To create plenty of sources of natural light to help his mother cope with her failing eyesight, he installed large windows and selfflashing skylights from Home Depot. Color is almost as important as light in accessible-housing design. For example, to help his mother find doors to rooms and the apartment itself, he painted them yellow to make them easily distinguishable from the walls.
The kitchen was a design challenge, and an expensive one at that, because all the appliances needed to be accessible from a seated position. A wall oven and separate range added up to $1,000, about three times the cost of a comparable combined version.
The single sink became a double one, with the garbage disposal in the smaller side, which opened up the space under the larger sink for accessibility and storage. Because the kitchen was white, different colors of masking tape were used to distinguish cabinets, the stove and oven, and the like.
A large storage closet between the kitchen and the space holding the apartment’s mechanicals simulated a basement. In the final analysis, it is all about ingenuity. If you plan carefully and do enough research, ingenuity doesn’t have to cost a lot.
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