Brookside's Home Accessibility Contractor — Adapting a Planned Community for the Residents Who Stayed

A Planned Community Reaching the Age Its Planners Never Anticipated

Brookside was built with a plan. In the 1960s and early 1970s, developers transformed farmland east of Newark into a designed residential community — streets laid out in loops and cul-de-sacs, homes built from a catalog of approved floor plans, and common areas integrated into the neighborhood fabric. The result was a community that attracted young families from across New Castle County who wanted affordable homeownership in a neighborhood designed specifically for residential life. Schools were close. Streets were safe. Homes were new, modern by the standards of the era, and priced for working families and young professionals starting their careers.

The plan worked. Families moved in, raised children, joined the civic association, and built the kind of neighborhood bonds that come from decades of shared geography. But the plan had a time horizon that has long since expired. The homes that were designed for families with children in the 1970s are now occupied by the same families — minus the children, plus 50 years of aging. The split-level that a 28-year-old couple navigated effortlessly in 1972 is the same split-level that an 80-year-old widow struggles to navigate in 2026. The floor plan has not changed. The body has.

Accessible Solutions serves Brookside with the full range of aging-in-place modifications: modular ramps with rental options starting at $300 per month, bathtub-to-shower conversions, roll-in showers, grab bars and handrails, stairlifts, doorway widenings, first-floor living conversions, and durable medical equipment. Our Middletown headquarters is approximately 20 minutes south, and we serve the Brookside community regularly with materials staged for rapid deployment.

Split-Levels and the Staircase That Never Ends

The split-level home is Brookside’s signature architecture, and it is among the most challenging residential designs for aging in place. Brookside’s split-levels were built from a handful of floor plans that share a common layout: a front entry at a mid-level landing, a half-flight of stairs up to the kitchen, dining room, and living room, another half-flight up to the bedrooms and bathroom, and a half-flight down from the entry to the family room, laundry area, and garage access.

The mathematics of this design are unforgiving. Every movement within the home involves stairs. Getting from the bedroom to the kitchen requires descending one half-flight and descending another. Getting from the kitchen to the laundry room requires descending two half-flights. Getting from the family room to the bathroom requires climbing three half-flights. There is no path between any two functional areas of the home that does not involve stairs.

For a Brookside resident whose mobility has declined — whether through arthritis, joint replacement recovery, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, or the cumulative balance loss that accompanies aging — this layout creates a home where every daily activity carries fall risk. The solution is not a single modification but a coordinated set of interventions that address the home’s multi-level architecture systematically.

We install stairlifts on the primary half-flights connecting the most-used levels — typically the bedroom-to-kitchen run and the kitchen-to-family-room run. The bathroom on the bedroom level gets converted from a combination tub-shower to a barrier-free shower with grab bars, a fold-down bench, and an anti-scald valve. A modular ramp at the front entry replaces the exterior steps that lead to the mid-level landing. Grab bars at every interior landing and transition point provide stability where the floor level changes. The result is a home that remains fully functional despite its multi-level design.

Bi-Levels and the Elevated Entry Problem

Brookside’s bi-level homes present a related but distinct challenge. The bi-level places the front entry at a mid-level landing between two full living levels — an upper level with the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms, and a lower level with the family room, an additional bedroom or office, and garage access. From the entry landing, one full half-flight goes up and another goes down. Unlike the split-level’s multiple staggered half-floors, the bi-level concentrates stairs at two transition points.

The front entry of a Brookside bi-level typically sits four to six steps above grade on the upper-level side, with the mid-level landing creating an elevated platform that requires a ramp of significant length to reach from ground level. Our modular ramp systems handle these elevation changes with L-shaped or switchback configurations that navigate the height within the available front yard space. For properties where the yard dimensions are too compact for a ramp of adequate length, a vertical platform lift provides an alternative that handles the elevation change within a five-by-five-foot footprint.

Inside, a stairlift on the main half-flight connecting the entry landing to the upper living level keeps the bedroom, kitchen, and primary bathroom accessible. The upper-level bathroom conversion — removing the tub and installing a zero-threshold shower — addresses the second critical barrier. Grab bars at the entry landing, the top of the staircase, and throughout the upper-level hallway complete the interior modification plan.

Brookside Park, Community Resources, and the Value of Staying Connected

Brookside was designed with community spaces — Brookside Park, common areas, walking paths, and the civic infrastructure that planned communities of the 1960s era emphasized. These shared resources are part of what makes Brookside more than a collection of houses. They are the social fabric that keeps aging residents connected to their neighbors, their routines, and their sense of belonging.

An aging Brookside resident who cannot safely exit their home is cut off from that fabric. The neighbor they have known for 40 years is across the street, but the three front steps stand between them. The park where they walked every morning is a block away, but the entry staircase they must descend to reach the front door has become too risky to navigate alone. Isolation — not by choice, but by architecture — is one of the most damaging consequences of inaccessible housing for older adults.

A ramp at the front entry and grab bars at the interior staircase transitions restore that connection. The resident can leave the house safely, walk to the park, visit the neighbor, and return home independently. The modification is physical — aluminum and steel and concrete anchors — but its impact is social, emotional, and medical. Research consistently shows that social isolation accelerates cognitive decline and worsens health outcomes in older adults. Keeping a Brookside resident connected to their community is not a luxury. It is a health intervention.

Christiana Hospital and Post-Discharge Readiness

Brookside residents access acute care primarily through ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital, approximately 10 minutes east along Stanton-Christiana Road. Newark’s Christiana Care medical offices along Main Street and Elkton Road serve routine and specialty care needs. When a Brookside resident is hospitalized for a joint replacement, a fall-related injury, a stroke, or a cardiac event, the discharge process inevitably confronts the reality of Brookside’s split-level and bi-level architecture.

The patient who entered the hospital mobile and independent leaves with a walker, stair restrictions, and instructions to avoid stepping over bathtub walls. The home they return to has stairs at every entry and every interior transition, and a bathtub in the only full bathroom.

We close that gap with staged materials and priority scheduling. A rental ramp at the front entry provides immediate exterior access. Grab bars at the bathroom, staircase landings, and hallway transitions install in a single visit. A portable shower bench and hand-held showerhead provide safe bathing while a permanent bathroom conversion is planned. These measures are deployed within days of discharge notification, protecting the patient during the highest-risk window for falls and re-hospitalization.

Funding Brookside Home Modifications

Delaware’s DSHP+ Medicaid waiver provides significant coverage for home accessibility modifications. Brookside families enrolled in the program can use these benefits for bathroom conversions, ramp installations, grab bars, stairlifts, and other structural modifications. We are a certified Medicaid provider and handle all authorization and billing.

Veterans in the Brookside community may qualify for VA HISA grants. Medicare covers qualifying durable medical equipment. CareCredit financing serves families paying privately or needing modifications beyond Medicaid coverage.

Ray Petkevis personally assesses every Brookside home. His familiarity with the community’s limited number of floor plans means he walks in knowing the layout — but he assesses every detail individually, because 50 years of homeowner modifications, additions, and wear have made every Brookside home unique despite their shared origins. That assessment is free, carries no obligation, and provides the specific, actionable foundation that every successful modification project requires.