Lots of folks have been sending me offers of help and support since my accident, and I don't know how much I can express my appreciation as I start down the long road to recovery... This will probably lead to lots of threads in different places about different aspects of my issues, but I figure I ought to start one here in DIY to deal with the purely mechanical aspects of trying to make the house accessible to me in my current condition.
Essentially I'm currently wheelchair confined, and paralyzed from the waist down - NOBODY knows what the future holds in the way of recovery - some folks connect back up, others don't, to varying degrees, and with varying speeds, and nobody knows just how or why... At any rate, my rehab is based on the "worst case" assumption that I won't get any better, and I've been told to assume that in terms of any accessibility planning, etc...
It currently looks like I will probably be in rehab for another 4-6 weeks while my other injuries heal, and I learn the many skills needed to live in a wheelchair - but the insurance will only pay for a limited length of time before I'm kicked out to either go home or to a "skilled nursing facility" (aka Nursing home) depending on whether or not the house is ready for me to move in. It is VERY much preferred for me to go home...
So what will it take to go home? Our current house is very pretty, but it is a difficult house at best to work on, and it will be very difficult to make it "fully" accessible - lots of different levels, and reasons why I'd like to get access to most of them. It also needs a lot of repairs to things like siding and outside porches which aren't relevant to access questions. OTOH, it won't be terribly difficult to make it "minimally accessible" enough to get me home. This is what I think my immediate objective should be, with a longer term plan of deciding whether to fix this house, or trying to sell it and get a different house (i.e. a raised ranch with a walk-in basement) that would make a better "starting point" for accessibility work.
From what I've learned so far, there are two main issues that need to be addressed - redoing the bathroom and a ramp or lift to get me in and out of the house...
The kitchen and some of the other rooms might eventually need more attention, (especially depending on if we keep the house or not) but they will do for now.
Once I get my Linux box, I will be able to post what floor plans I have done on the house so far, and get Mary-Anne to take lots of pictures so you can see what we have to deal with, in the meantime folks will have to deal with my verbal descriptions...
The house was built approx 1980, and as far as I know all the fixtures, etc. are original, and mostly look it... The main floor bathroom is relatively small, but is reasonably well laid out (I think) All the fixtures are avacado green :sick: and their only virtue is that the toilet is a "real" 5 gallon reliable flusher. The bathtub is alongside the toilet, and is a fiberglass one-piece unit that has the tub and shower walls all in one unit, surrounded by badly deteriorated sheetrock (not sure if it is molded or just mildewed with lots of peeling paint, etc) the sink is in a cabinet that is recessed into an alcove in the wall... We did have the floor of the bathroom redone a few years ago with a nice tile that I would like to keep (and we have a fair bit of extra tiles)
As I understand the "rules" for accessible design, the minimum that we would need to do to make the bathroom accessible would be to replace the sink with an open front style that I can roll my chair under. However even though the house has 2.5 baths, this floor is the only one I could access so further renovation after I got home would leave me w/o a usable bath for the duration, so it makes sense to me that doing a total bathroom makeover before I got home might be a better approach...
This would mean replacing the current tub w/ one of the more modern "curbless roll-in" showers which would also deal with the rotten sheetrock, and possibly a more "friendly" toilet as well as fixing the sink.... Does this sound reasonable????
Will post more in my next on the ramp issue...
Gooserider
Essentially I'm currently wheelchair confined, and paralyzed from the waist down - NOBODY knows what the future holds in the way of recovery - some folks connect back up, others don't, to varying degrees, and with varying speeds, and nobody knows just how or why... At any rate, my rehab is based on the "worst case" assumption that I won't get any better, and I've been told to assume that in terms of any accessibility planning, etc...
It currently looks like I will probably be in rehab for another 4-6 weeks while my other injuries heal, and I learn the many skills needed to live in a wheelchair - but the insurance will only pay for a limited length of time before I'm kicked out to either go home or to a "skilled nursing facility" (aka Nursing home) depending on whether or not the house is ready for me to move in. It is VERY much preferred for me to go home...
So what will it take to go home? Our current house is very pretty, but it is a difficult house at best to work on, and it will be very difficult to make it "fully" accessible - lots of different levels, and reasons why I'd like to get access to most of them. It also needs a lot of repairs to things like siding and outside porches which aren't relevant to access questions. OTOH, it won't be terribly difficult to make it "minimally accessible" enough to get me home. This is what I think my immediate objective should be, with a longer term plan of deciding whether to fix this house, or trying to sell it and get a different house (i.e. a raised ranch with a walk-in basement) that would make a better "starting point" for accessibility work.
From what I've learned so far, there are two main issues that need to be addressed - redoing the bathroom and a ramp or lift to get me in and out of the house...
The kitchen and some of the other rooms might eventually need more attention, (especially depending on if we keep the house or not) but they will do for now.
Once I get my Linux box, I will be able to post what floor plans I have done on the house so far, and get Mary-Anne to take lots of pictures so you can see what we have to deal with, in the meantime folks will have to deal with my verbal descriptions...
The house was built approx 1980, and as far as I know all the fixtures, etc. are original, and mostly look it... The main floor bathroom is relatively small, but is reasonably well laid out (I think) All the fixtures are avacado green :sick: and their only virtue is that the toilet is a "real" 5 gallon reliable flusher. The bathtub is alongside the toilet, and is a fiberglass one-piece unit that has the tub and shower walls all in one unit, surrounded by badly deteriorated sheetrock (not sure if it is molded or just mildewed with lots of peeling paint, etc) the sink is in a cabinet that is recessed into an alcove in the wall... We did have the floor of the bathroom redone a few years ago with a nice tile that I would like to keep (and we have a fair bit of extra tiles)
As I understand the "rules" for accessible design, the minimum that we would need to do to make the bathroom accessible would be to replace the sink with an open front style that I can roll my chair under. However even though the house has 2.5 baths, this floor is the only one I could access so further renovation after I got home would leave me w/o a usable bath for the duration, so it makes sense to me that doing a total bathroom makeover before I got home might be a better approach...
This would mean replacing the current tub w/ one of the more modern "curbless roll-in" showers which would also deal with the rotten sheetrock, and possibly a more "friendly" toilet as well as fixing the sink.... Does this sound reasonable????
Will post more in my next on the ramp issue...
Gooserider