New home adds features to accommodate handicapped
Thirty years ago, Phillip Auxt was a passenger in a car accident that left him in a coma for nine months and damaged 75 percent of his brain. He was 19 years old. When he came out of the coma, he was mentally handicapped and needed home health care.
His parents quit their jobs and helped him for 28 years, until two years ago when they realized that they were too old to continue to care for a 47-year-old man.
That's when William and Janice Auxt, Phillip's brother and sister-in-law, stepped in. Both were retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and willing to take on the responsibility, but their living situation posed problems.
They originally purchased a house near their own for Phillip to live in alone, but that required William and Janice to go back and forth between homes to check up on him. To make things easier, they moved Phillip into their own home, which wasn't handicap accessible. The house was two stories, so they constantly had to watch Phillip climb up and down the stairs.
One day, William Auxt received a phone call from his neighbor alerting him that Phillip was wandering around the neighborhood with a bleeding head wound. He had fallen and hit his head in the bathroom and left the house after becoming disoriented.
The Auxts realized that they needed a handicap-accessible home. These homes are rarely on the market, and the Auxts couldn't find one. They settled for an open piece of land and decided to build one instead.
"We went through three different builders, and we couldn't afford them. One made us feel really uncomfortable. They made us feel like this was something we shouldn't be doing. We would dread meetings," said Janice Auxt.
Their search ended when they found America's Home Place. Run by General Manager Shannon Dwinnell, the company went out of their way to help accommodate the Auxt's needs, says William Auxt.
"Me and my wife were in shock. We thought it was too good to be true, but it was what it was," said Auxt.
America's Home Place is building a one-story house in Ridgeville and have designated one side of the house for Phillip Auxt and the other side for William and Janice Auxt. The house is significantly safer for Phillip than the old one and will be finished and ready to move in by late August.
Phillip frequently falls down, so the windows were equipped with tempered safety glass that won't shatter if he falls against them. The floors are covered with nonslip abrasive tiles. Typical doorways are 30 inches wide, but the ones in this house are 36 inches to fit a wheelchair. Phillip currently uses a walker, but when he gets older he might need a wheelchair.
His bathroom has a walk-in shower, nonslip DuraCeramic tiles, and extra bars and reinforcements for the toilet and shower. The cabinets are waist-high so he doesn't have to reach.
Both sides of the house are handicap-accessible, so Phillip can come over to visit William and Janic. The doors between each side of the house lock, so he can't come over and accidently hurt himself when they aren't watching. He doesn't need to be constantly monitored, but an intercom system was installed in case of an emergency.
"I never had a builder this dedicated or interested in my brother's needs. They tried to get best price or if they couldn't find it, sometimes they would just throw it in for free," said William Auxt.
Dwinnell has worked in the custom house industry for 20 years and says it's not about how much profit they can squeeze out of customers. He says he tries to treat the customers as he would like to be treated.
The house cost $410,000 but Auxt estimates that Dwinnell saved them between $30,000 and $40,000.
"We wondered, 'What was their agenda?' But there wasn't an agenda. That's what they do. Taking care of my brother is a lot of work. My life, my wife's life and my brother's life are so much better thanks to them," said Auxt.
