Kudos to all the folks in Bedford, N.H., who stepped up to help the Street family. Here's the intro to The Cabinet story, which also contains numerous pictures of their newly accessible home:Lifting an 80-pound person is no easy feat, especially for a slender, petite woman like Laura Street. Laura had developed chronic back pain from lifting her disabled son, Craig, (pictured on his new ramp) out of his wheelchair, his bed and the bathtub, in addition to carrying him up and down the stairs and into and out of the house.
But now that volunteers have transformed the Streets' Tirrell Road home in Bedford into a handicapped-accessible home with a ramp and an elevator, her back pain has all but disappeared, Street said recently as she smiled at Craig in the family's renovated living room.
Family friend Kim Peicker, who coordinated the project, said that more than 300 people and 100 businesses pitched in, finishing the project a year to the day – Oct. 24 – after a New Hampshire Union Leader article reported the Streets had been rejected for the television show "Extreme Makeover Home Edition."
Laura and her husband, Michael, who are raising five children, applied to the ABC show – which renovates and rebuilds homes for families in need – at the encouragement of a friend. They were forced to realize last year that they needed help.Craig, 14, has a chromosomal disorder similar to cerebral palsy, and is unable to speak or walk. As he's grown, taking care of him has become more difficult.
Once, Laura came home with Craig only to discover she couldn't get him inside the house. After pushing his wheelchair up the slushy driveway (it was gravel before volunteers paved it), she found that the front steps had iced over.
She believed she would fall if she tried to carry Craig up those icy stairs. "I was kind of trapped outside," Laura said. As she stood with Craig in the cold, unsure what to do, a neighbor realized they were in trouble and came over to help. Problems like that are a thing of the past now, with a new garage that's large enough to hold a wheelchair ramp.
Better yet, the ramp ends near an elevator that goes up to Craig's second-floor bedroom.The bedroom is attached to a new, handicapped-accessible bathroom that has made life easier for the whole family.Helping Craig in and out of their old bathtub used to be a back-breaking group effort; now there's a large, open shower stall with a shower chair.
New, machine-powered lifts with harnesses save Mike and Laura's backs, too, helping to lift Craig in and out of his chair or his bed.