Tour a $450K Lauren Homes custom home in Cape Coral: the 1,621 sq ft Lourdes plan built on the client’s lot. What it includes, what changes the price, and lot costs to check.
How to compare Southwest Florida builders for an accessible, retirement-friendly custom home – floor plan features, real costs, in-law suites and the questions to ask before you build.
Quick answer: An aging in place home in Southwest Florida is a one-story house that is designed today for how you will live in it 20 or 30 years from now. That usually means no steps at the entries, 36-inch doors and wide hallways, a curbless beach-entry shower, a kitchen you do not have to bend down or reach up into, low-maintenance finishes inside and out, and a private space for a caregiver or visiting family. Lauren Homes builds these forever homes on your own lot in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, North Fort Myers and throughout Lee and Charlotte County.
As a custom home builder in Southwest Florida, we get a lot of calls from people in their 50s and 60s who are ready to build their last home rather than their next one. They are not planning for a nursing home. They are planning for a house that still works when knees, shoulders and balance are not what they used to be, and that never forces them to move again.
Below are the six things we walk every client through before we finalize a retirement home floor plan. Plan them in now and they cost very little. Add them later and they become a remodel.
In Florida, a forever home should almost always be a single-story home. You do not see the two-story houses down here that you see up north, and for aging in place there is a simple reason: stairs are the first thing that becomes a problem.
Steps are not always avoidable, though. Depending on the elevation of your land and how close you are to the water, we may have to build the home up higher, which can create steps from the garage into the finished floor or at the front entry. When that happens, we design around it. We can slope the paver walkway up to the front door instead of stepping it, and we can build a ramp inside the garage so you can get into the house without stairs. How much of that is needed is dictated by your lot and how high the home has to sit.
Most Cape Coral lots are about 80 by 125 feet. On a lot that size, with a three-car garage, a nice-size lanai and a pool, you can usually build right around 2,500 to 2,600 square feet under air on one level. That is enough room for three or four bedrooms, a den, a large living area and about three bathrooms. It is a substantial home, all on one floor.
Two things make a one-story home feel even bigger. First, raising the ceiling heights adds elevation inside, so the house feels much larger when you walk in. Second, the open-concept layouts we build avoid a lot of small, divided rooms, so the space feels big and airy and is easier to move through with a walker or wheelchair.
See our custom home floor plans, or read about flood zones and elevation requirements and the best areas to build in Cape Coral.
Every interior door in a forever home should be at least 36 inches wide so a wheelchair or walker can pass through. At Lauren Homes we use 36-inch doors throughout all of our floor plans as a standard, not an upgrade.
Width alone is not enough, though. When we develop a plan, or when you choose one of our standard plans, we look at how the door swings and how the openings line up so you can actually get through them and move around the home comfortably. Hallways, turns and the path between rooms all get the same look.
Bathrooms matter more than any other room in an aging in place home, and they are the hardest room to change later. Most people tell us they want a shower. Fewer people know they can have a beach entry shower, which slopes gradually from the tile floor into the shower with no curb to step over, so a walker or wheelchair can roll straight in.
Here is what we plan into a forever home bathroom:
The questions worth answering before we draw the bathroom are simple ones: where will you sit, how will you wash, where do your supplies go, and what do you need in reach?
The kitchen is the room people forget about when they plan a retirement home. Then a few years in, they are on the floor digging in the back of a base cabinet for a pot. That is not the way it should be.
More on finishes and options: interior and exterior features and what is included in a new construction home.
A forever home should not turn into a part-time job. Two areas make the biggest difference.
Landscaping is where Southwest Florida catches people. Everyone wants the lush tropical look, but a lot of those plants and bushes go out of control in the summer with the rain we get down here. They grow and grow, and you have just created yourself another job.
There are beautiful plants that need very little water and very little trimming. We help clients pick a landscape package that still gives you the wow factor without adding work.
This is the one almost nobody thinks about. If you are lucky enough to live well into your old age, there may come a point where someone comes to stay and help you, or family comes down for long visits. Where do they sleep, and how does everyone keep some privacy?
Two layouts solve it:
Check out our Single Family Plan the Diana that also offers 2 living spaces, 2 kitchens, separate entry doors and garages. Community living in a single family home https://lauren-homes.com/the-diana/
A little pre-planning at the front end saves a lot of headaches down the road.
If you are weighing which builder can actually make changes like these, see how to choose a Southwest Florida builder for an accessible custom home — including the two Cape Coral homes where we combined two bedrooms into an oversized in-law suite on the Adrianne plan.
Production builders sell you the plan they already have. When you build on your own lot in Southwest Florida, the plan follows you instead. You can put the home on land you already own or land you are buying, orient it for the light and the view you want, and change the layout to fit how you actually live.
At Lauren Homes you can start either way. Pick one of our existing plans and customize it, which we do all the time for clients who tell us their needs and then we move a wall here, change a room there until it fits. Or start from scratch with an architect and we will give you our input as the design comes together.
Helpful next reads: building on your own lot, our custom home process, the cost to build a home, how long it takes to build, septic vs sewer what an impact fee is and choosing a builder for an accessible custom home.
An aging in place home is a house designed so you can stay in it as you get older instead of moving. In Southwest Florida that usually means one story, no steps at the entries, 36-inch doors, a curbless shower, an easy-reach kitchen and low-maintenance finishes. The National Institute on Aging covers the health and lifestyle side of aging in place; this page covers the construction side.
One story. Stairs are the first feature that becomes a barrier, and in Cape Coral and the rest of Southwest Florida nearly all homes are built on a single level anyway. If your lot requires the house to sit higher, a sloped walkway or a garage ramp can replace the steps.
At least 36 inches. Lauren Homes uses 36-inch doors throughout every floor plan, and we check door swings and openings so the whole path through the house works, not just the doorway itself.
A beach entry shower, also called a zero-entry or roll-in shower, slopes gradually from the bathroom floor into the shower with no curb. A walker or wheelchair can roll straight in, and there is nothing to trip over.
On an average 80 by 125 foot lot, about 2,500 to 2,600 square feet under air with a three-car garage, a lanai and a pool. That supports three or four bedrooms, a den, a large living area and roughly three bathrooms.
Yes, but only easily if the wall backing is installed during framing. Deciding where grab bars might go before we build costs almost nothing and avoids opening walls later.
It is essentially two connected living spaces with a pass-through between them. The second suite has its own living room and kitchenette, so a caregiver, an adult child or a parent has privacy while still being under the same roof.
Yes. Lauren Homes specializes in on-your-lot construction in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, Lee County, Punta Gorda, Charlotte County and the surrounding Southwest Florida area. If you do not own land yet, we can help you evaluate a lot before you buy.
We have plans you can choose from, we can customize any of them around how you want to live, and we can start from scratch with an architect if that is a better fit. If you are thinking about building an aging in place home in Southwest Florida, we would love to earn your business.
Lauren Homes
1425 Del Prado Blvd S, Cape Coral, FL 33990
Phone: 239-829-1520
Email: FredPrice@Lauren-Homes.com
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