Project Spotlight

Remodelers

Journal

NARI National Staff Toll-free: (800) 611-NARI Elsie Iturralde, CAE Chief Operations Officer Ext. 8104 eiturralde@nari.org

Patricia Amari Membership Coordinator Ext. 8142 pamari@nari.org

Hayley Belic Education Assistant Ext. 8109 hbelic@nari.org

Members of the NARI of Greater Chicagoland chapter traditionally volunteer their time, services or products three times a year to the NARI to the Rescue program.

“We developed the program nearly eight years ago, through our participation in the Christmas in April charity program,” says Anthony Tripp, CR, CKBR, CLC, president of Tripp Builders Inc. and chairman of NARI to the Rescue.

Recently, NARI to the Rescue took on its largest project yet—a universal design master bathroom remodel for a family with four disabled children. The family has three children with varied levels of cerebral palsy and one autistic child and were living with a bathroom that was no longer in workable condition much less able to accommodate their special needs. One child with a severe case of cerebral palsy was confined to a wheelchair.

Word of the family’s situation gained footing after a neighbor reached out to Lou Manfredini, a producer for WGN home improvement radio show. The producer turned to NARI to see the caller’s request through.

Mike Pudlik, MCR, GCP, president of Legacy Design & Construction Inc., stepped up as project manager immediately after the project was approved by the board. He teamed up with Joel Kristianson, president of Crimson Design & Construction Inc., to start the planning and design portion.

“We were working with a typical 1960s home, with a small bathroom and virtually no remodeling since it was built,” Pudlik says.

The extended design called for knocking through a wall and taking space from the kitchen behind the original wall. This was especially important because the wheelchair did not fit into the bathroom. The child had to be carried in order to use the bathroom previously.

With the help of Pudlik, Tripp, Kristianson, chapter President Ron Cowgill, CR, CKBR, GCP of D/R Services Unlimited Inc., and several other members of the Chicagoland chapter, the end result was an enlarged bathroom that was handicap accessible.

Interesting design features included a pocket door opening, a wall-mounted sink, sensored occupancy lights and faucetry, grab bars, hand-held showerheads and removable shower seat. They even reset the floor to make it completely waterproof and added multiple floor drains to prevent flooding.

The project itself took two months to complete, which Pudlik attributes to his intense scheduling. “We wanted to get in and get out as soon as possible to ease the family’s suffering of living without one of their bathrooms,” Pudlik says.

Despite the close quarters and intense work schedule, the family was overwhelmed with the site of their new bathroom. “It was like the happiest day of their life when they saw their new bathroom,” Tripp says.

Pudlik says that being able to change lives in such a dramatic way makes it all worth it, especially being able to transform a room that most of us take for granted, like the bathroom. –Morgan Zenner