A contractor said something during this project which I thought was both compassionate and the sign that he was a skilled professional, and I thought I’d share: Scene: My mother, who has some mobility challenges, is sketching out what she wants in her kitchen. He listens.
Then he takes me aside. Following conversation is indicative. Me: All sound reasonable? Him: I’ll build whatever you two decide on, but I wanted to have a conversation with you in private first.
Him: Nobody wants to get old and nobody wants their parents to get old, but it happens to everyone, and may God grant your mother many happy years. Me: Thank you for saying that. Him: How big do you think a wheelchair is? Me: Mom doesn’t…
Him: Your mother isn’t going to be using this kitchen for one week or one month. Maybe at some point in future she comes back to it, and it’s in a wheelchair. That will not be a happy day. Me: Oh. Him: Now I want you to look at this angle here. If I put an island here.
Him: And I put the cabinet she wants there. And you try to move a wheelchair between them. That ain’t gonna fit. And that blocks her from getting from her own kitchen to her own living room. Me: Got it. Him: And I don’t want to come back here on an unhappy day and charge her.
Him: Because no woman should see her kitchen destroyed like that. She’d have enough to worry about. So we suggest we put the cabinet just a little farther away, in the dining room. And if she ever comes back in a wheelchair, it is to her own house, the way it always was.
@patio11 Thoughtful guy!