April 1999

A New Lease

Company Helps Seniors Stay Home Longer.
Keith Russell
Nashville Business Journal

As millions of Baby Boomers get ready to retire early next century, scores of entrepreneurs are beating a path down seniors' doors in hopes of convincing them of the best way to live out their remaining years. With concepts ranging from independent and assisted living facilities to the traditional nursing home, certainly no shortage of options exists.

But while most of the new builders and operators of long term care facilities try to woo new residents with promises of safe and pleasant living environments, all of them force seniors to do what many of them dread most.

Move.

Enter Life at Home Inc., a new Nashville-based supplier and installer of home modification products designed to allow seniors to alter their homes to meet their changing lifestyle needs, rather than vice versa.

"Seventy-five percent of the seniors you talk to say they want to stay in their own home, because that's where they're happy," explains Life at Home President Mark Fry, citing industry surveys.

Subsequently, Fry says Life at Home installs the safety and other equipment individual seniors may need -- from "grab" bars in bathrooms to wheelchair ramps and motion sensing lights (helpful to arthritis sufferers) -- to stay in their own homes as long as possible.

Fry is the first to admit that many of the products Life at Home installs in a home aren't too hard to find.

"A lot of this you could pick up at a Home Depot," he admits.

What is hard to find is someone to install the equipment properly.

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