Congratulations Ryan for an incredible gift of time and love to those students with extra needs. I suggest building individual floating raft systems using 20 gallon Rubbermade totes. Lettuce plamts grow in net pots 6" apart in these rafts. Have the kids start lettuce seeds in Oasis or rockwool squares, grow them until they are ready to transplant and them put them into the raft for 30-35 days. If you only plant 1/4 of the raft a week you can get weekly ongoing production. a salad machine! Have each student, or a team of students, take responsibility for one raft. THe wheelchair bound students can participate 100% from the intial seeding, to transplanting in to the raft to harvesting. If different teams grow ddifferent components such as green lettuce, red lettuce, tatsoi, mizuna, endive you could harvest enough every week to send home a good-sized bag of mesclun salad mix. The kids will learn to garden and will learn to love salad! Please contact me if you need any help with this, I grow herbs hydroponically as a business. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Floating lettuce Production

Use undercounter carts instead of cabinets, especially in the kitchen [when in a wheelchair, one can usually only reach the first 8" to 12" of a low shelf]. If the carts are finished on one end with a cabinet-type door to face outwards, no one will even be able to tell that you've made such a convenient decision. Sliding shelves are a good alternate, but very expensive in comparison. A refrigerator that has a bottom freezer is far more convenient than the usual top-freezer. Keep in mind that sinks are a PIA for the wheelchair bound. (To see what I mean, sit in a dining room chair with a thick pillow on your lap and then try to wash dishes!) You don't have to start with a convenient w/c height sink-counter, but have the plumbing installed to the rear and the sink in a separate cabinet should it need to be lowered at a later date. Consider that a toilet will need handbars on both sides -- don't skimp on the space now. It also should be accessible from the front, that means there should be enough floor space to turn the wheelchair to face the commode. Grab bars for the shower/tub should be part of the building process now, because they need to be installed into the studs behind the tile or wallboard. Yes you can do them later but the cost will be considerably more. Mirrors, and the lighting for them, are different when you are sitting down. Try make installed mirrors go from counterheight up, and make the lighting adjustable heightwise as well as in luminosity. A chair lift which uses the rail area is available (and not outrageously expensive) for stairways. A flat landing [spacious enough for the wheelchair] is required at the top and the bottom of the steps. I recommend making any steps wider than average, but check with the manufacturer's requirements. Remember that the lift needs electricity and will be useless if the power goes off during a storm unless you have a generator backup. It cannot be emphasized enough to have at least two exits usable (two choices are safer than one in event of fire); one of those should be from the bedroom. Carolyn53562 gives the average ratios for ramps, but let me tell you that when pushing a wheelchair, even a 1:16 ramp is STEEP. If one expects to use an electric-powered chair, all access-ways usually need extra width. As said before, all shelves need to be reachable while sitting down. This means about double the usual storage space is required for everything from linen closets to the pantry.

I'm never fond of G shaped kitchens with no secondary exit. I like a G-shaped kitchen just fine -- but I like everyone else to GET OUT and let me work, and a G-shape keeps onlookers on the outside. They can sit at the peninsula and chat, even chop vegetables from that side, but I want a one-butt kitchen. That's the strong point of a U or G shaped kitchen: It works well for a single cook. The real question is, how does the OP want the kitchen to function? However, I do agree that the entrance to this particular kitchen is too small. In the image at the end of this post I "cut out" the refrigerator -- obviously you'd move it down to the middle of this cabinet run -- but look at how much it opened up the kitchen entrance. It's still one entrance, but you wouldn't feel the need to pull in your elbows as you enter, nor would opening the refrigerator "block" the entrance. The problems you'll find with a G are tricky: Corners are difficult and expensive, and in this kitchen you're signing up for THREE of them. A lazy susan is great, but you don't need two of them -- and once you add in your appliances, you're minimizing your space for regular drawer storage. Also, you may find that it's hard to lay out your appliances while avoiding corners (you don't want to be unable to open kitchen cabinets while the dishwasher is open) and avoiding doors hitting each other (for example, you don't want to create a kitchen in which you can't open the oven door while someone's in the refrigerator). A U or G kitchen can easily end up being more expensive than other designs. Why? Those corner cabinets are one reason, but another issue is that you may end up needing more expensive custom or non-standard sized cabinets to fit the space (as opposed to a simple L-kitchen, which you can "end" at any point you wish). Also, you'll want to splurge on the countertop in a U or a G -- it's the most dominant item in these kitchen shapes (which the cabinets are more "covered up" than in other, more open designs). This also means your countertop will require seams, and you don't want a newbie installer doing that for you. You also need to be thinking about Universal Design and aging in place. Everyone's jumping on this band wagon -- and for good reason. Universal design is MOSTLY just laying things out in such a way that they'll be optimally convenient when you reach the age that things become difficult for you. It'll cost more, but it'll cost MUCH LESS than it would in the future, and none of us know when we'll need such things ... but if God allows us to grow old, we'll all need them. Definitely do some reading on these things. I'm not at the point I need them yet -- long time away, I believe -- but I recently lost my grandmother, who lived to be 100, and as one of her caretakers I had a front-row seat to problems with aging. In my opinion, these are the things you really should make priorities: - The bathroom. Everything about the bathroom. My grandmother could use her own toilet with ease: It was in a corner of the bathroom (so she could bring her walker right up to it) and a sturdy handrail was placed next to it. She had significant trouble using public toilet stalls (even the larger handicapped stalls), so she wore Depends out of the house, and she wouldn't drink outside the house -- yes, dehydration was a problem for her -- none of us want any of that. - The shower deserves a separate discussion. In her later years raising her foot (even a few inches) became difficult; with her walker, she could walk a straight line all day long, but stepping onto a curb was very difficult. A shower large enough to hold a hospital shower chair ... and with a handheld shower wand ... isn't a luxury. - The laundry. She could do the laundry without any problems, but carrying the basket while pushing her walker was difficult. If her laundry had been more wisely positioned next to her closet, her life would've been easier. - Getting in and out of the house. She was in good shape here. She had an attached garage, and my uncle set her up with sturdy handrails inside and outside the door. She had an indoor walker and an outdoor walker ... so she just had to manage the ONE step down to the garage, and she'd have her second walker waiting. She was also very fortunate to have a breezeway in which she could leave her indoor walker ... without it being in the way of someone else entering the house. She also had motion-sensored lights at the garage entrance, which made her feel secure going in and out. Do you need to plan for a wheelchair? Probably not -- your chances of being in a wheelchair all the time in the house are pretty slim. But your chances of using a cane or a walker are pretty good, as are your chances of needing a wheelchair when you leave the house. Regardless, a few extra inches in the hallway, lever doorknobs, etc. are cheap up front ... expensive, if possible at all, later. One last comment on this subject: My daughter's an RN now, but when she was in college she worked in home health. She had more than one client who could no longer enter the house's only bathroom; these people were forced to "do their business" in a commode chair kept by the bed, and she had to give them "bed baths". Again, none of us want that. With a better plan, these people wouldn't have been in those situations. Also, she says that ALL senior citizens should have two things that aren't obvious: A place to sit comfortably and look outside and easy access to an outside door from the bedroom (fire safety -- lack of a door the patient can reach easily is one of the things that'll make home health say, "Sorry, can't help you."). Not understand the bank's logic about financing a house with one bedroom, but hope we'll not need their money This is fact. The bank has to operate under the assumption that you'll renege on the payments, and they'll have to repossess it. A one-bedroom house is essentially unsellable in most areas, so they won't set themselves up to be in that position. Yea, Universal Design costs more. It still costs less than a nursing home. If you break a hip in this house, you'll have to go into assisted living rather than being cared for there. Plan for the future if you want to stay there long term. No retirement home should be constructed any other way. It's a waste of money and effort to do otherwise. And those costs aren't all financial -- some of them are emotional. I think most of us would MUCH rather be in our own homes, surrounded by our own things -- perhaps with someone coming in occasionally to help with cooking and cleaning -- than to be forced into Assisted Living. Some suggestions: - I moved the office to the lower right corner, which gives it nice windows on two sides. (Windows are a strength in this house, but they should be secondary to good circulation.) - You want to stay small and keep the budget in line. I eliminated the second downstairs bathroom ... and made a half-bath that connects to your master bath. With doors on both sides, this could function as a half-bath for guests ... but it's still easily accessible to you from the master. I don't love the nose-to-toes toilet and sink layout in the half-bath, but maybe someone else could keep messing with it. - This bathroom is about 12' long, giving you ample space for a comfortable tub AND a good-sized walk-in shower. They can look great like this -- note that the tub deck extends to form a bench in the shower: - You had a second full bath downstairs. With no other bedrooms on the main level, why? - Other people are right when they say that the closet is too narrow, but IF you enter it from the middle (through the bathroom), you can have a long 12' hanging rod ... PLUS a 3-4' tower of shelves on each side, making it do-able. Most of us think of a walk-in closet looking like this: But you can also enter from the middle -- this isn't a great picture, but you get the idea -- long hanging space across the back -- drawers, shelves, or even shoes on the short end: And you might consider a reach-in closet; they are a better use of space. - Perhaps the biggest change is the kitchen. With the extra downstairs bathroom gone, you can have a bigger kitchen. It's a U now instead of a G, but you have better circulation through it ... and a larger peninsula, which can actually accommodate four stools (you need 2' per butt). The refrigerator moved to the wall shared with the garage. - I didn't draw this, but the appliances need some adjustment too. I'd move the sink to the middle of the U under the sink ... and place the range in the middle of the cabinet run against the garage wall. You don't want them smashed together, nor do you want them in a corner. Finally, you'll note that I "lost" two items -- and they were important: - I didn't get the washer/dryer back in anywhere, and -- yeah, they're important. - I also lost the basement stairs. You should note that the basement stairs weren't working in the spot where you had them. Note where you'd end up if you walked down those stairs: You'd have walked yourself into the corner. You want the stairs in the middle of the house.

So here we have full basements, almost always. The way many builders here deal with someone wanting “height” is making the basement level have higher ceilings, and instead of digging deeper, they frame higher. But 6’ off ground is considerable and I don’t see that working in this case! Best thing to do is to talk to contractors in your area to find out what is doable or not, and how it is done. As has been posted, in some areas such houses are built normally much higher off ground due to flood concerns, slopes, or just the style of the home (ie those old brownstones/townhomes). And it is okay to not build your house to be wheelchair accessible. As you can see, it raises many hackles here, because it seems there is an idea that everyone who ages ends up wheelchair bound or walker using 24/7 (not the experience in my own family) and if you don’t accomodate them or plan for yourself you are destined for failure, or is trapped if they break a leg (a young friend of mine living in a split level entry is dealing with a broken leg now in the same - her issue has not been moving about house and navigating stairs, but not being able to drive since she broke her “gas/braking leg”). My mum was able to take the stairs through chemo, surgery recovery, etc and later during palliative care right until a month or two before she died at 59 (she did need some assistance for a month or so before that after a pelvic fracture caused by the chemo) but then she was completely bedridden so stairs were a non issue anyway. My neighbor’s three houses down live in a four level back split.. They must have around 15 concrete stairs from street - I will count them tonight when I go home - to their “first level”. Not counting all the stairs inside between levels! They are in their 80s and still take those stairs and still live in that split. They still shovel the snow off those stairs. This to me very normal; around here even the “elderly” navigate stairs as stairs are in every home somewhere, even if just to the basement! I have a colleague who is building. a home for his disabled daughter and even their house will have *some* stairs. Aging in place takes many different forms. And aging in place can often quickly become impossible no matter how universally designed your home is. Multi floor homes are very popular here but elevators rare. I see elevators show up sometimes in the skinny multi level infills from the lower level garage up, but as said they are rare, even for very expensive homes. I have scoped out a place in my new home where a retrofit pneumatic vacuum elevator or through floor lift can fit if ever needed down road, but I am not getting an elevator now that needs annual servicing etc and would be rarely used on chance I need it in 5, 10, 20, 30+ years, and that I am still in this house when I do.