My mom has an elevator in her house as well. I’m being serious, not a smarty pants. It looks just like this. When my parents built their house in the late 1990s, they made sure the windows lined up from the attic to the basement on the back so that they could install an elevator at a later date. They also designed everything to be wheelchair accessible. The house is four floors when counting the attic, which has subfloor covering its entirety. It stores so many things, including all of her wedding and holiday decor inventory she uses at church. The bottom floor has the garage and a fully completed basement, which has a mother-in-law suite. The fully functional suite in the basement has its own entrance. They included this living space in the design to ensure a home health nurse or elderly caretaker can live at the house full time if needed. Prior to building the house, my late father, who had a master’s degree in economics, estimated it was cheaper to install an elevator than pay for assistant living, regardless of how much Medicare covers. My mom is a retired family practitioner with 35 years of private practice under her belt. After being in practice for 15 years and seeing how so many of her elderly patients were treated, she decided it was better to pay for one qualified in-home caretaker than rely on strangers at a nursing home. My mom got the elevator installed about 10 years ago after my grandmother moved in with her. She used the elevator daily. Now that my grandma has passed on, I’m even more pleased with the fact my mom doesn’t have to walk up and down multiple stairwells throughout the day. She still uses the main stairwell daily but relies on the elevator for bringing in groceries and hauling inventory down from the attic. Even though the house is 6,000 square feet and much too large for just one person, it is still cheaper than paying for assisted living. It took my mom about 3 years to pay off the loan used to cover the elevator and construction costs. I appreciate that they had the foresight to build an elderly friendly house while still in their late 40s. I’d rather her spend money on an elevator than hospital bills caused by breaking a hip, or worse, from falling down the stairs. If you have parents who live in a home with lots of stairs and they can afford it, I highly recommend researching the cost of installing a wheelchair-friendly elevator. If you’re building your forever home and in your 40s, I highly recommend designing it to be elderly friendly and able to house a caretaker. These measures could very well be cheaper and safer in the long run.