Wheelchair Accessible Home

hi I'm Brian Kenny I was paralyzed uh not quite two years ago um wanted to come uh give you guys a video about uh the house that I built um obviously two years ago I had a townhouse I lived in a condo and um as soon as I was in the hospital I had to kind of figure out where I was going to go cuz obviously stairs upstairs and stairs downstairs weren't going to work um about a year after my injury I started building this house uh it's a Dominion home uh basically just your standard uh cookie cutter house that I had uh just you know modified to work as a handicap accessible house all right the biggest thing you'll notice uh when you come into my house uh is the hardwood floors um that was the biggest uh expense as far as making this house handicap accessible uh were the floors uh last place I was staying in had carpet I mean somebody who uses a wheelchair chair just trashes carpet um plus you know this is Ohio in the winter times you we're tracking in snow dirt mud all kinds of stuff um so trying to keep a hardwood floor clean is obviously the easiest thing since I built this house obviously as it was being built I could kind of change what I wanted to um something that I thought was good for uh somebody in a wheelchair I had the switches um just lowered down a little bit they're probably usually about this level um but I just you know before they put the drywall up and everything I just had them hang these a little bit lower uh it's not really that big of a deal um but I just think you know hey if I don't have to reach up here um maybe that's a little bit easier another thing is you'll notice the outlets are raised up just a little bit higher um and that's something that I if I was just taking a regular house and trying to change it I wouldn't change that but since I was building this one I thought it was something like a change um I don't really use the front of the house too much these are the front two bedrooms um but what I did do uh was I had these doorways widened I think they're usually like a 30in doorway uh I just had these ones widen to 32 uh so you know I'm not scraping up the door if I wanted to get in here um but like I said I rarely use these the front of the house um this is kind of more of a guest bathroom and uh these are two guest bedrooms um in an office right now um let's see what else we got so as you're coming down the before um you'll notice and actually you may not even notied this but this wall juts out about a foot um on the other side of that wall is the laundry room and I wanted to have you know enough space in the laundry room like I'll show you in a little bit uh to be able to turn around in the laundry room uh so I kicked that out a little bit okay so the next thing I wanted to show you is uh my kitchen keep in mind I mean the kitchen you could spend you know $100,000 on a kitchen if you if you wanted to so it's really you know what your budget can afford as to how accessible you can make it um I live with somebody who can walk um I don't do a whole lot of cooking but I can um so obviously this kitchen wasn't something that I had to completely fit to myself a couple the changes that I did make though um I have lower countertops um I think they're like 32 1/2 in um to this point that just makes a little bit easier to you know if I'm sitting next to it you know or if I want to wheel under the sink um you know it's kind of more at my level I'm not reaching up really far obviously the sink you can kind of see I can roll under it a little bit more come on over here and I'll show you um it's not something I can get real real close to but even that makes you know a little bit of a difference and the sink that I use um what one thing I they had to change was they had the sink uh with these usually mounted in the center I had to get a sink that kind of pushed everything back a little bit so it just gives you a little bit more room um obviously there's a disposal under there so if it was up here I'd be slamming my knees into it a little bit sooner um the Cabinetry uh is lowered a little bit um but obviously it's not real low we didn't want it to make we didn't want to make it look you know stupid if I was trying to sell this place um we want to make it still usable for you know an able-bodied person um basically I have plenty of access to the lower shelves anything higher than that kind of tricky um if you want to you can get shelves that come out and they drop down um but that's you know some money that obviously I didn't have to put into this kitchen um another thing uh that I have is this Pantry these shelves usually don't come out all the way to this Edge uh but I wanted them to come out a little bit farther I think they're usually 12 in deep I have these are 16 in deep so that just gives me a little bit you know more room to kind of slide things forward I use the um Grabber if I really have to um things that are up in these cabinets and stuff basically that cabinet is probably the only one I don't have real good access to um but like I said everything else I can get everything that's on bottom shelves and come over here pots and pans are under here um just that kind of odds and ends stuff I try to keep low and obviously plates I want to keep in reach too made obviously this is the front of the house um first chance um is this uh wheelchair ramp um there used to be steps well not used to be but there would have been steps um and this ramp uh obviously gets rid of those uh it's not quite uh like Ada standard it's a little bit steeper than that um but with the grade of the front of the house and uh the length of the ramp we had to make it just a little more steep probably would be okay for uh somebody like me or somebody in a power chair um probably somebody older might have a little bit of trouble getting up of it would probably want you know a little bit of push um then I've also got this one in my garage this is the one I use majority of the time it's a little less steep um but again it's not Ada you know specific I think Ada is like 112 pitch um but it works for me um you can see my garage it's a two-car garage um you know I've got the ramp and then toys and stuff taking up half the garage but uh got plenty of room to get in and out of my driver's side um if I want to get on the other side uh I usually park a little bit a little bit closer to the center okay so as I go into the house um I just open up this door I wanted to show you that I actually added this handle right here um that makes it a lot easier for me when I'm coming out of the house uh just to grab that I don't have to try to reach all the way in uh to shut the door um so when I go in I just obviously push it open um I don't have a perfect threshold uh some people would have a little better threshold ramp than that um somebody like me who's in a a you know just a manual chair that's something I can easily just kind of hop over I could roll over it if I had to it' be a little you know bumpier um that's something to think about if you are um maybe in a power chair that weighs a lot more than this uh you might want something a transition that's a little bit smoother than that um another thing I wanted to mention is this is a 36-in doorway I think it's usually the exterior doors I think were usually a 32 but I could be wrong on that but obviously that just keeps me from having to scrape up the door um more than I obviously have as you can see uh speaking of thresholds I did add a little bit of a thresold right there um but I've noticed that I'm so used to just hopping over it anyway it's more of just a more a better transition for my back wheels than my front wheels um if you want to come on in uh this is the um laundry room that I had widened a little bit I mentioned earlier this wall was pushed out about a foot uh which now that you're in the laundry room you can see how much of a difference that makes turning around especially when there's not a dog in here um I've got my front loing washer and dryer uh that have these pedestals on the bottom um I had these mounted so the doors will open out from one of the one another which means I can just sit here basket on my lap transfer it in one and then just kind of toss it into the other um I don't have to shut one to open the other so that's really handy other thing I never really thought about when I got these pedestals um was the fact that if you think about it I don't have any storage under my sink in my kitchen I have a little Pantry in there um so these came in really handy for you know just uh cleaners cleansers bags uh basically whatever I wanted to put under here I have plenty of room um obviously I can't use the shelves very much up here uh so that's coming really handy um I don't think I've touched that in a long time I just kind of label stuff in case they ever need it and get somebody else to pull it down so this is the living room and dining room area um not really a whole lot accessibility wise to show you here um what I do want to show you is kind of the layout is just open um I just tried to keep you know plenty of room you know around furniture and stuff so I can easily wheel around um if you've got a lot of furniture it's you know obviously really hard for somebody in a wheelchair to get around this threshold ramp in the back um is also there in case I ever get a deck this house usually comes with a 6ot I think it's a 6t long door this is an 8T long door um so once I get a deck once I can actually afford one um you know I've just got more room to open the door all the way and roll out onto the deck so let's go into the bedroom baby uh this is my bedroom and this is uh where I had the 36in doors put in um the two doorways going out to the garage and the bedroom as well as a 36in doorway into my bathroom um that's actually kind of overkill for somebody my size but this being a handicap accessible house it'll be nice you know if somebody else down the road uh uses it that has a power chair or has a wider manual chair than me um they'll have plenty of room room I don't have to worry at all about scraping up the door uh like I did in my other places uh I think this is also 32-in doorway it's usually a 30 um just makes a little bit easier to get into my closet um this is the crawl space to the basement I don't actually have a basement so I don't spend a whole lot of time down there obviously um but in my closet um these are usually probably at least another foot and a half higher than they are right now um I had them lowered just because it's really easy just to to grab my clothes uh than you know having to reach way up doesn't give me a whole lot of room underneath but who cares um I can kind of turn in here but it's a little tight obviously um so this is my bathroom this is actually the reason I picked this uh model of the house just because it has a very wide bathroom um I can come in here I've got a roll under sink which is awesome I don't have to brush my teeth and a little bucket on my lap anymore I can actually roll under this sink and it's fully accessible not a whole lot of storage in here um obviously these are both just fake cabinets what I want to do is add actual drawers to these top ones um this usually is where a bathtub would go but obviously I didn't need a bathtub this toilet is actually an adaa toilet it's a little higher than a standard toilet which is great for transferring um I've got a padded cushion uh just cuz you know I obviously don't want to be sitting on a hard cushion or a hard seat since I can't feel my my butt um got the grab bars uh that were added there's extra reinforcement behind the wall for these so that was something I had to think of obviously before they put up the drywall this toilet was also moved down toward the wall probably about 8 in it's usually pretty much smack dab in the middle of this area between the sink and the wall uh but having that moved down just makes a heck of a lot easier it's something I would never would have thought about you know before I was in a wheelchair but it really makes a difference it also gives me plenty of room um to get up right next to it and um I just grab that bar transfer over to the toilet um this is my shower stall it's not it's not a Rollin shower I mean this is the standard shower that comes with this uh unit basically the only things I changed with this it usually has a glass uh door that slides shut I didn't have them put in that glass door CU it would would have been you know a lot harder to get in and out and um to use the shower just have a standard bench in here it's padded just like the seat I just lock in and I'll just transfer over um I've got the shower it's obviously not a shower head it's an extended hose um the nice thing about this I'll show you this is kind of silly but it's got a shut off valve on it so as I'm in the shower I can shut the water off as I'm you know soaping and and whatnot I just thought that was pretty handy a lot handier than the one I used to have so um that's pretty much everything in my house um like I said you can do a lot more additions to your handicap accessible house it's all about what you can afford and you know what you think is really necessary so uh thanks for watching

Channel: Paralyzed Living

Views: 511,722

Keywords: handicap, accessible, home, house, wheelchair, user, disabled, disability, paralyzed, paraplegic, quadriplegic, spinal, cord, injury, sci, modified, living, how-to, modifications, everett, dominion

Id: YhYQ57s8Myk

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2011