Home design should work for all ages

“This house was designed to kill me!” I moaned, at age 40 when I first retired and became a full-time homemaker.

I’d never realized how poorly our homes were designed. They were certainly not designed for human beings to live and work safely in them.

The cabinets were too deep – couldn’t find stuff in the back – and when the cabinets were too high or too low, I’d find myself either risking my neck on a stepladder reaching up over my head, or sometimes I’d be down on my knees trying to dig stuff out of a dark hole.

Electrical outlets were always placed in the middle of walls, so they ended up being behind a sofa, breakfront or television. It was a strain, if not impossible to reach them. Outlets that were within easy reach, soon became loaded with adaptors to accommodate myriad electrical things such as lamps, stereos, radios, vacuum cleaners, heating pads, etc. Not a good thing.

Speaking of electricity … one nice, sunny day during my early homemaker years I was standing barefooted on the flagstone porch in a puddle of water, washing down the front of my house. I made a very fast swipe – with a damp rag – over an electrical outlet near the front door – and, wham! I got the jolt of my life. It’s a miracle I wasn’t electrocuted.

And still, another time, a stream of electrical current passed through my arms and hands when I turned on the garbage disposal while holding onto the chrome faucet in the kitchen. It felt like something was whacking me on the arm.

This is when I knew for sure and certain, being a homemaker was hazardous duty.

Home economics classes in high school hadn’t helped much. Instead of being so keen on showing us girls how to make creamed eggs (retch!) they should have been teaching us how to avoid getting electrocuted or falling off a stool, or been tipping us off to where these homemaking “landmines” were buried.

Around 1970, I decided to go back to school to learn how to design houses and products that were compatible to the human body. When I discussed my plan with curriculum advisers at Texas Christian University, they couldn’t figure out what to do with me. Home Ec? Engineering? Science? They hadn’t heard about the field of “Ergonomics” nor had I.

Today, ergonomics is the buzzword in the design world. Some homes are now being designed with actual human beings in mind – and not just for a 5-foot-6, 130-pound, 26-year-old, human who also happens to be an Olympic athlete.

These ergonomically wise homes are designed using the principles of “universal design.” Such a home works for all its inhabitants: short, tall, young, old, healthy or ill, and it’s a home that still works when the needs of its inhabitants change. For example, climbing stairs becomes a big problem when somebody breaks a leg, or has a bum knee, or is recovering from surgery. This, of course would be Mom’s back surgery to repair the damage incurred from years of wrestling the vacuum cleaner and other awkward contortions required in homemaking.

If aging baby boomers and their parents want to stay in their own homes until the bitter end – and, who doesn’t – they’ll need to buy a universally designed home or to modify their current home to accommodate the realities of that plan/dream.

Some common features of universal design are: one-story living – no steps anywhere; wide doorways and hallways; extra floor space; nonslip surfaces; cushiony cork floors. Also, anti-scald devices on all faucets, grab bars in the bathroom and a tub that’s surrounded by a wide, tiled bench so one can sit down and swing their legs into and out of the tub.

And, to accommodate a family member in a wheelchair, universal design calls for adjustable height vanities, closet rods and shelves, plus lever handles instead of doorknobs. Entrance doors that slide open are easier to manage than hinged doors; they’re definitely recommended. And, how would you like a grocery pass-through opening near an entrance door?

“We shouldn’t be penalized by the design (of our homes),” says the brilliant designer James Joseph Pirkl, father of “transgenerational” design and the world’s foremost expert on it. He’s done a lot of battle, demanding things such as bold markings on thermostats and the elimination of those “fiddly” keys in favor of remote openers.

You can learn more about Pirkl and “universal design” in his book, “Transgenerational Design: Products for an Aging Population,” available online.

Universal design for homes – it’s an idea whose time has come. It paves the way for “aging in place,” meaning that we can remain in our homes as we age, and hopefully bypass the nursing home altogether.

Hey … Pirkl got us out of one big pickle.