I wonder if architects or builders ever try tooling around houses they’ve just completed while seated in a wheelchair.
Do you think sales people who work at age-targeted or age-restricted housing developments ever put themselves in the shoes of prospective buyers who are well beyond 50 and have some disability–and try to imagine how they themselves would maneuver around a house they’re trying to sell?
In the same vein: Do you think builders or real estate agents might ever give their properties a trial run by, say, living there for a whole weekend while wearing a cast or a sling? Or hopping around on crutches?
Before we go further, I have to confess that I come at this from a personal viewpoint. Wearing a sling for eight weeks gives a whole new perspective to the business of moving around easily and safely, whether that means being confined to a wheelchair or wearing a blue sling. Try going through revolving doors, getting on and off buses or showering, grasping door handles, climbing then descending three flights of stairs in a model town home without any handrails.
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(FYI: My temporary disability, a dislocated right shoulder, resulted from an accident–no, not in a model home. And, yes, I’m right-handed–but all’s fine now, thanks.)
Too many people have the notion that safety in a house or ease in getting around is only a concern for old folks–you know, the creaky over-50 set.
But during the months of ongoing physical therapy these simple facts of life really hit home: No matter age or gender, a lot of people have all kinds of accidents.
No surprise there. It’s just that when you see all these kids in their 20s and 30s struggling to get their knees and elbows, wrists and shoulders working again that you realize you have a mission in life: Grab bars on the walls of every single bath or shower in the country (well, OK, I’ll settle for metropolitan Chicago).
Tykes and grandparents, the physically fit and the sedentary trip on cracks in sidewalks, rugs that aren’t anchored, file drawers that somebody forgot to push shut.
People fall while skiing, cycling, standing on stepstools and cleaning their mini-blinds, then forgetting they’re on the top step, not the bottom one. People slip in bathtubs that are still slickly coated after somebody’s lavish use of bath oil.
I’ve visited model homes in both age-targeted and age-restricted communities without finding grab bars or doorways wide enough for wheelchairs. They’re available, but cost extra.
Not all are standard
During a recent tour of models at Pulte Homes’ Enclave of Carrington Reserve in West Dundee, Patrick Beirne, regional president of the builder’s Heartland Region, said this age-targeted community’s houses will not have grab bars installed in shower or tub walls as a standard amenity.
(“Age-targeted”means that the development is designed to appeal to, say, the over-40s. “Age-restricted” communities are usually marketed and sold to “active adults,” most often requiring that at least one owner be over 50 or 55.)
Lenny Kroll, the Pulte’s Enclave project manager, says the firm will handle all “requests” for grab bars from buyers. Price, he says, depends on the extent of the changes that have to be made in strengthening the walls. He could not provide a range of estimated costs.
Beirne, who also will oversee Pulte’s age-restricted communities, said buyers don’t ask for or want grab bars in their bathrooms, perhaps hoping they’ll never need them. Or, they just don’t like the looks of them. Too institutional.
But they don’t have to look that way. Diana Schrage of Kohler’s Design Center in Kohler, Wis., also seems to have a mission; she wants to have everyone realize that “function and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive.”
The designer says that planning a safe home environment shouldn’t be relegated to images of hospital-like rooms or thoughts of age or even of disabilities. A visiting grandchild can get frisky in an unfamiliar tub. Pregnant women talk about wanting the reassurance of something to hang onto.
And Schrage can zip off all sorts of ways to make bathrooms safe as well as appealing. She mentions tubs with flat rather than rounded bottoms and showers and tubs with “good looking” textured, non-slip surfaces.
Designed for all ages
As well she should. Earlier this month, the Seniors Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders presented one of its top awards to Kohler for researching and developing universal-designed kitchen and bath systems, which includes all sorts of products from easy-to-handle faucets and sprays to “taller profile toilets” (that provide maximum comfort to people of all ages, sizes and physical needs) and, yes, good-looking grab bars.
The lowdown on grab bars
Who needs them? Anyone who bathes or showers regularly. Considered a safety measure only for the elderly, they’re probably more essential for the temporarily disabled, pregnant women who can be more wobbly than many 80-year-olds, frisky kids and people with hangovers.
Are they standard fare in new homes? Rarely. Even among luxury builders, architect Charles Page, who custom-builds North Shore homes, is one of few to include grab bars and other safety amenities in clients’ homes.
Chicago-based Norwood Homes, known for its mid-priced city and suburban condos, builds its shower or tub walls with backing that can support grab bars. Del Webb Sun City age-restricted communities have grab bars in the shower or tub of the master bathroom–as well they should.
What do they cost? If we knew we’d tell you. Builders interviewed were reluctant to pinpoint, saying it depends on so many things–including styles, quantity and quality (and, price of the home; if it’s expensive enough, they’re installed at no cost). Norwood offered a range of maybe $200-$500; another doubled that amount.
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They’re far less costly if they’re requested before the bathroom walls are up; tearing up a wall and putting in the backing and bars later can be a money guzzler.