Soon after you retire, your children begin to give you advice.  And if you live in a two story house, they’re apt to say you ought to move.  At that point, unless you’ve worked past the age of 70, you’re feeling pretty spry.  The very idea of trading in your double decker home for a one level seems ridiculous. But as the years go by, and your knees begin to give out, you see their point.  And yet,  the longer you’ve lived in the house you love, the more difficult it is to move.  The very idea of all that upheaval stresses you out.  Finally, you have to make a decision. Should you downsize,  or  install a stairlift?

My husband and I have always had arthritic knees—his much worse than mine.  But somehow, we managed.  After all, we knew there were benefits to a house with stairs.  More exercise, stronger leg muscles, and maybe even a longer life.

And then, around five years ago, after a very bad rainy season, our defenses weakened and we called a stairlift salesman.    We liked the company rep who called on us.  He measured, evaluated our situation, and gave us an estimate.  We were sold—even gave him a deposit which he said was refundable if we changed our minds right away.

Then, the weather got better.  Our joints didn’t hurt so much.  We worried that our house would look cluttered and depressing with all this handicapped paraphernalia.  My husband got some shots in his knees, and decided he really could handle the stairs just fine.  We got our deposit back.

Fast forward five years later to the present time.  My husband suffered a major fall.  Lucky his bones are strong.  Nothing was broken, but he had a knot on his head and bruises all over his body. Time to face reality.  Before even telling our kids about the fall, we’d already called the stairlift company.  Believe it or not, they still had the original estimate on file.  Even though prices had increased, they honored the quote they had given us. The cost of the product was far less than the expense of  moving to another place.

The stairlift is in, and it looks fine.  We didn’t have to take down any pictures or lock up a closet door. The house looks pretty much the same, and he  feels better, gliding smoothly up and down the stairs with no pain in his knees..   Should you invest in a stairlift?  If it helps you stay in your own home awhile longer, I would say yes.