In the last year, I have written about our family’s need for more space. Well, I have some exciting news to share. We are moving to a new house!
It has been a process. We looked at houses for months. That might sound like we looked at a lot of houses, but we didn’t. In our small community in rural Nebraska, there are a limited number of homes that could be modified to meet our family’s needs, including accessibility. I share seven children with my husband, Jason: Lexi, 25; Max, 20; Chance, 19; Rowen, 17; Charlie, 15; Mary, 11; and Callie, 4. Max, Rowen, and Charlie have Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and use power wheelchairs.
We found a house that will work well once we finish the modifications. We put in an offer late last week, and it was accepted shortly after.
But it’s not ready for a wheelchair user, much less three. We plan to stay in our current home until then, and we are thankful for that. We have outgrown it, but it is still a safe place to care for our sons, and it has an accessible bathroom, a ceiling lift system, and everything else they need.
Modifications we will make
The new place is an open-concept, six-bedroom, three-bathroom house with double the square footage we have now. It also has a bonus room that we will use as a bedroom for our college-age son, Chance. Eventually, it will be a spare bedroom for when our adult children visit.
Our new home will give us the space we need as a large family with multiple sets of mobility needs. It’s newer, it has more bathrooms, and everyone will have their own room, something neither Rowen nor Charlie has ever had.
I am excited to be updating the accessibility features. Our current home was modified before our sons lost ambulation, so we had to guess what we would want or need once they were older. Now we know exactly what we need, and we will do things differently.
First, we will install a residential elevator between the main floor and the basement. We live in a part of the country where tornadoes are common, so a basement is necessary. Right now, we have a chair lift, but the boys don’t walk, so we must carry them once we get them downstairs, and they lose their independence.
Giving my sons their space
In the new house, the basement will be their space. They will all have a bedroom there, and we will modify the bathroom so that it’s accessible for them. Our current bathroom works well, but the shower entrance is not completely zero-entry.
Setting up their rooms in the basement will give them space to be young men without their parents constantly watching over them. Their peers get that experience, and we want our sons to enjoy it as well. They will share a living room, and I want it to feel like a frat house with a mom’s touch. It will also provide more space for caregivers.
Because they’ll be in the basement, we will install a handicap-accessible egress door so the boys can exit in their wheelchairs. There will be a ramp outside that leads away from the house in case of an emergency.
We do plan to take our ceiling lift system with us. Currently, there is one long track that connects the boys’ bedrooms and the bathroom. In the new house, each bedroom will have a short track from their bed to their wheelchair. We won’t run the lift to the bathroom in the new house because when the boys shower, we will bring the shower chair to their room and push them into the bathroom.
Because the house is not zero-entry, we will build a ramp in the garage. This will keep us out of the elements when we load and unload the boys from the vans.
We have a lot to do, and it will take time. But once it is finished, we will all be more comfortable and better equipped to take care of our sons.
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