Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: bathrooms/ rods

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

>If you don't want to build a handicapped accessible bathroom now, you may 
>want to consider designing one or two of the bathroom walls as non-load 
>bearing walls, with minimal utilities running through the walls, so you can 
>enlarge the bathroom in the future to make it accessible. I also recommend 
>pre-installing the blocking for hand rails. 

In building my house, I wanted low-profile assistance, and was also 
struck by how expensive towel rods were, and how flimsy they were, at 
that. My builder's solution saved money, got sturdy towel rods of custom 
length, and provided de facto grab bars in some places. First we included 
blocking in the walls, to support weight, then we put a 5.5" high 
backboard over the drywall on which we mounted a length of wooden 
banister rod, an inch in diameter. It comes with a flattened area on the 
underside, to take a pair of brass support brackets. The wood and brass 
looks nice, will last forever, and can support my full weight when I use 
the one at the foot of my tub to help me get up and out. 



Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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