After months of planning, I finally made my out of state trip to Arkansas to find the right
house that meets our accessibility needs.
And oh, what a trip! From arrangements
for my son’s care during my absence falling through one day before my scheduled
flight, to getting locked out of the house where I was staying during my trip
and having to drive to the other side of town with a strange man in my pajamas,
to a five hour delay at O’Hare airport due to dangerous high winds….let’s just
say the trip was eventful.
Looking for the right house in two days was an event all by
itself—quite a marathon. After looking at somewhere around thirty houses, I
decided on one that is not new, not exactly old, but sort of in between. (See
previous post for more discussion on new versus old construction) The house was
built in 1980, but has been updated recently so it is move-in ready, minus a
few minor modifications. We will have to have some doors made wider and possibly reconfigure the bathroom a bit, but the house is otherwise wheelchair friendly.
There really weren’t a lot of options to choose from in the area, but I could see that of the newer houses that were being built, some were going with a more universal design , also mentioned a previous post. Since my move is planned for December, I chose not to wait for something to be built.
I did meet with a contractor to consider the possibilities of building, but given the cost per square foot to build, I would have to compromise on the size of the home. It was easier and less expensive to find the square footage I wanted at the price I wanted in an existing home.
Now that I have found the house, I am now waiting on all the
closing process. Some delay is built in to factor in the Thanksgiving holiday,
but I am hoping to be done with closing by Dec 7th. At that point the
contractor will come in and do his magic and we will begin our long awaited
exodus from New York to our new home in Arkansas.
Bathroom link; http://homerenovations.about.com/od/bathrooms/a/artbathlayout.htm
Widen door link; http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/asktoh/question/0,,1192147,00.html
