Elsmere's Aging-in-Place Contractor — Making Compact Homes Safe for Every Stage of Life

A Small Borough With Working-Class Roots and a Population That Endures

Elsmere occupies less than one square mile on the western edge of Wilmington, a compact borough that has maintained its distinct identity despite being surrounded by the larger city and the unincorporated suburban communities of New Castle County. Incorporated in 1909, Elsmere was built as a residential community for the workers who staffed Wilmington’s factories, mills, and commercial businesses — families who needed affordable housing within walking distance or a short trolley ride of their workplaces.

The homes those families built and bought define Elsmere to this day. Two-story frame houses on 30-foot-wide lots. Duplexes that share a party wall and divide a narrow rowhouse footprint into two vertical living units. Small ranches built during the postwar era on the borough’s remaining buildable land. These are homes measured in hundreds of square feet per floor, not thousands — practical, affordable, and built without a thought toward the accessibility needs of occupants who would one day age within their walls.

That day has arrived for many Elsmere residents. The families who moved here in the 1960s and 1970s are now in their 70s and 80s. Their children have grown and gone. The home that once held a young family now holds a single aging occupant or an elderly couple managing the decline that comes with years. The front steps are steeper than they used to seem. The bathtub wall is higher than memory suggests. The staircase to the bedroom feels longer every night.

Accessible Solutions serves Elsmere with every aging-in-place modification: modular ramps with rental options starting at $300 per month, bathtub-to-shower conversions, roll-in showers, grab bars and handrails, stairlifts, doorway widenings, and durable medical equipment. Our Middletown headquarters is approximately 25 minutes south, and we serve Elsmere regularly with materials staged for rapid deployment.

Two-Story Frame Homes and the Staircase That Runs the House

The dominant home type in Elsmere is the two-story frame house — a 900-to-1,200 square-foot structure with a living room and kitchen on the first floor, two or three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and a single straight-run staircase connecting them. The front entry faces the street with three to four concrete steps and a small stoop or covered porch. The rear entry opens to a small back yard through a door with a step or two.

In this home, the staircase is not just a connection between floors — it is the lifeline of daily living. Every morning begins with descending the stairs from the bedroom to the kitchen. Every evening ends with climbing them back. Every trip to the bathroom during the night involves navigating the same stairs in darkness or dim light. For a resident whose knees ache, whose balance has declined, or whose hip replacement has left them with a weight-bearing restriction, this staircase is the single greatest source of fall risk in the home.

A stairlift eliminates that risk. Installed on a rail that follows the staircase from the first-floor landing to the second floor, the stairlift carries the resident between levels safely and independently. The slim-profile design — critical in Elsmere’s narrow staircases — leaves adequate passing width for other household members. The rail folds flat against the wall when not in use. For straight-run staircases, which most Elsmere homes have, installation takes one day.

But the stairlift is one piece of a larger picture. The bathroom at the top of the stairs has a combination tub-shower with a high step-over wall in a room too small to safely maneuver around the tub’s edge. A bathroom conversion replaces that tub with a zero-threshold shower — a barrier-free entry that eliminates the step-over entirely and maximizes the usable floor space in the small room. Grab bars at the shower entry, beside the toilet, and at the bathroom door provide stability at every transition. The anti-scald valve and hand-held showerhead complete the conversion.

Duplexes and Shared-Wall Construction

Elsmere’s duplexes present a modification profile that combines the challenges of compact footprints with the constraints of shared structures. A typical Elsmere duplex divides a rowhouse-width building into two vertical units separated by a party wall. Each unit has its own front entry, its own staircase, and its own set of small rooms stacked on two or three floors. The shared wall limits where modifications can be anchored, and the neighboring unit’s proximity constrains exterior ramp placement.

Inside, the duplex unit is even tighter than a standalone two-story home. The staircase may be open on one side and share the party wall on the other. The bathroom occupies a corner of the second floor with dimensions that barely accommodate the existing fixtures. Doorways are narrow. Hallways are minimal or nonexistent — rooms connect directly to one another through doorways rather than transitional spaces.

Our modifications for Elsmere duplexes are designed for these exact constraints. Grab bars are anchored into the structural framing of the unit’s own walls, avoiding the party wall entirely. Bathroom conversions use fixtures specifically selected for small-footprint installations — compact shower pans, wall-mounted sinks that free floor space, and fold-down shower benches that store flat when not needed. Stairlifts use slim rails with swivel seats that allow the rider to dismount safely at the top landing without blocking the hallway. Every detail is calibrated to the tight dimensions that define Elsmere duplex living.

Ranch Homes on the Borough’s Edges

Elsmere’s limited inventory of ranch-style homes — primarily along the borough’s edges and on the lots that were developed during the 1950s and 1960s — offer the advantage of single-story living. No stairs between the bedroom and the kitchen. No second floor to reach. But these homes still carry the accessibility deficits common to mid-century construction.

The front entry has concrete steps without a sturdy railing or with a railing that has loosened over decades. The bathroom has a combination tub-shower behind a door that measures 26 to 28 inches. The back door has a threshold step. The hallway connecting the bedroom wing to the living area is adequate for walking but difficult with a walker and impossible with a wheelchair.

For Elsmere ranch homes, our modification plan typically begins with the bathroom and the front entry — the two highest-risk areas in the house. A tub-to-shower conversion and a modular ramp address the most immediate dangers, and these two modifications together often fall within the DSHP+ Medicaid per-project benefit. From there, grab bars throughout the home, doorway widenings where needed, and threshold modifications at exterior doors complete the transformation from a home that tolerates aging to one that supports it.

Wilmington Hospital Access and Elsmere’s Urban Medical Advantage

Elsmere’s location adjacent to Wilmington provides a medical access advantage that many Delaware communities lack. Wilmington Hospital is less than 10 minutes away. ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital campus is approximately 15 minutes south. The medical offices, rehabilitation facilities, and specialist practices concentrated in the Wilmington area are all within easy reach.

That proximity means Elsmere residents are discharged from hospital stays and returned to their homes quickly — sometimes before the family has had time to prepare the home for the patient’s changed capabilities. The hip replacement patient arrives home to find the same three front steps, the same bathtub, and the same steep staircase that existed before surgery. The stroke patient returns to a home with no grab bars, no shower seat, and no way to get into the house without climbing steps.

We respond to these situations with speed that matches the urgency. A rental ramp deployed from our staged inventory provides exterior access within days. Grab bars install in a single visit. A portable shower bench and hand-held showerhead provide immediate bathing safety. These rapid measures keep the Elsmere resident safe during the critical first days home and give the family the breathing room to plan permanent modifications with Ray’s guidance.

Funding Home Accessibility in Elsmere

Delaware’s DSHP+ Medicaid waiver is the most significant funding resource for Elsmere families. The program provides significant coverage for home accessibility modifications. Given Elsmere’s demographics, a substantial percentage of borough residents qualify. We are a certified Medicaid provider and handle the entire process — assessment documentation, authorization submission, installation, and direct billing.

Veterans in Elsmere may qualify for VA HISA grants for accessibility work tied to service-connected conditions. Medicare covers qualifying durable medical equipment. CareCredit financing is available for families paying privately or needing work beyond Medicaid coverage.

Ray Petkevis personally assesses every Elsmere home. In a borough this compact, the assessment is efficient — but no less thorough. Ray evaluates every entry point, every staircase, every bathroom, every hallway, and every transition in the home. He reviews every funding option available to the family and provides a recommendation specific to the home’s construction and the resident’s needs. That assessment is free, honest, and without obligation.