annexe which would be ideal as it would be at ground level for accessibility. You’d need to get some plans drawn up and have these given permission by the planning office at the council; this option does give you a lot of flexibility though as you could make a custom build. If you have an outbuilding already in existence, could you redevelop this instead?
Convert your loft
You might not need to build something entirely new to fit in your family though. There is a lot of potential for loft conversions london where space is at a premium, and people can convert their attic into a more useable space than its current use. One popular choice is to move the older children upstairs so that a new baby could have a nursery close to its parents. It might also be the case that you could make the top floor a large master suite if you need a bit more space yourselves.
Create extra space with what you’ve got
If you don’t have an attic to play with, you might have big enough bedrooms that you can divide the space a bit better. You see this type of thing happen on Homes under the Hammer where people are able to change a two bed house into a three bed just by some clever planning and work. If you have a new-born baby, this might give you a few extra years in your property before you move on to a bigger place; they don’t need too much space for now.
Reorganise your bedrooms
Sometimes you have no flexibility when it comes to adding more space, so you could make do with getting the kids to share a bedroom. They might moan a bit at first, and will probably play up the first few nights, but it will fix your problem in the short term before they get into their teenage years. A bunk bed can be a good solution to fit two kids into one space. This can be effective if you need an extra bedroom for a baby or an elderly parent. If the room is upstairs you could think about putting in a stair lift to help them to get around more easily.
