We did it!

Having a child with disabilities of any kind is frightening and hard - whether we'd like to admit it or not. Just as we thought we were getting the hang of things, puberty hit. We were faced with a whole new set of attitudes and emotions and a much larger child. The fact that Katherine had always been smaller than her peers had been an overlooked advantage when she was younger. When she was five and I could still cart her around in an umbrella stroller when I was in a hurry. When she was 10, I could still lift her in and out of the bathtub with no problem at all. I'm not very good at looking out for trouble coming around the bend, and Barry was busy, and before we knew it... We knew we were in trouble. 

Thus began discussions and drawings to try to figure out a way to remodel our house and Katherine's bathroom. There were lots of issues that we'll talk about later. I called our realtor and spent my days while the kids were in school searching for another alternative. We scoured the internet looking for "remodel for accessibility" and "build an accessible home" we found a few articles and a few companies, but nothing local - nothing that was going to solve our problem. 

We had the opportunity to look at a house that wasn't on the market yet that an adult female with severe CP and her family were about to sell. They had put in lifts and remodeled a bathroom. They had a ramp in from the garage with an automatic door, but when we saw it, we knew that it wasn't the right house for our family and especially for Katherine. 

Finally, after a couple of years looking, we found our home and began to remodel a suite for Katherine. We'll talk later about all the steps along the way, but here it is. 

Our primary goals were functionality and beauty, but we also wanted to create something that would continue to be functional and beautiful for Katherine's lifetime. As of right now, we've only been here two years, but so far we've been very happy. 

The main goal of this blog is to share how and why we made the decisions that we did in Katherine's suite. We hope this will help clear a path for other families who are in a similar situation. So, we will get into all the pieces and parts and why's and how's later, just wanted to show you the finished product first!