My grandmother owns a house. She's constantly talking about moving into a retirement home (but still lives in the house out of nostalgia). My parents-in-law als

My grandmother owns a house. She's constantly talking about moving into a retirement home (but still lives in the house out of nostalgia). My parents-in-law also own a house and they're also fairly certain they will move out when they grow too old. Typical family houses are spread across two storeys with bedrooms on the upper floor and the living room and kitchen on the lower floor. This necessitates stairs. Also, the house was probably sized to have enough space for children, who at that point have long moved out. And even if you find different uses for that space it still needs to be cleaned and maintained (and you need to clean and maintain the rest of the house anyway). So depending on how affluent you are, how close your children are and how much care you need, either you struggle living in an oversized house, you move into a single-storey "Bungalow", you move into an apartment or you move into a retirement home. Another option depending on how the house is built is to split the house into two apartments and have one of your kids live in the other apartment.