STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More At Home

• Art at Home: Lighting with a twist
• Make It Green: Ten rules for your best garden ever
• Get Growing: Sept. 6, 2008

Share and Enjoy [?]

Abbie Sladick’s ah-ha moment came five years ago.

While remodeling a bathroom in a house off of Vanderbilt Beach Road, Sladick recommended that the homeowner install a grab bar instead of a towel bar in the shower. The thought being, Sladick said, that the grab bar would keep the woman from getting seriously hurt if she slipped in the shower.

“She told me she would rather fall than have her friends think she had a grab bar,” said Sladick. “That’s when I came up with The Wave.”

The Wave is one of several products sold by Great Grabz, Sladick’s company of stylish grab bars for the home. The bar looks like an upscale towel bar, not something you need to steady yourself.

“You should have safety and style,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to forgo a good-looking bathroom to be safe.”

It is one way those in the remodeling business are adapting to the idea of “Aging in Place.”

“‘Aging in Place’ is a phrase most people have not heard of yet. It is a national initiative conceived by the (American Association of Retired Persons),” said Stephanie Kirch, a mortgage consultant with Naples Classic Mortgage who has just completed training to become a certified Aging in Place specialist.

As the population ages and Medicare and Social Security funds become more strained, Kirch said, more and more people need to find an affordable place to live.

“It costs an average of $6,600 a month to live in a nursing home,” she said. “And research has shown that 83 percent of elderly people want to live in their own home. There is a way to do that where they are safe and they have supportive services they need.”

Kirch and Sladick will be part of and Aging in Place workshop called “There’s No Place Like Home,” which will be from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at Hodges University, 2655 Northbrooke Drive. The workshop will discuss everything from modifying your home to different ways to pay for home health services.

Sladick said part of selling Aging in Place is knowing your audience.

“A lot of Baby Boomers do not want institutional-looking products. Take toilets. It used to be high toilets were for handicapped people. Then Kohler came out with the comfort-height toilet, which is as tall as the handicapped toilets. Most of the jobs I do now, people want a comfort-height toilet,” Sladick said.

The changes don’t have to be obvious. Sladick speaks of a bathroom she did for an elderly woman with vision problems. The woman wanted a beautiful white bathroom. Sladick added a small black line on all of the surface changes.

But the needs are not just in bathrooms. In the kitchen of the showroom at Remodel Resource, Sladick’s remodeling business at 4535 Domestic Ave., the dishwasher is raised to ensure no one has to bend over too far to load a dish. A small table pulls out from beneath the counter to allow someone to sit while they prepare dinner. The microwave has been moved to an area away from the stove.

“Many older people cannot reach up to lift something out of the microwave,” she said. “And so many stoves now have touch panels that turn them on, which could burn a child that climbs up on them.”

One client has cabinets with drop down shelves that allow her to access her kitchen items easier. Sladick’s showroom also boasts motorized shades, which she can put up or down with a remote control.

“It is such a cost-effective solution that doesn’t require you to raise your arms over your head or climb over a tub to close the shade,” she said.

Sladick said adding universal design touches to a home can add an additional 10 to 20 percent on a complete remodeling project. Some things, she observed, like no thresholds between rooms, can be a no-cost item. They just require a conversation.

Sladick admits sometimes it is a hard sell, but clients don’t have to focus on doing it because they are getting older. Sladick put one of her Great Grabz bars in the shower of a man who thought he would never need it. He began using it regularly after he tore his rotator cuff.

She also touts the tractless door, which slides along the top of the tub. The door allows young parents to wash their kids in the bathtub without leaning on the tract during bath time.

Sladick knows what she is talking about. Her home has hard flooring in every room. She has a raised dishwasher and two wheelchair accessible showers in her home. All of the tubs and showers have Great Grabz bars.

It is not just about adding things to a home, either. When designing a home, add hard flooring because it has fewer allergens than carpet, Sladick said. Light switches that glow in the dark can really help someone who might have to get up in the middle of the night.

“We all have habits. There is a way to adapt safety to the habits we do,” she said. “If you can be more comfortable in your space because you did something differently, you are going to create a situation where you love living there.”

---

For more information

• Great Grabz: www.greatgrabz.com

• Remodel Resource: www.rrnaples.com

IF YOU GO

What: “There’s No Place Like Home” workshop, with vendors and speakers; featuring:

• Abbie Sladick, president and owner, Remodel Resource and Great Grabz, Naples

• Jane Cox, PhD, nurse practitioner, director of NCH Community Home Care, Naples

• Mac Moise, president, Moise Financial Group, Naples and Fort Myers

• Stephanie Kirch, Naples Classic Mortgage/Reverse Mortgage Group

When: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 2

Where: Hodges University lobby, 2655 Northbrooke Drive, Naples; just east from exit 111 off I-75 off Immokalee Road

Admission: Free; preregistration is requested

Registration: Call 333-7740 or e-mail: pinkintelligence@earthlink.net