Lifestyle Correction: Maybe You Don't Need to Finish that Space

I was reading today that in their prime years, many men don't work; they live at home with parents or family members. Why? Despite colorful bar charts, research papers, and speculations about technology it seems we haven't reached a conclusion.

My guess? Lifestyle. Not theirs. Ours.

In our line of work we get to see trends in lifestyle literally as they happen, and sometimes they teach us what not to do. To accommodate today's lifestyle, for instance, a home where a family of five lived for 35 years, and engaged in all the norms of a married-with-children lifestyle, is a gut rehab. It requires a finished basement or attic (or both), at least one additional bath, and an open-concept kitchen with an island. Or does it?

While those updates may make life with little ones exponentially more comfortable today, it later allows your 20-something college graduate to live luxuriously, as well, and at your expense. He comes back from school, settles into your swanky, finished basement, and has his own bath, his own kitchenette, a media room, access to movies and games - heck, you never even have to see him - he's got his own back door to come and go as he pleases! Why would he ever leave??

In our quest for providing greater ease in the short-term, we may be sacrificing a more important respite in the long-term. So maybe take a note from the family that managed to raise three kids in that house just comfortably enough so they'd be uncomfortable as they got older. The dingy basement and scary attic may have been more strategic than you thought.