Town house

[Zuleima]

How do I make my town home ALS friendly?

 

[Mana]

I know it’s not possible for everyone, but we sold our loft home and bought a one story house that was ADA equipped within 6 months of my husband’s diagnosis. He had slow progression limb onset gradually needing more help and equipment for 18 months. In the last 6 months, he has been losing strength and lung capacity rapidly. And is now getting hospice care. It breaks my heart, but every day we are both grateful we made the move when we did. We had researched contractors and wanted to remodel, but this move, though difficult, was a far easier process. As our ALS clinic advised us “if you know a hurricane is coming, you’re better off preparing for it in advance”

 

[Nikki J]

How reasonable it is will depend on the layout of your ground floor. Is it going to be possible for your PALS to live on that level? Unless you can put in an elevator that is probably going to be necessary. Stairlifts work for a while but when core strength goes they usually don’t. My sister squeaked by barely because she was tiny and her husband supported her during her ride. She actually had a space that was a bedroom and also a bathroom on the main level and only made the trip once a day.

Unless you have a level entry you will need a ramp to get out

Moving to one level is great if you can do it. I moved and my only regret is I didn’t do it sooner

 

[KimT]

I moved to one level, too. It's a condo but everyone parks on the same floor as they live. I bought a big one on the first floor and had it remodeled with the money I made from selling my other house. It already had tile throughout and big rooms, but I had to make the doors larger and redo the bathroom and master closet. I can get everywhere with my largest PWC.

I'm glad I did it early on because I couldn't go through a remodel now.

 

[lgelb]

Echoing Nikki, my non-ALS neighbor, who uses a rollator/cane, is currently moving out of her TH, totally because of entry stairs and the stairs between floors. Even she would not do well in a stairlift.

 

[SeaGunny]

Sad yo say, but all of these folks have good points. My PALS early on wanted nothing to do with a multi-story home. Even then, I had to get ramps for the steps as she slowly got to the point she needs to use wheeled chairs and even the power chair.

 

[cb81042]

We remodeled our main level with accessibility in mind. It was expensive and challenging to have such a big project happening while managing all of new deficits and trying to get in bucket list travel while my late husband still could, but it was worth every penny even though he was only able to use the spaces for a few months before he passed.

We gutted the bathroom and made it into a zero-entry shower with grab bars everywhere. Fold down seat in the shower, hand held shower with an extra “parking spot” reachable from the shower seat, a high toilet seat, pedestal sink that allowed plenty of clearance to get into the shower and a towel bar that was also a grab bar. We also looked at paths of travel in the home and moved our bedroom door to eliminate exiting and having to navigate tight corners, removed thresholds between all of the rooms on the main floor and removed trim to widen doorways. We had an amazing design/build firm that was able to fast-track our project while also making it look like an intentional remodel.

Having those accessibility features made it so much easier to keep my husband home and relatively independent until the end. I’m currently watching my parents navigate my dad’s immobility from Parkinson’s in a home that isn’t well-suited for aging in place. They are having to scramble to make things accessible with every new deficit. They aren’t willing to consider a world where my dad might not be able to manage with their current setup. I’m glad that we had the foresight to make changes for the worst case scenario because we did one big remodel and were well-positioned for whatever ALS wanted to take away next.

 

[SeaGunny]

To add some thoughts. Do NOT let remodelers install strips of slightly rounded separaters (transistions) between mixtures of flooring surfaces. Make it all flat and smooth.

We had remodelers put in a walk in shower with hand held spray heads. I insisted in a built in bench (foldable) to be installed in shower with multiple grab bars and product shelves. We do not have to have sink and counters remodeled but were able to use up until the end.

Unfortunately, What was a high bid several years ago, does not look so high these days as prices have soared. However, the results were necessary.