Matheson's Accessible Home

Matheson was born with CP - Cerebral Palsy that has affected his mobility. Confined to a wheelchair, Matheson requires a home that is accessible. Our current home confines him to one floor with no access to bathrooms, kitchen, second floor. More worrisome, he has no ability to evacuate the home in the event of an emergency. If he were on the second floor he could not get downstairs on his own. If he were on the main floor, he would have great difficulty exiting the one door to the garage.  Simply moving to a larger home is not an option, a typical home does not have second floor access or in a bungalow, wide doors to accommodate wheelchair, wheel in bathrooms, accessible counters, bathrooms etc. All these amenities are extremely expensive to which we receive no funding. To purchase another larger home in today's real estate market and add in these renovation costs would push us over $2+ Million dollars, which makes no sense.  That is why we decided to keep our home and renovate for accessibility.   We have sacrificed our outdoor deck and expanded the house where the deck was. The 6+ months renovations include a complete costs associated with committee of adjustments, permits and a full gut of the house, we have had to move out (to a home that is not accessible) incurring additional costs, also not covered. We are adding an Elevator, we have removed all walls on the first floor allowing Matheson for more room to manoeuvre, the second floor will have wider bedroom doors and bathroom doors - still a tight fit but 100% better than original design. The Bathroom will be large enough for Matheson to roll in with a barrier free roll-in shower. Our current home required us to carry/lift Matheson into the bathroom, something we physically cannot do any longer. His new bedroom will have a ceiling lift installed to assist with lifting him in and out of bed each day. The Kitchen and bathrooms will be finished with accessible counters/sinks/cupboards. We are confined to a budget, but making every attempt to make this home as accessible as possible to improve Matheson's every day life, restore his dignity and provide some independence to a child who wants to succeed in life.


My goal is to help fund this $400,000+ expense to which we are not receiving any funding. I have initially set a goal for $10,000. We are roughly half way through our project and funds are needed to complete the project.

There are many families in similar situations and my ultimate goal would be to eventually start a foundation to help others achieve independence they deserve in life, but simply cannot afford. Should we exceed our goals, I will seek assistance in starting a foundation to help others and move money into accessible home foundation.

I can't express how grateful we would be to receive your help in funding our project. I can't express how enthusiastic I am to start a foundation to help others; we are learning a tremendous amount from this project and would love to user our experience in helping others achieve a better standard of living. 

Yours Truly,
The Steplock family....