A Home Owners Dream: a Home with a Future!

• Increase the real estate value of your home
• Improve physical safety for whole family
• Raise energy efficiency and cost saving options

What if you could build or buy a home that could easily and inexpensively be adapted and customized to meet the ever-changing needs of you and your family? Even as you grow through the stages of life from your family to empty-nester to senior citizen?

What if one home could provide a beautiful and functional environment for all people from all walks of life no matter what their physical needs may be?  Nice idea you might think …. in fact, a SAFERhome can make that a reality!

The 15-point SAFERhome Universal Design Standards are an easy, inexpensive design overlay solution ready to be applied today! For less than $1,000 of additional building costs, your home will be a superior to other homes with improved safety, better flow and functionality, look more beautiful, and you will tap into a greater home buyers’ market.

• What is a SAFERhome?
  
• What SAFERhome Owners are telling us
  
• Improve your physical safety in the home
  
• How a SAFERhome saves you money
  
• How you can get a SAFERhome?
  
• Renovating your home: small changes that make a big difference
  
• Planning for the future and information for seniors
  

​​What is a SAFERhome?

SAFERhome provides the only certification program in Canada that addresses the issues of human sustainability, which means you, and the application of a recognized Gold Standard in universal design.

Universal Design is about everyone. It is a way of keeping children safer, a way of more easily having grandma live or visit at home – whether as a guest or because she needs the support, and a way to age-in-place with dignity. Universal Design creates more inclusive communities and supports inter-generational living while looking nicer and being worth more.

Here are some examples – for the entire 15-point list go to 15-point SAFERhome Standards.

Remove thresholds. Ever stumbled when you are carrying groceries, caring for your kids, pushing a baby stroller or just not paying attention? There is no need for thresholds.

Increase the width of your doors by ~4″ (adds only $10/door). Can you feel the space? Movers love it! This is the first thing a builder does to make a home custom. Now when your aging parent comes for a visit he/she can move around with those walking aids without you having to give a helping hand. Imagine you can’t go home to recuperate from a hospital visit because the temporary support you need doesn’t fit through your door and you can’t move around your home. For an extra $10/door (often even less) during construction you can have all 3-foot wide doors.

Offset bath and shower controls (adds $40). Ever had sore muscles, a backache or use crutches while trying to lean around the toilet and reach into the tub or shower for the controls? It is hard work and a potential accident waiting to happen.

​​What SAFERhome Owners are telling us

“We absolutely love our SAFERhome certified home! Our visitors and family always comment on how spacious it feels, even though the square footage isn’t more than their own homes."

"The best part for us is that Grandma can now come and visit easily. She is able to get around with her walking aid and use our bathrooms safely because of the simple design adjustments we made, actually she can go anywhere in the house."

"The changes we made were so small that nobody can tell that our home is SAFERhome certified but we certainly feel more at ease and comfortable knowing that it is there.”   Anne & Barry G.

​Improve Your Physical Safety in the home

A SAFERhome is built for your future! Simply adjust the design and you are ready to build.

By investing in a SAFERhome today, you are increasing the value of your investment tomorrow. By 2032, 48% of Canadian will be over the age of 65 and will have specific housing needs. These are addressed by a SAFERhome. This increased consumer demand translates to greater real estate profit for the SAFERhome owner.

As your physical needs change, so does your lifestyle within your home. A SAFERhome has the built-in ability to support those needs. From toddler to senior, a SAFERhome provides a better standard of living.

About one in three people over the age 65 will fall at home this year in BC. A home that is SAFER certified reduces the risk of falling in the home.

​​How a SAFERhome saves you money

• Cost savings when the SAFERhome Standards program is included in the initial construction of a home upfront vs. retro-fitting after the fact. The amount is significant. Save up to $100,000 by incorporating the SAFERhome Standards program into your new build and avoid having renovate your home in your retirement years, typically when you can least afford a large renovation expense. 
  
• Save on energy costs. A SAFERhome is smart-ready for your improved energy efficient electrical options.

​​How Can You Get a SAFERhome?

Remember, our program is easy and inexpensive when added to new construction designs.

• Include in any Real Estate Interim Agreement for a new home or condo the subject clause “subject to written proof of successful SAFERhome certification”.
  Insist that your real estate agent or builder/contractor/developer includes this clause in all contracts. Don’t let them tell you otherwise, all 15-points are within the current building code and require no special permit or provisions.
• Contact us today to find a Certified SAFERhome Builder in your area.
  
• Be pro-active, and sign up for membership in SAFERhome Standards Society. 
• Take our SAFERhome Builders Certificatioin Course and become a SAFERhome Certified builder specializing in Universal Design Standards.
  
• Contact us with any questions. We are here to help!
  

​​Renovating your Home: Small Changes that Make a Big Difference

• Order our SAFERhome manual (free with membership).
• Contact us to discuss how your home can integrate SAFERhome Standards.
  
• Contact us your home to take advantage of our technical support.
  

Ask us how to get started with a SAFERhome today.

​​Planning for the Future and Information for Seniors

As we see it, seniors are proactive and involved in making our communities a great place for all. Maintaining independence is paramount! Being involved and participating in our community through contribution of time, ability to share knowledge, experience and skills are beneficial for the whole community.

Points from a United Way Fact Sheet:

• As people age, they need assistance in order to continue to live independently.
• Increasing limits to physical activity, shrinking social networks and declining incomes are among the many challenges older people face.
• 3 in 10 seniors live alone, as people age, they are more likely to find themselves socially isolated.
• More than half of seniors over the age of 75 have physical challenges.
• 90% of care for seniors is provided by family or friends, who are most likely managing their own work and family obligations.
• Some 65% of caregivers of seniors are themselves seniors.

A great many articles are being written how being independent is so important. Just because your body is physically challenged should not mean that you have to move out of your home! Yet homes are not being built to be age-friendly and meet those needs.

SAFERhome is changing this! The 15-point standard is easy, inexpensive and all within the building codes. Shouldn’t your municipality encourage more age-friendly homes? The answer is, of course, yes! It takes time to change the status quo, so as a Senior, you can take action today by using SAFERhome and get decision makers to listen and respond to seniors’ issues.

Want to help make a difference in residential home design and construction? Become a member of the SAFERhome Standards Society!