My house and I have a few things in common: Neither of us are in good physical shape - the wiring is bad, the pipes need repair, it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. And the house is in even worse shape than me :D
Over the summer, the wife and I had decided to look into someplace newer and more handicapped accessible. We had just refinanced the house and were pretty sure we could rent it out for (most of) the mortgage payments.
Armed with naive optimism and the results of several Internet searches, we went apartment hunting.
The first thing we found out? Just because a place advertises "handicapped accessible", "barrier free", or "wheelchair friendly" doesn't mean they have any apartments that remotely match those descriptions.
None of the apartments we looked at had a roll-in shower. They all had bath tubs. That's pretty much a deal-breaker for me. I'm not nearly steady enough on my feet to get in and out of a tub. Last time I tried I fell and would have had to call an ambulance if my weight-lifter son hadn't been there.
The closest we saw was one apartment with several grab-bars, wide doorways and...very plush thick carpet! I really wanted to rap on someones forehead and say "Thick carpet, really? Think, McFly, think! How is a wheelchair supposed to navigate that?" ADA Apartment guidelines state: Carpet or carpet tile shall be securely attached and shall have a firm cushion, pad, or backing or no cushion or pad. Carpet or carpet tile shall have a level loop, textured loop, level cut pile, or level cut/uncut pile texture. Pile height shall be 1/2 inch (13 mm) maximum. This stuff looked twice that length.
None of the rest of the buildings we looked at had anything resembling an accessible apartment. One complex "offered" to allow us to make the necessary modifications - at our own expense, using their contractors and setting aside a deposit to cover reversing the changes.
Eventually we decided to stay in the old money pit and make repairs and modifications.
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