Home makeover helps Hampshire man

Getting to bed each night is no longer an arduous task for Randall "Skeeter" Kucharski and his wife, Jackie.

There are no more stairs to climb and no waiting for a lift to the second floor.

For almost a year, volunteers worked on building a 480-square-foot bedroom addition to the Kucharskis' Hampshire home to address the couple's dangerous and difficult bedtime ritual.

Kucharski, a Vietnam veteran who was exposed to the chemical Agent Orange, suffered a massive stroke in 2005 that him paralyzed on the left side of his body.

The former truck driver has difficulty standing, even with help. This meant Jackie Kucharski had to help - or essentially carry - her husband up and down the stairs daily.

"I don't have to deal with those stairs anymore," said Skeeter Kucharski, 60, who developed diabetes, a known side affect of Agent Orange. "Now, I can zip right into the room on my scooter. I used to have to wait for Jackie if I got tired, or she would have to wait for me. Now, if she wants to go to bed she can and I can zip right in."

The Elgin VFW Watch City Post 1307 and Men's Auxiliary and dozens of volunteers from across the area, built the addition - nicknamed Skeeterville - giving Skeeter Kucharski more room and a handicap-accessible bathroom.

"The addition was needed and I was talking to one of my buddies who said we needed to do something and said I don't have the money for that," Skeeter Kucharski said. "He told me not to do worry about that and he got the ball rolling."

A close friend, Tony Lopez and Arthur "Doc" Sheehan, discussed other options such as an elevator or wheelchair lift, but a room addition was determined as the best option because the house could not structurally support a system like an elevator.

In March 2008, Sheehan and Lopez began contacting friends in the construction trades and announced the project in the local media. The project broke ground in April 2008.

"Skeeter is just an ordinary guy who served in Vietnam and started suffering from the effects of Agent Orange many years later," said Sheehan, chaplain at the Watch City Post. "This was a great opportunity to help Skeeter out. It is a lot of effort to help one guy, but it is an inspirational thing."

More than 40 volunteers worked during the evenings and weekends to build the room. Local companies donated materials, thousands of dollars were contributed and tradespeople from across the area did the heavy lifting. More than $10,000 was raised within a few weeks and a local architecture firm drew up the plans pro bono.

"We don't build houses very often, that's for sure," Sheehan said. "We saw a definite need here and thought we could do it. We wish we could do things on this scale, but we have never taken on a project of this size. It took a while because everyone was working on it at night and on the weekends."

In early February, the addition was completed with paint, tile, carpeting, lighting fixtures and plumbing. A temporary ramp at the backdoor will be replaced with a deck this spring, when the siding will also be painted to match the rest of the house.