Mar
12
What should be your top two requirements when hiring a contractor to remodel your home for a disabled family member?
1. Finding a contractor here in Colorado that understands accessibility requirements, and can offer tips and strategies to give your redesign function and beauty.
2. Finding a contractor that has experience in designing a home to meet disability requirements, and can help you make the right decisions for your home and family.
Remodeling is not an easy or inexpensive task. It’s one that you may plan and save for months or even years. And once its completed, you know you’ll be living with your choices for many years into the future. 
When you combine your remodeling plans with creating functionality for a disabled member of the family, it adds to the stress. Are you making the right choices for everyone? Will your home still look and feel like a home as opposed to a medical center? Will your home still have a high resale value if and when you decide to put it on the market?
With the general population aging, things like universal design are becoming more popular than ever. And because of the need, products are becoming more in tune with helping you live a busy life, and allowing everyone the ability to live comfortably within the home.
Also work with a contractor who can design for the future. Is the disability permanent? Will the condition worsen in the coming years? The answers can modify your remodeling requirements. If you’ll be designing for a condition that will worsen over time, a contractor can make suggestions that will allow you to grow and change over time. Countertops and shelves can be made full adjustable, giving you freedom to move them to where you need them. A shower can be built with a sit down bench for use today, and a roll-in doorway for when needs change, and you may need wheelchair access.
The important thing to keep in mind during the entire process is flexibility. Be honest with your contractor, and ask for recommendations. He can make your entire process fun and stress-free – just ask.
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Nov
12
Disability Aids – 5 Things To Make Your Home More Accessible
Filed Under Remodeling for Disabled | Leave a Comment
Living with a disability means many things to many people. For some, it’s getting around the home in a wheelchair. For others, it may be living with arthritis, and having increasingly difficult times doing common everyday chores like open up 
doors.
Here are 5 things you can do to make your home more accessible to your family member with a disability.
1. Start by looking realistically at what is possible. Is your family member facing a temporary setback, or is it a permanent condition that may even worsen over time? If it falls into the latter category, plan for the future too before making any changes to your home.
2. Work with a design and contracting company that has experience with disabilities. They will be able to provide you more options, and give you more advice on things that would be beneficial for your loved one.
3. Learn all of your options, and scale down based on budget. If you know all your options ahead of time, some things can be purchased in stages, and built to work together with other things already in place.
4. Spend more time working on rooms where your loved one will spend more time. If he or she loves cooking, and has always spent an hour or more every day cooking and baking, spend more time and money making this room accessible. Counters can be raised or lowered depending on needs. Space can be built throughout the kitchen for movement and turning in a wheelchair.
5. Make the entire home accessible in some manner. A home theater in the basement is great; but if your loved one can’t get to it and share in the fun, it will become more of a threat than entertainment. Have a way for every common room to be accessible by all.
Sep
10
When we think of home, we think of comfort. It’s a place we can move around freely, and enjoy each area because of the significance it holds in our hearts.
But for some, home can lose that comfortable feeling with the onset of a disability. No longer can you access some rooms in the same manner as before. It’s more difficult getting from place to place. And in some cases, it’s downright dangerous.
As a disability becomes more prominent in the life of someone you love, its more important to give your loved one a sense of security by making corrections to your home to make it more livable. Luckily there are many things you can do with varying degrees of cost and functionality.
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