Leave room for your future

How your home should grow with you

By JACOB KIRST

Project by Lagois: Remodel in The Glebe. The family of a couple with three boys about ready to leave for college loved the location of their home. They had lived in it for a long time. They knew what they liked in the house and what they wanted to change. So we built a second-storey addition that turned a small balcony off a bedroom into living space. We also gave them a new kitchen, an updated mudroom, and better flow of traffic. It was perfect for their evolving lifestyle reality.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of returning to the same families many times. I love helping them and their homes to evolve as their lives change.

One couple first came to us when their children were small. They were looking to create open, connected spaces for family living. Years later, when their children grew up, they returned for an addition that created quiet retreats and features that would allow them to live in place as long as they wanted.

It was immensely satisfying to see how much of that later work we had anticipated in the original design. It was proof, yet again, that thoughtful planning can support different seasons of life without requiring a complete new process. It meant we didn’t need to repeat or re-do some of the work that had already been done.

This is what we call adaptive living. It’s design that suits you now and anticipates each chapter of your future at the same time.

Few families live in a “finished” state. Careers change. Children arrive, grow up, and eventually leave the nest. Parents age. Health requires barrier-free spaces. Grandchildren appear. Families decide to expand spaces to accommodate everyone.

Life changes in ways we can’t always predict, but we can still be prepared for surprises and shifts in the way we live. Your home can work beautifully at one stage but in the next become limiting or stressful, and that’s why it needs to be designed with flexibility in mind from the very start.

It means creating spaces at the outset that can change their function later on without major disruption. For example, if you have a main-floor room that serves as a playroom today, it can become a home office or guest suite later.

In the first overall renovation we often create wider hallways, reinforced walls for future handrails, or a bathroom layout that allows for easy modification long before these are needed. We include structural decisions early to allow for future additions or reconfigurations without compromising your home’s integrity.

Adaptive renovation is also about recognizing how families want to live now rather than just how homes were traditionally laid out. We’re finding that multi-generational living is becoming common and necessary. Remote work has changed the way we live, too, when we need to blur the lines between home and office.

We understand that privacy and togetherness both matter, sometimes at the same time. Good design balances these needs, creating homes that feel cohesive even as they accommodate different rhythms of life under one roof.

There’s also an emotional component to this approach.

Your home holds memories. Our renovations respect what already exists both architecturally and personally, so they allow you to move forward without feeling like you’re leaving your history behind. It’s one of the reasons people often return to us. They do this not just because experience has taught them to trust our workmanship but because they know we understand.

Actually, you might say adaptive living, in a nutshell, is rooted in listening. This means we ask the right questions early and tell you honestly what might come later. None of us can predict every detail of the future, of course, but we can leave room for it.

We design homes that don’t resist change. In fact, they support it in practical terms with lasting, enduring value. It’s why we speak of Perfecting the Art of Living. It really is an art, from day one, from first designs, to anticipate and give breathing room to life as it invariably evolves. It’s the idea that we can walk into the future gracefully and comfortably no matter what life gives us.

When you work with Lagois, you’re not investing in a one-time project. You’re building a lifelong relationship with a trusted partner who knows your story and how it will continue to unfold.

Jacob Kirst is President and Visionary of Lagois Design·Build·Renovate.