This week we want to share some out-of-the-box ideas being used here in Saratoga Springs and other parts of the country.

Bartering, when you exchange goods and services without exchanging money, is one of the oldest forms of commerce. Here’s a revelation: the fair market value of goods and services exchanged must be included in the income of both parties for tax purposes, if the parties contract with each other to jointly trade or barter property or services.

Fortunately my mother, who has bartered all her life, never entered into a contract. Bartering is a skill she perfected early when she exchanged household chores with her siblings. Today she is a master at bartering for services, making it possible for her, at 91 years old, to remain in her own home. And she has no idea that she is at the forefront of a movement called “Aging in Place.” All she knows is that she’s not leaving her home of 51 years, and when she does it will be feet first. A supportive circle of friends, family and neighbors make this possible.

Just what is “Aging in Place?”  It’s the possibility to remain in one’s home and age gracefully surrounded by the familiar. It is an alternative to senior housing, assisted living, planned communities and moving in with adult children. It is creating a support system at the grass roots level that can respond to needs only when necessary. This type of self-help approach is usually neighborhood-based. You get to stay in your home, pay a membership fee into an organization that you and your aging neighbors create, and call for services as needed.

These neighborhood organizations have popped up in several places across the country. The model for many of them is Beacon Hill Village in Boston. The Beacon Hill Model is taking hold in communities like Cambridge, New Canaan, Capital Hill, San Francisco and Yonkers. The New York State government supports a similar model called the NORC (naturally occurring retirement community). This model finances social services in areas or apartment buildings with a concentration of residents over 60.

Cambridge at Home began operating in 2007 with 233 members. The members have access to a screened list of vendors who can provide such services as home maintenance, home health care, activities of daily living, errands, shopping and transportation. Members also have access to social activities, exercise classes and interest groups like book groups or card groups. The yearly fee is $900 for a single person and $1,000 for a couple.

Members often help each other by exchanging skills or talents. Like my mother’s system, if she bakes a tray of cookies for your daughter’s baby shower, you put the screens in her storm door when the season changes. Members often accumulate chits for a time in the future by using a skill for the common good.  For example, if I had a career as a tax preparer, I could assist members with their taxes each year and accumulate chits or credits for their services that I might need later on.

Is Aging in Place a realistic option for people in Saratoga Springs? In fact, a group of retirees here has been tossing this idea around over coffee and cocktails for several years. None of them are quite ready to need assistance, but they are realistic enough to know that the time will come when they will. They, like you, are very independent yet understand that with aging come limitations.  Their dilemma is the fact that they like their independence, their front porches, the kitchen windows looking out to their gardens, the bookshelves that hold years of reading pleasure and the familiar neighborhood. These are things they, like many of you, do not want to give up.

So they are still talking and have started actively pursuing the idea. I have encouraged them to share their thinking with our readers, the other people in our community who want to Age in Place right in our own backyards. 

Some Creative Solutions

Three of our neighbors in the Saratoga Springs area have come up with creative housing solutions that keep grandparents in close touch with grandchildren, provide companionship and help solve economic challenges. They let us share them with you.

Two professional women friends used to meet for lunch over the years. Often they talked about “when we get old.” When one of them from a nearby community retired, she wanted to live in the heart of Saratoga Springs, but the cost of housing made it nearly impossible. Then her friend, who was still working, said, “Why don’t we buy a house together?” Their friends rolled their eyes and offered dire predictions, but they went ahead anyway. Today, they share a house they love, with plenty of common space and alone space. Each has a bedroom, bath and study. They share expenses, but aren’t bound socially. Sometimes they eat together, sometimes their families join up for holidays. And, as one said, “It’s nice not to come home to an empty house.”

A couple we know planned to build an addition onto their recently divorced daughter’s house and had even acquired a legal variance from their town, when the husband died. The widow, who comes from a family that has often shared housing back and forth, went back to the drawing board and came up with a modified plan. She took over enough space in the raised ranch house and garage to give her a private apartment, where she has room for most of her own furnishings. Now she and her daughter share maintenance costs, and as she says, “I couldn’t live anywhere else as cheaply.”

Our friend is also available at home to supervise and offer the comfort of family to her teen-age granddaughter, and she usually cooks dinner for her hard-working daughter. There are no formal house rules and they live independent social lives and respect each other’s space.

Our third couple lived for 11 years in an extremely creative situation. They built an in-law addition onto their home (fortunately they owned the lot next door), which had it’s own outside entrance. Then they turned the main house over to their children and grandchildren. The only space they shared was the cellar. But before they moved in, these well-organized people drew up a legal document which covered all possibilities, including an “exit plan” if the house were ever sold. They also established house rules such as sharing maintenance of yard and pool work, sharing utility costs and “always knocking before you enter.”

Again, having grandparents close was a plus not only for them, but for their grandchildren who always had a family member nearby before and after school.

These innovative solutions might not be right for you. But we hope they start you thinking about possible options for how to manage housing in your later years. If you have an interesting story of your own, let us hear from you at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it