Janelle has been working hard on a new design for the house. One of the ideas she had was to make sure that the house will be accessible to handicapped folks.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when designing a bathroom:
Clear Floor Space at Toilet. When the toilet is located in the corner of a 60-inch x 60-inch clear floor space additional open space to the side of the toilet is available. This facilitates a wide variety of independent transfers, and especially the side transfer, critical for many users of mobility devices. The space also provides room for an assistant when needed.Shower Stall Size. A 36-inch deep or deeper stall better contains water and minimizes uneven warped surfaces so all four wheels of a person’s shower wheelchair stay in contact with the floor. Thus, the user is better able to maintain traction and control when maneuvering into and out of the shower.
Since I'm a greedy bastard, I can't help to think that if our house accomodates these specs it will be a lot more valuable to some baby boomers and their parents.
Here are two documents Janelle found that we are using as reference:
A PDF reader is required in order to view these documents. If you do not have any, click here to download Foxit 2.0, a free PDF reader. You could also download the well known Adobe Acrobat reader, but it's a lot bulkier and slower.