About BROM
Home Is Where Dad Is
BROM Builders brings family together
By Richard Norman
On Monday, for the first time ever, Joe and Jill and baby Nicholas will be a united family.
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The house made it possible. The house brought the family of a severely injured man back together.
It took a lot of courage and persistence on the part of Joe and Jill Lubrano, along with the flexibility and creativity of their contractor, BROM Builders of Norwich, to put up this remarkable home.
What has this house, which accommodates Joe's handicaps, meant to the family?
"It means the world to us -- you can't describe what it's like," says Jill. "Joe has never lived with the baby."
It has been a year and eight months since a workplace accident left Joe a quadriplegic. He has been living at Haven Health Center of Waterford, while his wife and baby lived in a Groton apartment. Now, thanks to the home with its sophisticated handicapped-access features and state-of-the-art technology, the Lubranos can live like a real family again.
Joe and Jill, who are private people, were eager to tell the world about their new home, in the hope the information might be helpful to others in similar circumstances: "It's important for other people to know what can be done in a house" to make it accessible to handicapped people, says Joe.
Another point that was important to the Lubranos was that their house look, well, like other houses: "Not like a nursing home stuck in a residential neighborhood," as Joe puts it. You know the long ramps you see in buildings that have been retrofit, running the whole width of the building, or even zigzagging back and forth? That was what the Lubranos didn't want. Short ramps, it turns out, are harder to get than you might think. But BROM solved that problem (details later), and the result is a handsome light-green ranch-style home in an attractive development in Mystic.
The couple first thought they would retrofit their Gales Ferry home, but eventually realized it would be too expensive and leave them with a home that would be difficult to sell because of the extreme modifications. In the meantime, they were learning about handicapped-accessibility systems from the Internet and from EM Enterprises, a company involved with voice-recognition programs. A pivotal event was their decision to build a new house.
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The search for a builder was on. Jill approached BROM Builders. "I can't stress enough how great it was to work with BROM," says Jill. "They really went above and beyond for us."
Joe Mastronunzio of BROM reflects on the project. "There were some unique engineering features that would be necessary in the Lubranos' house to make it wheelchair-accessible," says Mastronunzio. "There are ADA codes, for instance, having to do with ramp slope and length."
Did you ever wonder why those ramps are so long? Code mandates that a ramp must be a foot in length for every inch of rise. So if a rise of 12 inches is needed, the ramp must be 12 feet long. Not such a big deal? What if the rise is 24 inches? The ramp would be 24 feet long. Then the place begins to look (as Joe pointed out) like a nursing home rather than a home.
"We wanted the ramps to be as short and inconspicuous as possible," says Mastronunzio.
Building codes dictate that a foundation must rise at least 8 inches above ground level. Normally, the floor assembly is built on top of the foundation, adding nearly another foot to the elevation of the ground floor. To avoid this, BROM built the floor assembly into the foundation -- a costly and complicated job -- and gained that critical eight or 10 inches that would make for shorter ramps.
The builder moved earth to raise the grade around the house, and made many other accommodations: a lift system in the master bedroom suite, voice-activated doors, and others.
"The tradespeople bent over backward to make this work," adds Mastronunzio.
Approaching the house, we see that the ramp up to the front door and the ramp from the garage into the house are so inconspicuous as to be almost unnoticeable. The ramp in the Lubranos' van descends directly onto the ramp on the floor of the garage, so Joe can power his wheelchair right into the house with no grade to ascend.
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for a Barrier Free Lift that allows Joe to move from bed to bath. |
We see at once that this house is no gloomy medical facility, it is a beautiful, light, roomy new home. Ahead is the kitchen, beyond that is the family room; to the right are the dining room and living room; down the hall are a guest bedroom, a bathroom, Nicholas's room and the master bedroom suite. The kitchen has no handicapped-access features, since Joe has no use of his hands and cannot work here. A noteworthy feature: the dinette that the Lubranos chose for the kitchen will be extra high, so Joe's wheelchair will fit underneath. There are so many small things that you never think of, as Jill points out, until circumstances force you to.
The hallways and doorways, for instance, are extra wide. There are no lips on the floor between rooms. Doors and telephones are voice-activated; later, it will be possible for the family to have such things as TVs and computers that are voice-activated as well.
The light switches are low and can be operated by Joe, who has limited use of his upper arms.
There are hardwood floors throughout the house. Carpets are no good for someone in a wheelchair.
There are two more points of access (and two more ramps) at the rear of the house -- exits from the family room and master bedroom to a rear patio which will be poured later.
The master bedroom suite is surely a state of the art space. The most conspicuous feature is the track on the ceiling for a device called a Barrier Free Lift. It is a sort of hammock that will move Joe from his bed to his exercise equipment, to the bath, toilet and shower stall. It was critical to have all the hardware and other special features in the master suite, so the lift wouldn't have to extend out to the rest of the house.
For BROM there were many construction challenges in this space: for instance, extra support in the ceiling for the lift. The floor of the enlarged shower is gently sunken so it will drain properly with no lip in the doorway. Extra blocking is built around the toilet, as the Lubranos anticipate a day when Joe will have more mobility and may be able to use a toilet with side rails.
This house stands as a model of its kind -- the achievement of a determined family and a resourceful builder who have planned carefully and, in the end, made a home that provides for the greatest comfort and convenience for all.
And finally, little Nicholas is home with Dad.
There will be an open house at the Lubranos' home from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For a virtual tour of the house at 65 Oxford Court in Mystic, see www.brombuilders.com.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright by The Day, New London, Conn. Published on 3/3/2006. Photos by Tim Martin.
Updated: June 19, 2008