It’s official! You’ve dropped your youngest child off at college and are returning back to an empty nest. While it is can be bittersweet to see your child leave home in search of independence and adulthood, it can also be a joyous time for you now that you finally have the house all to yourself.

Your home was once centered on your family’s hectic schedule. Now that you are no longer spending time carpooling and helping with last minute science fair projects, it’s time to figure out how you want to change your home to reflect your new lifestyle and interests.

Here are some ideas that might get your creative juices flowing:

Outdoor Rooms
Don’t just limit your living space to your home’s interior walls. If you enjoy barbecuing and hosting parties, consider the possibility of an outdoor kitchen. Adding a hearth or grill for cooking, a sink for ease in preparing food and a small fridge to keep things fresh will make entertaining easy – keeping you from running back and forth to the kitchen and missing out on the fun.

If entertaining isn’t your thing, designing an area to retreat to might be the option for you. Add plants, water features and comfortable furniture to create a space to get away from it all. The options for outdoor rooms are endless and can be specifically tailored to fit your lifestyle.

Home Office
You may be an empty nester, but you are still a very active member of the workforce. An extra bedroom or den previously used for family activities would be a great place to turn into a home office.

Home offices are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity with more people telecommuting or running their own businesses from their house. A consumer preferences survey by the National Association of Home Builders found that a home office was the third most desired specialty room.

Breathing Room
Depending on the age of your home, you may find that your master bedroom or bath is too small for comfort. Expand into space that isn’t being used to build the master bath of your dreams or to create a separate seating or dressing area in your bedroom.

Incorporating these changes will not only create a home that suits your new lifestyle, they are ones that may increase the value of your home for the time when you decide to finally sell.

For more information on remodeling a recently kid-free home, visit www.nahb.org/remodel or contact the Spokane Home Builders Association at (509) 532-4990.

The information in this article was provided by the National Association of Home Builders.