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SKlocinski

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Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
88
Reason
Lost a loved one
Diagnosis
02/2016
Country
US
State
SC
City
Summerville
Finally the VA signed the POs for the power wheel chair and an assistive speech device. Supposedly the assistive speech device has been sent. I emailed the vendor on the wheel chair to find out how long it is going to take and got no response as of yet. I'm wondering if it was a co-incidence that I lost my patience and emailed Secretary McDonald's office and within two hours I got a phone call from the Charleston VA prosthetic department saying that they issued both POs. I doubt that if someone from Washington had not contacted them, they would have bothered to tell me they issued the POs. Also someone from the VA came to talk to us about the housing grant. They want to put an addition on the back of our house. We have a two story house and even though we are getting a stair glide (eventually...VA did their part, waiting for the vendor on that one) we are not sure how long Tom will be able to use that as his core muscles are getting weaker. Anyone have an addition added on to their house and lived in it while that was going on? We have no close friends or relatives here that we could stay with and I'm not sure that Tom could withstand staying in a hotel (not to mention that would get expensive). The VA guy said it is easier to stay in the house when they are doing an addition than it is when they remodel.
 
It takes 2 1/2 to 3 months for the PWC.

We stayed in our house during the remodel. Lotsa dust.

A large part of my SAH was a lift from main to 2nd floor. The Garaventa Genesis lift can also be installed outdoors

Does your house have an internal or external space the a lift could access?
 
Our house was remodelled. The amount of fine particulates in the air set off the smoke alarms.p i would make sure that the portion you will be in can be tightly closed off.
 
]We stayed in our house during the construction. We had a master suite added to the back of our home. It was a bit of a drag but manageable. We only had one area that was an actual remodel, the rest was an addition.

The pwc took a month for Tom to get. Maybe it depends on the area you live in.

There is a document that I found on this forum actually that I have used to assist us in getting Tom's needs met quickly. It has helped enormously. It might be a good one to send to the director of the Charleston VA. Maybe we should make it a sticky for this folder.
 

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We stayed home during our bathroom remodel. Our contractor installed the external door in the bathroom first so we could close our door to it while they worked. Eventually we ended up with plastic covering the new internal door. We got to be very friendly with the crew, as they were often working on the other side of the plastic while hubby was in bed. We had many conversations through the plastic :).
 
Thanks for the replies. This would be just an addition of a master bedroom and bathroom (and I'm sneaking a laundry room in there too) on the back of the house. The Va said we had a couple of options to include an interior elevator to get to the second floor or a lift on the outside. He said our master bath is "just big enough" to be made ADA compliant. He also said we could take the two small bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and make them into one master bedroom and bath but we would still have the issue of getting upstairs. I don't care for the idea of having it on the outside of the house. Va guy said he was a realtor in his former life and while those options would not increase the value of the house, adding a bedroom and a bathroom on the back would so that sounds like the best option. I just wondered which would be harder on Tom...staying in a hotel or a short-term rental or staying in the house while the addition was being built. The VA guy seemed to think that it was easier to stay in a house that was having an addition rather than during a remodel.
 
I wish I had stayed in a hotel when my condo was being remodeled and that was 4 years before ALS. All the particles, noise, in and out of workers made me nuts.
 
We are in the final days of an addition of an ADA bathroom - we stayed in the guest room and closed off the master bedroom. It was a long and frustrating 4 months but we both love it! He gets a fully handicapped bathroom with all the bells and whistles and I get our former master bath just for me without any of the chairs and benches - I also get to have a bath rug now!!! We live in Summerville too and go to the Charleston VA. Did you have any luck with the PVA in Columbia? Let me know if you need a contractor ours was/is very good!
 
If it isn't too late, you may want to look into a vertical platform lift instead of a stair glide. You would not have to deal with transfering to the seat at top and bottom. VA Prosthetics can provide the lift and the basic installation, but you would have to pay for any site preparation out of pocket or with SAH/HISA. In my case, platform lift is going to be installed on rear deck to provide access between floors. I have to use about $9000 of SAH for concrete pad, safety wall, and electrical to the site.
 
Vertical platform lift might also be cost effective for you, as it could change the calculus on the need for a master suite addition vs remodel of current master suite. Additions are usually much more expensive, and you might be able to get more out of your SAH grant.
 
Sadly Tom ( the PALS of the OP) died I will close the thread but hopefully the advice will help future members
 
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