“There’s no place like Fox Hollow for the elderly.”

By: Stephanie Lyons Schultz

Take one step into the model at Fox Hollow in Naugatuck and you’ll feel as if you’re transcended some sort of reality. This is far from what you’d imagine for somebody’s “last home,” but that’s what it’s designed to be.

Fox Hollow is a development that will have 20 one-story houses with every amenity you can think of. But it also embraces the principles of “universal design,” in which comfort and accessibility are paramount, coupled with the concept of “aging in place.”

The age 55 and over community is among the first in its kind offering housing that easily changes as it occupants get older. “We’ve made it seamless,” said developer Gary Bonomo, a 55-year-old from Southbury.

The houses are planned around a four-phase aging process. Phase 1, for a very active 50-something couple, looks like a typical upscale 21^st century home.

Although the doorways are larger, to eventually accommodate wheelchairs, you won’t notice. Nor will you be particularly aware of the house’s no-step entry and the discreet ramp inside the garage.

In Phase 2, the owner might find themselves providing care for an elderly parent who’s experienced a fall or a heart attack. The house’s bonus space can become an in-law apartment, complete with bedroom, mini-kitchen and bathroom.

In Phase 3, a monitoring system with audio and video components and links to hospital personnel can be put in the in-law apartment, taking the parent “right up through long-term or hospice care” and death, Bonomo said.

In Phase 4, as time passes, the home-owners themselves are aging but continue to live on their own. Should one spouse die, a caregiver for the survivor can move into the apartment.

“The only drawback to the concept is that you have to think about aging, about limitations,” said Bonomo. “But it is reality.”

Besides changing the use of rooms, smaller modifications can be made to accommodate changing needs. In Phase 1 gourmet kitchen, the microwave sits atop the kitchen counter. If a homeowner later becomes wheelchair-bound, the microwave can be moved into a pre-wired space in place of an under-the-counter drawer.

There are upper and lower ovens. For someone in a wheelchair the lower one remains accessible. The freezer section of the refrigerator is a slide-out drawer on the bottom of the unit – within arm’s reach of the microwave.

A wheelchair can be pulled right up under the sink and the cook-top stove. Corner cabinets are equipped with Lazy Susans so there is no need to reach for a pot or a box of pasta.

The home’s central vacuum system has an automated portal under the kitchen cabinets so debris can be swept directly into it and whisked away.

“It embraces what women are saying,” Bonomo said of Fox Hollow’s kitchens and overall design, which pays attention to details he amassed over two and half years of research and interviews with older women.

Because women frequently outlive men, Bonomo realized the homes must speak to their needs.

The impetus for the whole project began with his own mother, now 82. After she had a heart attack, she needed a place to live that would accommodate her new physical limitations but allow her to remain independent. Bonomo searched, but to no avail.

Then he had a brainstorm. He’s not a builder, but he is an entrepreneur. He decided to surround himself with experts and assemble a team to construct housing for people like his mother.

“Implicit in the universal design concept is a warm, welcoming, homey environment,” and Charles Botts, livable communities consultant for Connecticut’s American Association for Retired Persons (AARP). “There are no institutional-looking concepts. “Universal design is all about making a home accessible.”

At Fox Hollow, the upscale amenities are more obvious than the accessibility – spacious master bedroom suites, stone fireplaces, skylights, and walk-in closets. Plus front-load washers and dryers, Murphy boards and steam units for pressing clothes.

The spalike oversize bathrooms have walls pre-blocked for future installation of grab bars. The water temperature of the showers can be controlled without getting wet; wheelchairs can roll under the vanity sink area; and a full-body blow-dryer is a perk for everyone.

The only feature that is not handicapped-accessible is the whirlpool tub. Bonomo explains that a tub with swinging-door entry would require one to sit unclothed and cold in it while it filled with water.

In an atrium area, buyers can have an 8- by 12- foot resistance swimming pool with a heating system and optional aquatic treadmill installed to keep fit. The pool uses salt and natural filters so there is no chlorine smell in the home.

When the homeowner can no longer use the pool, it can be emptied and covered with a floor system. From the start it is wired to become a long-term-care room for a resident who is ill. It could also house a live-in caretaker.

The development’s 7.7 picturesque acres about a state park that has tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, a walking track and pond.

So far half of the 20 lots have houses in the planning stage or under construction. The lots cost $75,000 and require only a $1,000 down payment.

“Then they sit with the architect and choose a style of home. We will design around their needs, “Bonomo said. “Homeowners have the freedom of doing what they want. We talk to them so that so that we understand what they want.”

There are three basic house styles – the “Salem” is 1,700 to 1,950 square feet, the “Tarlington” is 2,000 to 2,350 square feet, and the “Barclay” is 2,400 to 3,000 square feet.

Price range from $400,000 to $650,000 fully outfitted and include group homeowner’s insurance. Modest common charges will cover all outside maintenance, including walkways, driveways, lawns and grounds.

The houses are built within 12 months, and the development’s first residents are expected to move in by the beginning of 2008.

Middlebury resident Antoinette Lenkowski, 60, and her husband, Robert, 71, are thrilled they’ll be moving into a Fox Hollow home.

“It is a nice new concept,” Antoinette Lenkowski said. “We are not sacrificing a thing, not losing a beat. In fact, we are gaining accessibility and we don’t have to worry about anything. I can spread my wings.”

The Lenkowskis considered downsizing after Robert developed heart problems 15 years ago. With their children grown, they had more house and land than they needed. But they couldn’t find a place that allowed for personal input or alterations to design.

“We are not cookies. (Consumers) are not prepped the same way. We all have different needs,” Lenkowsk said.

When they discovered the Naugatuck development – they saw the sign while driving by “before a stone was moved” – they said, “This is it!”

Working with Bonom’s team of experts, they modified their Barclay model to have a four-season sun room in the bonus space and wine cellar in the huge unfinished basement. A set of shallow-rise stairs, with 17 instead of 13 steps, will make it easier to get to the wine.

Bonomo thinks the most minute detail are reasonable.

“Life is too short not to have a good time,” he said.