Julie Helen: 'To truly feel like every part of our new home will work for me is a bit mind-blowing'

THIS week, the flooring was completed in our new house in West Cork.

David has been meticulous about making sure the “guts” of the house are of the utmost quality. I trust his judgement and also know that he has a particular aptitude for gathering good people around him, so the process of dealing with tradesmen has been really positive too.

The wheelchair accessibility of our future home rests mostly on my shoulders, which of course makes sense when I am the person sitting in the wheelchair and using it as part of my toolkit for daily living.

All of the building regulations, those often referred to as ‘Part M’, detail the minimum accessibility measures that are required for new builds across the country. They include the requirement for one access and exit door to be wheelchair accessible, and it doesn’t have to be the front door. There must be a downstairs toilet that has space enough for a wheelchair. The doorways on the ground floor must be wide enough and the light switches must be at a reachable level too.

There are other bits and pieces in the regulations too but they essentially make a house accessible enough for somebody in a wheelchair to visit it, rather than live in it.

The measures we are demanding for our home go far beyond all regulations, even the standard measurement for allowing space to turn a wheelchair is 1,200mm. The actual measurement for me in my wheelchair is larger at 1,600mm because I have anti-tip devices at the back of my wheelchair to prevent me from ever falling backwards in my chair.

I need them due to my bad balance and they give me great peace of mind.

I am highly unlikely to tip backwards at home, but it would not be practical to remove the devices every time I leave the house.

My legs also shoot out in front of me when I am pushing myself in the wheelchair, so extra space will be very beneficial.

The result is we have a hallway that looks ridiculously wide and we have three bedrooms, but the space of a four bedroomed house. 

That space will change the way I can navigate at home and will enable me to be wife and mother the way I have always wished to be.

We have set up our kitchen and laundry facilities so that they are totally bespoke to us. More than once, one of the workers has reminded me that our kitchen won’t look like everybody else’s! There is a great excitement in that for me.

To truly feel like every part of our home will work for me is a bit mind-blowing. David and I have always adapted well and ploughed on, even when it is hard to get around. That’s what we have been doing our whole lives.

Access and lack of it has been a constant issue my whole life. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have to consider it. When our house at home was built, I was only years old and I had never used a wheelchair. I have a downstairs bedroom and bathroom which have always enabled me to be very independent.

I can manage well in the kitchen, but having things at wheelchair height will make things even easier and safer for our whole family. Truthfully, making our house in a self build, bespoke way is a little bit scary because the responsibility to finally get it right heading into middle age, rests on our shoulders.

I don’t think we realise just how great access measures made especially for our family of three will be - so it will be worth it!