This Woodstone Home was shOwcased during last month's Home Show in Kansas City. The home is built with universal design elements which is
gaining attention around the country.
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Home mishaps, like bumping your elbow on
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irigconcepts not commonly seen iri Greater
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Kansas Oty .architects, the door frame or twisting your back unload.
ingthe dryer, are "not the inhabitant's fault,
Kansas, City, including universal design, which
IIlakes a house usable to the 'greatest extent
'0; they!re the fault of house design," Tapper possible by people of all ages, sizes and abili-
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said. Wider doors, rais.ed appliances and slid- ties. Universal design is different from the
ing .shelves are small things that can make "accessible design," the kirid outlined in fed-
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house work a lot better your house work a lo.t better. eral codes'such as the Unifo"" Accessibility
E They are among the jIniversaldesignele- Standards, 'he said, in that it is not ailIled
0 specifically at people using wheelchairs and
ou're a weekimdwarrior with a ments S/lowcased during this years H()me
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strained back. You're in the last Show in Kansas City..Tapper,. a local propo- walkers.
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0 , . weeks'ofpregnaIlcyand yearningfor nent of univerSal design (which he said is "It's for eyeryone," Lacio said. "Univer&al
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<= .' a bubblebath.You're a'youngparent' gaining growirig attention around the coun, design is an'approach that encolIlpasses aU
~ wrestling ;with a stroller or full laUndry I.>as-' try), worked on the design of a 960-square-
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ages and lifestyles, from young children to
'" foot house built inside Bartle Hall for the young IIlothers to older people. '" It's a friend-
..., keto You're an aging baby boomer feeling the
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lier house, it's a house for a'lifetilIle."
firSt pangs of arthritis, Home Show. Woodstone HomesInc.; based in
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Whoever you are and at whatever stage of Overland Park, built that Craftsman-style SOlIl"of its elements, he said, "we've been
Q. life, some days present challenges to even the house 'in less than 120 hours, and 50,000to doing in our houses, especially in the IIlainte-
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most simple tasks of living. Those who advo- 70,000people visited it during the four-day
show. ,
nance-provided, villas," (Woodstone builds vil-
las in three Johnson County areas.)
cate, something called "universal design" say
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Cf) your house should help not. hinder you. Rob Lacio, Woodstone Homes' general IIlan- Among those features, he said, is framing a
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'" "Your home should not be your enemy," ager, said the building company cOlIllIlitted to ,house so that all door, openings are at least 3
t- feet wide. Many villa buyers, too, want
o said architect Edward M. Tapper, Rosemann & the project several IIlonths ago,
0 The aim,he said, was to delIlonstrate build- designs that elilIlinate steps, another universal
.. Associates PoCo Kansas City, Mo,
of