Chantal and Chris say thank you iHUS!

We love the pod - it's hard to describe how much it's changed our lives for the better. Everyone who sees it is amazed by the quality - we've had lots of friends and family want to take photos of it to show other people. Jonathan's got his school class coming to see it! The lady from the diocese was amazed at how good it is.

We had our pod / suite installed in the summer of 2011 and at the time of writing, have been using it for three months. Our son, almost 6 years old, is quadriplegic, dependent on oxygen and with very high health care needs. Before the pod was installed he slept upstairs, which meant that carers were always coming up and down the stairs during the night, and we had to carry him up and downstairs. Our equipment was rather limited, due to space in the house and the need for the rest of the family to be able to use the bathroom etc.

We are very pleased with our pod. It gives us a downstairs room for our son to sleep in, which becomes a playroom during the day. The bathroom is like a wet room and has been fitted with lots of specialist technology (which just wouldn't fit in the house before). He loves moving his sink up and down using a button control, while his little sister enjoys controlling the lights and working his hoist! We had various meetings with iHUS and the architects to discuss what we wanted from the pod, and iHUS were able to accommodate and make suggestions as to how things could work. For instance we had cupboards / and wardrobes designed to keep medical equipment in, with a trolley on wheels that can come out at night. Having described what we wanted iHUS were able to design and make things to a very high standard.

The pod has a large utility room which has freed up space in the garage and elsewhere. Rather than carers being based in the house, they now have their own room with incorporated kitchen and loo facilities. The improvement in privacy is an unexpected bonus, as the upstairs is now our own.

The main benefit of the pod has been the dedicated space for our son as he grows and as his needs become more complex. We had feared that he would feel less part of the family in an extension, but the way it has been connected to the house gives a seamless entry through open doors to his playroom, and if anything, he is more involved in what is going on now. The ability to give special care has increased massively through having more room and dedicated space.

While the onsite building work took a few weeks and was inevitably disruptive on the outside the chaps managed to contains and coordinate their works really well, we were very pleased with how it all went. The builders worked hard, focused solely on this job, were easy to get on with and dealt with any issues swiftly. Ground works for preparation took most of the time, they also built level access paths and patios while the pods were being made in the factory. Delivery was efficient and great to watch, and only two days after delivery we were able to use the rooms. Finishing internal fittings went on around us, and finally there was exterior work and making good including the awning over the patio and the re-turfing of the gardens.

The pod does not look like a pre-fab: it really is a proper extension with brick slips as facing and a tiled pitched roof, and internally it is finished to a high standard and feels like a modern extension, rather than an add-on port-a-cabin, which is how lots of people imagined it would look. It has been easy to heat so far, and we have had air conditioning installed for the summer. We have been very pleased with it and in our dealings with iHUS.

Thank you and Kind Regards,

Chantal and Chris.

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