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I recently built a house and designed it to be "PWP friendly".  I have
now been living in it for 4 months.  The web site for the Americans
With  Disabilities Act has commercial construction standards which may
be useful.  We built a 4 bedroom house with our son's room (who is away
at college most of the year) and a spare bedroom on an exposed lower
level (the property slopes down from street level.) Therefore I do not
have to go downstairs at all). The entrance from the garage is near the
kitchen.  Therefore it is simple to carry groceries to the kitchen and
trash to the garage. The slope of the garage floor is such that there
are no steps from garage to the house.  The 2 car garage is large enough
to get a wheelchair to either side of either car. Laundry is on the main
floor behind bi-fold doors. Door handles are levers rather than knobs.
Grab bars are generously distributed around toilets and showers. Over
our bed we have the ceiling "blocked out" so that a mechanical lift can
be installed in the future.  The oversize walk-(wheel)-in shower has no
threshold and its floor is sloped away from the entrance so water does
not run out.  Especially useful is the generous use of pocket
doors which do not have to allow clearance for opening.  Work with an
architect and/or builder who has built to ADA specifications in the
past.

Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Charlie


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CHARLES T. MEYER, M.D.
Middleton, WI
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