Equinox House has no steps, stairs or any barriers throughout. The shower for the master bedroom has no curbing or barrier. Interior floors and exterior grades are level at the entrances. All doors are 36 inches wide and all interior doors to bedrooms and bathrooms are pocket doors. These features do not cost extra but require pre-planning and design effort.
The reason for designing Equinox House as a barrier free home is because its occupants (Deb and Ty) are rapidly moving into their elderly years, and even though they are fortunate to enjoy good health at this time, moving up and down stairs with a load of laundry is not fun.
It is readily apparent that one of the ways in which our large baby boom generation will have a lesser impact on elder care cost is by appropriate design of housing for the elderly. Designs that allow independent living for as long as possible are essential. Multi-story homes, while purportedly having energy efficiency that exceeds that of a single story, barrier free home is minimal if, in fact, there are savings. For super-efficient single story homes such as Equinox, the savings by building a two story home is small (maybe $100 per year of energy cost), and will be outweighed by the healthcare cost for an elderly person who must leave independent living early because they are no longer able to function or have been injured in a multi-story home.
Concrete walkway is flush with interior floor and soon to be poured sidewalk. A 12 inch wide Styrofoam thermal break has been placed between the double door threshold separating interior and exterior doors.
Walk or wheel into the shower area of the masterbath which has no curbing, enclosure walls, or barriers.
