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Home Improvements Modifications to a home can make all the difference
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n 1971 at the age of 17, Colleen Koch lost control of her truck on a gravel country road, causing her to swerve and suddenly flip. Upside down and unable to move, Koch was with a friend who was able to pull her out through the driver’s window. “Not many people usually go down this road,” Koch said. “So I was there saying to myself ‘Please, let someone come along, and call an ambulance.’” “I stayed awake because I was afraid if I went unconscious I’d die.” Fortunately, a couple soon found her overturned vehicle, and Koch was transported to hospital and then eventually went through months of rehab...learning to live with a spinal cord injury. “I was never depressed about being in a wheelchair,” she said. “I was more concerned, as a quad, about using my hands. I found a doctor in Edmonton who did hand surgery and he transferred some tendons on each hand which was successful in giving me a better grip and pinch.” Koch was soon back to doing the things she loved, such as flower gardening, picking cherries from her tree, and baking and cooking in the kitchen. For Koch, it was important that everything in her home be designed so that she could have maximum independ-
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ence, and like many others before her, she was faced with inaccessible house after inaccessible house. Koch decided there was only one thing to do: custom build. Koch’s first wheelchair accessible home was built on an acreage in Calahoo. After deciding to move to Edmonton, Koch and her husband used their experiences with the Calahoo house to build another wheelchair accessible home about eight years ago. “It’s nice to not have so much yard work to do,” Koch pointed out. “It is a little different in the city, with the space you have.” While her Edmonton home is somewhat smaller than the one she had in Calahoo, one thing it has that she didn’t have previously, is a basement—Koch wasn’t sure what to do with it at first, but eventually she had a stair lift installed. “We never had a basement in Calahoo, so it never really occurred to me that I’d use it,” she said. “But it’s really great, now that I have another living space to use.” Koch loves to bake and cook so she spends much of her time in the kitchen. One major modification was the toe kick, the space between the bottom of the cupboards and the floor, which had been raised to accommodate her feet, letting her get just that inch or two closer to the counter. “They’re set for me at eight inches, but for someone else, it might be different,” she said. It also keeps the cupboards from getting scratched by the footrests on the wheelchair. There is open access underneath the kitchen sink so she can roll right in, and the countertop stove has easy-to-use touch controls. It’s important to note that all the modifications can be claimed as medical expenses for tax purposes. Cutting boards are built into the cabinets, which can slide out when she needs it, and sometimes doubles as a small table for her breakfast. Power outlets are placed conveniently at the edge of the counter, instead of deep inside on the wall. “If I need to put anything on it like my food processor, I can just plug it in there and it’s nice and close. I don’t have to lean across the countertop to plug it in.” Another innovation could be seen in her pantry doors, which swing wide open, as opposed to traditional folding doors. “With bi-fold doors you can never quite reach everything inside,” she said. “All the shelves slide out, too. It’s very handy, I really like it.” With the microwave oven and mixmaster set on shelves in the pantry, Koch is able to pull them out so she does not need to lean forward to reach. It also serves as a safety feature because of balance issues as a quadriplegic. Her oven’s door opens sideways, with a sliding shelf similar to a large cutting board directly underneath, which gives her a quick-and-easy place to place things as she takes them out. Like the sink and pantry shelves, there’s space underneath for Koch to roll in and out. In the bedroom, little changes were made to help with the housework as well. Initially they had carpets in the bedroom, which