Keith Suits was setting a modular home for his family business about five years ago when one of the jacks kicked out. He wound up pinned beneath the house with a broken back.

Paralyzed from the waist down and using a wheelchair, the 36-year-old Suits soon discovered new challenges in his own home. For instance, he couldn't get his wheelchair through the door of his second bathroom to give his two children a bath.

In the process of adapting to his environment, Suits and his wife, Darlene, helped Cherryville-based R-Anell Homes design an award-winning modular house for his family. The home includes rollout shelves in the kitchen, adjustable countertops, a raised dishwasher area, wider doorways, vanity cabinets with roll-under design, stepless entryways and an open floor plan to ensure ease of movement and access.

"We got everything where it was handicap-accessible," Suits said. "R-Anell bent over backwards to make it work. They've done a real good job with it."

Keith Suits' business, started by his father, Eddie Suits, in Siler City, is a builder partner with R-Anell Homes. Suits said R-Anell has always been easy to work with. And for its hard work, R-Anell won the 2009 award for a modular production home design more than 2,200 square feet from the National Modular Housing Council.

The award was presented to R-Anell April 15 at the 2009 National Congress and Expo for Manufactured and Modular Housing Awards Luncheon in Las Vegas. R-Anell has been manufacturing custom homes since 1972.

Suits moved into the 4,286-square-foot home in October. Part of R-Anell's Forever Living collection, these homes incorporate "universal design components" that allow homeowners to stay in them throughout their lives, even if their needs change because of handicap or old age. The homes have existing features and flexible options easily added to the home to make navigation possible no matter what a person's age or physical constraints.

The Forever Living family of homes began when R-Anell partnered with the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

"The design of this house for one of our longtime partners was one of the true pleasures of being in the homebuilding business over my 40-year career," said R-Anell president Dennis Jones. "I am proud to accept this award and do it on behalf of Keith and his wife who played a big part in the design of this particular home."

You can reach Business Editor Daniel Jackson at 704-869-1833.

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/anell-33277-home-suits.htm