Max
12-22-2002, 02:25 PM
Wheelchair access can help sell homes
In-law wing also popular for aging parents, adult kids
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/real_estate/article/0,1426,MCA_2798_1624019,00.html
By Jerome Obermark
obermark@gomemphis.com
December 22, 2002
Bill and Melanie Tapp recently bought a new, four-bedroom home in Westbrook Farms, a Bartlett subdivision of mostly two-story brick homes.
They have a 15-year-old son Andrew and Melanie's mother, Elsie Moore, living with them.
What really sold the 3,400-square-foot home was neither a sumptuous master bath suite nor gourmet kitchen.
What sold them was a private mother-in-law wing that will accommodate nicely Moore, who uses a walker and may eventually need a wheelchair. She has neuropathy, a degenerative nerve disorder.
"We have been looking for three years. When we saw it, it was perfect," Melanie Tapp said.
The home also has wide doors and a bathroom that can accommodate a person in a wheelchair.
"We've been here about a month. Everyone has his own space," Tapp said.
She had a hip and knee replaced due to injuries suffered 23 years ago when she was hit by a drunken driver. She said the wide doorways could come in handy for her one day. "I may one day wind up in a wheelchair," she said.
Few new homes built in the Memphis area have features for people with special disabilities, like wide doors and hallways and bathrooms with enough turning space for a wheelchair, said builder Ronnie Tickle, owner of Jack Tickle & Co. He built the house.
Tickle has specialized in building accessible homes for people with disabilities for more than 20 years.
Typically, he has built one to three of them per year on a custom basis after getting referrals.
"A lot of times, people don't know exactly what they want (to accommodate special needs), so we have to find out what they need before we build," Tickle said.
"This time I built features in a spec home, and it turned out that's what sold the house," Tickle said.
He built it with easy access from a ramp in the three-car garage to enter the in-law wing. Other features he incorporated include:
Three-foot-wide doors at entrances and throughout the house.
Levers instead of doorknobs.
Hard-surface floors and Berber carpeting.
A large bathroom with a roll-in shower and a commode that is easy to use.
Raised electrical receptacles and lower-than-nor mal light switches.
Appliances with knobs on the front.
Sometimes Tickle and other builders like Phil Baum of Baum & Co. adapt a plan they have built before to special needs of people with disabilities.
Tickle also seeks new plans from designers like Rick Ray of Creative Home Designs.
"We are seeing more families taking care of a parent, rather than have them go to an assisted-care facility over the past few years," Ray said.
In-law wings can be built for homes in a wide range of sizes and prices with separate quarters for privacy and special-needs features, Ray said.
"Costs of special features don't add much to the house cost if they are (factored) in. It costs much more to add them later," Ray said.
Ralph Jones of Ralph Jones Designers in Memphis said he only gets a few calls a year for specially adapted new homes, but he added:"I think we'll be seeing more of it."
Because of his recent sale in Bartlett, Tickle expects to build a few more homes with special features on a speculative basis in Rosemark and Millington.
Bathroom walls, for example, can easily be reinforced with extra blocking for mounting grab bars initially or later, he said.
Special, self-contained wings also can be handy when grown children move back home with parents or visit for extended periods, he said.
That said, most new homes in the Memphis area are not built with people with special disabilities in mind, partially because people move about every five to seven years, Tickle said.
Kevin Lofton, independent living specialist on training and awareness with the Center for Independent Living in Memphis, said "visit-ability" features in homes, especially new single-family homes, is one issue the center advocates.
The center's primary roles, given limited resources, are information referral and advocacy on issues, he said.
Visit-ability refers to designing and building single-family homes with three basic considerations that would make it easier for relatives or friends with physicaldisabilities to visit. The measures also would allow people who may become disabled to continue to live in the homes.
The requirements are:
That at least one entrance is at grade; no steps.
Doors and hallways should be wide enough to navigate a wheelchair.
A bathroom on the first floor should be big enough to enter and be used by someone in a wheelchair.
The concept of visit-ability has been a growing trend for more than a decade. Its origin is traced to an Atlanta-based group called Concrete Change.
Atlanta passed the first visit-ability law that required all public housing be accessible. Atlanta now has more than 500 single-family homes with visit-ability features.
Chicago and Austin are among other cities that have mandated visit-ability features in single-family housing built with public money.
For more information on visit-ability including proposed federal legislation on the subject, visit concretechange.home .mindspring.com./-7k andaccessiblesociety.org./topics/housing.
- Jerome Obermark:
529-2320
Copyright 2002, GoMemphis. All Rights Reserved.
In-law wing also popular for aging parents, adult kids
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/real_estate/article/0,1426,MCA_2798_1624019,00.html
By Jerome Obermark
obermark@gomemphis.com
December 22, 2002
Bill and Melanie Tapp recently bought a new, four-bedroom home in Westbrook Farms, a Bartlett subdivision of mostly two-story brick homes.
They have a 15-year-old son Andrew and Melanie's mother, Elsie Moore, living with them.
What really sold the 3,400-square-foot home was neither a sumptuous master bath suite nor gourmet kitchen.
What sold them was a private mother-in-law wing that will accommodate nicely Moore, who uses a walker and may eventually need a wheelchair. She has neuropathy, a degenerative nerve disorder.
"We have been looking for three years. When we saw it, it was perfect," Melanie Tapp said.
The home also has wide doors and a bathroom that can accommodate a person in a wheelchair.
"We've been here about a month. Everyone has his own space," Tapp said.
She had a hip and knee replaced due to injuries suffered 23 years ago when she was hit by a drunken driver. She said the wide doorways could come in handy for her one day. "I may one day wind up in a wheelchair," she said.
Few new homes built in the Memphis area have features for people with special disabilities, like wide doors and hallways and bathrooms with enough turning space for a wheelchair, said builder Ronnie Tickle, owner of Jack Tickle & Co. He built the house.
Tickle has specialized in building accessible homes for people with disabilities for more than 20 years.
Typically, he has built one to three of them per year on a custom basis after getting referrals.
"A lot of times, people don't know exactly what they want (to accommodate special needs), so we have to find out what they need before we build," Tickle said.
"This time I built features in a spec home, and it turned out that's what sold the house," Tickle said.
He built it with easy access from a ramp in the three-car garage to enter the in-law wing. Other features he incorporated include:
Three-foot-wide doors at entrances and throughout the house.
Levers instead of doorknobs.
Hard-surface floors and Berber carpeting.
A large bathroom with a roll-in shower and a commode that is easy to use.
Raised electrical receptacles and lower-than-nor mal light switches.
Appliances with knobs on the front.
Sometimes Tickle and other builders like Phil Baum of Baum & Co. adapt a plan they have built before to special needs of people with disabilities.
Tickle also seeks new plans from designers like Rick Ray of Creative Home Designs.
"We are seeing more families taking care of a parent, rather than have them go to an assisted-care facility over the past few years," Ray said.
In-law wings can be built for homes in a wide range of sizes and prices with separate quarters for privacy and special-needs features, Ray said.
"Costs of special features don't add much to the house cost if they are (factored) in. It costs much more to add them later," Ray said.
Ralph Jones of Ralph Jones Designers in Memphis said he only gets a few calls a year for specially adapted new homes, but he added:"I think we'll be seeing more of it."
Because of his recent sale in Bartlett, Tickle expects to build a few more homes with special features on a speculative basis in Rosemark and Millington.
Bathroom walls, for example, can easily be reinforced with extra blocking for mounting grab bars initially or later, he said.
Special, self-contained wings also can be handy when grown children move back home with parents or visit for extended periods, he said.
That said, most new homes in the Memphis area are not built with people with special disabilities in mind, partially because people move about every five to seven years, Tickle said.
Kevin Lofton, independent living specialist on training and awareness with the Center for Independent Living in Memphis, said "visit-ability" features in homes, especially new single-family homes, is one issue the center advocates.
The center's primary roles, given limited resources, are information referral and advocacy on issues, he said.
Visit-ability refers to designing and building single-family homes with three basic considerations that would make it easier for relatives or friends with physicaldisabilities to visit. The measures also would allow people who may become disabled to continue to live in the homes.
The requirements are:
That at least one entrance is at grade; no steps.
Doors and hallways should be wide enough to navigate a wheelchair.
A bathroom on the first floor should be big enough to enter and be used by someone in a wheelchair.
The concept of visit-ability has been a growing trend for more than a decade. Its origin is traced to an Atlanta-based group called Concrete Change.
Atlanta passed the first visit-ability law that required all public housing be accessible. Atlanta now has more than 500 single-family homes with visit-ability features.
Chicago and Austin are among other cities that have mandated visit-ability features in single-family housing built with public money.
For more information on visit-ability including proposed federal legislation on the subject, visit concretechange.home .mindspring.com./-7k andaccessiblesociety.org./topics/housing.
- Jerome Obermark:
529-2320
Copyright 2002, GoMemphis. All Rights Reserved.