A new business in Spokane seeks to assist homeowners in making changes to their home to allow them to live there longer as they age.

Aging in Place Designs LLC is a small venture that was formed by interior designer Jane Barry and landscape architect Bob Scarfo, both of Spokane. A third principal in the company is Jack Carman, of Medford, N.J., who also is a landscape architect and will travel to collaborate with Scarfo and Barry on projects here.

Scarfo and Barry say they started organizing their business about two years ago, and while they haven't yet had any clients here, they're working to spread awareness of their services at senior centers.

Barry and Scarfo say the mission of Aging in Place Designs is to help enable people to age safely and independently in their own homes, versus having to relocate to an assisted living facility or retirement home. Some design changes they suggest include installing grab bars in bathrooms, removing rugs or other possible tripping hazards, and ensuring that a home has adequate lighting.

Modifications to an outdoor space, such as a home's entryway, patio, or garden also can make a difference in how long an aging person can remain independent, the business's founders say.

"We have a goal to work with existing spaces to make a client's daily routines and wishes easier, and to anticipate the changing abilities with the client," Scarfo says.

To do so, Scarfo and Barry suggest that homeowners who soon will enter or already are in their senior years fill out a self-assessment form on their website (aginginplacedesigns.com) that ask questions, such as if there are stairs in their home, adequate lighting to do daily tasks, and what types of flooring are in the home, among others.

Once a homeowner submits the form on the site, Scarfo and Barry say they'll do an in-person evaluation of the home at no cost to the potential client.

"We go around room to room and have checklists and look for certain things," Barry says. "Then we develop an action plan and bring that back to the client and go over it with them," she adds, if the client should opt to utilize Aging in Place Design's services.

During that assessment, Barry says they'll go through a client's home and take measurements of various spaces, note the levels of light switches and electrical outlets, identify potential safety hazards, and evaluate the efficiency of where things in the home are situated that are part of a homeowner's everyday routines.

"We look at what their daily routine is like, if things are streamlined, and how do clients get through those routines every day," Barry says.

After the home assessment, she says she'll create a report that includes new space layouts that could be as simple as rearranging furniture in a room or as complex as remodeling a space to meet the changing needs of the client.

Finally, Barry says she will continue to follow up with a client on how modifications are working.

Scarfo says that although Aging in Place Designs hasn't landed any clients here since the business got up and running, they've discussed charging between $80 and $90 an hour for their design-consulting services. Both he and Barry currently are working out of their Spokane homes, he adds.

Barry says the business's fees also would be based on how much of a person's home they'd be including in the redesign plans, as well as whether a client opted to complete the modifications on their own or with the business's help.

Minor modifications that a homeowner could complete on his own include installing rope lights along stairs and under the kick space of kitchen or bathroom cabinets so walkways are well lit at night. Such lights can be purchased at home-improvement stores.

Barry also says increasing the color contrast inside a home can help certain areas or rooms stand out because as people's eyesight deteriorates with age, recognizing slight differences in color can become more difficult. Eliminating busy patterns in dcor, opening drapes and curtains to let in natural light, and using mirrors in dark corners also can help to brighten a home's interior, she says.

A person who's considering making age-friendly modifications to their home should plan ahead and anticipate the possibility of changes in their health or mobility, Barry says.

"Planning ahead is important because if a health crisis occurs, you can't make the changes in a couple of weeks," she says. "It takes time to plan and to remodel."

A major focus of her work, she says, will be designing changes that help clients avoid falls inside of the home so they don't suffer serious injuries that could lead to hospitalization and ultimately to the person having to leave home permanently.

Scarfo's roles in the business include helping to prevent such injuries outdoors. He also says he tries to use homeowners' outdoor space to the fullest potential so they can enjoy their time there, whether they'll use it to entertain, relax, or want to plant and maintain a garden.

Some ideas to make an outdoor space age-friendly include building raised planting beds, installing grab bars or rails, user-friendly irrigation systems, and adequate nighttime lighting, he says.

Scarfo also says he can design wheelchair ramps that complement the design of a client's home.

"I don't think ramps on a home are very attractive, but there are ways to make them work with the aesthetics of the home and the garden," he says.

In a presentation Barry and Scarfo recently made about their business at the Corbin Senior Center, on Spokane's North Side, Barry highlighted the annual costs of living in an assisted living facility or nursing home versus completing a one-time remodeling project that would allow a senior to stay in his own home longer.

Barry says the average annual cost in 2010 for a private one-bedroom apartment at a Spokane-area assisted living facility was about $40,000. That number aligns with information gathered for the Journal's 2010 list of the area's largest retirement homes and assisted living facilities, which shows that the cost last year for a room at such a facility ranged between $30,000 and $50,000.

Barry says that a one-time remodeling project—depending on the homeowner's needs and how much of the home they were redesigning—could range from a couple thousand dollars to upwards of $50,000.

For such a project, the two designers suggest hiring a contractor that has been certified as an aging-in-place specialist.

The National Association of Home Builders and the AARP jointly give the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) designation to contractors and builders who take a three-day training program on aging-in-place home modifications, NAHB's website says.

Yet, Barry adds that some contractors here who don't have the CAPS designation still can provide quality services to seniors who are seeking aging-in-place renovations.

Aging in Place Designs has teamed up with Spokane-based landscape architectural firm Pacific Garden Design Inc. and a general contractor and remodeling specialist, Clow Construction Inc., also of Spokane, as companies they'll recommend to their clients, Scarfo says.

In addition, Scarfo says he and Barry also are in contact with a financial planner here who can assist their clients in financing a remodeling project.

Scarfo and Barry were introduced several years ago when Barry, a former nurse, went back to school at the Washington State University Spokane campus to obtain a degree in interior design.

Barry says she became interested in helping seniors successfully age at home after caring for her elderly father.

"I was trying to help make adjustments and changes to the house, and it was an eye-opener because he was very stubborn," she says.

Scarfo, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at WSU Spokane's Interdisciplinary Design Institute, says he's been interested in senior-friendly design as a result of his father-in-law experiencing a stroke about 13 years ago.

"I realized there was a whole area of design that didn't think about aging comfortably," he says.

Scarfo adds that in 2009 he and Carman co-wrote, edited, and published a book called, "Recreating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging."