Reality Challenged

In this installment, I’ll discuss the basic room shell. This will provide a blank canvas in which to choose fixture, tile and cabinets.

The original architect liked angled of walls. Maybe, he thought it was stylish. Here, they serve no purpose but to create wasted space. To maximize the space inside of the room, I removed the angled wall.

The intent was only to have cabinets at one end of the room and not on two walls as in the original design. This allows for more floor space for navigating a wheelchair or storage of a shower wheelchair if needed without restricting the accessible space in the room. In changing this, this puts the placement of the plumbing and electrical off-center of the wall. Cabinet placement and layout is from the existing design and not the final. It is only there for reference. I’ll address how I approached the cabinet design, electrical and plumbing later.

Having a wall-mounted medicine chest was not practical being in a wheelchair since I couldn’t reach it. I removed it and patched the hole. If you have small children, it could be the only reason to locate it on the wall.

The bathroom door was a significant problem that required to be changed. I originally considered a pocket door. This provided the greatest room access from either side of the door. However, this provided the least amount of accessibility.

1. The difficulty in sliding the door open or closed with limited strength or coordination. A conventional door can be pushed or pulled into position.
2. Whichever wall the door slid into, nothing could be located on that wall such as a light switch or grab bar. My desire was to have grab bars on the walls located on both sides of the doorway.

The only solution was to have the door swing away from the bathroom. Having the door swing open left or open right into the bedroom will depend upon how the bedroom is laid out. The remaining issue of the door was width. If you wheeled-feet like I do, a doorway could be 10 feet wide and you’ll still run into the door frame. Ideally the wider the better for door. Doors come in standard sizes, most common for accessible design is 36 inches wide. For me, I chose to retain the existing door width of 32 inches wide. The plan shows the final solution that was best in my case. (Click HERE for the Original plan or more discussion of the original plan with views)

The original shower design was one that you had to step into. I wanted a roll-in shower. A major concern was of water that splashed outside of the immediate shower area and flooding the bathroom. The solution was rather easy. We chipped away at the foundation such that a shower floor extended beyond the shower area by about a foot. This process was extremely messy and noisy as required a small jackhammer to chip through the concrete foundation. Concrete dust got out everywhere. The mistake I made in my final design was the back wall of the shower should have been made flush with the side of the bathroom. The wall is moved into the shower area to be standard shower width. If I had to do it over again I would make the shower wall flush. What exactly will be required for modification for a roll-in shower floor will depend upon if your floor is concrete slab as it was in my case or, if wood framing. The only restriction to having a role-in shower will be selection of floor tile. Floor tile should be limited in size because of the curve of the roll-in area to no greater than two or three inches in size. You’ll have to check with the contractor if you want to have vinyl flooring which I don’t think would work.

Depending upon your needs, you may need to reinforce the ceiling to accommodate a ceiling-mounted track system for transfers. There are luxury items too that you may wish to consider, budget permitting, such as a heated floor. My budget didn’t have room for a heated floor but a search on “heated bathroom floor” will yield sources and more information (opens in a new window).

Stay tuned for my next installment - “The Royal Throne”

When I moved to Jacksonville, I needed to find a new family doctor. A friend of mine who already lived here introduced me to one of his friends. He was a nice guy and we got along well together. It’s important to get along with your doctor. It was nice to learn that he wasn’t in it for the money and that he wanted to minimize my medical expenses by not repeatedly referring me to other doctors. I wondered about his not wanting to refer me to other doctors or specialists when they could more effectively treat a given problem, or successfully treat one. He assured me that in all his years, he never lost a patient due to ignorance. He went on to explain that he never once was in a position that his diagnosis was wrong. He never started a treatment that a patient didn’t like even if it would save the patient. I found it very curious about this guy’s approach to medicine. It sounded good but appeared to be missing something. I needed to find some of his patients for references to instill my confidence in this guy.

I couldn’t find any of his patients. I did find a slew of people who knew and liked him. They beamed when talking about him, many calling him their best friend. Not once did he ever let them down. I also found out he knew some famous people too that liked him. One even mentioned him by name on Leno or was it Letterman?

The only problem was that I couldn’t find out how people thought of him as a doctor. I did some research and found out the guy wasn’t a doctor at all, never was! It turned out that he was a volunteer in a hospital – my friend introduced me to a quack doctor! I called my buddy and explained to him what I found. He told me I was nuts and that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I told him that he didn’t have a medical degree. My buddy chastised me about not being able to understand and that the AMA was campaigning against this guy because he didn’t believe in the use of specialists and that I was just listening to propaganda. I was dumbfounded by my buddy’s logic and tried to explain the value of specialists and I was told that I was just a puppet indoctrinated by the AMA to regurgitate their views.

Well, I didn’t buy it for one second. I found a real doctor that had credentials and was willing to seek other’s help to make sure my health efficiently taken care of.

Today, I’m doing quite well even though I do have various medical problems that would have occurred regardless of my lifestyle or medical intervention. I shudder at the thought of what my health would be like if I chose that quack - how many emergencies would he have screwed-up irreparably?

What amazes me is that people want to vote a person for president that is akin to knowingly choosing quack doctor. Just change of few nouns above and you realize how many foolish people this country allows to vote.