At the Southern Ideal Home show — an annual venue where Peggy and David Mackowski market their remodeling company and highlight universal design ideas — a 60-year-old homeowner approached them about remodeling her house.
The homeowner, who often assists her elderly mother with everyday tasks, was familiar with the limitations of her mother's house, as well as her own home when it comes to walkers and wheelchairs. “She knew what was not working for her mother, and she did not want to have that same situation [as she aged],” says David Mackowski of Quality Design & Construction.
The Raleigh, N.C., remodeler and his team began working with the homeowner and, based on her list of needs, chose to tear down her duplex and construct a new house on the existing foundation. In choosing accessible features, just as they do with all universal design projects, David and his wife Peggy used their CAPS training as a guide, but customized the house to the client's specific needs.
The new house does not have hallways on the main level, and each door is 3 feet wide. An elevator in the front foyer provides access to the lower level. It opens to a 5-foot-wide hallway that leads to the backyard carport. At the front of the house, the crew re-graded the landscaping and replaced steps with a walkway to the front door.
Web Extra: Design Elements of the Kitchen
Accessible Contest
Quality Design & Construction won a 2007 Livable Community Award for this project.
Co-sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders and AARP, the contest aims to promote AARP's philosophy of livable communities and the use of its accessible housing principles in new and remodeled houses.
The contest is open to remodelers, architects, and designers who work on single-family homes, manufactured homes, and/or multifamily dwellings.
The entry deadline is June 6, 2008 for projects completed between Jan 1, 2006 and May 15, 2008. For more information, visit www.nahb.org.
