The Homeowner's Journey - Pt. I

The Homeowner's Journey 

Part One

I am Jeff Rudolph, married to Jill, and we are 68 and 67 years old, respectively. Currently, we reside in a two-story, 3,400 square foot home in Naperville which used to house us and our two children, who have since left the nest to the west and east coasts. Just over a year ago, Jill suggested we look for a home to age in place; until then, it had never dawned on me to even consider such a thing. After discussing the idea, it made a lot of sense, as such a home would allow us to stay in our own home in our own community, maintain a sense of independence and quality of life, and avoid (or at least put off) moving into a residential facility.   

 As it turned out, the timing of Jill’s suggestion was perfect, as we are both healthy and able to handle the demands of a move and—what is becoming more and more apparent—the long process of a home design project. So, in August of 2023, our journey began.  

The path of least resistance was a renovation of our current home, so we enlisted the help of an architect to determine if it was possible to update our home to be suitable for aging in place. With the primary on the second floor and no shower or bathtub on the first, a renovation would be costly and have potential to result in a convoluted design. Additionally, we did a major renovation of our home ten years ago, so a second large-scale project would create a house whose sale could not recoup the remodeling costs. Thus, we ruled out a renovation of our existing home.  

After that realization, we decided to look for a “used” home—a place that checked the boxes for our needs: first-floor primary suite, full basement, attached garage, and roughly within a two-mile radius of downtown Naperville. Our eyes were wide open to the fact that any home we found would require some level of work to meet our wants and our aging-in-place needs. Even so, with a bit of naiveté we started looking. Alongside that search, we also began creating a detailed list of all the things we were looking for in our next home, based on what we learned and liked from our prior renovation—the proverbial wish list. To those familiar with the area, it probably comes as no surprise that there aren’t many homes with a first-floor primary in Naperville, let alone one that was also close to downtown. We did look into age-restricted communities as well, but none were in that ideal geography; moreover, with my woodworking hobby, I need a rather large basement and the existence of such a basement proved to be pretty rare as well.  

Due to the lack of inventory plus the aforementioned renovation realization for both our current home and one that we could purchase, Jill and I ended our search four months later. We took stock of our wish list and at that point, it was crystal clear that the best option was to build a custom home. This home will likely be the last home we live in by choice and, as long as it doesn’t break the bank, we plan on building this home, so when it’s complete we won’t have to say, “We wish we would have done _____.”  And so, our current journey continues with; How do you start building a custom home? What comes first; the land, a builder, a realtor, an architect?    

To be continued... 
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Until Next Time,

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Guest Author: Jeff Rudolph

We are delighted to welcome Jeff as a guest author in the Studio Pages newsletter, where he offers insight into the homeowner's perspective. Stay tuned for Part Two!