Text Box: Wheel chair accessible shower
Text Box: Great room fireplace
Text Box: Elevator
Text Box: Interesting looking ceiling fan
Text Box: Master shower - notice toe tester on near floor
Text Box: Glass front corner cabinet with lights inside
Text Box: Dining room
Text Box: Stone accents on kitchen peninsula; cherry floors
Text Box: Kitchen with hickory cabinets and T&G ceiling
Text Box: Composite decking with painted beadboard ceiling
Text Box: Detached garage matches look and feel of main house
Text Box: Glass block windows into the master shower area
Text Box: Front porch detail with horizontal and vertical beadboard
Text Box: Decorative rock accents
Text Box: Rock around front door and painted gable detail
Text Box: Shakes in the gable end and three color scheme
Text Box: Handicap ramp up to the front porch
Text Box: Floor Plan
Text Box: Completed April, 2009 - Our first home with an elevator. This house has 1,500 square feet on two finished floors (main and basement). It is a very simple, but functional plan. The whole home is designed and built with Universal Design standards in mind. Important Universal Design features in this home include: the elevator of course, 36” doors all around. ample turnaround areas in the kitchen and master bath, grab bars in the master toilet area and master shower, a large curbless shower with a toe tester at the entrance and a handspray already installed, and even a ramp out front. 
This couple is many many years away from needing these features, but the whole point of Universal Design is to allow people to ‘age in place’ rather than have to move once a home becomes difficult to move around in.
Other interesting features of this home include a his and hers reading light over the master bedroom (with switches on either side of the bed) and a composite decking material rather than wood. The home is designed for very low maintenance. Even the landscaping is mostly stone. In fact, we brought in about 30 very large boulders and placed these strategically around the property. They look pretty cool.
Notice that the roof on this home is a standing seam metal roof. This roof has hidden fasteners and is a little thicker than the conventional metal roofs used in our area. That’s nice, of course, but unfortunately it’s also twice as expensive and that discourages most people from exploring this option.
Oh, in case you’re curious, the elevator starts at about $20k installed. Most other Universal Design features area relatively inexpensive.
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