George and I have been friends ever since our parents moved into the same
subdivision some 30 years ago. He called me the other day to say that he and his sister
Mildred were having a bit of a problem convincing their mother to move into a retirement home.
Apparently, their two storey house in which his mother still lives, is much too large for her, and
since their father passed away she has trouble keeping the place up. He knew I was a member
of a local senior advisory group and asked if I had any ideas on what they might do?
I mentioned that because of the problems with retirement and nursing homes during the recent
pandemic, some people were converting their homes into multiple residences and living in part
of the house and leasing the rest out. George instantly replied, “I can’t see my mother as a
landlord and having to deal with tenants.” I had to agree that this could be a problem but there
are ways of becoming a trouble free landlord.
I suggested that if he wanted, I’d get in touch with an architect friend of mine and have a look
at his mother’s house and see what could be done. After visiting the house the architect and I
drew up a sketch showing how it might be converted into a duplex. I set up a meeting with
George, and his family to discuss what we had come up with. Which frankly, I thought they
would like.
house, making it possible for the owner, now a senior citizen, to “Age in Place”
George’s mother answered the door and gave me the biggest hug I’d had in months, which I
still hadn’t quite become used to after all the social distancing we’d just been through. She
ushered me into the living room where George was waiting and soon after his sister came in
with a tea tray and I couldn’t help notice that his mother had baked what looked like some of
her delicious chocolate squares which she knew were my favourite.
Everyone had a copy of the architects sketch and George’s mother said, “How clever of your friend
to make the house into two separate private units. One upstairs and the other on the ground
floor, and look there even is a stacked washer and dryer in the upstairs bathroom.” His sister
Mildred commented, “I want one of those for my house”.
The mother also observed that “The living room, where we were now sitting, would remain
the same but there would be a new archway into the former den, which would become the
dining room and the present dining room would becomes a large bedroom. How clever!”
“Look, he also suggests converting the main upstairs bedroom with the ensuite bathroom into a
living room and kitchen”. I replied, “ Yes, the units could accommodate
two to four students.”
Mildred injected, “Oh! they’ll just love the back bedroom it overlooks all
the neighbour’s gardens, it so beautiful in the summer and picturesque in the winter. It used to
be my room!”
George’s mother asked, “How would I find the students? I thought I’d better explain. “There are
several ways to approach getting good tenants. Most colleges and seminaries, for example,
have offices set up to match students with available accommodation. You would just have to
register the available space with the school.” I suggested finding suitable tenants might be as
easy as placing a ‘For Rent’ notice on a schools bulletin board or running an ad in the student
newspapers.
After further comments I was asked, “How much would all this cost?” I said, “The
architect thought it was rather a straightforward project and probably would come in under
$50,000”. George’s mother said “I’m liking it better all the time.” She looked in my direction and
asked, “Where do we go from here?”
“Well,” I said, “the first thing is for you and your family is to take a closer look at the sketch and
see if there are any further changes you’d like to make, or questions you might have. Once you
are happy with the plan call on a few local contractors and ask them to quote a price to carry
out the work. Try to get contractors that have done work locally and talk to the owners about
the quality of their work. You might be pleasantly surprised based on their experience in doing
this sort of thing. They may make further suggestions on how to improve the planned
conversion. They would look after the necessary permits, etc, and hopefully work around your
staying in the house while they did the work. As construction jobs go this is a relatively easy
job so you shouldn’t have any problems.”
With that George’s mother stood up and said, “Well, we certainly owe you a debt of gratitude. It’s
something we should think seriously about. I like the concept because it would allow me to
stay in my own home for as long as I’m able, and have someone around just in case I need
them. I can also use the rental money to get things done around the house and would be able
to go away knowing the house was being looked after. Plus I’ll be doing something good for
the community”.
About a month or so later George called to say that his mother had decided to go ahead with
the renovation but that the costs had come in slightly higher than expected. The contractor had
suggested installing a few extra things like grab bars and electrical upgrades. They also talked
with the local Community College about student tenants and while it’s a little early yet, they
thought that would not be a problem.
Photo credits: Carol Malach
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