BARRIER-FREE
Accessibility that cooks
May 10, 2008
Tracy Hanes
TORONTO STAR
MILVERTON, Ont.–Since Sandra Thompson moved into her new house in February, there's been a whole lot of entertaining going on.
Thompson has been indulging in her passion for cooking in her custom-designed kitchen. The 39-year-old, who has been in a wheelchair since she contracted spinal meningitis at age 4, finally has a home that allows her complete independence and the opportunity to flaunt her culinary creativity.
Video: Sandra Thompson in her custom-designed kitchen
This past Valentine's Day, when she and partner Jay Schultz moved into the 1,650-square-foot, three-bedroom bungalow on a quiet court, marked the end of Thompson's long quest for her dream home. She had spent three years in a frustrating search for a builder that would construct a barrier-free home to suit her needs until February 2006, when she met Howard Sher.
The executive vice-president of Quality Homes– a company that produces factory-built houses at Kenilworth, north of Guelph– agreed to build Thompson a house. With Thompson as a consultant, Sher constructed a barrier-free model home at the Kenilworth site and launched the Liberty series of accessible features and finishes. As a result, Quality Homes was awarded the 2007 March of Dimes Barrier-Free Design Award of Merit.
"It's shown here in my house and in the model, that style is not jeopardized at all by accessibility," says Thompson, who works for the Commissioner/Medical Officer of Health for Waterloo Region. "We have to look at it as universal design, not custom design. Anyone could come into this house, even with the modifications, and live quite comfortably."
And they do. When Thompson was originally planning her house, she was designing it just for her. But after she and Schultz became a couple, the home also had to accommodate Schultz and his three children, who are not disabled. The home has many of the features you'd find in a typical new home – open-concept layout, stainless steel appliances, fireplace with flat-screen TV above, and a master bedroom with ensuite.
The most apparent modifications are in Thompson's kitchen. Most of the countertops are 76 centimetres high, 10 centimetres lower than usual. The oven and microwave are in the wall within easy reach from her wheelchair. Thompson slides a hand across the smooth black glass surface of her cooktop.
"The stove allows me to wheel under it and the counter's not as deep as a regular one, so I can reach all four burners," she explains. "And the controls are on the side, not at the back, so I don't have to reach over the stove and risk burning myself. With a typical stove, I had to cook sideways and twist and turn, and couldn't reach the back burners. This allows for more cooking, so more entertainment and more enjoyment."
The sink also is wheel-under, but the best feature of all, according to Thompson, is her $6,000 motorized bank of cabinets imported from Sweden, which lower to allow her to reach all three shelves. That was the most costly item; in total, Thompson says the barrier-free products and modifications cost $22,000 beyond the home's base price.
"I don't think that's too much to pay for independence," she says. "It's a whole new way of life, not having to rely on anyone."
In the bathroom, the toilet and tub are raised to wheelchair height; there's no threshold to hinder her chair from rolling into the large shower, which has jets at multiple levels. The home's other features are more subtle: laminate floors, which allow her wheelchair to roll easily; motorized garage and patio doors; front-loading washer and dryer tucked in a hall closet and a ramp in the garage. The stairwell leading to the basement has also been designed to allow for a future chair lift, should Thompson decide to add one.
Currently, more than 15.5 per cent of Ontarians have a disability – according to Statistic Canada's Participation and Activity Limitation Survey – which translates into 1.8 million people, with an additional 1.1 million providing support to family members or friends with a long-term health condition or disability. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. estimates that by 2031, there will be more than 4 million Canadians aged 75-plus; over 1 million will be over 85.
While custom builders often will accommodate disabled clients' wishes, several production builders already offer, or plan to soon offer, barrier-free homes and features (see sidebar). And likely more will follow suit, now that the Ontario Home Builders' Association has just formed an accessible housing council, which will develop guidelines for builders and provide input to the Built Environment committee of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The Act came into effect in 2005 with the goal of providing people suffering from disabilities the same opportunities as everyone else in five areas: customer service, transportation, information and communications, built environment and employment. The target for achieving accessibility is 2025.
"We've just had one meeting in a round-table format. Our goals are to come up with ideas to help Albert (Schepers, chair of the Built Environment committee) and to produce a handbook for builders," says David Henderson, director, Industry Relations for the OHBA. "A lot of builders wouldn't know where to start. We've quickly learned, with the whole accessibility thing, there is a huge universe of stuff and so many different types of needs."
One of the biggest needs, says Henderson, will likely be for features that will allow people to age-in-place in their homes.
Some barrier-free features add little or no cost if planned at the pre-construction stage, such as wide halls and doorways, bathrooms that can accommodate wheelchairs and more. Closets can also be constructed to align on different floors to allow future installation of an elevator; stairwells can be reinforced for future lifts.
Victor Fiume is past president of the OHBA, a former Tarion board member and general manager of Durham Homes, which has built several barrier-free homes for customers and is planning to construct a barrier-free model home later this year. He says a speech given by David Onley, Ontario's first Lieutenant Governor with a disability, at the OHBA conference last year was motivating.
"A lot of us who saw him speak have seen the light. He is an inspiration," says Fiume. "I'm a true believer in our need to do this. My communities should include everyone."
Fiume says although the majority of new houses being built are two storey, "they can be every bit as accessible as bungalows."
Fiume says for example, chairlifts can be installed for about $6,000 (though stairways need to be extra wide to accommodate them). While a full-service elevator can cost as much as $26,000 to stop at three floors, a two-stop model – which requires no shaft and serves two floors – is less costly, at $8,000 to $9,000 and can fit unobtrusively into a corner, he says.
"People with disabilities want to be seen as normally functioning and don't want their homes to look institutional," says Fiume. He says from the outside, the accessible houses built by his company don't appear any different than any others on the street – landscaping and interlock brick conceal the fact that the front walk is designed to allow a wheelchair to roll up to the front porch and into the house through a low-threshold front door.
While more builders are acknowledging the need for accessible housing, one issue is the matter of appraised value and the price such homes will bring upon resale.
"Quite frankly, you have to look at it as if you're doing this for yourself," says Joanne Charlebois, director of marketing and communications for the Appraisal Institute of Canada. "It's still a niche and very limited market. You may have spent $20,000 for an elevator, but people aren't willing to pay extra for it."
They aren't willing to pay more for other accessibility features, either. Charlebois says it's also important to consider location.
"If you build a house like this in an area where it's mainly families with young kids, it may be more difficult to find someone to buy there," she says. "In a more mature area with older neighbours, you will have greater appreciation."
Charlebois knows of what she speaks: She and her husband built a new bungalow in west Ottawa so her mother-in-law, who was in a wheelchair, could live with them. The wider hallways and foyer large enough to accommodate a wheelchair ate up some of the home's floor space; the bathroom is oversized and the kitchen has a wheel-under island. Unfortunately, Charlebois's mother-in-law died before the home was completed.
"In my heart, I feel good that we did the right thing," says Charlebois. "With the wide doorways and halls, it feels open and spacious and I don't feel claustrophobic in the large shower. There are some benefits, and my husband and I know we will be able to stay in our own house as we get older."
She suggests anyone contemplating adding barrier-free features to have a pre-construction appraisal. "An appraiser can give you an appraisal from plans, which is a way to avoid disappointment in future." (Certified appraisers can be found by going to aicanada.ca).
Toronto real estate appraiser Ed Saxe agrees: "You're doing it for your own use and you are rarely going to get a dollar for dollar return on those features. At this point, not enough of us require these types of houses yet. It is unfortunate that more people aren't looking down the road."
Another issue is that while there is funding available to help cover the cost of retrofitting existing homes with accessible features, there is nothing to help with such costs in a new home, points out Sandra Thompson.
CMHC's Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP) provides forgivable loans of up to $16,000 in southern Ontario to modify dwellings occupied or intended for occupancy by persons with disabilities. For the loan to be forgiven, homeowners must continue to occupy the home for five years. Maximum annual household income allowed ranges from $32,000 for a one-bedroom dwelling to $61,000 for a four-bedroom home. The program is under review, as the current version ends in March 2009.
Toronto Star