Personal Narrative: My Interview With A Home
The person I interviewed for my Home Fit Assignment was Ms. Lizzie Fikes. She is a 64 year old women who lives with her cousin. She is still in good health and works a full time and part time job. They live in a newly built Single Family in Capitol Heights, Maryland. The home was modelled to fit an aging senior citizen with raised toilet seats, both carpet and hardwood floors, etc. This home is located walking distance from the nearest metro station and a two minute walk from the closet bus stop. Retail shopping centers are a five to ten minute drive from the home.
From the Home Livability checklist, I choose the following two questions out those that were asked to discussion in this assignment, because I found them to be very important. Are the doorways and hallways wide enough to let a wheelchair pass through? Are there grab bars in the bathroom or has the wall been reinforced so that you can add them? For the first question Ms. Fikes answered “Yes, the hallways and doors are wide enough for someone with a wheelchair to pass through.” She knew this because one of her friends came to visit who was in a wheelchair and she was able to travel throughout the home without having to make any …show more content…
adjust. In addition, to the second question she answered that “Each bathroom in house has grab and have a slip resistant floor lining.” I choose to ask these question because my grandmother lived in a house that had some of these previous issue and it was very hard for her to stay home without assistance.
Overall, after asking all twelve of the questions the answers to all the questions that was asked were “Yes”. As I previously stated, this is a newly built home and it was made to fit senior citizen living. The owner of the home was very aware of the needs and wants that comes with living with an older adult. She was very knowledgeable about the AARP checklist and used those while she was in the process of building/ buying her home. There were only two questions that I received no answer too, and I will talk about those in the latter part of the assessment review.
The energy within the household was great. I asked Ms. Fikes about how easy is it for her to assistance the washer and dryer, along with loading it. She responded “In this home, the washer and dryer is on the same floor as my bedroom. This makes it much easier to access whenever I need to wash clothes. Another plus is that since it is a front loader it is easier for me to put clothes in and take them out.” Approaching the house, I saw that the owner had a storm door in place which will help with keeping out inclement weather. Ms. Fikes was not sure about whether or not the window were seal and if their basement was out of risk of flooding. I suggested that she look into a specialist to assure that these thing were taken care of, because they are beyond important during the time of hurricane and snow seasons.
After completing the assessment, there was only two things about the resident’s living space that could be improved.
The first one was about general safety, having a telephone in every room of the house. There was only one telephone that was found in the kitchen. Ms. Fikes said that everyone within the household uses their cell phones. Another issue that I found was in the outdoor area section, there was no railing that leads from the outside of the house inside. Although, there’s one from the inside of the garage to the house, the main entrance of the house is an extremely important. The cost to add a landline telephone to every room in the house would cost about $50 for 4 wireless home phones. On the other hand, adding a railing to the front of the house would cost around
$233.
After completing this assessment and interviewing Ms. Fikes, I found that it is much more difficult to have the proper household setting when living with or having a senior citizen relative that live on their own. When I was younger, I helped my mother take care of my sickly grandmother. If we were aware of all the things that were presented on the checklist she might have been able to reside with us for a little longer. One interesting thing that I saw on the home fit assessment was when it asked if the home had any rugs located in the walking area of the home. This was interesting to me because older adults have rugs throughout their homes without knowing the risk of having them. Also, a sad thing about the new generation is that cell phones are used more than landline phones. Since a lot of older adults are more comfortable with using a landline during a case of emergency it will make it a little harder for them to get use to using cellphones if they need help.
From the Home Livability checklist, I choose the following two questions out those that were asked to discussion in this assignment, because I found them to be very important. Are the doorways and hallways wide enough to let a wheelchair pass through? Are there grab bars in the bathroom or has the wall been reinforced so that you can add them? For the first question Ms. Fikes answered “Yes, the hallways and doors are wide enough for someone with a wheelchair to pass through.” She knew this because one of her friends came to visit who was in a wheelchair and she was able to travel throughout the home without having to make any …show more content…
adjust. In addition, to the second question she answered that “Each bathroom in house has grab and have a slip resistant floor lining.” I choose to ask these question because my grandmother lived in a house that had some of these previous issue and it was very hard for her to stay home without assistance.
Overall, after asking all twelve of the questions the answers to all the questions that was asked were “Yes”. As I previously stated, this is a newly built home and it was made to fit senior citizen living. The owner of the home was very aware of the needs and wants that comes with living with an older adult. She was very knowledgeable about the AARP checklist and used those while she was in the process of building/ buying her home. There were only two questions that I received no answer too, and I will talk about those in the latter part of the assessment review.
The energy within the household was great. I asked Ms. Fikes about how easy is it for her to assistance the washer and dryer, along with loading it. She responded “In this home, the washer and dryer is on the same floor as my bedroom. This makes it much easier to access whenever I need to wash clothes. Another plus is that since it is a front loader it is easier for me to put clothes in and take them out.” Approaching the house, I saw that the owner had a storm door in place which will help with keeping out inclement weather. Ms. Fikes was not sure about whether or not the window were seal and if their basement was out of risk of flooding. I suggested that she look into a specialist to assure that these thing were taken care of, because they are beyond important during the time of hurricane and snow seasons.
After completing the assessment, there was only two things about the resident’s living space that could be improved.
The first one was about general safety, having a telephone in every room of the house. There was only one telephone that was found in the kitchen. Ms. Fikes said that everyone within the household uses their cell phones. Another issue that I found was in the outdoor area section, there was no railing that leads from the outside of the house inside. Although, there’s one from the inside of the garage to the house, the main entrance of the house is an extremely important. The cost to add a landline telephone to every room in the house would cost about $50 for 4 wireless home phones. On the other hand, adding a railing to the front of the house would cost around
$233.
After completing this assessment and interviewing Ms. Fikes, I found that it is much more difficult to have the proper household setting when living with or having a senior citizen relative that live on their own. When I was younger, I helped my mother take care of my sickly grandmother. If we were aware of all the things that were presented on the checklist she might have been able to reside with us for a little longer. One interesting thing that I saw on the home fit assessment was when it asked if the home had any rugs located in the walking area of the home. This was interesting to me because older adults have rugs throughout their homes without knowing the risk of having them. Also, a sad thing about the new generation is that cell phones are used more than landline phones. Since a lot of older adults are more comfortable with using a landline during a case of emergency it will make it a little harder for them to get use to using cellphones if they need help.