A new bathroom in the basement of a Mount Rainier house allows access for an elderly client moving into our area. Donna Myers, a retired Machinist, has arthritis and diabetes and needed to move in to her sisters house. A basement apartment, complete with kitchen, was already there, but a critical component was missing, the bathroom. Green Home got the call just 2 weeks before Donna had to move in. We quickly assembled a team of designers, consultants and trades to begin work as soon as possible.
Dana Haden, AIA Haden Architects made one visit and drew up a simple, low budget design. Steve Haig of Strategies for Independent Living, who assists elder folks with Aging in Place solutions, gave some critical assistance with accessibility issues, gratis.
Cami's Plumbing assisted in the design and problem solving of several expensive plumbing and code issues existing in the basement. He also performed the trades work for this project.
One unusual challenge of this project, apart from the short time frame to schedule the work, was that we were designing a critical use space for a person whom none of us, save Ms. Myers, Donnas’ sister, had ever met. We were told what her needs and limitations were, and that gave us enough to get underway.
As work began, Green Home was left with out a production crew. So Garza Contractors was called in, and they ably completed the framing, drywall, painting, tile and millwork. Northeast Electric provided the electrical installation.
Many accessible bathrooms use ceramic tile over the entire floor, with no curb to hamper movement, especially with wheelchair or walker, into the shower. We copied that, but owing to a concern about falls, substituted recycled rubber flooring mats from RubberCal. We chose a glueless, interlocking tile for ease of installation. These also provide ease of removal, since they are held down by gravity and the interlock.
The vanity and sink were sourced from the Community Forklift, as were the grab bars. The 8x8 wall tile was also from the Forklift, and at just $0.50 each, were a real bargain.
Several of the wall studs were also sourced from the Forklift. Ms. Myers saved hundreds of dollars by using secondhand, salvaged building materials.
The bathfan/light, from Broan, is ENERGY STAR, as were most of the light fixtures. The 1.6 gallon per flush Kohler toilet is ADA compliant, and the shower and vanity faucet are watersmart.
The shower door is Lexan. Especially helpful for seniors and persons with disabilities, it is lightweight, strong, yet unbreakable and certainly shatterproof. The shower door system provides a trackless easy to use safe way for the customer to access the shower. The door panels’ bottom slopes in towards the shower, directing water toward the drain, and the low profile glue down water dam provides a secondary means to keep the water in the shower. The door panels meet with a magnetic edging, which holds them together, and yet is not too hard to open up.
Ms. Donna was very happy with her new bathroom, and we stayed around to take care of some more projects for the household, which we can share with you later.
Green Home was featured in the Washington Post Express August 26, 2011.
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