Monday, August 15, 2011

Now You Really Can Put Mom Out in the Backyard, But Comfortably in Granny Flats

By Neil Baulch


Let’s face it, a major challenge for baby boomers today is how to balance aging parents’ need for greater care with the desire to preserve their independence. For a variety of reasons, it is not always possible to move parents into a growing family’s home and assisted living facilities are very pricey. Why not take a page from the UK and consider Granny Flats?

Granny Flats are pretty much everything that they sound like. They are small prefabricated homes (in most cases, but kits are also available) that you are ready to drop into a location for someone to live in. Most backyards will provide more than enough space to have this new dwelling plopped right down.

If the backyard home is going to have several people living in it, upgrades are available that will allow a little more space and some more creature comforts. A model very similar to the “Willow” is available for an additional $7,000 and they continue to go up in price from there. While this is only one model, there are plenty more to choose from.

If prefabricated is not something to be considered, there are also a significant amount of choices that will allow the buyer to put them together from scratch. Actually, most of the larger units will require that the Granny Flat be constructed on site rather than shipped as a whole unit. In addition to the standard models, they can be customized to fit any special needs.

Granny Flats give true value for the money because for all intents and purposes, they are ready to move into the moment that they are put down. There is no need to look for doors, windows or bathroom furnishings because everything is in there. After you fill up the fridge and put a sofa in there, you are ready to watch the football games!

Remember that Granny Flats are not just for elderly relatives. The largest cabin is basically a small home with two or more bedrooms. These units could be the perfect size for a vacation home at the lake or in the mountains.




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