Home remodeling turns into project for friends, neighbors

By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR Herald-Whig Staff Writer

BASCO, Ill. -- Brad and Cindy Koehler know there's no place like home.

Even better will be a wheelchair-accessible home for Koehler, a Basco farmer who was paralyzed from the waist down after a July 15 car accident.

"It will be absolutely wonderful," Cindy Koehler said.

The house, like harvesting the couple's crops, turned into a project for friends and neighbors.

"We got help getting the house ready for us -- carpenters, the local lumberyard. Everyone's helped out a lot. It's just the community," Brad Koehler said.

Tammy Koehler, a distant relative, spearheaded the effort to raise $10,000 for the remodeling work.

"We're right at $9,000," she said. "There's people from Iowa, somebody from Florida who sent money. We do have a wonderful community that supports each other."

The Koehlers and their daughters, Katy and Anne, live in an older farm home that had no bedroom or bath on the first floor -- a stumbling block now for Koehler.

Within days of the accident, contractor and neighbor Andy Finch was talking with Cindy Koehler about changes needed at the house.

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Home remodeling turns into project for friends, neighbors