When Shelley’s father was no longer capable of living on his own, Shelley went looking for a way for him to live. She knew that an institutional setting would not work for him. She says, “Dad had to be in control. He needed to make all his own decisions.” Shelley, who is a Canadian, researched […]
Read More...Shared Housing For Seniors—Solutions for Income and Companionship
Arnie calls her home “my accordion house” and laughs. It’s a huge Victorian building in the center of Concord, New Hampshire. Arnie inherited it from an aunt who lived on the second floor until her death. When her husband died at an early age, she was suddenly a widow of very limited means. Committed to […]
Read More...Downsizing by Buying a House Together
Downsizing is one way to age in place. But it doesn’t always mean leaving a multi-bedroom house to move into a one-room studio. Judy and her husband bought a house with Joyce and her husband as a way for both couples to downsize. Each couple had raised families in large country homes with big gardens […]
Read More...When Genna Met Sally—How Homesharing Might Start
This is a multi-part story written to demonstrate how the resources available on this site can work for you. Genna, 64, had lived in her four-bedroom home for more than twenty years. She bought it with her then husband and when they divorced she got the house. Now she was an empty-nester with children living […]
Read More...An Atmosphere of Kindness and Gentleness
“Do you see my glasses?” asks Diana, 80 plus, of her home-mate Rob who is easily 30 years younger. “Yup” he says as he gets them and hands them to her. There is a kindness and gentleness between them. How It Started Rob moved into Diana’s house when she was recovering from hip surgery. Diana […]
Read More...Living Alone is Overrated
“Living alone is overrated,” says Cathy, 51, who spent thirteen years of her adult life in a sweet, small, single-family house in a small town in New Hampshire near her family. She now lives with her parents and a brother in a large Victorian house with a large barn. It’s the house she grew up […]
Read More...Maggie Kuhn, Advocate for Sharing Housing
One of the early advocates of older people sharing housing was Maggie Kuhn. Guest blogger Bella DePaulo wrote about Maggie in her new book, How We Live Now: Redefining Home and Family in the 21st Century. The excerpt below appears on pp. 64-65 of the chapter on home-sharing – Chapter 3, “One Big, Happy Friendship.” […]
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