Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #271  
Make all bathrooms handicap ready or place backer boards in the walls and take photos with measurements so later on if needed can be added. Have the toilets be the taller handicap units. Easier for the senior citizens to rise from on their own. When we have our home built it will be handicap ready even if we may not needed it - wider halls, larger door openings, bigger bath rooms, just to make it easier in later years to get around in my own home. Cheaper now than the price of a nursing home later.
Excellent point.

Aaron Z
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days
  • Thread Starter
#272  
Excellent suggestions everyone! All doors are planned to be 3' wide, and the bathtub will have hand rails on the sides.

One of the main drivers for the spiral staircase is the lack of room for a traditional set of stairs, given how much space it will take up in the main living room area. The basement will be unfinished and the only thing down there will be the breaker panel, air handler, water heater and water filter. I'll be maintaining those. I only live .5 miles away. Also, it is a walk out basement, so I don't anticipate a need to transport anything of significance up and down the stairs.

Her current home has tile/hardwood everywhere but the bedrooms, and those areas are a pain to maintain. She has 2 German Shepard dogs (one is the sister to Rufus you see in my avatar), so having hard surface floors are a must. There will be area rugs in places, with anti slip mats under them.

Good points on the toilet height and master bath size. Will look into that for sure!
 
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   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #273  
Coming along nicely! Thanks for sharing the pictures and build...
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #274  
I don't know your mother's age or health condition, but moving things up and down a spiral staircase seems much harder than a normal straight stairwell with landings. I know a unitized spiral staircase might be easier to install and even less expensive, but I'm just not sure those economies make sense for a senior citizen. Of course, this is just my random thoughts and you may have much more specific reasons. I have friends with a spiral staircase going up to a loft bedroom. They had to move everything up there via an outside balcony because the staircase was pretty much pedestrian traffic with only small objects in hand.

If it weren't for the walkout basement, the code wouldn't allow a spiral staircase as the sole access between floors. I'm a big fan of wide (4') straight stairways. "L" and "U" shaped stairways are evil in my book, especially if they are the only access between floors. I know that space considerations sometimes force "L" and "U" shaped stairways. I sure wish our straight stairway was 4' wide.

To follow up on Jinmans post,
the Tile Floors can be rather slippery too and VERY HARD for elderly people. Falls and or Slips are their #1 injury wood floors and or carpeted floors are much better for poor circulation (cold feet) and falls.

Tile is very nice but even a throw rug will slip/slide very easy on them.

Mark

One can get get floor tile that isn't slick as snot, nor rough as poorly finished concrete.

Even with anti-slip backers, throw rugs are evil in my book regardless of what kind of floor covering they are going on top of. If they don't slip and slide, then it's common to catch a toe under the edge.

Pclausen,

Make all bathrooms handicap ready or place backer boards in the walls and take photos with measurements so later on if needed can be added. Have the toilets be the taller handicap units. Easier for the senior citizens to rise from on their own. When we have our home built it will be handicap ready even if we may not needed it - wider halls, larger door openings, bigger bath rooms, just to make it easier in later years to get around in my own home. Cheaper now than the price of a nursing home later.

idaho2

Amen! I was in the early stages of designing a new house for us, and one of the criteria I set forth in my design was to apply ADA criteria that made sense for residential purposes into the home. That meant doorways were 3' minimum, wide hallways...what few there were, pocket doors where it made sense to use them, blocking for grab bars in the baths, etc.


Now a quick digression that others have done...I too have been getting the "Stay or go" popup now and then, and I just hit "go." If I have a verbose post, I copy it to the clipboard before hitting the "submit" button.

OK Mohammad (sp), please fix this annoying bug that is obviously affecting numerous members, and add a modern popup photo gallery viewer like other tractor forums do. Thanks, and we now return you to our regularly scheduled thread.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #275  
Tile is hard to beat for a home with dogs, I know this, so don't ask how. :laughing:

Like mentioned, there are ceramic tiles available that are non-slip. Some are textured but smooth, some have a surface that is like very fine sand. Either type is easy to clean. Beyond aesthetics, tile is a much healthier home component than carpet. It does not out-gas and can be completely cleaned and disinfected.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #276  
If it weren't for the walkout basement, the code wouldn't allow a spiral staircase as the sole access between floors. I'm a big fan of wide (4') straight stairways. "L" and "U" shaped stairways are evil in my book, especially if they are the only access between floors. I know that space considerations sometimes force "L" and "U" shaped stairways. I sure wish our straight stairway was 4' wide.


.


I have done a fair bit of building and noticed that spiral saves very little floor cutout space.
Also straight stair case allows for storage below while spiral only lets air (and dust) circulation.
Where heating or cooling is a concern conventional allows a doorway to create zones.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #277  
Excellent suggestions everyone! All doors are planned to be 3' wide, and the bathtub will have hand rails on the sides.

One of the main drivers for the spiral staircase is the lack of room for a traditional set of stairs, given how much space it will take up in the main living room area. The basement will be unfinished and the only thing down there will be the breaker panel, air handler, water heater and water filter. I'll be maintaining those. I only live .5 miles away. Also, it is a walk out basement, so I don't anticipate a need to transport anything of significance up and down the stairs.

Her current home has tile/hardwood everywhere but the bedrooms, and those areas are a pain to maintain. She has 2 German Shepard dogs (one is the sister to Rufus you see in my avatar), so having hard surface floors are a must. There will be area rugs in places, with anti slip mats under them.

Good points on the toilet height and master bath size. Will look into that for sure!

A little real experience on the safety issues.
I built this place so that when my mom ( already widowed ) would reach the point where I could convince her to move here or had to force her too because of health problems, I could build her a small apartment, 1k sq ft over the basement garage framed great room. Nice separation via a flower room the size of a large breezeway between the two with basement under it to the garage.
We were fortunate to have her for 5 years after a heart attack made the decision for her that it was time to sell her house and move out here to the farm. A great couple of independent years here until another heart attack with complications changed things drastically. I had made the doors wide, the handholds, wide hall, etc in the original build, as suggested above.
A large part of our main house and flower room are all tile. We installed wall to wall carpet in her place except for the bathroom.
Here's the point....
She got to the point first of needing to use a cane, then a walker, then a wheeled walker. This is a normal progression for many folks as they age, long before a wheelchair. As folks loose their dexterity and muscle they take smaller steps and shuffle. She could navigate on the large square tile floors and the smaller one in our kitchen like a wiz. The problem was the carpet.. just the opposite of what you think.
High toilets depends on the person's height. There are portable seats to build up regular toilets.
I could write a book, but my main point here is the floor covering is important but none of it is a panacea.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #278  
Pete,
Just went through your thread with my wife. She said it brought back a lot of memories over the past 20 years here. She loves the mods you made to the bathrooms and entry points from that of your original plan.
I'm sure you have already thought of it, but just in case, now would be the time to put audio/video room monitoring in all the rooms and transmit to your house since you are less than 0.5 miles away. Also a remote controlled gate at the road for her. Gates won't really keep anybody out that wants in bad enough, but they usually make the bad guys go on down the road to an easier hit.

You took a shot in Jan 2012 from your deck towards your mom's place. This was before you added the open bays to your shop.
It would be neat as a comparison for you to take a shot from there again towards your mom's place for comparison.
Ron
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #279  
I have done a fair bit of building and noticed that spiral saves very little floor cutout space.
Also straight stair case allows for storage below while spiral only lets air (and dust) circulation.
Where heating or cooling is a concern conventional allows a doorway to create zones.

That is for sure!
Also, with her HVAC air handler just a few feet from the hole, down in the basement, you can imagine the megaphone effect on a cold, cold Virginia winter night when the fan on the air handler is up at full RPM. Might as well build next to an airport rather than the beautiful, serene location she has chosen.
I agree with the others that say, it is not safe for her or the dogs. You can tell her to stay off it, but good luck.
If she wants to work in her gardens she will take the route she thinks is best at the moment.
I'm sure most of us have heard from our elders the expression, "It's my house, I'll do what I want in it."
We may have even said that ourselves on various occasions.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #280  
<snip>

You can tell her to stay off it, but good luck.
If she wants to work in her gardens she will take the route she thinks is best at the moment.
I'm sure most of us have heard from our elders the expression, "It's my house, I'll do what I want in it."
We may have even said that ourselves on various occasions.

I see you've met my Mom. :laughing:

The post you made about the gradual decline in dexterity is worth remembering. The majority of elderly folks do not go from just fine to bedridden. There can be a long period of decline that is actually quite dangerous.

My Mom has broken both wrists from stumbles while walking, shuffling instead of regular walking. I know she just neglects to focus on walking. About every other phone call I remind her--heel, toe, heel, toe--trying to remind her to pay attention to the journey, not what she is walking after.

I guess after a lifetime of taking walking safely for granted, it isn't an ingrained habit to be careful while walking.
 
 
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