Rising demand for home elevators

Ray and Eve Pech inside their Sevaria home elevator, which was recently installed as part of a larger renovation project.
Debra A. Aleksinas
Ray and Eve Pech inside their Sevaria home elevator, which was recently installed as part of a larger renovation project.
Ray and Eve Pech were in their late 30’s when they built their dream house 40 years ago on the side of a mountain overlooking Ski Sundown.
The modest, 2,000-square-foot, vertically-designed home offered privacy, ample space for their young family, stunning scenery — and stairs galore.
“It’s on three levels because it’s on the side of a hill,” said Ray Pech, a retired lawyer who serves on the Northwestern Connecticut Transit District board of directors. “We fell in love with the tremendous views.”
As for the stairs, he said, “We really didn’t think a lot about it. The thought never occurred to us that the day would come when we wouldn’t be able to go up stairs forever.”
The Pechs are among the growing number of Baby Boomers who aren’t planning to sell because they like their homes and have decided to age in place.
During a 2020 expansion project, they retrofitted their home with an elevator so that in their Golden Years they could safely enjoy all levels of their home, and also make it easier for visiting friends with mobility problems and wheelchair bound relatives to visit without climbing stairs.
“We thought, 'how do we make this house so that we can stay here?' and that was the logical choice, even though we didn’t need it physically yet,” Pech explained. “But I guess it’s there when we need it.”
Elevators are no longer just a luxury. Connecticut is home to 823,529 people aged 60 or older, representing 23% of the state’s population, according to a Healthy Aging Data Report. For many seniors, assisted living is out of reach due to rising costs and health concerns, particularly post-pandemic. Caregiving, too, can be costly for those on limited incomes.
A challenging housing market is discouraging senior homeowners from selling their homes, so many aging Baby Boomers are choosing to stay put. But with age comes the inevitable potential for decline in mobility. Home elevators, and to a lesser degree, stair lifts, are solutions to this growing problem, according to industry experts.
Elevator Service Company, Inc., (ESCO) based in Torrington, currently has licenses to install lifts and elevators in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, and installs more than 100 residential elevators annually, according to company officials.
“For the Northwest Connecticut area, towns that are most abundant in our installations would be closer to the New York border, as the square footage of private homes are larger and more frequented to owners who live there year around,” said Managing Director Mat Montgomery.
Over the past five years, Montgomery said he has noticed a change in the attitude that elevators are reserved for the wealthy. “Today, the elevator is a mainstay in the design of the home as building outward for most is challenging with limits in land.”
And while the market continues to grow, he said, the manufacturing for the type of equipment offered by ESCO is growing, too, “bringing down costs which allow us to put these units in every type of home, regardless of wealth.”
The cost to install a residential elevator varies according to layout of the home, the number of levels served and the elevator style, said the ESCO official.
“Our customers all have different needs and wants for their elevator, so the price range will vary with equipment and product offerings.” Generally speaking, he said, a two-story home prepped for an elevator shaft requiring two closets stacked on top of each other, “will spend about $45,000 on a new elevator for this shaftway. This is much cheaper than the price of some newer cars, making an elevator a low barrier to entry to having the to move around your home freely and safely for decades.”
That estimate does not include construction costs to house the unit.
Ray Pech said when he and his wife crunched the numbers, their elevator cost them the equivalent of about three years of rent in a “reasonably nice” senior living complex.
“For us it made sense financially” to stay put, said Pech. “We built the house and decided to redesign the house again in 2020, and the elevator was the instigation of it.” They enlarged their living and dining areas to make up for lost space on the third level where the elevator shaft took up one of the bedrooms.
For the Pechs, the idea was to make the elevator look as if it had always been in the house. It appears as an ordinary door off the living room. Ray Pech opened the door, then slid aside a safety gate leading to a well-lit, wood-paneled box elevator with a weight capacity of 1,000 lbs. and ample space for a wheelchair and another adult.
Once inside, he secured the gate, and with a push of a button, the elevator, which operates via a pulley chain, smoothly and quietly ascended to the upper level at a barely noticeable speed of 40 feet per minute.
Beyond function, elevators can also be aesthetically attractive in a home.
“We do need to hang some art in there,” Eve Pech said to her husband as the elevator door opened on its return to the main level.
On Saturday, Sept. 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Rock Steady Farm in Millerton opens its fields once again for the third annual Farm Fall Block Party, a vibrant, heart-forward gathering of queer and BIPOC farmers, neighbors, families, artists, and allies from across the Hudson Valley and beyond.
Co-hosted with Catalyst Collaborative Farm, The Watershed Center, WILDSEED Community Farm & Healing Village, and Seasoned Delicious Foods, this year’s party promises its biggest celebration yet. Part harvest festival, part community reunion, the gathering is a reflection of the region’s rich agricultural and cultural ecosystem.
Rooted in justice and joy, the event will feature over 25 local vendors and organizations, live performances, healing workshops, family-friendly activities (yes, there’s a bouncy castle), and abundant local food. And while the festivities are certainly reason enough to show up, organizers remind us the purpose runs deeper.
“This isn’t just a party. It’s a place to build the kind of relationships that keep our food system alive,” said Maggie Cheney, Rock Steady’s co-founder and worker-owner. “We’re creating space where farmers, growers, families, and community organizers can connect, celebrate, and support one another.”
Proceeds from the event support Rock Steady’s POLLINATE program for queer and trans BIPOC beginning farmers, as well as Catalyst Collaborative Farm’s food justice initiatives. With sliding-scale tickets from $5 to $250, the organizers aim to make the event accessible to all, including free entry for children under 12 and volunteer options for those who want to pitch in.
For those who’ve attended before, it’s a welcome return. For newcomers, it may just feel like coming home.
More info and tickets: rocksteadyfarm.com/farm-block-party
Waterlily (8”x12”) made by Marilyn Hock
It takes a lot of courage to share your art for the first time and Marilyn Hock is taking that leap with her debut exhibition at Sharon Town Hall on Sept. 12. A realist painter with a deep love for wildlife, florals, and landscapes, Hock has spent the past few years immersed in watercolor, teaching herself, failing forward, and returning again and again to the page. This 18-piece collection is a testament to courage, practice and a genuine love for the craft.
“I always start with the eyes,” said Hock of her animal portraits. “That’s where the soul lives.” This attentiveness runs through her work, each piece rendered with care, clarity, and a respect for the subtle variations of color and light in the natural world.
After painting in oils earlier in life, Hock returned to art when she retired from working as a paralegal with a goal: to learn watercolor. It wasn’t easy.
“Oils and watercolor are opposites,” she explained. “With oils, you build your darks first. In watercolor, if you do that, you’re in trouble.” She studied online, finding instructors whose approach clicked, and adapted to the delicacy of the medium.
“When I’m working, everything else falls away,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on in life. While I’m painting, time disappears.”
Her studio, formerly a home office, is now her sanctuary and the pieces in this exhibition are the result of three years of that devoted studio work. While this is her first full public show, Hock previously tested the waters at a small fundraiser at Noble Horizons, where one of her pieces sold. That experience — and the consistent encouragement from her family, especially her husband — pushed her to pursue a full exhibition. With gentle encouragement from her husband and family, Hock reached out to the Town Hall’s curator, Zelina Blagden. “My husband kept saying, ‘You’re as good as all those other people out there, why not show your work?’” And so, here it is.
All paintings in the show are for sale, though Hock admits a few are priced high — not because of their size or complexity — but because she’s not quite ready to let them go. “There are a couple I’ve priced high because I’m not sure I want to part with them. But we’ll see,” she laughed. “It would be nice to support the habit a little bit.”
As for aspiring artists or anyone hesitating to begin something creative, Hock’s advice is simple: “Go for it. If it fails, toss it in the basket and start over.”
The exhibit will be on view at Sharon Town Hall through Oct. 31 with an opening reception on Sept. 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
Carissa Unite, general manager of Oblong Books in Millerton.
Carissa Unite of Millerton, began working at Oblong Books 16 years ago as a high schooler. She recently celebrated her eight-year anniversary as the general manager.
Unite’s journey at Oblong began even before she applied for her first position.An avid reader from a young age, she was a frequent customer at the store. During those years, Unite bonded with a former employee who encouraged her to apply for a position after connecting over their shared love of reading.
As a teenager, Unite enjoyed reading Ellen Hopkins, John Green and Ann Brashares. With the busyness of adulthood, she now favors the convenience of audio books. In the past year, however, she has made it a point to read more physical books.
With a preference for contemporary fiction, she raved about “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The story, set in the 1980s, follows two women who become astronauts at a time when women were not widely accepted in the field. A beautiful love story emerges between the two characters. Unite described the writing as sensational and commended Reid’s ability to tackle complex themes without them being muddied.
Unite has developed a deep appreciated for classic literature. Her two favorites are “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. She was amazed by the philosophical nature of both words and the way their dialogue challenged her perspective.
In an effort to read beyond her preferred genre, she recommends the following:
“Some Desperate Glory,” by Emily Tesh, “Midnight Rooms,” by Donyae Coles and “Clear” by Carys Davies.
For Unite, the beauty of reading lies in its power to develop perspective, empathy, and compassion. Through books, readers learn that everyone is fighting different battles and no two stories are the same. She encourages people to choose kindness because you never know what someone else is facing.
Above all, reading brings Unite peace. If offers transcendence to another world, a pause from outside noise, and for Unite, it is where she feels most at home.
For anyone hesitant to being reading, Unite suggests: just do it! Read 10 pages a day and find the book that speaks to you. Any Oblong staff member would be happy to offer recommendations.
Oblong is located at 26 Main St., in Millerton and 6422 Montgomery St. in Rhinebeck.