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Photo of a modern home exterior with a solar power awning over the back porch

If you’re renovating your home, or even building your dream house from scratch, the amount of money being poured into the project will likely mean you want to stay there for a long time. While your ultimate goal will be to ensure the property is as enjoyable to live in as possible, it’s wise to keep an eye on the future.

Not only will you need to consider adapting to lifestyle changes when you reach retirement age, but climate considerations and reducing your carbon footprint should also be at the forefront of any design decisions. We’ve put together a handy list of things to consider to make sure your forever home really is “forever”.

1. Consider installing a home lift

As you move into your golden years, moving around will not always be as simple as it once was, particularly if your house has more than one floor. Stairs can pose a significant barrier to easy movement around multi-storey buildings. In fact, a House of Commons report found 61% of older people desire to live in a bungalow to avoid the constant inconvenience of stairs.

If your home does have more than one floor, installing a home lift is a convenient way of ensuring mobility and independence around the property in later life. And it doesn’t have to be an unsightly stair lift that ruins the aesthetic of your interior. As explained by bespoke lift designers Premier Lift Group, home lifts can be created to match the identity of any home. This means you have freedom over the lift’s design, whether you want to bring a statement focal point into your home or you’d prefer something more compact that discreetly nests into an existing space,

2. Implement smart tech

A fast-growing trend within home renovation is the implementation of smart technology. Through such innovations, homeowners have remote control of the home’s lighting, heating, locks, surveillance systems, and even some appliances. This is all achieved via an app on your smartphone, tablet or computer.

You might be thinking that the price of such implementations is not worth it, but the installation of these gadgets doesn’t have to be expensive. Beyond prices, there’s also the added benefit of home security. Automated alarm systems and surveillance are a wonderful feature for any home, giving you peace of mind if you are the kind of person who worries when leaving the house for the day.

3. Make energy-efficient improvements

Replacing your current home appliances with energy-efficient options may be expensive in the short-term, but the long-term savings will not only offset your initial investments, but supersede them. Aside from the monthly savings on things like water use, newer appliances are built to last longer.

From LED lights to water-monitoring shower heads, there are a myriad of energy-efficient improvements you can make to your home. You could also replace old toilets with new low-flow models, swap out outmoded tank-style water heaters with energy-efficient, tankless versions, and replace single-pane windows with double-paned ones. The latter change is actually now mandatory in all new homes, which is telling.

Make the changes now and reap the benefits both in terms of money-saving and the satisfaction of helping the environment. Moreover, if you ever were to sell your home, those that have had eco-conscious renovations are more likely to sell to future buyers.

4. Make wiring changes for the future

Modern buildings need to be able to accommodate computers, smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, smart TVs and all manners of new technologies in the future. The marvel of technology is fast-changing and the exponential curve of acceleration is only getting steeper. But if you’ve got an old building, it’s unlikely it was wired to serve as a platform for ever-evolving technologies. It’s worth upgrading now so that future advancements can slot in without any trouble.

Prior to facilitating your upgrade, think carefully about the locations of where you are likely to place your devices, and how this may change in the future. During the process it would be wise to place an extra conduit to accommodate future wiring needs as technology evolves. This ensures your home is more future-proof than ever.

Claire Preece