6. Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville

January 24, 2020April 16, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

(duration: 32 minutes 22 seconds)

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Takeaways

Keep your thermostat set at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter and what a great way to save money. Set it and forget it.

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces and health wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can. And why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing, and that you can live in at any age with any ability at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:05 Hi and welcome to the Aging in Place Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Debi Lynes. I am here today with Parrish Neville and with Missy Santorum, director of marketing and public relations director from Palmetto Electric cooperative. Thank you both for joining us so much. I’m really excited to talk to you. This is like a panel discussion on energy. It’s everything good. You know Missy, when we were talking about doing the segment, I think I was really curious cause we are hearing Hilton Head, South Carolina, you are a cooperative and I would love to know a little bit about the history of Palmetto Electric cooperative.

Missy Santorum: 01:43 Well, I’ll tell you, in 2015, Palmetto Electric celebrated 75 years of service to the Low Country. So, I mean that was very exciting for us to celebrate that. Coops, we have 20 in the state of South Carolina. Our service area for Palmetto Electric is all the way down. Hilton Head Island. We serve the whole Island and then up through the 278 corridor into Jasper and Hampton County. So it’s about a 60 miles service area.

Debi Lynes: 02:11 Can I ask a broad spectrum question and Parrish if you want to go with this and that is what is a cooperative?

Parrish Neville: 02:18 A Electric Utility Cooperative is designed to serve the people that it serves. So we provide electric service for our members. So you’re not just a customer, you receive electric service from us, but our whole job is just to provide you that energy.

Missy Santorum: 02:36 Well, we’re not turning a profit, let’s put it that way. We’re not an investor on. So when you are a member of Palmetto Electric, you’re an owner. You’re part-owner of the company.

Debi Lynes: 02:47 What’s our history? Tell me how this evolved.

Missy Santorum: 02:49 So in 1940, President Roosevelt decided that rural America needed to be electrified. We, of course, the investor-owned will electrify the cities, the municipalities, but the rural areas of our country were not electrified. Well. Our service area, including Hilton Head Island, was very rural. No bridge to the Island. When I looked back at the minutes, there were about 83 petitions of people who lived here on Hilton Head Island who would like to have electricity. So the investor-owned decided it wasn’t worth [it]. They couldn’t turn that profit so they were not gonna come serve it. So the Palmetto Electric board back in the day got together, decided they would do it. They barged the poles over. And here’s a funny side note, they barged the poles over at low tide.

Debi Lynes: 03:34 Barged the poles at low tide?

Missy Santorum: 03:36 Low tide and put them on the side. Okay. Right back there near the Calibogue Sound. Went off to lunch. They came back high tide and the poles were floating in the Sound and they had to go out and retrieve the poles. We even got pictures of the barge with the poles. So it’s really unique and we’ve got a great history at Palmetto Electric. And that was in 1950 though when they came over here. Yes Ma’am! 1950 so, and then the forties we were serving Hampton County, Jasper County. And as you know, our counties are the bottom of South Carolina. The state is like an ice cream cone. So it’s the bottom of the cone.

Debi Lynes: 04:14 So now how many members do you have?

Missy Santorum: 04:16 We have about 75,000.

Debi Lynes: 04:19 Oh my gosh. Well, one of the things we’re excited about talking and Parrish, this is where you come in, some of the programs that you have, what’s you’re proud of. And then I’ve got just some generic basic questions that people have actually asked us to ask you. So I think that’s kind of fun. Let’s talk about some programs.

Parrish Neville: 04:36 Okay. Well, we have a lot of different programs we’ve developed over the years. But the main thing to remember is that we’re a distribution electric co-op. We don’t generate electric power.

Debi Lynes: 04:46 So what does that mean a distribution electric co-op?

Parrish Neville: 04:48 We buy power from power suppliers and then distribute it to all of our members.

Debi Lynes: 04:53 So what kind of power are we buying?

Parrish Neville: 04:57 Well, it’s a whole mix, the whole gamut. Traditionally, power is generated by coal. A lot of it’s generated by gas and oil and hydro and nuclear. So there’s, there’s solar is of course now is in the mix too. So all different types of power.

Debi Lynes: 05:16 It’s fun to talk to you about it because you take that for granted as you’re listing off six sources of power. That, and I consider myself a fairly educated consumer. I had no idea. So solar, hydro, coal, gas, nuclear, gas, and what did I forget? Where they’re six! No..I think I got them all actually. Oil. Okay. Yeah. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. From the peanut gallery. We love that too.

Parrish Neville: 05:47 Yeah. So there’s, there’s lots of different ways that power producers create power, but then it’s just transported to us through transmission lines and then we distributed out through the smaller lines, through the neighborhoods and the businesses. So that the important thing there is how much it costs to all of us? That’s always the bottom line is how much it costs. So the costs are determined primarily by one hour each month. So, it’s that peak hour. The hour that we use the most, and during that hour, if we can encourage our members to use less, it saves all of us money.

Debi Lynes: 06:30 All right. Missy explained that. What does that mean “The peak hour” and “Beat the Peak”? Is that what you were saying?

Missy Santorum: 06:36 Right. We have a program Beat the Peak, so it varies. It’s all weather-driven. It’s dependent on like for the winter, Palmetto Electric actually is a winter peaking co-op, believe it or not, because of our heat pumps are very efficient in the hot, humid weather and we have a lot of glass. The way we built our homes here, so it really depends. So in the winter, the peak might be in the morning, in, in the summer it’s going to be in the hot afternoon.

Debi Lynes: 07:02 Okay, so when you’re talking about peak, that’s when the most energy is used and what you’re asking us to do Parrish is?

Parrish Neville: 07:10 Turn that hour we are anticipating a peak to reduce your usage some. You know, not totally stop using energy, but maybe you can avoid doing some things, put them off to other hours. Maybe, you can reduce or change your temperature on your thermostat a couple of degrees. That all can help towards reducing the demand for us.

Debi Lynes: 07:32 Can I ask a very naive question? What are some of the things… Is that include my dishwasher? What are some of the things that I wouldn’t even think about?

Parrish Neville: 07:41 clothes washing, dishwashing, maybe not using some hot water, showering later. Showering later and now. So all those things can add up. Your air conditioning is probably the big one. So, adjusting the temperature just two or three degrees can help us out.

Debi Lynes: 08:00 Is there a temperature range that is pretty much ideal for you all and for the health and wellness of a family, whether they’re seniors or young kids or middle age like me?

Parrish Neville: 08:15 Well, for the health and wellness, I wouldn’t know exactly what that number is, but generally speaking around 75 degrees is adequate for most people. For energy purposes, we recommend in the summertime that you keep your thermostat on 78 and in the winter on 68.

Debi Lynes: 08:34 Oh it’s okay. 78 and 68. My husband and I talk all the time because I tend to be a thermostat [changer]. and he said [no]. Set it… He keeps telling me “set it and forget it.” Or I think you might’ve told me that Missy.

Missy Santorum: 08:48 No, I think that sounds good.

Debi Lynes: 08:50 Why is that so important?

Parrish Neville: 08:52 Well, one reason why in our we use electric heat pumps okay, and in the winter when the heat is running, the heat pump can provide heat two ways from the heat pump, which is very efficient. It’s just the reverse of an air conditioner. So it’s very efficient. But it can also provide heat through auxiliary strip heaters, the auxiliary heaters or backup to the heat pump in extreme weather. But if you adjust the temperature more than two or three degrees at a time, you may artificially cause the strip heat to cycle on and then you’re going to use about three times as much energy as you want.

Missy Santorum: 09:30 Think about your meter running double time.

Debi Lynes: 09:33 Oh my goodness! I didn’t realize it was that significant. See this is why we need to talk to you guys. because I think you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And I think this is really educational and that’s sort of the point of the whole podcast is to get some of this information out and disseminate it. It really is. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back and talk about a lot more programs that you all have. Stay with us here on Aging in Place Podcast.

Debi Lynes: 09:55 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes. Design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what Lynes on Design can do for you, for more information, certified aging in place and facilitative and supportive design, look for us at LynesonDesign.com. That’s L-Y-N-E-S on design.com.

Debi Lynes: 10:20 We are back here on the Aging in Place Podcast. We’re talking with Palmetto Electric Cooperative. We have Parrish Neville, we have Missy Santorum. Again, it’s super interesting. Who knew this would be so interesting and educational and practical. I think that’s the best part of the whole discussion. You’ve got a couple of programs that you want to make sure we talk about, but before we do, you actually came to my house about a year ago and it was really exciting and you did what’s called a…

Parrish Neville: 10:46 Energy audit.

Debi Lynes: 10:47 What is an energy audit?

Parrish Neville: 10:50 Well, it was an evaluation of your home to see if we could find ways to help you save energy or maybe change some of your operational practices that could improve.

Debi Lynes: 11:00 Which is code for check and see how well were you doing with your efficiency. It was amazing. Can other people ask for this or request it?

Missy Santorum: 11:09 Absolutely! And this is a great way to hold down the cost on your bill and you can’t believe it. I mean you can insulate, you know, you can use foam, you can, you can change out your windows. What were things you found Parrish that Debi needed?

Parrish Neville: 11:23 At your house, we found some installation issues up in your attic. I think we also found some problems with your ductwork going on in that front closet there. Some duct issues there where you were leaking air.

Debi Lynes: 11:37 So what are you looking for when you take a walk, what areas do you go to on when your looking for these specific areas?

Parrish Neville: 11:43 Well, the heating and cooling is usually more than 50% of your costs. So that’s things that relate to the heating and cooling are what we’re looking for primarily. Then we at other things like water heating. Things that maybe have pumps or motors that are running continuous swimming pools or if you’ve got lots of lighting or some other special equipment that might have pumps or motors. Some really big houses might have a wine cellar or something like that with refrigeration, a lot of extra refrigeration.

Debi Lynes: 12:14 I actually remember you were looking at my thermostat and said we probably need to change this from 1958. We are not really… I do remember this one…I’m not sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

Parrish Neville: 12:25 You actually got a new one.

Debi Lynes: 12:25 I did! I’m very proud of myself, but when you were talking about a new thermostat program.

Missy Santorum: 12:29 We have a Smart Thermostat Program, which is really exciting and I know Parrish is working a lot with the HVAC, you know, all of the contractors out here to come in and talk to our members about this and tell them a little bit about what the incentives in the program.

Parrish Neville: 12:45 Sure! Our program is really, again, designed to help us lower our demand during that peak hour. And so, in order to do that, we won’t lower the temperature a little bit during those peak hours. So we have a program design with smart thermostats, so when it’s installed, we’ll be able to adjust that thermostat. With your permission, we can adjust it for you during the peak time.

Debi Lynes: 13:08 You can do that? Because if I’m working…

Parrish Neville: 13:11 Or the manufacturer.

Debi Lynes: 13:14 Well, that’s amazing!

Missy Santorum: 13:16 But you do something else to make it a little more comfortable before you do that.

Parrish Neville: 13:18 Yeah! So, you know, part of our incentive includes the thermostat and the installation.

Debi Lynes: 13:24 Oh, we should have waited a year!

Parrish Neville: 13:29 We’ll give you a monthly incentive of $5, and but you have an option to participate or not participate. You can opt-out of the program if you need to.

Missy Santorum: 13:39 Oh my gosh!

Parrish Neville: 13:40 We hope you won’t!

Missy Santorum: 13:40 Yeah! For instance, if you had company come over and it was a time to control and it was just a little warm, you could, you could opt-out at that moment and change it back to what you need. So you could be comfortable. But Parrish, there is a time where you, like for instance, if it’s the summer you’re going to cool it.

Parrish Neville: 13:57 Oh.. That’s right! We’re going to before we go into one of these peak periods, so in the summer we’re going to pre-cool your house a little bit so that you don’t notice that we’re adjusting the temperature down so ahead of time. We’ll cool the house off a couple of degrees and then when we go into control we’ll reduce it a little bit.

Debi Lynes: 14:16 You know, because we’re talking about aging in place at any stage in life, I think that that would be such a godsend for a lot of people where they just wouldn’t have to deal with it. You know? And I know my dad’s 91 if he just knew someone again where you all were going to set it and forget it, it would be a whole lot easier. I know. Do you have a water heater program? Talk to me if you will a little bit about that.

Parrish Neville: 14:37 Well, the water heater program has been around a long time and it was our first program that really involved reducing demand during those peak hours. Water heater is like a battery. We can heat the water in there and then turn the water heater off and if you still have hot water for hours later. Matter of fact, sometimes if your water heaters a newer model that is well-insulated. It might stay hot for a couple of days if you don’t use it.

Debi Lynes: 15:01 Oh! I didn’t know that.

Parrish Neville: 15:03 And so when we have a big demand for energy, we just cycle your heater off. We’ve got a large tank of water ready to use. You’ll still have hot, adequate hot water, but it comes off of our peak time and saves all of us money.

Debi Lynes: 15:17 Okay, so here’s my question. I am an older adult or I’m a first-time homeowner and I need a water heater. Do you actually provide the water heaters? How does all this work with my contractor or my architect?

Parrish Neville: 15:32 Well, we can do it two ways. We have a program where we can give you an incentive, a rebate to get the right size water heater in or we’ll do everything for you. We’ll provide the heater, get somebody to install it, and then we spread the cost out for you over five years so it doesn’t cost that much upfront.

Debi Lynes: 15:53 Oh. Once again! I mean, talk about easy ways to save.

Missy Santorum: 15:57 Very easy and it just goes right on the bill.

Debi Lynes: 15:59 I mean, that makes so much sense to me. Another program. This is fun. We could talk about these all day. I want to know what a Champ program is. Missy is like mouthing over here. There is a Champ program.

Parrish Neville: 16:10 Well the Champ is not one of the load control programs. It’s a service program. We are started off many years ago and it’s just been updated recently. The Champ program is appliance repair service at a reasonable, affordable cost. You pay a small amount added to your bill each month and then we cover appliances and other utilities in your home.

Debi Lynes: 16:35 Okay. Help me understand what that means.

Parrish Neville: 16:37 So if your refrigerator stopped working, you just have one phone number to call. There’d be a small, trip charge and then the cost of repairing the item would be covered.

Debi Lynes: 16:49 How do I get to be a champ or part of the program?

Parrish Neville: 16:55 You just have to sign for this.

Missy Santorum: 16:55 You just give us a call. We’ll sign you right up.

Debi Lynes: 16:57 Do people take advantage of these?

Missy Santorum: 16:59 They do. We do? Yes.

Debi Lynes: 17:01 Oh, I tell you, it’s like you need your own show.

Missy Santorum: 17:06 We’re just so happy to be here with you, Debi and get the word out.

Debi Lynes: 17:09 because there’s so much.

Missy Santorum: 17:11 A lot of times if you’re a new homeowner and you’ve got new appliances and all, you’re not going to need it. What about five years down the road. And that happens before you know it, all of a sudden it’s like, oops, okay, now this is out and the ice maker is out. You know, something’s got to be tweaked or not working. And it is so easy to make that one call.

Debi Lynes: 17:29 I’m so impressed. So all I really need to do… what were you going to say?

Parrish Neville: 17:33 I was just gonna say, in addition to the appliances, our new plans have coverage for the electric lines inside your house. So the switches and the breakers as well as the water faucets and water lines in the house water breakage in the line.

Debi Lynes: 17:52 Well, I’m kind of a keep it simple girl. And again, as I get older it is much more difficult for me, to be honest with you, to keep track of everything and to know that I had one call to be able to manage all of that, it would be priceless quite frankly.

Missy Santorum: 18:10 And it’s appliance is in HVAC. Yeah.

Debi Lynes: 18:13 Now say that again.

Missy Santorum: 18:13 Your appliances, like your range, you know your dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, dryer.

Debi Lynes: 18:22 your heating and air system, your water heater, all those can be covered under the champ plan.

Debi Lynes: 18:27 So let’s assume that you come in and my, which is true, my speed queen, it can take up to 10 grandchildren’s beach towels… Dies after seven years. So then what happens then? Can you help me repurchase or…?

Parrish Neville: 18:47 Well, yeah, if you’re under the plan and your item fails and can’t be repaired, there’s a claim… Well, there’s a claim at least. I mean there’s a limit to how much claims you may have made during that year and if you hadn’t exceeded that you can actually get a nice size check to help you go purchase one.

Missy Santorum: 19:06 The residual to help you purchase.

Debi Lynes: 19:08 Because I’m paying attention, I’m saving energy and I’m working for the good of the whole community.

Missy Santorum: 19:14 It’s part of the program.

Debi Lynes: 19:16 Pretty amazing! We’re going to take another quick break, although I don’t really want to because we’re kind of on a roll here and we’re going to come back and we’re going to talk about some other programs. I’d like to ask about re renewable energy. Talk a little bit about that and solar energy, some of the cool things you’ve got going on. Stay with us here on Aging in Place Podcast.

Henrik de Gyor: 19:33 Hi, I’m Henrik, the producer of Aging in Place Podcast. If you’d like more information and transcripts of this podcast, visit aginginplacepodcast.com. And now, back to Debi Lynes with the next segment of Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 19:52 We are back here on the aging place podcast. Once again, we are with Parrish, we are with Missy and we were going to talk about renewable energy but really first we wanted to talk a little bit about solar energy, which is really interesting,

Missy Santorum: 20:08 Right? Solar and also we have a Surge Guard Program.

Debi Lynes: 20:11 That’s what we want to hear.

Missy Santorum: 20:11 Well, let me tell you. You know in the summer, you’re on Hilton Head Island, you’ve got this unbelievable hot humid day and then about four or five o’clock, what happens? The clouds roll in and have a big thunderstorm. So in, because we’re an Island surrounded by water, we’re very susceptible to lightning. So Parrish just going to tell us a little bit about the Surge Guard Program because it is fabulous and we have a lot of our members on it.

Parrish Neville: 20:37 Yeah, surge protection is, well I tried to tell people is like a seat belt for your house. Surge protection is going to help keep you safe, just like a seat belt would, but you can still be injured just like with a seat belt in car wrecks. And so that’s the way you got to think about surge protection. It’s a smart thing to do. It’s not very expensive and it may save you a lot.

Debi Lynes: 21:04 What does it look like? What does that even mean?

Parrish Neville: 21:07 Well, a power surge can come from a lot of different things. Lightning is the most devastating thing. But when lightning or other things disturb the power lines, you can have a sudden spike in the electrical voltage.

Debi Lynes: 21:20 Which is bad for my computer. Bad for everything.

Missy Santorum: 21:24 And there are other ways it can come into your house. It not only through, you know, the power line but also with your irrigation, through your cable. Think about all the things that are plugged in, you know, with your television and other ways. So we have two steps in this program.

Parrish Neville: 21:39 Yeah, the, there’s first there’s surge protection we can put on the outside on the primary electric line. So at the meter, we can put some surge protection there and that stops the big stuff from coming down on the power line. We have other surge protection we can put on some of those other lines come into your house like the phone or the cable or the internet line. But the other step that’s important is to have point of use protections for those most vulnerable electronics, your televisions, computers, and that type of equipment. You can put a surge protector right where it plugs in and protect both the electric side there as well as those data lines that are coming into your equipment.

Debi Lynes: 22:19 And I’m gonna go back really quickly to how do people find out about these programs? I’m assuming the website has all of these.

Missy Santorum: 22:26 Website and we are big with social media. Okay. palmetto.coop.

Debi Lynes: 22:31 I went on Facebook, your Facebook.

Missy Santorum: 22:32 I will tell you, social media became a thing at Palmetto Electric after Hurricane Matthew. In 2016 and that’s a fabulous way that we communicate with our members. We get the word out. We’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Palmetto.coop is the website. So yes, we have all of that information out there.

Debi Lynes: 22:52 Very interesting. Talk to me, if you will, now a little bit about the kind of energy about renewable energy, also about solar energy.

Parrish Neville: 23:00 Well, Palmetto Electric has available to our members and net metering rates. So if you decided to put rooftop solar on your house, you can sell back the amount of energy up to the point that you consume during the year.

Debi Lynes: 23:15 He’s so going to have to say that again in real words.

Parrish Neville: 23:19 Ok. When you put a solar panel system in, your house uses part of that energy, but sometimes you produce more energy than you need and so that energy can be sold back.

Debi Lynes: 23:31 Oh that’s a good thing. Okay.

Parrish Neville: 23:31 Now you won’t get a check from us, you can just sell back. You’ll get the sell back what you use so you can net out to zero during the year. and that, you know, so that’s good. A lot of utilities offer net metering, but not everybody does.

Debi Lynes: 23:51 Are you finding that people are taking advantage of putting solar panels up? Is it difficult to do? Is that something that you helped much do?

Parrish Neville: 23:59 It’s very expensive,

Debi Lynes: 24:00 Okay, so on the front side it’s expensive,.

Parrish Neville: 24:02 It is very expensive. And it’s not for everybody for sure. And frankly, with our co-op, we have very affordable power. Okay, So it’s not necessarily economically.

Debi Lynes: 24:20 feasible here. And you know, we were talking about yes, we are in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but we go nationally and so a lot of the information we’re providing may feel local, but I think again, you don’t know what you don’t know some of these…

Parrish Neville: 24:33 Yeah. And some in some places in the country that cost power is very expensive and so there, solar may be a very good fit. But you know, there are things to consider when you put it, you’re going to put rooftop solar on. You have to, first of all, have not had any shade, so you don’t need any trees in your yard. One shadow will stop the production of solar across the whole panel. You need to remember that there was maintenances involved. So these panels, in our area, we have lots of pollen every year.

Debi Lynes: 25:03 Oh yeah, good point. I never thought about that. If it’s not about shade, it’s about pollen.

Parrish Neville: 25:07 Yeah. So they’ve got to be cleaned. We have lots of trees in our area here, so we have lots of squirrels. Squirrels can damage solar panels. I know that you probably had some eat some irrigation lines or things in your yard so they can cause damage.

Debi Lynes: 25:24 They’re like family now, the squirrels.

Parrish Neville: 25:26 Missy mentioned the hurricane we had that damages…

Debi Lynes: 25:29 Everything

Parrish Neville: 25:30 Of course, the systems. that you want to make sure that you’ve got insurance to cover these.

Missy Santorum: 25:34 Every now and then we’ve got hail. Can you imagine what hail is going to do to solar?

Debi Lynes: 25:38 I never even thought about that. So it is, it is a wonderful source of power, but it comes with an inherent set of…

Missy Santorum: 25:44 Yeah and you have to have sun. Yeah. That, so there are places in our country, you know, in the United States that we do get a lot of sun, you know and really humidity’s not great either.

Parrish Neville: 25:57 And one important thing about the hurricane, a lot of people felt that they were going to have power when the power was out because of the hurricane.

Debi Lynes: 26:05 Yeah, I would if I had solar power.

Parrish Neville: 26:06 Not true. If you don’t have power to your house, solar panels will not work. That’s the way they’re designed for safety.

Debi Lynes: 26:13 See? You learn something every day. What is renewable energy?

Parrish Neville: 26:18 Well solar would be, yeah.

Debi Lynes: 26:20 Oh solar is what it is.

Missy Santorum: 26:22 It is. And also we have landfills in our area that produce methane gas that is part of renewable energy.

Debi Lynes: 26:31 It’s funny because you guys all know what that means and I’ve heard the term, but I think there are a lot of people really don’t know what it is.

Parrish Neville: 26:38 Well that would, it would include solar production like Missy said, from generate power from landfill gas, hydropower. There is a couple of other sources… wind. Those are all examples of renewable power.

Debi Lynes: 26:55 When you buy power and you said hydro is one that you do buy special kinds of power, go to special to go to different places or is it all accumulated and then just dispersed? I don’t know if that sounds like a naive question or….

Parrish Neville: 27:11 Heard of the grid?

Debi Lynes: 27:13 Yeah.

Parrish Neville: 27:13 Just think of it like a big bucket. Everybody’s topping something in the bucket and everybody’s taking stuff out of the bucket. So that’s the way it is. More or less.

Debi Lynes: 27:23 What are some of the most asked questions about Palmetto Electric or about things that you do?

Missy Santorum: 27:30 Well, one thing that we do that’s fabulous, it really gives back to the community, is Operation Roundup. And we are celebrating 30 years.

Debi Lynes: 27:37 So what is that?

Missy Santorum: 27:38 That’s where members in 1989, our president and CEO came up with the idea where you round your bill up to the next dollar and literally it’s about $6 a customer a year averages. And we are now at $7.8 million that we’ve collected in 30 years. And we give back to the community, to organizations and individuals in need.

Debi Lynes: 27:59 Wow.

Missy Santorum: 28:00 And we’ve allowed other co-ops in the country to adopt it. So over 300 if done that. And now we even have some local businesses that have picked up on that idea. Those you’ll hear them say, would you like to round up to the next dollar to give to this charity or that.

Debi Lynes: 28:14 Do you all have conferences that you go to where you actually go and collaborate, idea swap, here is what’s new, what’s trending, what the future is holding for us?

Missy Santorum: 28:24 Absolutely. We do marketing, we have national conferences, key accounts.

Debi Lynes: 28:29 What are some concerns or what are some things you’re really excited about?

Missy Santorum: 28:35 Well, concerns of course. We’re always trying to stay on top of technology. We’re trying to be efficient. And so just like the way we market and send out our public relations. People are like, “well, you’re member-owned. Why do you advertise?” Because we have these programs and services that benefit our members and we want them to know about it.

Debi Lynes: 28:54 I really appreciate you all coming today. I think it’s been extremely helpful. Very, very educational. We’d love to give you the opportunity to share a little bit about how we can connect with you all.

Missy Santorum: 29:07 Okay. Through palmetto.coop is the website. We have a Palmetto Electric Cooperative. We are in, like I said, Hardeeville, Ridgeland, Hampton, Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, South Carolina. The website is Palmetto.coop. That’s P-A-L-M-E-T-T-O dot C-O-O-P. The one 800 number is (800) 922-5551.

Debi Lynes: 29:32 That makes so much sense and they are extremely user-friendly so don’t hesitate. Thank you both so much for joining us here on aging in place.

Debi Lynes: 29:42 I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand. My response, who knew. She’s gonna be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and a hint that is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 30:10 Thanks Debi. Who’s sitting on the remote? We’ve reached the age where everything has a remote and usually the universal remote is not the answer to our problem. Right now I have four remotes on my coffee table because that universal just isn’t working in my world. The grandchildren come to visit. It ends up being just one remote on the table and it’s “not that one.” Elderly persons with a table completely full of today’s necessities will also appreciate this “Who knew”. To eliminate the current coffee table shuffle or controllers, take Velcro with the self-sticky tape and put it around the edge of the table on the side that faces the couches or their favorite chair that will be the best. Place a small piece of Velcro on each of your remotes and attach. If your table has an overhang top, the remotes will be hidden out of plain sight. Who knew we would be such a controlling generation?

Debi Lynes: 31:08 We are back and what a fantastic episode with Palmetto Electric Cooperative. Talk about takeaways. I’m sitting here with a friend of mine and she has 17 takeaways. We decided that we’re going to leave you with one and one that will be good for all of us and that is two numbers, 68 and 78. Keep your thermostat set at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter and what a great way to save money. We want to thank all of you for joining us here on the Aging in Place Podcast. Have a wonderful week.

Henrik de Gyor: 31:49 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. If you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at pr@aginginplacepodcast.com. Thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

5. Wanda Gozdz

January 17, 2020April 16, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Wanda Gozdz of Golden Age Living about safe home environments at any staging in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

(duration: 32 minutes 44 seconds)

Wanda Gozdz

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Resources

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Amazon Echo Dot

Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS)

Certified for Humans smart plug

Golden Age Living

Ring

Solid Rubber Threshold Ramp

Vacuum elevators

101 Mobility

Lynes on Design

Takeaways

When it comes to aging in place at any stage in life, it’s about safety, security, ease of use, comfort, and beauty.

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone, at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces and health and wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can and why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing and that you can live in at any age, with any ability, at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:05 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place Podcast. We are so excited to have as our guest today, Wanda Gozdz. Thank you so much for joining us. I’m really excited to talk to you, Wanda. Today you had been a teacher and a mentor to me. And what I’d like to do is ask you a little bit about CAPS certification and what a CAPS designer, architect, occupational therapist, physical therapist does?

Wanda Gozdz: 01:34 Well, a person that’s a certified aging in place specialist really helps people with home modifications. They basically do an assessment to determine is the home adaptable to a person’s need as they change over time and then they provide design solutions and they also implement those design solutions to create an environment that provides ease of use, comfort, safety and beauty.

Debi Lynes: 02:03 Things that you and I talked about and that you taught me early on was that when we talk about aging in place is really creating a home for anyone at any age, in any stage of life. And that it doesn’t serve any of us well if we limit what we talk about in certified aging in place, if we just put the seniors as a group. It’s really about anyone. Can you talk a little bit about what CAPS is? You sort of gave us a broad spectrum. Specifically from the course, what are we going to learn?

Wanda Gozdz: 02:39 Well, we’re going to learn specifically that there are three segments of the market. There’s those people that are just aging and they’re perfectly healthy. I’m 70 years old. I’m aging. I have no immediate needs, but my environment is such that should something happen to me in the future, I can adapt, my environment adapts to my need. An example would be, for example, I have arthritis and I have arthritis in my right hand. I broke my hand. So now it’s a little harder for me to open my door knob. So what I did do is I adapted my environment by changing it to a lever handle, which allows me to use my forearm instead of my hand and it provides me still ease of use and I still can get into my home comfortably. So that is what I’m coming to the table to be able to assess that that’s what you need in your home.

Wanda Gozdz: 03:35 So therefore, regardless of who comes to your home, whether it’s your grandma or your children or your grandchildren, they can easily get into your home regardless of their condition, their age, or their ability.

Debi Lynes: 03:50 You know, when I remember sitting in a class and being very familiar with ADA and universal design, but not realizing how all encompassing it is for living any place at any time. Can you talk to me a little bit about universal design?

Wanda Gozdz: 04:07 So universal design is basically the fundamental principles that allow comfort, safety, ease of use, and accessibility regardless of what the person’s ability to do that. An example of that would be, I want something that is assessable to everyone. If I have a 36 inch door, it is assessable, meaning everyone can walk through that door. If I’m walking with a walker, I can get through the door. If I have a scooter, I can get through the door. If I have a stroller, I can get through the door. So it’s equitable and it provides access to everyone. So if I put the door in there, the door is equitable, it’s universal and it’s accessible. Regardless of my ability, my age or what I’m doing, it allows me through the doorway. So that’s a principle. Another principle would be, for example, ease of use or perceptible information. So something that does the task for you. If I have a touch faucet, then that does the task for me. It’s automatically is intuitive and it does the task for me. So whether I do the task or the task is done for me, it allows me to have my way regardless of what my ability is, it allows me to still perform the task of washing my hands.

Wanda Gozdz: 05:27 Perfect example is we all know that we go, Commercially, we go to the bathroom in a public bathroom. When you go to the bathroom, you sit on the toilet, it automatically flushes, you stand up, you go to the faucet, you stick your hands underneath it, the faucet automatically comes on and washes your hands. Then I go to the dryer and it blow dries my hands and it dries it. So that allows me the ability, regardless of who is using it, it’s universal because everyone can use it. But if I have a disability, I still can use that product. Meaning I still can get my hands washed because something is helping me in order to do that. And those kinds of products that are intuitive are going to be the things that are going to allow people to remain in their home.

Wanda Gozdz: 06:16 An example would be the lights automatically come on in my house. That’s a safety and security issue. That’s a universal design feature because that’s intuitive. The lights automatically come on. So regardless if I have macular degeneration or I can’t see or I can’t hear, the task is being basically performed for me. So if we use those principles in designing or creating our environment, that way it doesn’t matter who comes to see me. It doesn’t matter how old they are, it doesn’t matter what their limitations are. They still can be able to be functional and get the job done, which means our activities of daily living, which are going to the bathroom and eating ourselves, those are the activities of daily living. So we want that to be safe, secure, functional, and assessable.

Debi Lynes: 07:11 Do you think, since you’ve started the CAPS course and just known more and more about universal design and accessibility, things have changed? Is the whole industry broadening? And since now there are many of us who are aging, we want to age in place, we and we all have grandchildren. We want our grandkids to be able to come and visit. Have things changed over time?

Wanda Gozdz: 07:37 No. Well, what happens is now we’re designing. The clear distinction is our bodies are changing over time. Are we, is our environment changing? So we have to adapt to our environment so that as we change over time, we can still be able to function in it. So what’s happening? So right now the reason we’re modifying homes is because our bodies are changing. And so we want the environment to be able to do that. So if I’m doing a modification, I’m going to look at those things that allow me to do that. I need to get into the bathroom. So I need a wide enough doorway. The trend right now is for a wet room. We want as much space in the bathroom as possible for accessibility regardless of whether or walking in there, whether we’re on wheelchair, whether we’re in a walker or we’re bringing the dog in for a bath or we’re bringing our grandchild in. We want as much space as possible. So we’re creating a bathroom that has no walls in it. It just has the basic structure and the whole room is assessable to me. So I have a shower head that moves up and down. I have a faucet that I can easily touch and be able to stick my hands under. I have grab bars that give me stability and security while I’m navigating in that shower. So all of that is changing. What is changing and the products, they’re becoming a lot more friendly and a lot more aesthetically pleasing. So what is changing is the products are there and they have been there. We’re moving them from institutional life to what? To aesthetically pleasing because it’s now our home and we want our environment to be beautiful.

Debi Lynes: 09:25 One of the things that you pride yourself on. And one of the things that I think you’re internationally known for is being able to walk into a home and really help people assess ways that they can make their home more visitable, if that’s the right word for that. When you walk through a home, can you give us just an example of you walk in or you drive into the driveway? What kinds of things are you looking for?

Wanda Gozdz: 09:51 We start at the curb. I’m looking for access. I need to be able to get into my home. So it starts at the curb. Egress starts at the curb. I’m looking at what obstacles. How am I getting in? Am I traveling? Am I getting in here through the garage? Am I getting in there from the front stairs. And what are the travel paths? So my travel path is important. Do I have to step up, you know, from the garage into the house. So that is an obstacle. So what do I have to do there? If I am in the house and now I have to walk up a flight of stairs, that is an obstacle because now I have something in my travel path that’s stopping me, so I’m looking at that travel path. Do I have a 42 inch width that allows me a travel pack that allows me? Now since we have an open space plan and most people’s homes are open, we use furniture for that travel path. So do I have enough space between the couch and the counter so that I could pass forward safely?

Wanda Gozdz: 10:52 So that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking how am I walking through that environment easily with a minimal amount of effort.

Debi Lynes: 11:02 All right. I tell you what, you’re amazing and this is why she’s so fascinating to listen to. She’s such a wealth of information. Wanda, we’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come right back. I just talk a little about more about aging in place. Stay with us.

Debi Lynes: 11:14 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes. Design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what lines on design can do for you for more information, certified aging in place and facilitative and supportive design. Look for us at lynesondesign.com. That’s L Y N E S on design.com

Henrik de Gyor: 11:39 Hi, I’m Henrik, the producer of Aging in Place Podcast. If you’d like more information and transcripts of this podcast, visit aginginplacepodcast.com and now back to Debi Lynes with the next segment of Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 11:59 We are back here on aging in place. We are again here with Wanda Gozdz. Good to see you again. It’s amazing to talk with you. You are such a fountain of knowledge and you make it really user-friendly, which is great for many of us. You know, I’ve got a 91-year-old dad and a two-year-old granddaughter and I think when they can visit the house and everybody’s safe, I feel much more comfortable. You were taking us a walk through a home and really showing us some things that we can pay attention to. The takeaway or what I really heard from you was from the beginning. Okay. When you drive up to a house, that’s where you really start paying attention to aging in place and making your home universally designed.

Wanda Gozdz: 12:45 So what I’m going to say is the other issue is our population is going to be basically the female because we outlive men by 10 years. And so what women want is security and so that starts at the outside of the house to approach you. Somebody comes to my front door. I live in Florida. Code basically requires that our doors open out to deal with the hurricane. So when the door out and someone knocks on my door, I have to step outside and then look behind the door to see who’s there. Well, that’s a security issue and a safety issue. If I live by myself, I want to be able to be safe. I want to know who’s on that other side of the door before I answer the door, not after I opened the door.

Debi Lynes: 13:33 I never thought about that.

Wanda Gozdz: 13:33 Yeah. And that’s a big issue. One, and I do it every day because somebody knocks on my door, I have to step out the door and I have to look behind the door. So to me that’s a safety issue. So what I want to do is what is going to enhance security and safety. For me, a perfectly example Ring phone. Ring phone is the ability to be able to have communication directly through. So I apply it on. If I have an iPhone or a [smart] phone, it’s an application and it’s a product you put outside. You do not have to have an electrical connection. You put it on the outside and it’s a camera. So it has 180-degree view in front of me around my environment. So it looks down my corridor and up my corridor. Ring, R-I-N-G, Ring. I mount it to the outside of my house and there’s a camera inside. And that camera when somebody approaches, it automatically is on and being able to see from a range back here. And the security issue is that you can add a light on top.

Wanda Gozdz: 14:37 So lighting is a security issue. If I have a light above my doorway and someone approaches me. Immediately, I can see who’s coming to my home. Now with Ring phone, somebody knocks on my door. I automatically see them on my phone and I don’t have to open the door because I’m looking in my phone to communicate. “Hi, how are you, Debi?” Oh, you can say, “Oh, I’m, hi Wanda. How are you?” “Oh, hi Debi. Thank you for coming over. Let me open the door for you.” If I don’t know who’s at the door. “I can say, may I help you?”

Debi Lynes: 15:11 Got it.

Wanda Gozdz: 15:11 So I don’t have to open the door in order to see who’s at my door. So that’s a security and safety issue and for under 100 bucks, maybe it costs 100 bucks to get the combination of the phone and the light. Immediately. Safety and security is addressed. And I feel much more comfortable, whether it’s nighttime or daytime, when somebody is at my door. One feature is now if you’re dad… You’re away. I go to my son’s house, he says, “mom, let me know when you come to my house. I’ll open the door” or you can give this feature to someone else and then when, so your dad, if he lived in another house, he can give you access so whoever comes to the door you can see who’s coming to Dad’s door.

Debi Lynes: 15:54 What’s interesting is I was thinking about my daughter who has a two-year-old and is pregnant with another one and I think, I mean we’re saying security, but it’s just convenience too. It would be a wonderful feature for her to be able to know again, if she needed to really come to the door or not.

Wanda Gozdz: 16:10 That’s right. And if she’s in another room feeding the baby, she can keep the phone there and she doesn’t have to get up to go see the door. Somebody’s right there. She’s has the access to it, so convenience, ease of use, comfort and safety are the features. Security and safety is what the Ring phone basically provides. And I recommend that to everyone, especially to women.

Debi Lynes: 16:31 Well, it’s so much fun to talk about product because I think at the end of every one of our podcasts, what we try to do is we do takeaways, practical things that people can actually do when they finish and this is exactly what we’re looking for. I’m surprised when you consider or when you share lighting as an area of safety and security until you mentioned the light at the front door. Are there other things that are safety and security we really wouldn’t think about?

Wanda Gozdz: 16:57 The number one feature for safety is lighting. I say that what we have to do is change our lighting. Lighting provides safety and security. Right now, we grew up on Thomas Edison created the yellow light bulb. It is yellow light. As we age, our eyes turn yellow. So what we need is we need blue light. LED light is the light that we need that provides security and safety. If we increase lighting, automatically we increase security and safety. So where do you need that additional light?

Debi Lynes: 17:30 Right, exactly.

Wanda Gozdz: 17:30 In transition areas and places, so we need direct light for thing. We need task light. So I’m working at the counter. I want that light there and then I need lighting that’s going to provide me the ability to be able to see what I’m doing in that particular task.

Debi Lynes: 17:48 Let me ask you another question about lighting. Oftentimes turning on lamps, turning off lamps. I know for my dad, it’s oftentimes a hassle to move around and turn off all of these individual things. Are there products out there to make that easier also? Yes.

Wanda Gozdz: 18:07 You can have an app from your phone. You got Alexa, you talk to Alexa. Say “Alexa, turn on the lights.” “Alexa, shut off the lights.” “Alexa, tell me what time it is.” So you can use that as a feature or component that helps you with those features.

Debi Lynes: 18:22 So from a certified aging in place point of view, tell me who would actually do that for you? Do you look for people who are certified in that?

Wanda Gozdz: 18:34 You’re gonna look for an interior designer. You’re going to look for a contractor that’s got CAPS certified and you can check National Home Builders Association to their website and to put in CAPS and then you can find the people in your local area that are certified. You need to understand what you really need to have in your home.

Debi Lynes: 18:54 What about things like bars, Counters? How do I determine the height of counters? And how do I, again, be proactive when I’m either renovating my house or building a new house to prepare for aging in place?

Wanda Gozdz: 19:14 Well, you’re going to have to have a professional. Then, you would want an interior designer that understands what the differences and/or you want a contractor that’s CAPS certified because they understand how to be able to determine what kind of counter you need, what’s your reach, how far you can be reach, how far you can lift, so they’re trained in basically doing that.

Debi Lynes: 19:34 You know, when cost is no object, I think, “Oh, I’d like to put an elevator in” or I’d like to do things like that. Are there cost-effective ways to begin to retrofit, if you will, my home or when I’m building, are there ways to just develop a master plan and I can do it over time?

Wanda Gozdz: 19:54 Yeah. And that would be again, meeting with interior designer or CAPS certified professional because they are going to plan that space for you and how to best economize to get all of that. You know, for an elevator, you require certain things, for a lift you require certain things and they’re the experts that know all of the things. So I would probably say they need to do an assessment. So when they do an assessment, that’s where they evaluate what you can do in that space.

Debi Lynes: 20:20 And so that’s what you were basically telling us when we went into the front and then we went in and furniture was something that we talked about travel. What about going into the kitchen? Talk a little bit about the kitchen.

Wanda Gozdz: 20:30 Well, the kitchen is the same way. Activity of daily living. What are you doing in the kitchen? You have to feed yourself, you have to wash the dishes, you have the cook and you have to clean up after yourself. So, you’re looking at the activity that the person is doing and how are they basically doing it and everybody’s different.

Debi Lynes: 20:46 Well, from an accessibility point of view, what are some tips that you could give us about what we need to pay attention to within the kitchen area.

Wanda Gozdz: 20:56 Well when the kitchen, again access cooking, the stovetop, you need to make sure that the stovetop is safe and secure. So the big thing is induction stovetops are really good, worth for aging in place because it runs on magnetic energy so if something is removed, if you cooking in the pot and the water boils out, the stovetop automatically shuts itself off. Take the top pot off and you touch the stovetop. The stovetop is immediately cold. So for aging in place, that’s a perfect stovetop because I already have to lift my stovetop on twice while I was cooking and I’m thinking I could burn down the building.

Debi Lynes: 21:36 I did the same thing. I popped popcorn and walked out of the room. Oops. Yes, very right. Not good.

Wanda Gozdz: 21:43 So you can basically do that. Yes.

Debi Lynes: 21:46 What about if I do have my dad or someone in a wheelchair if a cousin just recently broke her leg and we were trying to figure out how to get her in and sit at, you know, come into the kitchen and sit at the counter…

Wanda Gozdz: 22:00 You’d want a high-level counter. So what she needs is access. So if you had a multilevel counter of two different heights, she can easily come with her chair and sit at the counter. So the design, right now, everybody wants an Island. Everybody wants an Island. That’s the trend. Well, an island you want to put multilevel in it because regardless of whether your granddaughter’s going to come and stand at it or somebody’s going to come in a chair and sit at it in a wheelchair, they’re going to have access to what? To be able to eat at the counter. So that multilevel counter gives you the ability to do that.

Debi Lynes: 22:38 It makes so much sense. What is the difference between a lift and an elevator and if I’m not ready for an elevator or it’s cost-prohibitive right now, is there anything in preplanning that I can do to be able to put an elevator in it at some point?

Wanda Gozdz: 22:52 Well, the issue is that we have a lot of types of elevators. Elevator is known as a pneumatic elevator. It’s a vacuum elevator. So you know like you go to the bank and you put your money in, it goes up the tube that’s called vacuum, that’s called the pneumatic vacuum. So that doesn’t require anything other than plug and play. But you have to have someplace to put it. That would be great in front of a stairwell. If you had a winding stairwell or a loft elevator because it could go from a level to the other. The issue is it only requires electrical outlet. It requires a battery backup and cost you $16,000 $17,000, that’s the fastest one that you can get overnight to your house. If you had an issue. It has some requirements. Some of them are not wheelchair accessible. They’re creating them so they’re wheelchair accessible, but you can get one to another. The elevator is a little bit more complicated because that requires planning and that requires where is the space that you have in order to basically do that.

Debi Lynes: 24:01 So let’s say I’m building a new house and I want to plan for an elevator because I’m going to have little kids and I’m also going to have aging parents. Is there anything I can do to plan for it?

Wanda Gozdz: 24:12 If you’re planning in a new house, you would want to put double stack closets next to the stairwell. Those double-stacked closets are for future shafts that you’re going to put the elevator in. Then you have to really know what kind of elevator you’re going to put in. Do you need an elevator pit? You need to have your electrical. You have to have your battery backup. You have to have your telephone. You have to have your walls reinforced. So there’s certain things that the designer or the builder can help you in that planning. When you can decide what kind of money you want to spend on that elevator and how much is it going to cost you.

Debi Lynes: 24:44 What’s a lift?

Wanda Gozdz: 24:48 A lift is basically the same thing, but it’s used for short distances. It’s shorter. It only takes one person at a time, and it has a limitation of 500 pounds. So it requires a flat surface. So you’ll see lifts basically in older buildings where they had garages and they had transitions. It was only used for one person, but it will fit. It’s used instead of a ramp, a lift can be used in a garage because you can put it where the stoop is and then the person can transfer, but it has limitations. It only holds up the 500 pounds including the equipment and the person. It requires that you have somebody who’s holding a button to move from place to place. But so it’s a mini-elevator, mini-elevator that’s short, but it serves a purpose and it replaces a ramp very, very economically.

Debi Lynes: 25:40 Talk to me a few. I was just going to say talk to me a little bit about ramps if you will. Can anyone build a ramp anywhere at any time? Are there specs or are there things we really have to pay attention to? You talk to me about that.

Wanda Gozdz: 25:55 Well, a ramp has got an issue because the ramp has to comply with local code… Building code. A ramp has to be able to be assessable. It has to be at least 36 inches high. You have to have a travel path and you have to have a surface and you have to show transition, so a lot of people make mistakes on ramps. I would say that you would want to talk to a professional to make sure that you’re compliant when doing a ramp. You can also buy a portable ramp. 101 Mobility is a big manufacturer. They sell portable products. You could buy a portable ramp to use it for a short term basis. That would probably be sometimes more economical than building a ramp. And ramps can also be built. Like I see a ramp down my street that’s on the side of a garage and it goes from the street to the garage so ramp can be very simple. If it’s at the ratio of one to 20, it means it’s pretty flat and pretty slowly sloped, so you don’t have to have rails on the side of it. So those are accessible. So that ramp doesn’t require that it has railing on because it’s sloped gradually. So you’re not going to fall off of anything.

Debi Lynes: 27:08 Wow. There’s just so much know our ramps pretty much standard in most commercial buildings now. Are they required?

Wanda Gozdz: 27:15 Yes. Under American Disabilities Act, any commercial building requires to have a ramp.

Debi Lynes: 27:21 You know, we’re talking about wheelchairs and we’re talking about children and we’re talking about those kinds of disabilities. I’m just now thinking…blind, lack of vision, hearing, some of those senses are there. Is there anything specifically or interesting about aging in place when your site goes? Oh yeah. Well I see that with myself as I get older.

Wanda Gozdz: 27:49 Then we use other tacticals. So if we can’t see, we need to hear. If we can’t hear, we need to see. So we have to use all the other senses. So we bring all the other senses to the table when we’re designing.

Debi Lynes: 28:03 Give me examples of that, of what that would look like.

Wanda Gozdz: 28:07 So if I can’t hear, I need to see. So I would need color contrast, which would help me with what? With the showing where the differential. At the end of the hallway it’s going to say, Oh, something’s happening. If I can’t see, I need audio, so something to tell me. So that could be a command or it could be a tone or it could be a voice coming from an Intercom is the thing that people use. If they can’t hear, they can see. So you can have a camera that’s there and they can visually see who’s on the other side of the door or who’s going through the door. So that would be a way to accommodate them.

Debi Lynes: 28:48 What about color? Do you find that as we get older we need softer color? brighter color?

Wanda Gozdz: 28:54 Color is the biggest thing that we need. Color contrast. As we lose, we lose the ability for depth perception and we need color contrast. So the darker colors are harder for the eye to see. Lighter colors are better, but we need contrast between a surface on the floor or the surface and product. So surface that we need immediately.

Debi Lynes: 29:15 We’ve only got about a minute or so. And you, you pretty much have a mantra about what certified aging in place certification really looks like.

Wanda Gozdz: 29:26 It’s safety, security, ease of use and comfort.

Debi Lynes: 29:32 Safety, security, ease of use and comfort.

Wanda Gozdz: 29:37 And then I add beauty because everyone wants their environment that’s beautiful. That’s the design.

Debi Lynes: 29:42 Safety, security, ease of use and comfort. That makes so much sense. Again, I keep saying it but I can’t say it enough. You’re a wealth of knowledge and I think what we did today on this podcast is really just scratch the surface of what and how I certified aging in place specialist can really enhance your living space and again it’s all about health and wellness. So I am very, very grateful to you and I want to thank all of our listeners too and Wanda, we will definitely have you back here on aging in place.

Wanda Gozdz: 30:22 And if anybody’s interested in classes they can just go to my website, goldenageliving.com and go under course schedule and they can find out where the courses are listed and available.

Debi Lynes: 30:35 You are amazing. Again, thank you so much for joining us.

Debi Lynes: 30:38 I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand my response. Who knew she’s going to be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and to hint that is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 31:07 Thanks Debi. Time for 60 second make-over. Thanks to online shopping, you now can do a little makeover for your home with just a couple of clicks. Have that doorway that has a little step up to cross with someone using a walker. Those door jams can be a fall waiting to happen. What to do? A popular online shopping website sells rubber thresholds in many sizes. A rubber threshold will prevent walkers or wheelchairs for hitting that bump in the road. Prices usually start around $30 it’s an easy fix for a big problem. Who knew?

Debi Lynes: 31:42 Wow, Wanda Gozdz, a certified aging in place specialist. She gave us so many takeaways. The entire podcast is a takeaway to tell you the truth because there’s so many practical tips, but here’s the bottom line and the takeaway I hope you all get, and that is when it comes to aging in place at any stage in life, it’s about safety. It’s about security, it’s about ease and it’s about comfort. Thank you all for joining us here on aging in place.

Henrik de Gyor: 32:16 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. If you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at pr@aginginplacepodcast.com. Thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

4. Carla Rohal

January 10, 2020May 8, 2020 ~ Henrik de Gyor ~ Leave a comment

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Carla Rohal of Cregger about bathrooms and kitchens for any stage in life

(duration: 33 minutes 36 seconds)

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Takeaways

Universally designed plumbing fixtures are gorgeous. They come in all finishes. You can even plumb for them before you need to put them in, but don’t be intimidated and don’t be afraid. They are a designer’s dream rather than a designer’s nightmare

Transcript

Debi Lynes: 00:03 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place for every stage in life. What if you could visit or have a home that would accommodate anyone at any age, any physical ability at any time? How cool would that be? That’s what we’re doing here at aging in place. Why me? Because I’m a doctor of psychology and I specialize in physical spaces and health and wellness. Also, I love designing with intent at any age. Why now? Because we the baby boomers want to age in place gracefully and we want our families around us as much as we can and why you the audience? Because we want you to experience what it’s like to have a home that’s safe, aesthetically pleasing and that you can live in at any age with any ability at any time. I’d like to introduce you now to Aging in Place Podcast for every stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 01:05 Hi and welcome to Aging in Place Podcast at any stage in life. I’m really excited to have my friend Carla Rohal with us. She works at Cregger and it’s really interesting to me that you and I are talking today about Aging in Place at any stage in life. We were just talking about this. I’ve got nine grandchildren. Oh my goodness.

Carla Rohal: 01:25 Oh my goodness.

Debi Lynes: 01:26 And a 91-year-old dad who lives with me. You’ve got one daughter, but you are recently an empty nester.

Carla Rohal: 01:32 Yes.

Debi Lynes: 01:32 I would love to talk to you, a little bit about Cregger Supply, what you do and why it’s so important that we have a kitchen that functions at any age, a bathroom that functions at any age and how we can kind of make that happen. So thank you for joining us.

Carla Rohal: 01:50 Sure. I’m glad to be here. Thank you. We see a lot of people in this area that are looking towards their retirement and even if they don’t have special needs right now, they want to make sure that if they do, that they are prepared for them. So that starts in the design stage, of course, with their architects, with their designers, with their builders, and then they come into Cregger and they start seeing what we have to offer for them.

Debi Lynes: 02:18 How long have you been with Cregger and what does Cregger really do? What’s the comprehensive plan if you will?

Carla Rohal: 02:25 Okay. I have been with Cregger for 16 years and in the industry for 24 [years]. We are a plumbing supply wholesaler, which also includes the kind of accessories that go along with bathrooms and also, we do appliances in a different market. And we’ve grown and grown into HVAC in this market.

Debi Lynes: 02:51 Yes. In the 16 years that you’ve been there, have you seen a huge trend toward proactively paying attention to aging in place or at any stage in life? In other words, doing things like prepping for handrails before you’re even, we have even need them.

Carla Rohal: 03:15 Yes.When when I started, it was more retroactive. Like they would come in after the fact. We’ve had this happen, we need to get a higher height toilet now we need to get some grab bars put in. “Do you have anything that can go in if we weren’t prepared for this?” But that was then, and this is now and we have people that are younger than me coming through the door talking about “we’re going to be in this house for a while. We could have a parent move in or something could happen to us and we want to be prepared for it.” It could be as much as just putting this stuff behind the walls and being prepared for what if, or putting it in now and just making sure it’s decorative enough that it doesn’t look so ‘hospital’.

Debi Lynes: 04:02 I was just going to say ‘institutional’ is really what we’re talking about. Yes. So I would love to kind of take a tour of Cregger with you and I walking through it in our mind and talking to people. I tell you, if you haven’t been there, it really is fun to go in and see so you can get some brilliant ideas. But I want to talk first of all about the bathroom. So let’s go through, one of the things that people talk to me all about as a designer is, “I don’t want a grab bar. I don’t want a grab bar there, they look horrible.” And “what do you mean I might need a handheld shower?” Or, “Gosh, Carla, can you help me prepare if I have to transfer my dad from a wheelchair into the shower? What about a bench?” Let’s talk about some of the products that are out there right now.

Carla Rohal: 04:43 Sure. We can start with that shower with the bench. So you have a walk-in shower, which we sell, of course, the linear drains, so there’s no threshold and it keeps the water so that it doesn’t come outside of the shower and you can just push a wheelchair straight in. Okay. You can transfer them to a seat that is rated to handle up to 500 pounds. Right. And they can have grab bars anywhere in that shower that don’t look so institutional. They match the design of the fixture and the finish of the fixture.

Debi Lynes: 05:22 Do you recommend putting grab bars at a specific place in a bathroom like that? I guess in the showers is what we are really talking about

Carla Rohal: 05:27 Well generally, they like to put a small hand size of grab bar right when you’re entering a shower.

Debi Lynes: 05:39 Okay. That makes sense.

Carla Rohal: 05:39 Just so you could have something to grab onto if there is a threshold. That’s nice to have that there. Then, generally, by a bench, you would have something, a lot of times they’ll do it on a 45 [degree angle], but sometimes it’ll go straight across and it can be whatever length you want it to be according to the size of your shower. They make them 12, 18, 24 [inches].

Debi Lynes: 06:02 But they don’t look industrial.

Carla Rohal: 06:04 Not at all. It looks like a larger towel bar holder. It’s just bigger, but it looks the same. Decorative, finish wise, all that.

Debi Lynes: 06:14 I was just gonna say, what about finishes? Can I get the oil bronze? Can I get silver? Can I get brushed…?

Carla Rohal: 06:20 Just about anything. You can get all the new brasses and bronzes and matte blacks and white, all of it.

Debi Lynes: 06:30 That is very hip and cool right now. Okay, so I’ve got that. Now let’s talk a little bit about the shower itself. I’m saying shower itself and I really mean…

Carla Rohal: 06:39 The water. The water delivery. The handhelds are obviously key. We’ve done showers where people have to be showered by someone else. So we’ve done like two handheld showers on each side. So it would be very easy to get to the person in the wheelchair for the caregiver.

Debi Lynes: 07:01 Yeah, I never thought about that. The other thing I’m thinking about as we’re speaking now is if I am, well let’s say I don’t even have a disability, but I have a shoulder injury. Well, I guess that is a disability… and I can’t really reach across. Do you ever consider putting what do you call that… the turner on-er/off-er.

Carla Rohal: 07:20 The valve.

Debi Lynes: 07:20 The valve. Very technical term. [laugh] Up close by or is that place strategically too?

Carla Rohal: 07:26 That is also placed strategically. It doesn’t have to be near the fixture, but it should be in the place that makes the most sense for what you’re trying to accomplish in that shower.

Debi Lynes: 07:38 Okay. So now I walk out of the shower. Let’s talk a little bit about sinks, height, faucets. Talk to me. Talk me through some of those.

Carla Rohal: 07:46 Well, the heights of the cabinets these days are such that they’re higher and they’re easier. You don’t have to bend over. You can also get ones that you can roll right up underneath in a wheelchair. And that is, I mean, that’s all over the place. But definitely lots and lots of nice decorative options.

Debi Lynes: 08:09 We talk about aging in place, but we’re really talking about visitability. We’re talking about you being able to come, your daughter being able to come, my granddaughter at two, being able to come and be able to wash your hands and my dad too. So what kind of fixtures are you saying? And let’s talk, talk us through some of those. And I’d love to hear brands too because that’s always nice to be able to know, you know, what and where I can buy. Absolutely, so the most common thing to do in the sink area is a lever handle. That is what is used according to the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

Debi Lynes: 08:41 And why is that?

Carla Rohal: 08:42 Because you can not have the facility [ability] to grab it but be able to push it with your hand and you couldn’t do that with like a cross-type hand.

Debi Lynes: 08:51 Correct.

Carla Rohal: 08:52 So anything that has a lever would be considered very easy to use. So that I would say is 99% of our sales.

Debi Lynes: 09:00 And what about cool looks? I mean do you get…

Carla Rohal: 09:03 Yes, they make very beautiful faucets that are ADA compliant.

Debi Lynes: 09:07 And I laugh because my favorite fossil that I got from you is one that is a lever, but it looks like almost a trough and I love that to get on it looks so amazing and my kids think it’s about the coolest thing ever.

Carla Rohal: 09:22 Of course. And I’m sure that is an ADA compliant fixture.

Debi Lynes: 09:25 Let me ask you a question about heat. Is there a way to temperature control how hot my faucet is and how hot my water is?

Carla Rohal: 09:33 Yes, Most of the time that it’s controlled by your water heater, however you can use the stops underneath your sink to cut back on the amount of hot water that can come through on the hot side. So, there are also valves that will do that. There’s a lot of different ways that you can go with that. In a home, I would say you would just cut it back yourself. You wouldn’t put a limiting… We do those in commercial places.

Debi Lynes: 10:02 Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take a really fast break and we’re going to come back and we’re going to talk about my favorite subject. You know what it is… Toilets, of course, because who knew? Toilets can be so interesting for aging in place at any stage in life, so I really want to talk about the little tinkle little bottom toilet first, so stay with us. We’ll be back here on aging in place.

Debi Lynes: 10:24 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes. Design elements are psychologically and physically supportive and conducive to health and wellness. To learn more about what Lynes on Design can do for you, for more information on certified aging in place and facilitative and supportive design. Look for us at lynesondesign.com. That’s L Y N E S on design.com.

Debi Lynes: 10:49 We are back here on aging in place. We are here with Carla Rohal and we’re talking about plumbing fixtures. Who knew it could be so interesting and so important. It’s only important when you sit on the potty and you can’t get up. I mean, I think that’s exactly what it is. We’re talking about toilets as being really interesting and something that in today’s market who knew that the toilet would be one of the big decisions that you would make when you’re building a home or even renovating a home. Let’s talk a little bit about the height of a toilet, why that’s important and some of the new products that are out there. Because they’re pretty amazing.

Carla Rohal: 11:28 Absolutely. The trend is that most toilets now are ADA compliant, which means they’re the like chair height. Yes. Easier to get up, off of and down onto. And the trend has become that since probably, I would say in the last 10 years, most companies aren’t making any of their new toilets and regular height. Got it. It’s almost hard to find one in a regular height because we have found as adults, if you’re tall, that it’s easier to get on and off, so it doesn’t matter if you have a hurt back or if you’re just tall, it’s easier to get on and off a higher toilet.

Debi Lynes: 12:11 Probably the most fun toy that I saw recently was the one that has the seat for little tiny bums and then ones for regular folks. Talk to us about that. Who makes that?

Carla Rohal: 12:24 That’s actually a Kohler seat and it is a training-type seat where you can have…

Debi Lynes: 12:31 I have a two-year-old granddaughter, so perfect.

Carla Rohal: 12:34 Perfect, for she won’t fall in. That’s right. It is made with a very small opening so that their little bums won’t fall through and then you can raise that part of the lifts and an adult can sit on it and you can put it on any elongated toilet seat, I mean, any elongated toilet. Yes.

Debi Lynes: 12:53 Oh. And you have the last time that you and I were together, I think you were telling me about an interesting situation that you had a friend of yours, I think, had broken their shoulder?

Carla Rohal: 13:01 They had shoulder surgery and they purchased one of the cleansing seats and I believe that might have been a Kohler cleansing seat as well.

Debi Lynes: 13:12 What does that even mean?

Carla Rohal: 13:13 That means you put a toilet seat on your toilet that acts like a bidet. So it sprays and does everything that you need to cleanse yourself without actually being in a separate fixture or separate bidet fixture. All you need is the same water supply that comes into the toilet. You ‘T’ [valve] off of it and you do need an electrical outlet.

Debi Lynes: 13:35 Let me ask you a question. What am a lot of people ask when they come in buying toilets?

Carla Rohal: 13:40 The very first thing they say is that they want a higher toilet. That is the number one thing we hear when they walk through the door. Okay. Second would be that they want the seat to be elongated. Obviously, that’s a more comfortable seat to sit on. Those are, I would say the two biggest things they ask for. Now, a third thing that they’re asking for is just the cleanability, which means the sides of the base of the toilet goes straight back in a skirted fashion so it’s just easier to keep clean.

Debi Lynes: 14:12 Gosh, I never even thought about that. You know, it’s funny cause my son just renovated his house and he said he was more excited about showing us his bathroom and his toilet than anything else because it had bells and whistles that I didn’t even know existed. Talk us through some of the fancy, jazzy things that are there.

Carla Rohal: 14:30 Well, okay, so the skirting is the least jazzy, but most liked by women, or, I shouldn’t say it that way, but by the people that are cleaning the toilet. The bidet seat itself, the washlet seat, it’s got a lot of different functions depending on which one you get, it will fine spray, rear spray. It will oscillate and pulsate the water. It gives you temperature control on the keypad so that you can make the water cooler or warmer.

Debi Lynes: 15:04 Okay. So you said keypad. Help me.

Carla Rohal: 15:07 So there it’s a, it’s just a little pad where you press the button to turn it on and to do all these different functions. So it just sits on the wall and you press the buttons and it does all that and it’s really cool. It’s very easy to function.

Debi Lynes: 15:21 That’s what I was gonna say from a usability standpoint, is it pretty easy to manage?

Carla Rohal: 15:26 Yes. Like if you are incapacitated with your primary arm. if you’re right-handed, you’ve had something go wrong with your right hand and you need to use the restroom, it’s certainly a lot easier to press a button to spray and press a button to air dry when you’re done.

Debi Lynes: 15:43 It’s really interesting after talking to occupational therapists, physical therapists, people who’ve had hip replacements, I never really… you don’t really realize how easy or difficult it can be to participate in activities of daily living until you really have something and you can’t do.

Carla Rohal: 16:01 Oh yeah.

Debi Lynes: 16:01 And I think that’s what’s been amazing. What about as far as toilet paper holders and again I have to go back to bars because I know that oftentimes getting into that bathroom and on and off the toilet is a real issue. How do you all deal with that?

Carla Rohal: 16:17 With the grab bars, again, a lot of people have their bathroom, the toilet [area], the water closet area set up for or put in immediately. At least one bar. In a commercial situation, you have to have three. It’s mandatory to have three. You have a vertical, a horizontal and then a horizontal behind the toilet. That is to code. In a home, you don’t necessarily need that. One next to the toilet is generally enough. However, you know, two would probably more than suffice.

Debi Lynes: 16:52 One of the things that you showed me the last time I was in the showroom was a toilet paper holder that actually was a grab bar too because I guess it’s fun because now that I’ve been around people and watch where they are vulnerable, I’ve seen a lot of people grab on to that toilet paper holder as a… and that’s not good.

Carla Rohal: 17:10 That’s not good. Going to rip it off the wall unless it’s… Moen makes one that is a toilet paper holder and a grab bar. So you can use it. It’s about eight inches and you can use it to hoist yourself up and it also dispenses the toilet paper.

Debi Lynes: 17:29 Are a lot of these products cost-prohibitive or are they pretty reasonable?

Carla Rohal: 17:33 No, they’re pretty reasonable.

Debi Lynes: 17:35 Tell me about the Moen product because aren’t they, I mean they’re a pretty reasonable product.

Carla Rohal: 17:39 Absolutely. And they have several decorative lines and they have pretty much for every single faucet line they have, they have a decorative matching everything.

Debi Lynes: 17:51 Oh, like a universally designed…

Carla Rohal: 17:53 Yes. Grab bars, accessories, everything that goes with it so that it’s all cohesive and it looks pleasant to the eye. I mean, I think it’s really amazing. Talk to me if you will. I’ve always heard one-piece toilets, two-piece toilets, lids, flushing, things like that. What is the standard or the design, to code now? Well, to code, you don’t have to do one or the other, it doesn’t matter. So it doesn’t matter if it’s a two-piece or a one-piece. It just height is what is. Yes. But for cleaning and for your home, a one-piece fully skirted toilet is going to be the absolute least maintenance.

Debi Lynes: 18:37 Just a little Clorox and all is well in the world. Well, that makes a lot of sense.

Carla Rohal: 18:42 I wanted to mention that Kohler has just come out with a new toilet that is going to be one of the highest on the market, meaning height-wise. Okay. So those people that are looking for even taller toilets than the ones that meet the American Disability Act, they can get another two inches out of this toilet.

Debi Lynes: 19:03 It’s so funny because I’m doing the podcast, I’m always looking for the inside scoop on things like that. And it is amazing when they talk about squatty potties and all. Do you have things like that? All kinds of things to really make, again, like we said, activities of daily living, much more streamlined and easy. It’s wonderful. And again, do you have favorite brands or is it just according to what you, you really like? And the last thing before we have to go to our next segment is what about heated seats?

Carla Rohal: 19:31 The heated seats come with the washlet. Generally speaking, you can’t get the heat without the whole set up of the water.

Debi Lynes: 19:41 So who are usually designs that? When people go into a home unit, they want a renovation or they have a gutter, they have an architect. Do they actually come into the showroom? What does that look like? They come in with you and how do you take them around? How does that work?

Carla Rohal: 19:56 Well, they come in, sometimes they come in with someone like you and they start by the design, meaning I’d want it to be traditional, transitional, contemporary, and it has to look nice, but it needs to meet all these criteria. And we just kind of go through it and I show them all the options of the things that match and they are surprised most of the time that they can actually get what they need and it can look nice.

Debi Lynes: 20:25 I think one of the things that you do so well, based on my experience is when cost is no object, it’s easy. But there are times, and one of the things you taught me, there are places to put your money and places that you can be more conservative. Is that the advantage of having a Carla actually take around and kind of share with you all the different things?

Carla Rohal: 20:50 It is always better to use a professional, for sure, because we know, we’ve been doing this for years. We know how to help you save money. We knew to how to help you get everything that you need and if you tell us, you know, the range you want to stay in, we can help you do that.

Debi Lynes: 21:05 You can do that and make it look fantastic. We’re going to take another quick break and we’re going to come back once more. We’re going to talk about kitchen and then we’re actually going to talk about some specific product lines, which will be fun. Stay with us on aging in place.

Debi Lynes: 21:18 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes and thank you for listening to aging in place for any stage in life. We would like to ask you all to give us a review. Of course, preferably five stars. Thank you again and we hope you enjoyed aging in place for any stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 21:35 We are back here on aging in place. We are here with Carla Rohal. Let’s talk kitchen. I think that’s a great place to go to when you’re talking about universally design things and designing for anybody at any age.

Carla Rohal: 21:49 Absolutely. We’ve done several kitchens for people that weren’t necessarily older. Some are for younger that are handicap and they want to participate or they’re on their own and they need to be able to cook and clean. And if you think about walking up to your kitchen sink, if you’re in a wheelchair, you’re not going to be able to do anything at your kitchen.

Debi Lynes: 22:13 I never thought about that, but that’s very true.

Carla Rohal: 22:15 So now, you know, there’s lots of sink options that are shallower, that you can get low enough, get the wheelchair under faucets that you can touch or wave and turn them on so that it’s easier to use them.

Debi Lynes: 22:32 I’m going to go back to the sink. Talk to me about a shallow sink. I never thought about that either. What does that actually… that makes sense because when I put my hands down into a sink, it’s usually what, 12-14 inches?

Carla Rohal: 22:42 Well, 10 [inches] is okay, but the ADA compliance sinks are five and a half. So that brings it up. It still gives you, and now ample, yes, but I think the trend had been bigger, deeper and that just doesn’t work in a situation where somebody is disabled.

Debi Lynes: 23:03 Do you typically work with architects to design that or, I mean, you pretty much know all your products and know what you can do with all of it. Who makes a shallow sink like that?

Carla Rohal: 23:12 Elkay Manufacturing. They have several.

Debi Lynes: 23:17 Do they? Now talk about Elkay for a second because that’s a name that I know because of you, but talk to us about that product line. They do a lot of kitchen things?

Carla Rohal: 23:24 Yes. They are a manufacturer of stainless steel sinks and they also have a lot of commercial product that I don’t necessarily deal with, but we deal with their sinks and the thing that I like about Elkay is you can almost say, “okay, I want a stainless steel sink that’s X by this deep” and they have it. They have thousands of sinks that you can almost call your size, your depth.

Debi Lynes: 23:52 Pretty cost-effective company too?

Carla Rohal: 23:54 They yes, they have everything from entry-level to pretty high end depending on gauge and thickness.

Debi Lynes: 24:03 Ok. Gauge and thickness. Gauge is what?

Carla Rohal: 24:07 Gauge is the thickness of the stainless steel.

Debi Lynes: 24:10 What are you seeing from a trending point of view? Are you seeing porcelain? Are you seeing stainless as what people are really tending toward? Are the old, big white farm sinks…?

Carla Rohal: 24:21 We sell a lot of the white farm sinks. That is a huge trend and has been, I would say for, I mean I have one in my house is 11 years old. So I would say that trend has been around for a while and I don’t see it drying up anytime soon. The stainless steel is always… It’s just a workhorse of sink. People just like it. They’re comfortable with it. They know what to expect, they know that really the only thing you can do to it is scratch it. And if they take the proper precautions, they can keep it nice for years to come.

Debi Lynes: 24:56 Okay. So what about faucets? You, you mentioned kind of a wave your hand over it faucet for their kitchen. We’re talking about kitchen here.

Carla Rohal: 25:03 That’s right. There’s a couple of different technologies out there. There’s touch and there’s wave motion kind of thing.

Debi Lynes: 25:11 Yeah. What does that mean? Who makes touch and how is that different than wave?

Carla Rohal: 25:16 Touch is Delta, the Delta Company and the Brizo Company both make touch faucets. I love it because even though people tend to say, well, I don’t want to have to touch my faucet, we don’t have to touch it with your hand. You can touch it with your elbow, the back of your hand, your ear, it doesn’t matter, and that’s pretty much the entire body. Less the head. The entire body of the faucet will come on and off at the simple touch of your skin.

Debi Lynes: 25:45 That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Carla Rohal: 25:47 That’s right. When you’ve got stuff all over your hands from baking or chicken or whatever and you just don’t want to spread the mess or the germs, it’s nice to be able to touch.

Debi Lynes: 25:58 How does that temperature control?

Carla Rohal: 26:00 Now the temperature controls still has to be adjusted. That’s right. Now there is a new technology by that same company, by the Brizo company and the Delta company that you will be able to call it out or say that you want to a certain temperature in your faucet.

Debi Lynes: 26:19 I love that. Is it fun?

Carla Rohal: 26:20 Oh my gosh. It’s really fun. New technology and it is very new and we are able to put it on our existing touch faucet. Add it to that in the showroom so we will be able to display it here.

Debi Lynes: 26:36 Oh, you got to go see it. Super fun. Let’s talk about some products and I liked it the way that you mentioned it. You talked about some entry-level and then some higher ends. Again, one what we said before in the other segment was part of the gift of having a Cregger or a Carla is you can help guide us. What are some of your favorites and why? From a product point of view.

Carla Rohal: 27:00 Okay, so I do, I love the Moen company. I love the Delta Company.

Debi Lynes: 27:06 So let’s talk about Moen for a second and we’ll go to Delta. What is it about Moen and they’ve been around for how many years? A gazillion.

Carla Rohal: 27:13 At least 75, I think. Oh my gosh, I’m so ashamed. I should know exactly how many years. But yes, they have been around for a very long time and they do a very nice job with their styles and again, taking it clear through the line, making sure that if they come out with the faucet, they have everything to match, the tub, shower, accessories, the grab bars, all of that kind of stuff. Also, they have an amazing customer service department and that will be where I can tell you that any product that you see on our showroom floor, if they don’t have good customer service, they are not on the showroom floor. It is the most important thing to us is the customer service. Not as much the design because they all have nice design. If you have a really great design and your customer service is terrible, that’s of no use to me.

Debi Lynes: 28:09 Well that makes a lot of sense. Delta I’ve heard of too.

Carla Rohal: 28:12 Yes. Delta is like Moen very large company. Been around for a long time. Very good customer service. Very innovative.

Carla Rohal: 28:21 And what about price pointing with things like that? Would you consider Moen and Delta sort of running the gamut?

Carla Rohal: 28:27 Yes, they, I mean they both have entry-level and they go up to a probably, I would say, a mid. Scooting over that mid-price range with some of their newer, more decorative stuff.

Debi Lynes: 28:40 Who is more high end? What are some fun, trendy, high end?

Carla Rohal: 28:44 Well we have a lot of fun trendy stuff. The Rohl Company, R-O-H-L, they have a lot of great designs that people like you, designers come in and they have a lot of wow factor there. It comes with a price.

Debi Lynes: 28:59 But in the right place again, get a little bling.

Carla Rohal: 29:05 That’s right. I mean for sure. Powder rooms are a great place to put that product and kitchens because when someone comes to your house, they’re going to see your kitchen for sure. And most likely they’re going to see your powder room. So that’s a great place to put those nice higher ends. Like Rohl and Brizo and Newport Brass.

Debi Lynes: 29:25 Oh, Newport Brass. Hmm. I haven’t heard of that. Yes, I guess I have.

Carla Rohal: 29:30 They are a great decorative company. They have all of the finishes. They do their own faucet finishing and they do it for some other companies as well, so they have the ability to really have everything you need in every finish you need.

Debi Lynes: 29:44 Do you recommend that people stick with a flavor or a style throughout their home or do you find that people are like, you know what, this is my crazy powder room and I wanted to do something real wild in here. It doesn’t match anything.

Carla Rohal: 29:57 I’m fine with whatever they want because it’s your house. You’re not building it for me. You’re building it for you. However, I hear all the time that people want to make sure that when they go to resell their home that everyone’s going to like it. So you know, generally they may jazz up some things and do some things a little different, but they don’t leave the idea of this house is traditional or transitional or contemporary. They tried to stay at least consistent in that.

Debi Lynes: 30:27 So if anybody thought that this episode of aging in place podcast, it might be like, “Really? I’m going to talk about toilets and fixtures and they would like, Oh, we’re going to skip that.” No, it’s fascinating and I so appreciate you joining us. We learned a lot and you have to come back and we will talk a lot. There’s a lot more to talk about actually. Carla, thank you.

Carla Rohal: 30:50 Thank you.

Debi Lynes: 30:50 Thank you all for joining us here on aging in place.

Debi Lynes: 30:54 Hi, I’m Dr. Debi Lynes and thank you for listening to aging in place for any stage in life. We would like to ask you all to give us a review. Of course, preferably five stars. Thank you again and we hope you enjoyed aging in place for any stage in life.

Debi Lynes: 31:12 I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Tracy. Tracy is naturally curious and always creative and when we were doing the Aging in Place Podcast, she said there are so many quick tips that I can think of offhand. My response, who knew. She’s going to be with us every week, giving us a quick tip and to hint. That is a practical application.

Tracy Snelling: 31:40 Thanks, Debi. This suggestion is for those thinking about remodeling their kitchens. Ever thought about raising your dishwasher? Choices of dishwashers include drawers and half sizes, but raising it to a height we’re bending over repeatedly like an exercise would be marvelous. Kitchen cabinets can be reinforced to hold a dishwasher waist-high if you wanted, and having it at this height could have other benefits such as using the door when open as a prepping area or even hold a glass as you pour your milk if you’re after spills like I am. And with seniors on blood pressure medications, simply bending over can bring on dizziness. Even back injuries can be aggravating when it comes to the dishwasher loading or unloading. So lift up those dirty dishes off the ground and leave the bending over to the gym. Raise it up and that’s your “who knew”.

Debi Lynes: 32:32 Here’s our takeaway on aging in place for Carla Rohal. We’re talking about plumbing fixtures today and the takeaway is pretty impactful. Here’s what I learned. Universally designed plumbing fixtures are gorgeous. They come in all finishes. You can even plumb for them before you need to put them in, but don’t be intimidated and don’t be afraid. They are a designer’s dream rather than a designer’s nightmare. Thank you all for joining us here on aging in place.

Henrik de Gyor: 33:08 Aging in Place Podcast is hosted by Debi Lynes and produced by Henrik de Gyor. If you have any comments or questions, send an email to debi@aginginplacepodcast.com. We would love to hear from you if you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring this podcast, email us at PR@aginginplacepodcast.com. Thank you for listening to Aging in Place Podcast.

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6. Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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5. Wanda Gozdz

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Wanda Gozdz of Golden Age Living about safe home environments at any staging in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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4. Carla Rohal

Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Carla Rohal of Cregger about bathrooms and kitchens for any stage in life

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Missy Santorum and Parrish Neville of Palmetto Electric Cooperative about electrical service for any stage in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Wanda Gozdz of Golden Age Living about safe home environments at any staging in life on the Aging in Place Podcast

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Lynes on Design

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Dr. Debi Lynes interviews Carla Rohal of Cregger about bathrooms and kitchens for any stage in life

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