Economy Bringing Kids or Grandparents Home?
Cope by Finishing the Basement (ARA) – Charmaine Gardner of West Hempstead, N.Y., spent three years looking for a house, but with the unstable housing market and rising taxes, she just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of buying. “As a single mom, I didn’t want to live paycheck to paycheck, so I had the idea of remodeling my mom’s unfinished basement for us to all live together.” From 1990 to 2001, multi-generational households increased about 60 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Many of the pressures that drove that increase – lack of affordable housing and a high cost of living – are even more relevant today. “More homeowners are finding that a professionally finished basement is a great way to create more living space at a lower cost than building an addition,” says Sal Ferro, president and chief executive officer of Alure, the home improvement company that worked with Gardner to install the Owens Corning Basement Finishing System. “Remodeling your basement can immediatel
