Garden Accessibility
Sabrina Phelan
After moving into a bungalow after my divorce, I had to get all the adaptations done ASAP as my daughter is 14 years old now and impossible to lift without a hoist, now she is practically the same size as me!
I have had the bathroom done, the driveway, all doors widened, hoists/tracking installed, specialist flooring and some French doors from Maisie’s bedroom so she can access the garden easier. Sadly, the grant did not stretch to raising the garden just outside Maisie’s room. I was against having a hideous ramp installed, because although we need it, if the council installed it, it would be a concrete ramp with council paving and basic metal railings etc why do they have to be so ugly? I thought no, new life, new house, new plan for the garden, we will do this ourselves and make our garden area perfect for Maisie and the 2 boys. This would then ensure that the grant is used for the internal stuff first and foremost.
Two years later and we still haven’t managed to finish the garden.
I decided to get a couple of quotes for the work…needless to say they were out of my budget, soooo back to square one. Doing it ourselves….researching and learning new skills would be required.
Due to the age of the bungalow, it had a very established garden, but totally not accessible for a wheelchair. So, my boyfriend bless him has been out there most weekends slogging away clearing the garden, trying to get to a point where we can actually make this work for Maisie. We are sooo near but still so far from having an accessible garden, I do find it overwhelming at times. I’m beginning to think perhaps we should have just let the council do a ramp after all……. I’m sure we will get there, it will just take a little longer than we anticipated. Visions of Maisie using a hoist to get into the hot tub are still there…but it may be a while yet.
Now where did I put that lottery ticket….