Sit-down shower?

[linda/IL]

This has sure hit the nail on the head.  Have been arguing well, fighting with mom about going to the basement for a shower and laundry.  Want to redo tub into a walk in shower upstairs.  My cousin, the realtor told her young parents like a tub so she won't redo.

She wants out of rehab NOW & I have a back & knee laying me low.  Chiropractor 2 days in a row.  Too much walking I suppose, but it felt great.  Need to find in home care for showering at least.  This post is food for thought for us here too.

[Kay/NC]

Linda, is her tub the kind with no shower? If so, the realtor cousin woukd probably agree that even young parents who want a tub for children also like it to serve as a shower for themselves. That might be the right upgrade, with grab bars and a full surround.

Mike's mother gets an attended shower or bath every other day in her retirement home. Their in-room facilities are powder room level. That is probably enough, considering that they never do anything to get dirty.

I think this will be the hardest thing for me to accept, if/ when I ever get to that point...I bathe in the mornings, shower and shampoo every night. One of life's small pleasures.

Isn't it ironic that she is thinking about what sells, at the same time she is fighting tooth and nail to get back to the same house?

[turkey feather]

Agreeing with Kay. Have you considered adding a shower to the tub? If she can handle stairs she should be able to step into the tub with vertical and horizontal grab bars.

[WCMO]

Didn't need nor request it, yet I stayed in a "handicap" motel room at Embassy Suites in Des Moines once that had the set-up I'd like for my folks, upper '80s and still at home.  The motel room's bathroom floor was entirely tiled and sloped just enough for water anywhere in the bathroom to drain into the shower drain.  There were no obstacles in the floor for wheelchairs.  There was no shower door, but it had a curtain.  The shower had a low-mount for the shower-nozzle wand so it was easily reachable, and a higher mount to place it in for a stand-up shower.  It had grab-bars in the shower wall and on the wall beside the toilet.  The sink was shallow, and the counter had nothing underneath so someone in a wheelchair could roll right up to the sink.  Only things I'd add would be a permanently installed seat in the shower, still leaving enough room between the seat and shower head for a wheelchair or a stand-up shower without the seat being in the way, and grab bars on each side of the toilet (not on the wall), strong enough to allow for someone to lower or raise themselves on or off the toilet.  Dad breaks the toilet seats regularly, but I'm not sure how he is doing it -- he does have trouble getting up.  Their house has 2 full baths on the main level, and both currently have tub/shower combinations.  Am thinking of re-doing the master bathroom to be more accomodating for them, while leaving the 2nd bathroom as is, or possibly just adding a couple of grab bars.

[turkey feather]

You are correct these newly built motels and hotels are great for those who need assessable bathrooms.  They are very nice and for the same price. Sometimes it is not the older people who fall either as I was with a group once and one of our young woman fell in the tub but was able to get out.

[linda/IL]

Yes we could add a shower to the tub-the window above would present a small problem but could probably work it.  BUT she can't bend one leg which makes it difficult, even hazardous to step into a tub. 

The open shower or a modular one would be the best fix but to talk her into it-!!!   I have a home health inspection next week with her there to talk about upgrades for safety.  That should be interesting.  She doesn't even WANT them in her house!  Lots of more "issues" to come I'm sure.  Her idea of leaving the rehab is to walk out & go home alone as before.

With me worrying & getting gray hair!

I think she should just do a reasonable remodel and to heck with making selling a goal.  Or else just get out now!  I have talked to a home remodel man about looking at it.  For now I think we'll see if she is going to be staying here.

My cousin bought a farm house from an elderly woman with an upstairs bathroom which she couldn't do so she took sponge baths downstairs & installed a toilet stool right in her bathroom!  They took it out of course but the point is that she did what she had to.

[Kay/NC]

Some remodels are are lot easier to do than they are to un-do. Putting a shower in over a tub is okay, but getting a tub back in is sometimes a bear, is one good example. The window can be replaced with glass block, water sealed. Some showers have entire walls of it, for light. There is always another way to skin a cat...some just cost way more than others.

Get the figures on the accessibility upgrades. Grab bars are cheap, compared to plumbing replacements. What about those walk-in tubs? They allow a bath without throwing a leg over the side of a tub.

She will need to decide which way to turn, and may very well buy herself time in her own home.

[Kay/NC]

There are varying levels of adaptability. I think many of us make minor changes in our surroundings...when we " childproof" for our children and then our grandchildren, when someone has an sccident and hobbles on crutches for a month or two, etc.

We start doing bits and pieces of giving our habitat a makeover as we age, too. I mentioned a few years back that our house here in Carolina was getting more friendly flooring where we went along. That was before we began working on Jenna's house.

Both have some bathroom grab bars, I raised the laundry here up onto pedestals, which were originally an adaptation that got wider use because the pedestals offered more storage. I am short enough that reaching the bottom of a toploading washer to get the clean clothes out is not easy. We have all frontloaders now, as of last week.

A lot of the remodel work here has involved making issues like food storage less of a pain. Some changes just make the way we live less demanding or difficult...when we finished a shed roof a few years back, i got the guys to frame over the sudewalk where Mike stands to fill the boiler here. He said it wasn't worth the trouble at the time, but loves being out of the rain now.

I think a lot of us live with inconveniences, that able bodies just manage around. We give up wearing heels, switching to " sensibke" shoes...and make subtle switches like upping the wattage of lightbulbs in the reading lamp. One day, we wake up and realize we live the same way in the same place, but nothing's the same anymore.

[turkey feather]

A very good description of how time changes our lives and bodies and so true. I have always had a large pot in the cabinet above my washer but have recently had to move it because I can no long reach high enough to get it out.